D’Angelo Jimenez
DMZ · May 20, 2005 at 4:04 pm · Filed Under Mariners
From MLB.com:
Designated INF D’Angelo Jimenez for assignment and purchased the contract of INF Luis Lopez from Triple-A Louisville.
Jimenez plays 2b/SS, mostly 2b, and would be fine pickup to stick in Valdez’s place and try and patch the lineup. He’s 27 and his last two years:
2003, White Sox: .255 .332 .410
2003, Reds: .290 .365 .421
2004, Reds: .270 .364 .394 in a full-season.
That’s not earth-shaking, certainly, but I’d take a shortstop who could give the team 100 more points of on-base percentage — for free.
Comments
34 Responses to “D’Angelo Jimenez”
Am I allowed to shorten his name to Dan?
Is Luis Lopez that 30 year old guy who used to play for Toronto?
How’s Jimenez’s defense?
That’d be great free talent, and the M’s should have a good shot at him- they’re high on the waiver-claim list. That’s a big upgrade over WFB, and then the M’s could retain Valdez as a backup SS.
Any chance we could get a fake birth certificate showing he’s from Port Orchard or Poulsbo?
Holy crap. I know he’s not hitting this year, but how on earth do you DFA a guy who can play middle infield and get on base at a .350 clip?
jason
The Reds certainly aren’t very smart.
Does it have something to do with $2.875 million?
With those 2004 stats he’d be our 7th best hitter or so.
No, it was Mickey Lopez who was the 30 year for Tacoma the last two years. He was traded to the Giants organization late in spring training.
Why pick him up?That would make us better god forbid i think freddie patek is available to go with borders and moyer.Bavasai good player if it bit him.
He seems to be a guy that needs to just be put in the lineup and allowed to play. The path getting there may not look pretty, but at the end, the numbers have always been solid. Probably best if he isn’t counted on to be one of three or four best players on a team. That said, what are the Reds thinking?
Maybe the Reds know something we don’t. Something that doesn’t show up in the numbers yet.
Jimenez has worn his way through four organizations with people saying good riddance at each stop. The Yankees dumped him for Jay Witasick. The White Sox dumped him for Scott Dunn. It’s clear the guy has a pretty serious attitude problem, and he’s not far away from being in the Carl Everett/AJ Pierzynski mold of players.
Also, he’s not free. The Reds DFA’d him, meaning that they have 10 days to trade him. If no one trades for him, then any team claiming him on waivers would have to pay the rest of his $2.87 million contract, which would be about $2 million for the rest of this season.
I might be tempted to claim him on waivers, simply because the M’s lack of shortstops is so glaring that its worth a shot. But let’s not confuse this with a no brainer. There are legitimate reasons to not end up with Jimenez on the roster.
What!? Jimenez?! DFA’d?! This is boggling my brain. Pick him up. Now.
The M’s aren’t the only team with a pretty glaring middle-infield need — the Cubs also fit that category, and (unless they’ve changed the waiver claim rules since the last time I was paying attention) they would get a shot at Jimenez first, no?
Granted, even the Cubs are probably not going to willingly take on that salary if they think they can avoid it. Is this DFA for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release, or in order to get him off the 40-man and send him to the minors? If he is being released, as I take it your “for free” comment means, then the M’s can simply shop for him on the open market . . . right?
Hey, Pat Borders’ contract was just purchased from Tacoma by the M’s…who’s going to get DFA’d? Hopefully, it was Matt Thornton; George Sherrill would be a more than adequete replacemnet.
Madritsch to 60DL.
So to the cost argument — the M’s have a ton of money lying around they decided not to spend and the team, as we know, closes the books on each year, so it’s spend-it-or-lose it.
w/r/t the attitude thing… I have no knowledge of whether he’s a malcontent or what, so I don’t think I can speak to that.
#12
Are you saying you don’t wish the Mariners could pick up Carl Everett and AJ Pierzynski for free?
Dave said it best, Jimenez has worn out his welcome in several organizations, including the Yankees where I got to see him play at Triple-A Columbus. At one time he was a top-rated prospect (even higher than Alfonso Soriano) but in March of 2000 was injured in a car crash. He fractured his second cervical vertabrae in his neck and was on the disabled list for most of the season. A lot of people have said he hasn’t been the same since the accident.
He first broke into the big leagues in 1999, so the Reds were his four organization in 6-plus seasons. That’s similar to Jose Guillen who is now with the Washington Nationals and another head case.
I noticed the stats above are from past seasons, but his 2005 stats are not very good. He is batting just .229 overall and .176 against right-handers. In his last game against the NY Mets, he committed two fielding errors that cost the Reds the game.
His hitting was one factor that GM Dan O’Brien cut him loose, but another reason is the fact that with Wily Mo Pena comming off of the DL any day now, this gives the Reds the ability to play Ryan Freel everyday. Freel is a much better lead-off hitter that Jimenez is, and a much greater threat on the basepaths.
With Rich Aurilia on the DL too, this means that the Reds can play Felipe Lopez everyday, as well. (Note: I never really understood why the Reds signed Aurilia anyway.) The Reds are stocked with middle infielders, including William Bergolla, who started tonight.
I would argue against signing Carl Everett if he paid the team, but that’s a whole argument I’m not sure we want to get into.
Yes, I’m saying I wouldn’t want Carl Everett or AJ Pierzynski on my team, regardless of the cost. You guys know we don’t go for the chemistry/leadership thing as much as common wisdom supports, but some people really are bad folk, and I would have no desire to employ or work with guys like Everett or Pierzynski.
And yes, Derek, I know the M’s can easily afford Jimenez, but he’s not free. I can afford an ice cream cone, but I still have to pay for it. There’s a difference.
What really bothers me about this situation is that the Mariners will never again–knock on wood–be in such a juicy waiver claiming position, and they seem to be ignoring all these waived players (many of whom are superior to some of their own players).
Re: (# 14) WAIVER-CLAIMING POSITION – Unless things have changed with the current CBA, if teams from both leagues put in waiver claims, the waived player goes to the team that is in his league. [Surely someone can post something definitive on this.]
What’s wrong with calling up Jose Lopez, instead?
We have Chemistry now? Show me.
Get us freddy patek now!!!!!!We could get arod,albert pujols and others if you aint got pitching you dont win,,,
Re: 22
Nothing… but it’s a little early for that.
Also, he’s nursing that wrist still, and took Friday night off to rest it.
He’s not ready in more ways than one.
Speaking of SS in our system did you hear Dan Rohn on the Mariners pregame show before the last Yankees game? He said that Mike Morse is playing much better defense then expected. He went on to say “Morse is probably (I’m not making this up) the best player in the league defensively at his position.” I assume he is talking in the PCL. Is he serious or is this just a manager talking up one of his guys? Do you guys know anyone who can make give a professional objective evaluation on Morse?
from the Cincy Enquirer: “The Reds made an example of D’Angelo Jimenez. By designating Jimenez for assignment, the message to other players was: Your spot might not be safe, either. Jimenez was struggling. He was hitting .229 and made two errors Wednesday. He was out of shape enough that he had limited range and no speed on the base paths.”
Re: 27
at first i couldn’t belive him saying he was probably the best in the PCL, but that combined with Mike Curto’s comments of late, etc, makes me think that Morse might actually have a chance to become a Ripken/A-Rod type shortstop.
I havn’t seen him but i would assume he’s not very fluid at this point, but you can look herky-jerky and still get the job done as well (or better) than some guys who play smoother (Valdez, Santiago, etc). if Morse continues hitting and feilding as a reasonable rate, i think we should give him a shot a bit before the all-star break, ala Justin Leone last year.
Re: 29 I remember hearing that he could be a Ripken/A-Rod type (I hope with the bat as well as defense) too but I couldn’t remember who said it. It sounds like that Garcia trade had a diamond in the rough but I guess we’ll wait and see.
I too remembered reading that A-Rod/Ripken comparison. It was on Baseball America. Here’s the link: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/2004afl/041108morse.html. Based on Dave’s comments on Morse, it seems ridiculous, but it’s fun anyway.
Also, looking at his career numbers (http://thebaseballcube.com/players/mike_morse.shtml, lots of ads, but a great site anyway) for the first time, it looks like his power is pretty steadily increasing too.
So here’s to Mike Morse, the next, er, Alex Rodriguez…
From someone who follows the NL Central I do “know” the following:
Jiminez played very well last year.
He showed up at camp completely out of shape.
While his raw numbers may look okay his defense has tanked. I believe the greater number of batted balls in play because of the dreadful Reds pitching has given the illusion Jiminez is doing ok. He’s not.
He got into a fight at the end of last season with Ryan Freel. Allegedly while Freel has let bygones be bygones Jiminez still carries a grudge. And with Freel playing a 1000 times better DA’s attitude really went south.
The Reds are in desperate need of scapegoats as the fans are calling for beheadings, public square exhibitions of draft horses pulling apart guilty parties, and other measures to mimic the best of mob justice.
If DJ has a strong manager and a regular spot in the lineup I suspect he would do his usual job of ok defense and getting on base. Barring that, avoid him.
Re: 31
Yeah Dave et al keep us pretty well grounded but its nice to dream sometimes.
So much for the Mariners claiming Jimenez. On Thursday, he accepted his assignment and he is now playing and starting at shortstop for Double-A Chattanooga in the Southern League. He could of been had for $20,000 too…