Keep Snelling

by jonk on Apr 16, 2008 6:54 AM EDT Comment 7 comments

Lose Taguchi. I guess that is all I really have to say, but I think this team's bench is markedly better with Snelling over Taguchi. It's funny, when Gillick picked up Snelling for cash considerations, I thought that was a highly unGillicky move, and a very good one. Of course, he reverted to form by signing Taguchi, which left Snelling as the odd man out.

Who knows what the season will bring, but Snelling has had very good minor league numbers (especially his OBP).

Minors: .311 .385 .472

Majors: .242 .358 .395

Not much power, and I certainly didn't expect last night, but only injuries have really kept him back. He isn't young anymore, he is 26, but younger.

Taguchi on the other hand has always been a light hit kinda guy.

Majors: .283 .335 .392

And there is no real expectation that he'll do any better than that. He is almost 38 and is making slightly over 1 million. He may have trade value, but there may be a reason why he signed with the Phillies (only they were willing to give him a million bucks).

The bench looks a lot deeper with Snelling, especially with hackerific Dobbs also manning the left side of the plate. I hope snelling really givesthem something to consider over the next 2 weeks or so and that they make the right baseball decision and not the best value decsion.

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Agreed.

Taguchi’s upside is minimal. Snelling’s is way, way higher, particularly against right-handers. His unimpressive major league line has been compiled in a grand total of 271 PAs, not even a half-season’s worth. His minor league numbers, which were largely compiled when he was young for his level, merit giving him a shot.

by SethC on Apr 16, 2008 9:06 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Word

Signing Taguchi was pointless. He’s not even a good fielder, which makes him below replacement level. if (when?) Snelling gets hurt, call up a scrub from LV—presumably one of those guys can at least play defense.

by phatj on Apr 16, 2008 9:16 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Snelling's fragility

I guess your last line covers that. The only reason I’ve seen from the day they signed Taguchi to prefer him to Snelling is the durability question. But yeah, Brandon Watson might be preferable to Taguchi as the 5th OF anyway—he’s a better defender, his OBP skills are superior, and he’s probably faster.

by dajafi on Apr 16, 2008 9:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

also

Snelling doesn’t appear to have played a lot of center in his career. Maybe there’s a reason for that.

Though since we’re playing Werth in center anyway, I guess we didn’t need Taguchi after all. Though Werth can’t really play there either, from what I can tell.

by taco pal on Apr 16, 2008 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cmon, Werth is playing acceptable CF defense as a fill in. And he has a better bat than any backup CF will have. I am sure Snelling could fill in a bit too. It’s not like we have a big outfield, which makes a good defensive CF less important for us than another team.

For Who? My teammates.

For What? To Win.

How Much? Where do I sign?

by jonk on Apr 16, 2008 5:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

His name isn’t STG for nothing…

by Neduol Caz on Apr 16, 2008 10:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Barajas him

Taguchi as insurance in case Snelling couldn’t open the season healthy? They did that with Barajas last year. Once Ruiz and Coste proved able Barajas was benched then “hurt.” They basically “disappeared” him.

Taguchi is not necessary, Unless he is still a superior defender—and it looks like he isn’t, there’s no reason to keep him. Actually Watson can run fast and play CF and hit some singles maybe so he can do the caddy work that So was brought in to do.

I think they may have wanted a right handed bat which makes So different from Snelling but I don’t think that matters so much now.

by smitty99 on Apr 16, 2008 5:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs