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Because alongside all that (behind? ) there's a guy who put up .295/.383/.471 (.854) across 3 levels with 17 HR, 27 2b, 6 3b, 27 steals to 8 CS. 32 and 5 the year before. 73 BB. 73 Walks! Abe Almonte only put up
.264/.313/.403/.716 as a Mariner at the end of that.
.256/.320/.404/.724 was AL avg.. Why it can't be real is something I've been looking for. 8 seasons in the minors:
.269/.350/.403/.753 with 10.3% BB, 17.9% K. He went 7.3%, 25.6% and .333 BABIP (about avg. for him) in his 2 days of August + September. His MLE from AA/AAA this year was
.289/.361/.429/.790.
The slight uptick in power since leaving NY's farm isn't far above what he did at 19 in A ball. He turns 25 in June. No guarantee on it, but the numbers look good to me. Aside from being the same -20 in CF this year.
2 bats with .800+OPS pasts (hopefully futures too) surrounded by Saunders, Seager, Smoak, Morrison, Miller, Guti and Almonte (7) all with .700 something efforts last year. Again, .724 was AL Avg. last year and that's already 9 M's who could realistically clear it without a huge surprise. Then there's Ackley, Franklin and Zunino who you hope will be .700+ though the first 2 may both be gone. And I even forgot Bloomquist on the .700 Club.
So I was starting to think a CF burner with a glove for the bench would be ideal, Guti was signed which sounds about as good overall. Was looking at Billy Burns but unfortunately so was Billy Beane. There's potential upgrades, but I think this is a good outfield if the depth ends up mostly retained.
Some Japanese players will be posted eventually. There may even be a speedy OF among them, though the squeeze looks tight to me now.