John Jaso Appreciation Post
This post has no real point beyond simply pointing out how good John Jaso has been this year, especially against right-handed pitchers. Jaso currently sports a 165 wRC+ against RHPs, which ranks #10 in all of baseball for hitters with 100+ PAs vs RHP. To put that in context, here is every hitter in baseball with a wRC+ between 160 and 170 vs RHPs this year.
Andrew McCutchen, 168
Carlos Gonzalez, 167
David Wright, 166
John Jaso, 165
Mark Trumbo, 160
Miguel Cabrera, 160
Paul Konerko, 160
Andre Ethier, 160
Every single person on that list besides Jaso was an All-Star this year. McCutchen is the clear frontrunner for NL MVP. That’s the company that have hit righties as well as John Jaso in 2012.
And remember, this is a guy who didn’t play for nearly the entire month of April because Eric Wedge convinced himself that he couldn’t hit based on bad results in spring training. If ever anyone tries to convince you that spring training stats mean anything, remember this.
I love seeing posts like this! Thanks Dave. He’s well deserving of the recognition. One of the better trades Z has pulled off.
The Jaso for Lueke trade is looking pretty good these days.
Do we have to wait until the end of the season for us to get a post about how Wedge needs to be replaced? :p There seems to be a mountain of evidence pointing to his inability to properly manage this team.
… And 5 of the 8 hitters are right handed. That is a bit of a surprise – especially Trumbo. Good information. Thanks
This team certainly had the talent to win more games than they have won.
Part of that is probably bad luck, but part of it has to be Wedge and some of his coaches.
On Saturday, Wedge completely outmanaged Ned Yost when Yost brought in a rightie to face Olivo (as though one should ever have to worry about who was facing Olivo) and Wedge brought in Jaso to pinch hit with the bases loaded and none out. It was a great example of one manager doing everything right and yet not getting the result you’d expect, as Jaso bounced into a force out at the plate, with the other manager somehow forgetting we had a huge answer to bringing in a righthander to face Olivo.
Also Doug Fister last year and Iwakuma seems to be turning it on now too.
Well at least Jaso is something good we got for Cliff Lee. Hard to call that trade a complete bust, even if it was once removed. And we have Jaso under team control through 2015. He might be worth buying out his Arb years and a year or two of free agency. As a decent backup catcher, DH, and occasional first baseman, that gets on base, hits for a little power, and just plain hits, it would be a good move. Maybe not this year but next.
One question about Jaso, if Texiera is hurt can we trade Jaso to the Yankees for a prospect and a player to be named later? He can play first base, and the Yankees may be desperate this close to the trading deadline. We could structure the trade so we get a prospect now, and then we agree on another player later, and if we can’t agree on someone better than Jaso, then we get Jaso back at the end of the season. Its been done before.
If the Yankees are desperate then we might be able to bend them over for a servicible prospect then get Jaso back later.