GM's Almanac...The Ides of November
John Boggs, an agent, said 13 teams have contacted him about free agent center fielder Dave Roberts. Presumably those are most of the same teams that have expressed interest in Gary Matthews Jr. as well and we are only in the middle of November.
Seems like both picked a great time to have the best seasons of their careers and a few years ago it would have been ludicrous to think both would have been in such great demand.
But Roberts, playing for the San Diego Padres, set career highs in 2006 when he hit .293 with a .360 on-base percentage and 49 stolen bases in 129 games and 499 at-bats. He had just 18 doubles but was second in the National League with 13 triples.
He is 34 and a left-handed hitter. Matthews is 32 and a switch-hitter. Both have had to wait a long time to get a regular job.
Roberts' 162-game average, for his career, has him hitting .270 with a .344 on-base percentage and a .371 slugging percentage. He averages 87 runs, 18 doubles, ten triples, five home runs, 44 RBI and 50 stolen bases in 536 at-bats for every 162 games.
Matthews? In 162 games, he is hitting .263 with a .336 on-base percentage and a .419 slugging percentage. He averages 79 runs, 29 doubles, four triples, 14 home runs, 58 RBI, and 12 stolen bases in 516 at-bats.
Intererstingly, for their careers, both are slightly below the league average in range factor for center fielders. STATS Inc. measures center fielders' defebse with something called zone ratings which is probably as subjective as anything else but ranks Roberts 25th and Matthews 28th at their positions over the past two years.
The top five were Randy Winn, Jeremy Reed, Corey Patterson, Luis Matos and Vernon Wells. Torii Hunter won a Gold Glove in each of the last two seasons but was only ranked 24th in zone rating by STATS Inc. Andruw Jones was lower than any of them at 29.
Trust me, Andruw Jones can play center field as good as anybody and he has been doing it at a high level on a regular basis since 1997.
So what does all this mean?
Roberts and Matthews are going to get a lot of money for a relatively short body of work.
Hi T.R.
I wonder how many Rangers fans are starting to feel very sick in the stomach that we are not going to have much of a team in 2007???? especially after reading about Mr Hicks not going to open the purse strings very wide. It looks at the moment that we will only have 2 regular hitters .. michael and tex... with kinsler and laird in the background... and 2 starting pitchers. Guess we are going to have to call 2007 a rebuilding year AGAIN!!!! 1 good thing is I am still a Rangers Fan !!!
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