The Mike Cameron Story

Haurdricourt continues to report that the Crew is interested in former Padre, Met and Mariner, Mike Cameron, and after looking at the numbers, I guess I'm a little surprised, a little not surprised, and quite a bit confused.  Briefly, let's compare him to Bill Hall.  

(AVG/OBP/SLG)

Mike Cameron .251/.341/.445

Bill Hall .264/.320/.467

It's a little tough to compare the two defensively since Bill Hall has only had one year in the outfield, but I can say that Cameron has a very respectable .985 Fielding Percentage and averages 5-6 Outfield Assists per year.  That's probably pretty low because most people don't like running on him, but hey, they run on Alfonso Soriano all the time and get hosed, so what's the deal?  In any case, the numbers don't really say a whole lot about the two at the plate.  Billy's got 7 years to catch up on the OBP side of things as long as he gets back to his 2005 and 2006 .342 days.   The up-side of Mike Cameron is he's got some speed, even at 35 and his defense will upgrade 3rd Base, not necessarily CF.  The downside is a 25 game suspension to start the year and he's injury prone on top of it.   The SOs are also a big problem as Cameron is almost always in the Top 10.  I thought we were trying to cut down on those.

The bottom line:  One Year Contract?  Yes er Maybe.  Any more than that?  Take a hike.  I'll take Kenny Lofton any day over Cameron anyways.  No amphetamines and a true leader in the clubhouse.