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I once thought Saunders could be a valuable platoon player who could hit 20 homers a year vR.  "Once" being the operative word.
Now? He's a 4th OF type, I think.  Nothing more.
The marinercentral article compares him to late-blooming Raul.  It isn't much of a comparison, really.
In his three trips up, in more than 600 PA's, Saunders hits .196, slugs .306 and OPS+'s 59.   In his last three trips up (I'm not including his 1st two where he had only a handful of PA's), before he took off,  Raul was hit .248, Slugged .389 and OPS+'ed somewhere in the vicinity of 80.  This was in slightly less than 500 PA's.  Ibanez hit .255, .258, .229.  Saunders hit .221, .221, .149.  Ibanez slugged .408, .421, .329.  Saunders was at .279, .367, .217.  Essentially Raul's worst trip up was equal to Saunder's best.  I'll give Saunders credit for hitting AAA pitching last year, well....for walking aginst AAA pitching last year. I hope he's found something.  If so, he could help.  But even against AAA pitching last year, he still didn't mash.  7 homers in nearly 300 PA's isn't indicative of a guy who is going to beat up on RHP in the majors.  And I'm not sure the Ibanez comparison is worthy.  I agree, that some guys figure out MLB pitching late, but using Ibanez as your Saunders template is a biug stretch.

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