POTD Kevin Kouzmanoff aka Bill Stein
An MC denizen points out that an Oakland beat writer published a statement that the Oakland writer had been told, by an A's source,* that the A's are "trying to trade" Kevin Kouzmanoff-plus for Chone Figgins.
It's not on MLBTR yet, but soon will be. Pretty sahl-eeed 'local-scoop' by Weeeee, ain't it Geoffy? ;- ) Great column b'wana.
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=== Kevin Kouzmanoff ===
Is signed for one year, at a bit less than $5M.
Kouzmanoff is an MLB(TM) third baseman who is mediocre-to-lousy at everything offensively, and classy-but-not-spectacular with the glove.
It's amusing to me that, with the bat, Kouzmanoff is terrible at nothing ... yet melancholy at everything. He hits 17 home runs: not weak, but not so's you'd ever go into a series expecting him to hit one.
He drives in 70, 80 runs. His SLG, albeit in bad hitters' parks, is about .425. His average is about .260.
You get the idea. The expansion Seattle Mariners had precisely Kevin Kouzmanoff at third base, except back then he was named Bill Stein. Stein also posted 90 OPS+'s, played a classy 3B (Stein was part second baseman), and was mind-numbingly, monotonously MLB(TM).
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=== WAR / Value / Context Dept. ===
Fangraphs shows Kouzmanoff as worth $11 to $12M in performance the last few years. It's okay if you value him at $11M for next year, and it's okay if you value him at zero.
What's an 80-90 MLB(TM) hitter, with a fairly good glove, worth to you? Depends on whether you are playing stoploss or not.
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Nobody actually has Replacement Level Journeyman on their jersey (though Saltalamacchia comes pretty close). If you've got kids you like at 3B -- well, of course their value is completely unprojectable, and so Kouzmanoff's so-called 20 runs above them has no meaning.
We all know what you pay (20 - 0). But! How much do you pay (20 - x), where x is what you hope to get from Alex Liddi? Not just in 2011, but in 2012 and over the next several years? What's the investment time worth, if he's going to be good in 2013 provided that he plays now?
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But if you're hemorrhaging wins at 3B, as the Mariners would be if they traded Figgins, then Kevin Kouzmanoff certainly stops the loss at 3B. He plays third and, essentially, keeps you from giving back the 20 runs you gained with Jack Cust.
Do the Mariners have anybody they like, and like a lot, for 3B after next year? Several guys, notably Liddi, DeJesus, ummmmmm Triunfel or Franklin in some permutations, etc.
Look. The M's are piling up juicy hitters here. You start moving them around the diamond as they pan out to be gold rather than glitter.
Some of those kids are going to prove out The Real Deals, and whether you move Franklin or whether Liddi has a big 2011 or whatever .... changing in Figgins for a 1-Year-Bridge MLB(TM) guy is consistent with what the M's need to be doing. Meshing around Ackley and Smoak.
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... but say you don't like the kids you got? You've got to put the FA's someplace, don't you?
Kevin Kouzmanoff can also bridge two seasons, rather than one, in some variations.
So, yeah.
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