The Lesser of Three Evils
February 2, 2010 at 5:01 pm | Posted in Alfredo Amezaga | 8 CommentsTrueBlueLA, citing Ken Rosenthal, confirms something we’ve been worried about since early December: the Dodgers have signed former Marlins utilityman Alfredo Amezaga to a minor-league contract worth “650K if he makes club plus potential for 800K more in bonuses”.
You’d be surprised, but I don’t hate this as much as you’d think I would. No, he’s not a good player (in parts of 8 seasons spanning nearly 1500 PA, his line is a sparkling .251/.311/.341) and I’m not all that thrilled to have to log into the administrator panel of the blog and add him to the “non roster invite” section you see over at the right.
It’s just that with all of the roster manipulations we’ve been considering since the unexpected signing of a right-handed outfielder in Reed Johnson, the mostly lousy Amezaga may actually save us from the entirely lousy Nick Green and the so-bad-I-may-renounce-my-fandom-if-he-sticks Angel Berroa.
Think about it this way: since the Dodgers don’t appear to have any faith in Chin-Lung Hu and Jamey Carroll can’t really handle the gig, one of this unholy Amezaga/Green/Berroa trio is going to have to make the team as Rafael Furcal’s backup. It’s a sorry situation, but it’s true and I think we all know this.
So, no, Amezaga can’t hit a lick, and we know this. Neither can Green (.239/.307/.352 in over 1100 MLB PA) or Berroa (I won’t sully this blog with his stats).
But he is a plus fielder at SS, 2B, and CF. Green is decent at best at SS, and Berroa, well, he’s basically the worst major leaguer in baseball history. Perhaps most importantly after the signing of Johnson, Amezaga is a switch-hitter, as opposed to the righties Green and Berroa. With a bench leaning heavily towards the right, having a lefty who can handle shortstop could be incredibly valuable. Not that he’s really much of a bat from either side, of course, but it’s still someone who can stand in the correct box with a bat in his hand.
I think it’s clear how desperate the situation is for this roster spot when I’m actually championing Alfredo Amezaga, but this is the pickle we find ourselves in, isn’t it? When you look at the other options… well, I can’t help but agree with TBLA:
Is Amezaga worth a roster spot? In a vacuum, probably not. But, given that the choice is likely between him, Nick Green, or Angel Berroa, I’ll take Amezaga.
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I love the title. Very nice.
Comment by Eric Stephen— February 2, 2010 #
Thank you from not posting Berroa’s stats.
Comment by Wes— February 2, 2010 #
I agree as to the lesser of evils. I would rather give HU the spot though.
Comment by Gillbert— February 2, 2010 #
I won’t sully this blog with his stats
Even though it is early in 2010, that has to be the line of the year. God help us if Harbinger actually wears a Dodger jersey during the regular (and post) season.
Comment by grabarkewitz— February 2, 2010 #
Nice piece MSTI…that’s like trying to cover a black hole of oblivion…I doubt if it’s possible to do a better job covering the subject.
Comment by DTW Dodger— February 2, 2010 #
Paul
Ellis
Hu
Belliard
A much better bench.
And I don’t even like Belliard.
Comment by KempKershaw— February 2, 2010 #
Overall I’m pretty “meh” on the subject. Amezega does have value as the 25th man, he can be a caddy for Raffy and Kemp, as we know Johnson is below avg defensively in center, and we NEEDED a real SS on the bench, and like you said, he’s better than green or berroa. plus, his bat does have a tiny bit of value, his career split as a LHB of .263/.326/.361 makes you want to claw your eyes out slightly less than his overall career line (.251/.311/.341) And when you really think about it, what are the odds Slappy exceeds an OBP of .326 and a slg of .361 this year? and even if he does, it’s not gonna be by much.
The real value that Amezega provides is instead of having to carry 2 glove-y limp bat defensive subs (SS & CF/OF) you only have to carry 1. So instead of having to carry a Green/Berroa/Castro AND a Slappy/Repko, you only have to deal with 1 guy with no bat. If Amezega allows us to carry a left handed bat better than Johnson with no position (like someone who can only play 1B, and no I am NOT talking about Mientkiewicz!!!) Then Amezega will bring value to the team.
I’m just going to throw a few names out there, Carlos Delgado, Hank Blalock, Dmitri Young, Geoff Jenkins and Tony Clark. I would vastly prefer the first, and no matter how big of blinders we fans have on, Loney’s job is in jeopardy if he doesn’t put up either a 310+ BA or a 450+ slg this year. If he’s gonna be a no power 1B, fine, but he’s going to have to compete for a batting title, if he continues to sit around a 290 avg with a 400ish slg, then he is below average for his position, OPS+ of 103/104 will NOT cut it at 1B. Is it enough to convince Delgado that he has a chance of winning a starting job? I don’t know, maybe not, but no one is kicking the tires on this guy at all. I read an article recently suggesting that over-the-hill players are the market inefficiency this year, so if we could land him at a few mil guaranteed, with a few more mil in PA incentives for each of 400, 500 and 600 appearances, shouldn’t we be all over it? It would net him decent money if he did become the starter, and in the last two years he has put up an OPS of 914 and 871, which aint too shabby. but seriously, no one has been sniffing around this guy at all, All I’ve heard this offseason is the Jays say over and over that they are not interested, and the Mets and O’s are interested in bringing him in to compete for a 1B role. We can offer pretty much the same, and for a team that has a MUCH better chance to make the playoffs. And I cant emphasize MUCH enough, if you were in the final years of your career would you want to play part time 1B for a team fighting for 4th place, or as the primary PH (with a chance of taking over the 1B role) for a team definitely competing for the playoffs and possibly competing for the division for a third year in a row? The guys on the list after Delgado I am much less excited about, but I still think that Blalock, Young, Jenkins, and even Clark would be serviceable in the Primary LH PH/ 1B insurance role, at least more than Mientkiewicz.
So if Amezega lets us do something like the following with the bench, then he’s useful in my book:
Delgado/Blalock/Young/Jenkins
Johnson
Belliard/Carroll/Dewitt (with 1 starting, and 1 released/traded/in the minors – preferably one of the first two)
Amezega
Ausmus
I’d be more than happy with a bench that looked like that, and the only way we can really do it is with a guy like Amezega.
Comment by Bryan— February 3, 2010 #
[...] wishing that Felipe Lopez had been signed (it’s not too late!), trying to talk ourselves into Alfredo Amezaga because he’s a lefty, or outright requesting Chin-Lung Hu, we’ve had no shortage of [...]
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