More on the outfield...

For a brief summary of all the possibilities that are being mulled over by fans who really have no idea what's going on in Doug Melvin's head, with the exception of what Tom Haudricourt at JS gives us, go to Rob and Rygg's posts on all of the available deals.  I'm just too lazy to write them all out because there's just too many possibilities.  And to be honest, none of them appear to be overwhelmingly appealing.  But I guess options are better than nothing  Today I'm going to mull over the numbers of all these guys and see if I maybe rationalize the best possible decision for us.  I'll focus mainly on last years numbers this time around so that I don't have to fight combining different stats.

Haudricourt lays out in his article that Doug Melvin is looking at the following players:

Mike Cameron

Pedro Feliz

Hank Blalock

Kenny Lofton

Luis Gonzalez

Shawn Green

Brad Wilkerson

First I'll throw out Joe Dillon, Tony Gwynn Jr, Gabe Gross, Bill Hall and Ryan Braun for some comparitive numbers.

AVG/OBP/SLG     RHP Hitting      LHP Hitting

Joe Dillon             .342/.390/.500   N/A

Tony Gwynn Jr.   .260/.326/.317     .255/.327/.324    .333/.368/.333

Gabe Gross          .235/.329/.437     .246/.330/.462   .091/.333/.091

Bill Hall               .254/.315/.425      .247/.305/.408   .270/.335/.459

Ryan Braun         .324/.370/.634     .282/.319/.526   .450/.516/.964

You can see why we need help in the outfield.  The sample sizes for Dillon and Gwynn leave much to be desired.  The same can be said for Gabe Gross who was back on track in the second half.  The year before he had an OBP of .382 and showed that he can take a lot of walks this year as well.  Bill Hall was just awful last year.  His batting against RHP is comparable to a platoon player.  Get on base more please.  This is why we're looking to fill some voids.  Give Braun the same ABs and get more people on base for him

So let's look at the candidates to fill in:

Mike Cameron   .242/.328/.431   .222/.298/.402    .294/.404/.510

Kenny Lofton     .290/.360/.400  .310/.380/.450    .225/.270/ .250  (Rough averages)

Brad Wilkerson .234/.319/.467    .233/.307/.470   .250/.308/.250

Pedro Feliz        .253/.290/.418    .252/.287/.437   .257/.298/.368

Hank Blalock    .293/.358/.543     .292/.354/.578   .298/.370/.426

Shawn Green     .291/.352/.430    .326/.383/.482   .195/.264/.288

Luis Gonzalez   .279/.359/.433   .268/.353/.413     .317/.384/.505

The first thing that strikes me right off the bat is Luis Gonzalez.  I can't complain about a veteran guy who doesn't have platoon numbers.  A .353/.384 split is absolutely fantastic.  If he shows up and Bill Hall's power numbers come back, we don't need him to be Luis of old.  15 HRs is plenty.

The next best thing up there is definitely Hank Blalock.  Solid numbers all around again, but you must remember that in order to get him you would have to give up one of our core guys.  Texas won't part with him for nothing and i know Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks have to be on their radar.  Perhaps Sheets can be thrown in there too.  Not worth the time even if the numbers are.

Brad Wilkerson and Pedro Feliz are no-brainer no's.  There's no way we can put any money or trade value into them.  At first glance, I was excited to hear about Wilkerson, but his numbers are atrocious.  Feliz has never been good, and his numbers tend to agree.  He only has one year where his OBP is above .300 and during that time he never surpassed his AVG by more than 45 points.  For those of you not in the know... that's pretty bad.

That leaves us with Lofton, Cameron and Green.  You can't put better platoon numbers up there for those guys.  If I had my way, I'd sign Lofton and Cameron and let them trade off in center.  That would be one sick tandem.  It's pretty clear that if Lofton comes here, he'll be a platoon player with Joe Dillon.  Cameron has his 25 game suspension and destroys LHPs.  Green is another lefty bat with pretty similar numbers to Lofton, so I give the edge to Lofton for his professional savvy and  potential effect on the young guys.

My conclusion:  Luis Gonzalez in left or center.  I never thought I'd say that, but the numbers don't lie.  I don't think we can afford to have him in left because he doesn't have much of an arm.  As a result, move Hall to left.  Let Braun go through his growing pains.  He can get it done, and he knows it.

What do you think?