It is my fondest hope that what I am seeing with Carp in CF is indeed us prepping for a run at Fielder. It doesn't mean that we'd GET him, but I'd like to see the sincere attempt. I like Fielder better than...well everyone as an available hitter, and he's certainly better than Carp.
And I think Carp is better than Wells, and Wells/Trayvon is better than Guti.
So that gives us improvement at 3 positions just by signing Fielder.
The question is whether you can ease Fielder into DHing. He would play a lot of 1B, I would imagine, and I don't know how much DHing Smoak has ever done either. B-R says he DHed for one game in the minors. One.
So there are risks inherent in assuming that Fielder will DH when he never really has before (4ish times a year is not a track record). Fielder is also a league leader in games played every season. Fat, "unathletic" Prince misses about as many games as Ichiro.
If playing 1B full-time is a demand of his...then you work it out. Smoak can DH. There is no way I trade Smoak because Fielder wants to stand at 1B for most of the season.
Now maybe we're aiming at another DH-type and want to make sure Carp can indeed play the OF before we even stick a toe in that water. He can, so we're covered.
But I'll say again: compared to what we started the year with, how improved would that be?
Game 1, 2011 vs potential Game 1, 2012:
Position and Season OPS+
RF - Ichiro (86) vs same
3B - Figgins (39!!) vs Seager (92)
LF - Bradley (90) vs Carp (124)
DH - Cust (93) vs Fielder (155)
1B - Smoak (102) vs same
C - Olivo (79) vs same
CF - Langerhans (89) vs Robinson/Wells (101/103)
SS - Ryan (81) vs same
2B - Jack Wilson (65) vs Ackley (124)
The CF calculation doesn't even include Guti, who has been absymal at the plate in a way that few other than Figgins can appreciate.
There aren't enough ABs on there to make projections for next year with any accuracy, but just LOOKING at it, it sure does seem like we'd have a far stronger lineup coming out of Spring Training next year than we did this year.
4 drastic and clear improvements, one improvement with 2 chances to get it to work, low-performing holdovers at glove positions (which is acceptable) and at least one player with major upside from this year's totals (thank you, Justin). Two of the unimproved positions (RF, SS) have players in the minors who will make top-100 prospect lists and will be in AAA, so it's not like our internal improvement options are expiring either.
This year, the team as a whole (.233/.293/.347/.640) basically hit like Brendan Ryan (.244/.310/.322/.632). BRENDAN RYAN.
That won't happen next year with that Fielder-centric lineup.
I don't know if we will try for Prince, but it's setting up well for us to do so. The tough move to swallow for the FO would be moving Guti...but you don't pay 5.5 million dollars (and 7 million the year after) for a 5th OF no matter how pretty his defense is. When he arrived, I said watching Guti was like watching a Charles Gipson who could hit. Now he hits like Gipson too.
Can't have that - not when we have multiple other options.
And we need to be able to put an average offense out there next year. This year we'll probably be 150, 170 runs south of the AL average (we're 146 shy right now with 16 games to go).
Full seasons of Ackley, Carp, and healthy Smoak get you some of the way to that, but I don't try to add that much offense by relying solely on 2nd year players.
Looking forward to seeing the plan. Talent has been assembled...now what are we gonna do with it?
~G
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