Ok, here's the Branyan deal. He's a first half player, then he flames out. When the All-Star Game comes about he becomes a Fort Pinto at 80K miles: Pieces fall off, oil spurts, chassis rusts.
Over his career Branyan has 1700ish 1st Half PA's. Hes a .244-.344-.513 type of guy. 108 OPS. During the 2nd half of a season he as 1300ish PA's. He's a .224.-318.-462-90 OPS type of guy. baiscally he becomes Kotchman during the 2nd half. And you're gonig to pay him $5M to DH?
Last year was really his first time over 400 PA's. Look what happened in the 2nd half.
Zeke does half a skill set that doesn't mash...but he's 23 yrs old and has an upside. Branyan will be 35 next year...and only has a downside.
I'm glad somebody in one of the threads above mentioned Choo. This smells like that.
Heck, if we need a 1B bat it seems like we have our #1 minor league guy who played a whole bunch of 1B in the NCAA.
I hate this move. And I doubt it puts people in the seats. I think Z has had a hard time getting this team into a contending position. The Rent-a-Lee acquisition was terrific (I hope we can rent to own) and the Figgins move was a good one, even with his struggling bat this year. Hoever the Kotchman move was a botched one. Probably the best part of that deal was in NOT signing Branyan to more than one year.....and now it appears that good decision will be botched, too. Jury is still out on the Bradley move. But i will give him credit for a level of citizenship ( since the meltdown) and good behavior that I didn't think he had in him. I liked the jack Wilson acquire in the spring. I like the Josh Wilson acquire a lot more than that right now.
Last year's team won more than it should have and Z was lauded as a genius (the Guti move, for example). this year we win less than we should and we see Z as a guy who makes mistakes. In this case ,I think a big one.
Go Team.....But this aging and oil spurting Ford Pinto isn't moving us forward. My 2 cents.
moe
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