Add new comment

I once described Lopez as a "hacking hack of a hack" as a hitter....but in the same breath I said that a team can live with that if he hits around 100OPS, is a bargain WAR-wise, and wasn't a butcher UZR-wise.
All those apply to Lopez. His OPS+ was just ducky the last two years and (despite people's beliefs) he DIDN'T hack it up an 2B (at least last year). Sheesh.. last year he was a PLUS UZR guy.
Teams win with Lopez type IF's all the time. He has 2B skills and a plus arm....he can play 3B. Will he make us forget Beltre's glove.....not likely. But if he gets 280-290 total bases again this year (as he has two years in a row) and pops 40+ doubles....then he ain't bad. And if that happens...he might make us forget Beltre swinging at every slider 18 inches outside.
Sure I wish Lopez walked a bunch....it is a very valuable skill. But he doesn't...I can live with it.
I'm interested to see how the Tui-Lopez situation plays out. I think one of those guys is going to get some 1B time as the season goes on. Tui is going to rock the ball. My concern is that if he only hits .200 in April the brain trust deems him in need of more "polishing." I hope not. Let him hang around and learn from Jr. and Ichiro (God forbid, Bradley!). and find the 400 AB's for him.
Here's why one of those guys gets 1B AB's. Kotchman is a career 95 OPS+ guy (playing in better parks). He has 40 taters in almost 1900 career PA's...and has a career slugging % of .406. Basically he's a fair hitting SS with the bat. He's kind of a specialist guy. Plus glove and a LH bat. He hits RH's a bit better than LH's...but he's still just a league average guy against them for his career (slightly worse last year).
As far as I can tell, Tui has played every IF position this spring plus the COF spots. They're not looking for a reason to keep him anymore, they're looking for a way to get his bat in the game a lot more.
1B for TUi (or 1B for Lopez) is the fastest way.
I'm interested in whether the Mariners would be more willing to write off Kotchman's $3M rather than Garko's $550K. Kotchman just turned 27 and Garko 29...but I'm not sure the upside isn't with the older guy.
I think the Garko signing and the Tui explosion makes Kotchman way redundant (and we have in Carp a LH 1B who is at least his equal with the bat...and I would argue WAY better).
But Kotchman was a purpose signing....He's hard to walk away from.
Anyway....I don't LOVE Lopez. But he has his value...and it is worth WAY more than the M's are paying him.
But I ramble...