Orlando Cabrera’s contributions must be very intangible

Published by on September 8, 2011 | 18 Responses

“Cabrera, sure, he’s made some errors,” Bochy said. “But you’ve got an experienced guy out there. I know he’s dropped a couple of popups. I think he’s as shocked as anybody he didn’t catch the ball, and he made some nice plays today coming in.”

Bruce Bochy, quoted in Hank Schulman’s recap: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/07/SP4G1L1FOD.DTL#ixzz1XKvKDrir

Let me start by saying that I am not by any stretch a Bruce Bochy hater. I think he’s mostly okay, and 90% of the things that he drives me nuts with would just be replaced by another set of things that another manager would drive me just as nuts with.

I also am on the record as thinking that it was not a terrible idea to trade for Orlando Cabrera. I thought he could probably play better defense than Miguel Tejada and hit better than Brandon Crawford. I think Mike Fontenot is playable at SS, but I don’t think it’s a great idea to play him every day there. Cabrera was a reasonable, if depressing, solution to these problems.

Well, after watching far too much Orlando Cabrera for my taste, I don’t think he’s much better on defense than Miguel Tejada and I don’t think he’s a much better hitter than Brandon Crawford. I feel pretty confident in saying that the one skill that Orlando Cabrera still has is the ability to not strike out, but that age has taken away such things as defensive range, ability to steal, and the ability to consistently drive the ball. If the Giants were breathing down the Diamondbacks’ necks, I would see the justification for playing him over Crawford, but I certainly wouldn’t start him over Fontenot (unless maybe there were a lefty on the mound).

I’m not really sure if the Giants think they are in “WIN NOW!” mode, or if they are in “eh, we’ll get ‘em next year” mode. Justin Christian starting against a right-hander screams the latter, but Cody Ross’s presence in the lineup says it’s the former. Orlando Cabrera’s role, at this point, seems to say that Bochy isn’t really all that sure how to do either.

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yogiberra
yogiberra

The only relevant question, at this point of the season, is whether or not the Giants will finish above .500!

Tim K
Tim K

Since Posey went down the Giants have had a batting order with three almost sure outs Pitcher, SS, and Catcher. That combined with the lackluster performance of so many vets has doomed this team offensively.

Joe
Joe

Couldn't agree more about Cabrera. The shortstop position all year long has been simply sickening and one could make a strong argument that, together with the loss of Posey, the lack of a solid shortstop has been the achilles heel of our team all year long (well, yes, there are other achilles heels too, but none more glaring). I told anyone who would listen the moment the Giants acquired Tejada that the shortstop position was the weak link of the team. I suppose the best that can be said about our shortstops this year has been that Uribe would have been an even bigger bust. By the way, I think DeRosa may actually have some utility assuming he is now healthy.

yogiberra
yogiberra

In two years, for $12 Million, Derosa hit one home run, with a .200 Average, in about 200 AB's. He's a case of too little, too late.... He should give about $10 Million back to the Club! Here's a few more overpaid, Giant faces, that may not be around next year: Cody Ross Andres Torres Jeremy Affeldt Jonathan Sanchez Freddy Sanchez? Brian Wilson and of course, Zito! The housecleaning of Rowand & Tejada was a step in the right direction....

yogiberra
yogiberra

After receiving $12 Million for two years, and hitting one Home Run, in about 200 AB's, with a .200 Batting Average, Derosa is a case of too little, too late.... He should give about $10 Million back to the Club! A few more overpaid vets, that we may not see in a Giant uniform next year are: Cody Ross Andres Torres Jeremy Affeld Jonathan Sanchez Freddie Sanchez? Brian Wilson and of course, Zito! The housecleaning of Rowand and Tejada, was a step in the right direction....

Liem
Liem

Affeldt has been amazing this year, sporting a 3.38 xFIP and 2.88 SIERA. Given that he'll likely pitch around 65 innings, the Giants have basically gotten 1/3 of season's worth of quality, top the rotation pitching from a bullpen guy. WAR supports this assessment, awarding Affeldt with .8 WAR through 61.2 innings (compare Matt Cain at 3.7 WAR through 203 IP). According to Cot's, the Giants are paying Affeldt $4.5 million this season, approximately a third of what a quality, top of the rotation starter would be paid. Considering the fact that middle relief pitchers, who are as good as a top of the rotation starter, are extremely rare, you should probably argue that Affeldt is in fact being paid below market value.

Tad
Tad

Affeldt has been great this year, back to his previous form. Freddie Sanchez is probably the best defensive second baseman we've ever had and a hell of a hitter. Wilson's been playing through pain (obviously) all year and he's still been a damn good closer. Let's not throw the legitimate players into the same category with Zito and Rowand.

yogiberra
yogiberra

I think that Bochy is Required to show loyalty to the higher paid, deadwood vets, as per Upper Management's wishes! Why else would Mark DeRosa still be around?

Tad
Tad

Bochy likes vets. It's an idiosyncrasy. Earl Weaver used to like to yell at umpires. Harry Walker wanted everyone to hit open-stance. Bochy was exactly the right manager in the right place last year, and he hasn't had much to work with this year, so his foible sticks out because the vets haven't produced. I don't see that it's anything to get too worked up over. Yeah, I'd like to see Crawford et al get more time, but I'm not ready to give Bochy the boot because of it.

yogiberra
yogiberra

Or, you could say, that Bochy was just very lucky last year.... Whereas for hitting coach, Bam Bam, I believe that his luck will have run out, shortly after game #162!

yogiberra
yogiberra

The reason Bam Bam will get fired after the season, is because with the exception of Pat Burrell, and occasionally Fontenot, he hasn't taught any other batters about the importance of 'Working a Count'....Making the opposing Pitcher, pitch! The Giants are the premier 1st-Pitch swingers, and it's been their downfall....

Liem
Liem

Why the hell is BamBam to blame? The is not that the Giants' hitters have holes in their swings and or mechanical flaws; the problem is that the Giants hitters are awful. Quite awful, actually. The hitters whom we would expect to hit have been hitting, Sandoval (when he isn't obese), Posey (when his leg isn't broken), and Beltran--even Nate Schierholtz has become a capable hitter. There are just too many Aubrey Huffs, Cody Rosses (plural Ross?), and Tejada/Cabreras. Unless BamBam were allowed to send those hitters to BALCO, I'm not sure how he could help them.

yogiberra
yogiberra

Funny....Isn't that what Bochy was saying about Tejada for the first 4 months of the season???

Rory Paap
Rory Paap

I hated his acquisition from the very moment I heard about it, but probably a bit unreasonably so. I'd just had my fill of these types of trades. Anyway, I thought that, over time, I'd end up hating the trade less. Not so. This is definitely in Jose Guillen territory for me now. With every FPOM, error, and moment he's in the lineup, the trade looks worse and worse and worse, even though I don't think Neal is going to be much of a player at all. I'd rather have organization filler than Cabrera.

abcde123
abcde123

Nah, Crawford is horrible, his first home run was a grand slam, look what he's done since. Fluke

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

He has looked terrible since he started playing with the Giants. He's fast approaching Jose Guillen and Jose Castillo status for me. The Giants are seven games out, why not give Brandon Cawford the bulk of starts in September, you know, the guy who might actually contribute to the 2012 team.

Curtis
Curtis

What's funny, is that if they were in "WIN NOW" mode, I'd rather have Justin Christian playing left field against righties than Cody Ross. Ross has a career .721 OPS versus righties (To put that in perspective, Aaron Rowand and Andres Torres' are higher) Then factor in that's he's a dp machine, average defensively, average base running at best... why wouldn't you rather have Christian in the lineup? At least Christian can run. The biggest question I have about this entire season gone wrong is when was it just assumed that Cody Ross was an everyday outfielder? When did it become cool to think Cody Ross could do anything other than spot start against lefties and be the 25th man on the roster? Did I miss the memo - Did Ross suddenly become not awful versus righties? Isn't this the same guy the Marlins cut? Seriously, I'd rather have Schierholtz, Beltran, Belt, Burrell, Christian and maybe even Torres playing the outfield against righties over Cody Ross. He's basically a 6th or 7th outfielder on a horrible offensive team. What is making people think he should even get a sniff at playing versus righties, let alone bat 5th or 6th everyday? I don't get it at all.

oldjacket
oldjacket

What you think of that depends on what you think about the so-called playing time penalty. It's established that players who get less PAs tend to perform worse, though obviously the direction of causation is open to interpretation. If you think that players need regular playing time in order to perform, then in order to get Cody Ross lefty masher, you need to sit through enough Ross starts against right-handed pitchers to keep him fresh. All of that's fairly moot at this point. Ross has sucked it - green eggs and ham style - this season. He's probably not going to be here next, and I couldn't care less whether they play him or not.