Yes, but he also appeared in all of 15 games with 49 ABs in 2008. I think one should be wary of his injury issues.

I agree. Like any acquisition, there is always a price that justifies it. I’m not exactly sure what that price is here, but a cheap, incentive-laden deal would easily be worth the risk. Alou’s talents vs. lefties are well documented.

Well said. If it turns out Alou wants significant playing time or a decent chunk of change — as Phillies Nation seems to think — then we’ll just move on. But at the right price, and using him in the right role, it’d be a nice signing.

Actually this was my feeling as well. If there’s no real cost to it, he could really be an asset mashing lefties. He’s got a huge platoon split for his career, about 100 pts of OPS, and as a threat vs RHB off the bench, he would really be helpful. If he’s not too expensive (or is paid mostly by incentives by PA or something), the only issue is if he doesn’t cost much of a roster spot. If we keep both Stairs and Jenkins, that might be tougher since we don’t really have anybody on the bench with options, which seems like what having Alou on the roster for 30% of the time he’s not on the DL would require— somebody with options.

Guys who can smack around lefties without any other skills are a dime a dozen.

I’m convinced that Batboy Amaro thirty years ago performed the Heimlich on Conlin—at that point, it might still have been possible to get one’s arms around him—and that Bill’s still sufficiently grateful that Ruben probably has a year of good ink no matter how badly he fouls up.

I think the argument against Mayberry is that if you have a still-developing player, you need to put him in a lineup every day (in the minors, presumably) to get the full sense of his abilities and limitations. It’s tough coming off the bench; it’s a different mindset having one at-bat in a game rather than the expectation of four. You have to get things going more quickly, which is why it’s generally better to have more experienced players in that role.