My ire regarding Kotchman is that he's receiving the blame for the club getting Figgins. He's receiving blame for not resigning Branyan - (who has yet to play). He's getting blamed for the fact the club decided a DECADE ago that RF was going to be a perpetual power black hole.
Kotchman remains the focal point of 90% of the negativity about the offensive woes of a lineup that where Griffey has a .549 OPS, Ichiro has a .564, Lopez is at .610, and Bradley is at .644. God forbid someone actually complain about Byrnes (.350 OPS), Sweeney (.444) or Moore (.301).
Well, you could replace Kotchman with Babe Ruth - and it isn't going to make ANY difference, if you've got 5 guys hitting under .650. NO SINGLE HITTER can possibly make up for 6 guys doing nothing. The offense is NOT bad (thus far) because of Kotchman. They are bad so far because the entire club has two full-time players with an OPS+ above 100.
As for Kotchman's OPS+. His PRE-TRADE OPS+ figures the past three years:
119, 101, 103
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