Right through our fingers
Hee Choi was claimed by the Red Sox after the Dodgers cut him from their roster.
Choi’s an odd guy. He’s been passed from team to team, with each seemingly dissatisfied with his performance and eager to get rid of him, even when he was doing well. He’s been passed up for inferior options a couple of times, which makes you think there’s something about him that his managers don’t like to the point they’d rather sacrifice runs to avoid him. His minor league numbers are pretty awesome. He’s 27. He’s left-handed. He plays first. He was *free* to pick up.
I realize that this can’t happen for PR purposes, but here’s the case for cutting Waste-of-Carbon Everett and picking up Choi.
Team-wise:
– Choi’s way younger and less likely to collapse
– Choi is a better hitter
– Choi can play first (unlike Ibanez/Everett)
– Choi doesn’t have a easily-vesting option that would tie the team to him for 2007
Create a better world wise:
– Choi, even in the worst-case he’s-a-selfish-jerk, doesn’t get into fights with teammates
Even with Choi’s up-and-down major league career, he can still hit, and projection systems still like him. Here’s his “equiavalent” lines, so we can compare them.
Choi
90% .296/.407/.592
Weighted mean .270/.371/.511
10% .239/.324/.411
Everett
90% .299/.370/.504
Weighted mean .268/.334/.449
10% .220/.274/.362
Everett’s a sunk cost: they’re going to pay him that ridiculous $3.4m no matter what. Choi’s going to cost under a million dollars. The question is: is an extra 50 points of OBP and 50 points of SLG worth a million dollars?
Of course it is, unless you believe that somehow Everett provides clubhouse leadership that’ll get you more than that through indirect benefits like increased team energy and whatnot.
A great team would have seized this opportunity. It could have been a significant upgrade to the offense at little cost. Instead, it’s another demonstration that the team is not looking to constantly improve any way they can, and that they’re still tied to previously failed notions of chemsitry and leadership — and they think Everett’s the man to provide it.
For those that figure the Petagine signing was meant to give us our AAAA bat at Tacoma, the Tacoma Tribune states today in their notes section that Petagine can opt out of his contract if he does not make the Big club. Seems likely that if he doesn’t make the roster he would look for another team which would put him on their 25 man.
It’s not likely at all. Seriously, think through the circumstances that would lead to that decision. The chances at that point that he’d decide that he’s better off opting out of his contract so someone can give him a spot on their 25 man are pretty slim.