Comments on: Damion Easley Still Plays?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:09:16 +0000

If you are going to sign Sosa why not go ahead and sign Bonds?

This is the fall out of what is a very circumstantial case of collusion.

By: dan

dan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:02:22 +0000

I was just about to write exactly what comment #1 said. Teams don’t realize that Easley’s over the hill because the hill wasn’t that high to begin with.

What amazes me is that Sammy Sosa didn’t get a contract this year. He might have just retired, but if I remember correctly he was looking for a job this winter. The guy killed lefties last year (.328/.410/.613), you’d think someone looking for power would have signed him.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:44:18 +0000

easley versus lefties:

2008: .317 .362 .400
2007: .371 .446 .596
2006: .245 .339 .425
2005: .333 .390 .725

i think since that ’05 season, he’s been known as a “lefty killer” when he hit 9 home runs in 267 ABs, more than half coming off of lefties. since he can play anywhere on the infield and the outfield corners, plus come off the bench to hit against lefties, he’s really made himself into a valuable commodity.

By: Eric Seidman

Eric Seidman — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:03:26 +0000

I definitely see your points there. His “decline” years don’t look as drastic because his peak was never as tremendous to begin with. This gives me an idea for a study, taking all 16-year or better veterans in a given time period and finding their best 5-years as their peak, seeing which guys had the longest careers in this span with the worst peak in order to find any commonalities.

Jay Jaffe’s JAWS would help here.

By: Himura Kenshin

Himura Kenshin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:37:15 +0000

You could argue that Easley’s longevity can be credited in large part to his not having such high career peaks. The lower performance baseline tempers expectations for his production, and prevents/prevented him from being written off as “washed up”. It’s interesting, how the perception of decent performance combined with defensive versatility (which oftentimes means merely playing several positions, rather than playing several positions effectively) seems to allow many a mediocre ex-middle infielder (see Cairo, Miguel) to hang on far longer than they have any real right or reason to.