Hanley Ramirez has been a Dodger for all of four days, but he's already hit a game-winning homer against the rival Giants. Here's the latest from Hanley's new division and its AL counterpart…
- Chase Headley of the Padres is coveted by the Athletics, Orioles, and Indians, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (Twitter links). It doesn't appear as though Oakland is a match for the San Diego third baseman, however.
- The Giants will pay $1.75MM of Marco Scutaro's contract according to Heyman (on Twitter), leaving the Rockies on the hook for just $500K or so. Troy Renck of The Denver Post notes (on Twitter) that Colorado has saved $2.8MM by trading Scutaro and Jeremy Guthrie.
- The Rangers need help at backup catcher according to Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe, and he reports that they had scouts in attendance to possibly watch Kelly Shoppach tonight (on Twitter).
Chase Headley is suffering from the rare problem of being called underrated so much that he’s becoming overrated. He is a solid player but I’m not sure he is a difference maker that can change a team’s fortune.
Known in the medical community as Paul Konerko Syndrome.
Except Paul Konerko is a perennial All-Star.
That contradicts my point how? Just a few months ago, during his hot start, there were tons of articles about how he’s so underrated and that he’s putting together a HoF resume. No he’s not. He’s very very good, never HoF worthy.
He sticks around for another 78 homers or so, he might be.
It’s still pretty doubtful. He’s had 2 great seasons in a 16 year career. Shouldn’t get in for longevity.
I don’t know, he was pretty dang good in 02, 04, 05, 06, 10, 11 and hes putting together another really good season this year. 20+ hrs for 12 years and counting, touching 30 7 times (maybe 8 after this year) and 40 twice. He has similar stats through age 36 as … Reggie Jackson and Orlando Cepeda, both of them Hall of Famers and neither were putting up numbers similar to Pauls at age 36. Don’t be so fast to say this guy doesn’t belong in the HoF.
Spot on. I think he is often overlooked as one of the top players in the game, he has been consistent, He only hit in the 40’s for hr totals twice which really speaks to his longevity.
There’s also no signs of him slowing down like Reggie did in his late age either, the guy has hit .300 in each of his last 3 seasons too barring a huge collapse this year.
I never said he wasn’t very very good. He’s only kind of been one of the best players in the league twice, and even then, eh. It’s numbers achieved through longevity, not true greatness.
Barry Zito?
He’s not elite but he is a really good player, he is a well above average hitter, plays great defense at third, and can steal a few bases.
He’s sorta like Hunter Pence only less of a power threat.
I’d say Pence is a very good comparison. One has a little more power/speed and one is much better at getting on base. One plays in a hitters park and one plays in the most extreme pitchers park in baseball. Pence is also making a lot more money and doesn’t have as much control.
Well said.
Not really. Most fans seem to grossly underrate him while some realize exactly how valuable he is.
Neither Napoli nor Torrealba are tearing it up offensively, but both call a decent game. And Synder can catch. Not sure why anyone thinks Catcher is the Rangers’ biggest need.
The Rangers need help at backup catcher??? Hell, we need a starting catcher. At least Shoppach can throw out runners!!
As an A’s fan I would prefer to keep what we have as opposed to deal a lot for Headley. Escober would be a better upgrade at SS, than Headley at 3B. I would have loved Ramirez, but I understand Wolff not wanting to sign off on the money attached to him. If we could get Drew for a song, he’d be worth a flier…
Dimensions wise Oaklands park is nearly the size of Petco anyway, his away from Petco value wouldnt even apply there, thats why I hope the A’s dont trade for him unless its for less than the supposed asking price of SD.
Petco isn’t an extreme pitchers park just because of it’s dimensions. There is a big difference between Petco and the Oakland Coliseum. There is a big difference between Petco and any other current MLB park in baseball.
Still, its not like hes going to an extreme hitters park that is going to allow him to hit .300 with 20+ homers, theres still a handicap playing in any pitchers park.
There is a big difference between Petco and the next best pitchers park. There isn’t a park in baseball that compares to Petco’s suppressive nature. I’m not saying he’s going to be a superstar in any other park. Obviously he’d be much better in Coors than the Coliseum. The point is that he’d be much better in any other park than Petco.
The only way to evaluate Headley’s true value as a player will be once he’s moved
Or just simply look at how he hits away from Petco. Put the guy in the NL East with all those short porches and he hits .330/.850+ with serious power numbers.
this was mostly for the doubters not other padre fans but i agree- we know how he can hit in other teams parks.
This is why many have gotten to think he is overrated. Using Hedleys career average for fb% (which is actually above rate for this year) and combining it with the league average of 10.6% of FB turning into HRs. Then he would be expected to hit 22.4 HR over a season in a neutral ballpark.
For Reference FB% / HR Totals this year. Since you expect 10.6% of Flyballs to go for home runs, then the higher the total, the more prolific hr hitter you have. Notice the correlation how players like dunn have a higher % and more home runs.
Headley: 30.4%
Dunn: 44.2% / 31
Granderson: 39.5% / 28
Braun: 38.6% / 28
Teixera: 39.3% / 20
Middlebrooks: 33.5% / 12
Others with higher FB%: Wright, Rios, Zobrist
His %’s could roughly fall a few % behind Ethier, minus his 2 best seasons, so that leaves you around 11-20 HR/Year. Since in his 2 full seasons so far in his career he has hit 12 and 11 hr respectively you would asume that petco is taking away about 10 of his HR since you would expect 22 HR in a normal park, and he only got to 11-12.
Conclusion: outside of Petco he could be a solid player, BUT he is not a superstar like you claim. A smaller stadium does not make a player hit 60 points higher as you claim, and it will not inflate his HR total to “serious” power. *Not everyone gets 600 AB’s but the majority with a full season get within +/- 10% ~60 AB’s, but that still is only +/- 2 HR. It’s not exact science but there is definetely correlation, the players with higher FB% hit more HR.
#1 If you play in Petco you adjust your game so your FB rates are lower.
20+ home runs is considered a 60 on a scale of 80. Serious power.
.300/.850 is better than solid. Period.
This season if he was playing his home games in any of the AL East parks he would likely have better than 20 hrs RIGHT NOW when you consider his road numbers and the difference in park factors!
Right now he is the 3rd best 3B in baseball according to WAR.
The funny thing about all this Teixeira talk and comparisons is people don’t even realize Headley is still so underrated that he’s been worth just as much as Teixeira was the three years before he was traded. Teixeira fWAR from 2004-2006 was 13.4 and Headley’s fWAR from 2010-2012 (with 2012 pro-rated) is 13.6. So it’s funny I keep seeing people call Teixeira a superstar and Headley just a good, cheap player.