The lineup: Alex Presley LF, Chase d'Arnaud SS, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Matt Diaz RF, Lyle Overbay 1B, Brandon Wood 3B, Mike McKenry C, Charlie Morton P.
- Jerry Crasnick of ESPN tweets that the Bucs are looking at A's first baseman Conor Jackson, who has a line of .243/2/23. We know that the trade options for a stick are limited right now, but geez...the grass isn't always greener.
- However, Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune Review reported that the Bucs have also scouted Hunter Pence. Now that deal would make a splash, although his lack of power would seem to make him way overpriced for what the Pirates want; a corner player that can hit some homers. They already have decent three-hole hitters. What they need is a clean-up guy.
- Chris Leroux earned his first career win yesterday and Chris Resop his first career save at Houston. The last time the Bucs hit that exacta was on August 6th, 1999 when Jimmy Anderson got his first win and Jose Silva notched his first save in a 5-1 win against the Cards at TRS.
- After a weekend break due to some quad soreness, Jose Tabata could be back in the Bradenton lineup tomorrow as he continues his rehab.
Pence is not an elite power hitter, to be sure, and his numbers are probably somewhat inflated by his home ballpark, but he has still hit 25 HR for three years running. Let's say we knock him down a peg so he's a 20 HR guy in Pittsburgh. Nothing wrong with that when you look at the rest of his game:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pencehu01.shtml
For my money he is a notch below the truly "elite" level, but he is a very good player who is also hitting his physical peak at age 28. He is a career .293 hitter with a career OPS of over .800 and while not a great basestealer he can run a little bit in a pick-your-spots kind of way. I like him, just not enough to pay what the Astros are supposedly asking in exchange for him.
As for Connor Jackson, I had the same reaction. In his case, if the grass IS greener, it's because there's a septic tank hidden beneath the bag at the A's home ballpark. Heh!
I'm not opposed to Pence, Will; more kinda in toss-up mode. He'd be especially handy if Pedro could man the cleanup spot. Working McCutch, Walker, Pedro and Pence into the middle would certainly give the Bucs a strong batting core.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, the 'Stros would want Tabata or Starling Marte, a couple of young arms, and maybe one more prospect. Depending on the names involved and with the 40-man crunch coming up, it could be a deal that both clubs could live with.