Saturday, July 7, 2007

I'm here to argue. Most will not see this, since I am not a regular blogger (due to limited internet access) like Pat, Andrew, Charlie, or Cory, but that's alright, I'll just ramble anyways.

Most folks seem to be in agreement that, while imperfect (since judging someone by one criteria generally is), OPS is as good a tool as any when attempting to judge a hitter's abilities and status as a prospect.

If you take a look at the International League stats, you can see that Pirate SS Brian Bixler is currently 15th in OPS in the league. Not too shabby. That improves to 7th if you remove all the players who are old enough to be borderline prospects/bench players at best (aka players who are at least as old as me).

Of the six players listed above Bixler, half of them have already been promoted to the big leagues, and two of them [Josh Fields (3B, CHA) and Ben Fransisco (OF, CLE)] are not coming back. Another, Cincinnati Reds 1B Joey Votto, is soon to follow if the Reds do as they should and begin prepping for next season.

The other guys are, like Bixler, blocked by someone at their current position on the big league club: all three are outfielders who are stuck behind the likes of Manny Ramirez, Magglio Ordonez, and Carl Crawford among others.

Bixler? He's stuck behind the world-reknowned Jack Wilson. Jacko is on fire. He is hitting .290 with a .759 OPS since Memorial day. Unfortunately, Jack was so atrocious at the plate for the first two months that this streak has only brought him up to a .262 average and .685 OPS for the season. No, it wasn't even a bad two months, because Wilson was hitting .288 with a .723 OPS as of the Pirates' first off day in May (the 7th). Wilson then hit an 11-65 skid where the only bright spot was a 3-3 night against Atlanta. Outside of that slump, he's been a .289 hitter this season.

I'll forgive Jack a slump, and I perhaps have been overly harsh towards him, but even at his best, he's a Brian Bixler clone who is five years older and about five million dollars more expensive. Call me crazy for wanting the Pirates to shop him like mad and give the SS job to Bixler as of August 1st.

There's more dragging of the feet by the Pirates beyond Bixler, I'm afraid. Here are two lines for you:


Team Lge AVG G HR RBI BB SO OBP SLG OPS
LOU INT .315 83 11 50 50 66 .412 .482 .894
ALT EAS .330 63 11 51 25 36 .397 .588 .985

The second line is, obviously, what Steven Pearce has done since being promoted to Altoona. The line above him is the one posted at AAA Louisville by the aforementioned Votto. The only other difference between the two is that Pearce is 24 this season, and Votto will be 24 at the end of the season. If Votto's numbers are good enough for him to be surrounded by "when will he arrive in Cincinnati" buzz, why isn't a more impressive line by Pearce grounds for a promotion to Indianapolis.

Alright, maybe it's "only" equally impressive, considering the difference in levels, but still...

I think Neil Walker has a similar beef. He isn't quite hitting like Pearce (who is top 5 in avg, OBP, SLG, OPS, HR, and RBI, by the way), but he is definitely one of the ten best hitters in the league right now (again, adjusting for all the older, filler guys).

On the one hand, I look and see "by god, he's committed 19 errors in 82 games at third base" which leads me to think "no wonder he hasn't been promoted.

On the other hand, look at B.J. Upton. He committed scads of errors (50+ in both of his full minor league seasons) but kept getting promoted because he was hitting like crazy. He is now in the big leagues full-time, and he has 13 errors in 50 games as a 3B last year, moved to 2B, and had 12 errors in 48 games when he hit the DL.

Tampa Bay figured out that his bat was too valuable to let it get stale while he figured out the defense, can't the Pirates do the same?

Maybe the CEO change will bring about fresh air, and perspective, but one can't assume too much.