Omar Minaya has some strengths and some weaknesses as a GM. One of his biggest flaws is to rely too much on veterans, especially cheap ones; occasionally this works (Jose Valentin 2006). Unfortunately if it works for one season, Omar rewards these veterans with relatively big contracts, but because they are old, they break down, and suck (Jose Valentin 2007) – and I predict Tatis sucks in 2009. One of the worst examples of this trend is Marlon Anderson.
Marlon Anderson (or Marlon ‘Fucking’ Anderson, as I called him every time he came up to pinch hit last year). A pinch hitter who can’t hit or field is a waste of money and space on the bench. Yet he played in 87 (87!) games last year, and hit barely above the Mendoza line. Of course, AVG is not very good at judging a players worth. I am sure there are many ways to see how sucky Marlon Anderson was last year, so lets pick one with some kind of measure of league averageness, like OPS+. This doesn’t take into account fielding, which is probably for the best if we are talking about Mr Anderson (Scroll down). Now remember, Marlon Anderson is our pinch hitter extraordinare, and DH for interleague play. Therefore he should be pretty good, getting lots of big hits. especially as he can’t field. So tell me, what did Marlon Anderson do last year?
Marlon OPS+’d 40.
40
If OPS+ was IQ (for both, 100 is average) then, well, check out what an IQ of 40 means*.
David Wright, who is really good, OPS+’d 141. So Marlon was worse than average by more than David Wright was better than average. Argenis Reyes was worse, mind (OPS+ of 34), but at least had some defence. The much hated Luis Castillo was almost league average at 74. It’s lucky the Mets didn’t make the World Series last year, or else we’d have had to watch Marlon ‘DH’.
According to the CHONE projections, he will play in 115 games next year, which is frightening. And he’ll ‘earn’ $2.2 Million from 2008-09. Now if he’s cut right now, that money is gone. But if i’m reading this (scroll down) right, he cost the team almost a whole win all by himself, and was worth minus $3.4M last year to the team (Andruw Jones was only worth minus $2.4M, although he cost a lot more). Cut him and he can’t do any more damage; keep him on the bench and he’ll cost the Mets a win or two in 2009, take at bats away from people who are much better than him than hitting, and reduce the number of viable defensive replacements available on the bench, as there is no way he should ever play in the field. Look, I am sure he is a nice guy and all, and I bear him no ill will, I just never want to watch him play baseball again.
really, I can’t believe he hasn’t gone already.
* this isn’t really a fair comparison as an IQ of 100 is average for the whole population, whereas an OPS+ of 100 is average for a professional baseball player. So in the population as a whole, Marlon Anderson is amazing at baseball. Amongst people who play at the Major League Level, well, he shouldn’t.
February 5, 2009 at 20:12 |
[...] ways as a healthy Oliver Perez is clearly worth more than a broken Ben Sheets (although an injured Marlon Anderson would be worth more to the Mets than the fit one that made 87 plate appearances last [...]
March 20, 2009 at 07:56 |
[...] This is brilliant news, by which I mean unconfirmed rumour. Replacing the worse than useless Anderson with a young kid is much more sensible thinking than I expect from the Mets. So fingers [...]
March 29, 2009 at 10:03 |
[...] but there is a difference between ‘experience’ and ‘ability’. He had an OPS+ of 40 last year. That is terrible. In 151 plate appearances, he got 10 RBI and 1 HR, with 93 runners on [...]
March 29, 2009 at 10:11 |
[...] but there is a difference between ‘experience’ and ‘ability’. He had an OPS+ of 40 last year. That is terrible. In 151 plate appearances, he got 10 RBI and 1 HR, with 93 runners on [...]
August 23, 2009 at 22:53 |
[...] 4) The Marlon Anderson debacle [...]