A Case for Joc Pederson

[Neddy]

there is little doubt that a few years back before his injury, Matt Kemp was arguably the best player in NL who got his MVP stolen. The fact that Kemp is still getting paid like a MVP, seems to validate his historical performances leading up to his contract extension, that indeed he was a great one. the problem isn't that he was once great and now trying to get back into thick of things, but what he is getting paid that hinders our payroll, no matter how small our Guggenheim money seems to be bothered by it... and so is Crawford and Ethier's deals. not only we have three outfielders who are overpaid, but they all have shortcomings out in the outfield with their gloves too. in case of Crawford, it is his throwing arm, or lack there of. for Ethier, it is his foot speed... not bad for a corner, but not close to being good as a CF. for Kemp, he seems to lose the ball in the air quite too often and still takes bad angles, misjudges the balls in flight. in other words, a guy with some lack of fundamentals to man up the CF but have overcome it with his athletic abilities, which seems to have diminished a bit from his injuries, and only getting older from here to lose what he had physically and have not caught up mentally with CF's discipline.

it seems too often that we have 5 corner outfielders on the roster, also counting in Yasiel and Scott Van Slyke.

it is also a baseball dogma, if you will, that you need a good up-the-middle defense if you are going to compete in this league. we have ailing AJ just coming back at C which is respectable, but that seems where it ends. Hanley is a subpar defensive SS. Dee was down right miserable at SS and had to be moved to 2B and still making his share of errors, although now much more palatable now that he is not our SS, and Kemp and Ethier rotating the CF.

on top of all these dilemmas, we still have Hanley asking for a 130 million dollar extension and another potential for a deadweight, considering Hanley's history of motivation issues, injury issues, and now aging issues, plus having Seager, Erisbel, and Alexander Guerrero all waiting down in the minors for infield positions.

now the million dollar question here is, or perhaps 25 million dollars per year question is (or are),

#1 do we add yet another heavy contact when we are carrying Crawford for 20, Kemp for 20, and Ethier for 17 per year right now and for the foreseeable future?

#2 if we do, then what happens to all the prospects that are coming up and have money committed to?

#3 and what about our up-the-middle defense?

if we answer to these questions in reasonable manner, then the only conclusion that would come out of, should be

#1-A) then who do we keep and who do we let go?

#2-A) which prospect has more value to replace the current player at position?

#3-A) does the end result improve our UTM defense?

my personal answers to these questions are

Answer to #1 and #1-A) : no we shouldn't stack the team up with old, aging, declining players who are underperforming in hopes that they regain their old form. if that was the case, might as well sign Manny to a million or two dollar deal to our team and hope he can regain his old form. that would be a less risk in terms of cost - benefit analysis. if we need to prioritize the player's worth to our team among these four, I would rate
Hanley > Kemp > Ethier > Crawford.
therefore I would get rid of Crawford and Ethier and move Kemp to a corner OF and resign Hanley to bolster up our lineup.

A to #2 and #2-B) : the prospects need to come up, and replace what we need defensively first, then their bats second. with Joc Pederson, we solve both problems in our OF and in the lineup better than what we currently have. he is an instant upgrade. plug him in CF, move Kemp to LF, Yasiel becomes everyday RF, and Joc is already showing better power and contact than two lefties we already have. the cherry on top, is Joc also is a lefty, so we don't lose out on lefty-righty diversity in our lineup. Hanley can still man up the SS this year and perhaps next, with Dee's sudden emergence, he maybe a lock on 2B even if he goes through a predictable long stretch of a slump this season. now that leaves Uribe's 3rd base as the only place for a prospect next season. will any of our infielder prospects be ready by then? there is a great possibility that we will not bring up a player from the minors this year or next for the infielder position. no way in hell Seager is coming up to be a bench player, when he is called up, he will be an everyday player. Uribe would make a great pinch hitter than a utility player, but we all know about Juan's focus when in contract year. after the 2015 season however, we can move Hanley to 3rd, plug in Seager, Guerrero, or Erisbel, whomever wins that SS job, and unless Dee declines rapidly, one of the cuban imports will become our utility guy, leaving the other or Seager, if lose the job, be a trade commodity.


A to #3 and #3-A)

if these moves are made, say by 2016, we can sport Joc in CF, with Kemp in LF and Yasiel in RF, which would be a fearsome defensive OFers as well as offensive crushers, we could sport at least above league average glove in Seager, a perennial gold glover in Erisbel Arruebarruena, or just a younger version of Hanley at SS. it won't be a lock down defensive up the middle, but much better than what we currently have.

to sum up my yet another drunken stupor of a rant, all of these ideas gravitate towards one single move we can make right now to improve the team, which can start the cascade of avalanche that can set this team on the right course... and that is bringing up Joc right now, as we trade hopefully both but at least one of the lefty outfielders we have in redundancy.

bring JOC PEDERSON up, and we can move on. Joc can give us the same jolt we needed when Yasiel was brought up last season, perhaps in much quieter, making all the routine plays and more from the CF while slugging 20 or more Hrs for the remainder of this season, kind of a way.

[Quake Griffin]

do you care about the money or how much of their contracts we'd have to eat?


me personally, I do not. That's guggenheim's problem. I just want Dre and Crawford gone and we can go Kemp, Joc, Puig with SVS off the bench. Having them off the team helps us.

Any refusal to do this is pure fear.

I'm ready to give the infield until the end of this year....I feel like Hanley has a chance to get hot. I do not want to re-sign him to a large deal.
come 2015....I want the call ups for our infield and I want Uribe playing utility because he can play spot duty at every position in the IF (maybe not SS anymore).

I have no idea what this means for Guerrero....but looks like him and Joc are killing it in PCL....looks like they both need to be up.

[Neddy]

do you care about the money or how much of their contracts we'd have to eat?


me personally, I do not. That's guggenheim's problem. I just want Dre and Crawford gone and we can go Kemp, Joc, Puig with SVS off the bench. Having them off the team helps us.

Any refusal to do this is pure fear.

I'm ready to give the infield until the end of this year....I feel like Hanley has a chance to get hot. I do not want to re-sign him to a large deal.
come 2015....I want the call ups for our infield and I want Uribe playing utility because he can play spot duty at every position in the IF (maybe not SS anymore).

I have no idea what this means for Guerrero....but looks like him and Joc are killing it in PCL....looks like they both need to be up.

in some capacity, I do care how much we have to eat, as higher overhead implies higher cost passed down to the consumers, which means us the fans. however, individually I do live in Oregon and i couldn't care any less if the Doyers decide to jackup the ticket price by 30% and the dodger dogs and beer by 50%. however I am sure there will be many local fans who would be affected by such moves.

But, enough is enough. Ned needs to man up and admit that he made a huge mistake when he resigned Ethier to that ridiculous deal and gave in when boston included Crawford in Gonzo's deal. If a GM's job is to improve the roster at all cost, bringing up Joc and getting rid of the other lefty outfielders is a no brainer. frankly, I think Kemp will fetch more value in return in the trade market and I have no problem giving up on Kemp if it means we get to dump off one of Ethier/Crawford along the way while adding a real value to our roster, like a good catching prospect who can actually hit, or a bullpen arm who can be dependable setup man.

I am okay with or without resigning Hanley. he is such an enigmatic presence as his WAR is very positive due to his offensive game, but his weakness gets amplified due to the position he plays. I also do not have a clear idea where Guerrero fits, I love me some Arruebarruena after seeing his defensive highlights in Cuba. the kid is a freaking Cuban version of Ozzie Smith in my eyes. if given chance to play, he will be a 10 time gold glover at SS. but hitting is a whole different story. I think Seager has a chance to be a SS but more likely that he moves to 3rd base. Dee seems to be a lock at 2nd as of now, so that leaves only SS with one defensive wizard who can't hit for beans, and the other who could be a guy in our lineup that does heavy lifting for us, that doesn't appear much better than Hanley at defense.

maybe, if we can find a way to make him be a above mediocre defensive player in corner outfield as well as all infield, he could be a great utility player who primarily is used as a pinch hitter? but right now, i can't really get a grip on whether he is a part of our future or just another trade bait.

PS- from what many scouts have said about both Guerrero and Arruebarruena, Ned was probably better off not signing neither, or just one of the two.

[Quake Griffin]

PS- from what many scouts have said about both Guerrero and Arruebarruena, Ned was probably better off not signing neither, or just one of the two.

point me in the direction of these scouts.
what's the rationale? they don't work well together?

[Neddy]

PS- from what many scouts have said about both Guerrero and Arruebarruena, Ned was probably better off not signing neither, or just one of the two.

point me in the direction of these scouts.
what's the rationale? they don't work well together?

the general consensus on Guerrero coming out from the Island was that he was not a major league level defensive shortstop, that even for his national team during the World Baseball Classic, was not able to hold on to an everyday SS job despite his above average bat. he is projected for around 20 Hrs per season power with average contact, which can mean significant offensive addition for a shortstop, but the same dilemma as of Hanley starts to become evident that at what point do you sacrifice defense for offense.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/idle-obs ... -guerrero/

http://www.scoutingbook.com/players/p3626

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1714 ... r-guerrero


Arruenabarruera has the exact opposite reviews from the scouts, all glove and no bat. he is a wizardly SS defensively, but cannot hit for power or contact.


http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/ ... -15-teams/

http://valueoverreplacementgrit.com/tag ... ebarruena/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1957 ... uebarruena

http://www.baseballamerica.com/internat ... aves-cuba/

I can't seem to find the video which showed his various defensive "wow" plays, but at least I found one that shows his fundamentals on a routine play. not much but it was there.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnxWOUyrIU[/youtube]

[Quake Griffin]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/ne ... y-lasorda/