This is why I pay less and less attention to individual defensive metrics. Phillies, AS A TEAM, ended up basically right at league average defensively. If Ibanez was uber-stupdendous, then who was it that uber-stunk? Another problem is that LF is perhaps the most oft position for cycling through auditioners.
In the NL for 2009, Fangraphs only ranks 7 NL LFs, (which includes Chase Headley with only 112 games and 963 innings. In fairness to Raul, despite spending a couple weeks on the DL, he'll still finish 3rd in the NL in LF innings. In the NL, his competition?
Braun, Carlos Lee, Chris Coghlan, Garret Anderson, Soriano and Headley. In the AL, only 5 guys appear on the LF list: DeJesus, Crawford, Rivera, Damon and Bay. Who does the NL put in LF? Braun, Lee, Dunn, Ibanez, Soriano ... the strong tendency is to go for power over defense.
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But, really the thing to realize about Raul, (who had the best season of his career), is that the concern was the YEARS on the contract, and the ever-increasing threat of injury and age issues. Well, he had a 2-week DL stint. And his .900 season was split: 1015 OPS in the first half and ... (wait for it) ... .784 OPS in the second. His second half line was: .236/.328/.456/.784 -- with 12-HRs and 33-RBI. His first half was .309/.367/.649 with 22/60. Games started were dead even at this point -- 64 each half.
In truth, Seattle would've killed for a .784 OPS out of its LF slot, but the ultimate call on whether the Phillies made a good call will come in 2011, when they could be spending 8 figures for what Griffey gave Seattle this year for a fraction.
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