Comments on: Royal Dilemma

By: Teej

Teej — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:08:59 +0000

3.9 WAR? As a platoon DH?

Jacobs’ career wOBA against righties is about .361. Let’s say that, since he’s only playing against righties, he is the DH in 80% of the Royals’ games and never faces a lefty. By my calculations, we’re looking at 1.5 WAR. If he plays in every single game and never faces a lefty, it’s still under 2 WAR.

By: AxDxMx

AxDxMx — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:59:34 +0000

I forgot to mention his SLG alone against righties is .534.

By: AxDxMx

AxDxMx — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:58:23 +0000

Have you seen the man face a lefty? He has a .562 OPS in 72 PAs. His BABIP is .310 against lefties. It could be worse. His BABIP against righties is .274.

By: AxDxMx

AxDxMx — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:55:54 +0000

Yes, there is one other industry mismanaged this much.

The Education System.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:52:59 +0000

I’d love to know how you arrived at 3.9 WAR. You’re basically saying that he’s four wins below replacement against lefties.

By: hippdoghipp

hippdoghipp — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:55:46 +0000

Answer: Last week Jamie Quirk said he did some scouting in Omaha. He said that Kila’s bat speed wasn’t fast enough for him to be a power hitter in the majors.

Jacobs, on the other hand, can swing a bat fast as hell.

That’s how the Royals evaluate talent. Lucky me.

By: hippdoghipp

hippdoghipp — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:50:04 +0000

He hit 32 HRs last year!!!!!!

By: Garrett

Garrett — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:47:11 +0000

Kaaihue has a .932 OPS with 50 BB against 44 K in Omaha. I give up trying to figure out baseball sometimes. Why on earth did they need Jacobs?

I just can’t envision how a billion dollar industry gets run by people who seem to know less than the most educated fans. It’d be like Apple computers deciding to venture into produce sales. Is any other industry this large mismanaged this much? (Wall Street jokes aside)

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:57:44 +0000

The big problem is that Trey Hillman seems to suffer from Jimmy Gobble syndrome, or being unable to understand that some players are just fundamentaly better against some types of players then others.
Case in point, If Mike Jacobs was allowed to just DH and just hit againsts righties, he would be worth basically 3.9 WAR, or basically 17-19 Million.
However Trey cannot conceive of benching him against Lefties…and so his horrible ~.540 OPS against them brings Jacobs back down to replacement level.

A smart GM would probably figure someway to platoon Jacobs with someother cheap bat that mashes lefties but cant touch righties to create some sort of wierd super DH Platoon.

But yeah Jose is sunk cost…Its painful watching him play at this point.

By: Mark R

Mark R — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:09:10 +0000

Nice work, Joser. Aral Sea and flensing knives. Warms this trivia nerd’s heart.