John Buck:
John Buck is definitely not a hall of famer but he is on one list. As a member of the 2011 Marlins, he did hit one of his 133 career home runs in a game that I watched against the Padres at Petco. From what I remember in that game was it was the first time in a few games that Stanton did not go yard and there were quite a few loud outs that would have been homers in many other ballparks. Also, I had the song "Blow me Away" by Breaking Benjamin in my head as that was the entrance music used by their closer at the time Heath Bell.
As to what hes done in the larger scope, he's a catcher that hits home runs but not much else. He doesn't draw very many walks and he's only thrown out 25% of base stealers in his career. Best case scenario would be him getting a one-year deal as a stop gap measure.
Through age-32, the most similar player to Buck is ex-Cubs & Braves catcher Jody Davis. After age-32 he played in 12 games and has a .233 OPS. It seems like we're continuing the theme of history indicating that many of these left over free agents may be very close to being done.
Mark Reynolds:
Reynolds has hit a whole lot of home runs in his day, he's also struck out....like a lot (leading the league in four consecutive years) After starting his career in Arizona, he's bounced around from team to team depending on which teams need a flawed power bat the most and are willing to take the hit revolving around very sub par defensive play (or happen to be in the American League where they can put him at the DH position).
With him being a journeyman the last couple years and all of the home runs he's hit, its easy to forget that he's still relatively young (age 29). Even though teams aren't lining up around the door to sign him, he could be a very good pickup at the right price. Baseball-reference indicates the most similar player through age 29 is ex-Ranger, Royal & Tiger Dean Palmer. In addition to sharing a name with my son (Dean is Zeplen's middle name) he did have two very good years once he hit the wrong side of 30. If history teaches us anything, Reynolds may also have a couple very good seasons in the tank for whoever is willing to take a flier on him.
Michael Young:
Young has had a nice career and would be in much higher demand if he was in his early 30s (even if his defense was historically bad). But he is getting old and i'm not exactly excited about the fact that the Brewers appear to have high interest in signing him to play first base (gotta get more power from first base).
He isn't getting any younger (no pun intended). The two most similar players through age-36 (Ray Durham and Joe Torre) both retired at that age and #3 Alan Trammell two very sub-par seasons.
Jeff Baker:
Whatever team he signs with will be his sixth. He's never really had a chance to play full time but he did hit very well in 175 plate appearances for the Rangers last year. I came into this thinking this was a product of the Rangers stadium but its not. He actually hit much better away from home (1.007 OPS vs. .779 OPS) at home. Through age-32 the most similar player was Herb Perry who didn't do much with the 177 plate appearances he got afterwards.
No comments:
Post a Comment