Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the
Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.
Friday, August 19, 2005 |
Mighty Casey
Count me into the group, at least part time, of Casey Kotchman skeptics. (You may find his minor league stats prior to 2005 here.) Despite his sudden and wholly unexpected home run surge since joining the big club, his first callup didn't impress, rookie non-strikeout records included. He barely hit in 2004, with a .226/.289/.276 line, making it abundently clear that he needed more time to develop in the minors, if nothing else. This year, more of the same, compounded by his early-season struggles in AAA, in a hitter's park and a hitter's league. Players have setbacks all the time, and it looked like Kotch was due for another year's worth of delay.
Well: his late home run surge has dulled some of the catcalls, but probably not all of them. With that in mind, let's inspect Casey's PECOTA card, where we see offensive comparables including --
- All-Star Ed Kranepool
- All-Star Keith Hernandez
- Eric Chavez
- Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield
- Tony Horton
- Tom O'Malley
- All-Star Mike Scioscia
- All-Star (and strong Hall-of-Fame candidate) Vladimir Guerrero
- Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson
- Ken McMullen
- Current Cleveland rookie Mike Aubrey
- Current Minnesota rookie Justin Morneau
- Mediocrity and hanger-on Rowland Office
- All-Star Roy Howell
- All-Star Carlos May
- All-Star Rusty Staub
- Current Minnesota rookie Jason Kubel
- Mets minor leaguer Jay Caligiuri
- Flameout Tony Curry
Comments:
I think the issue is that people don't have a reasonable expectation of how careers develop. Not everyone comes out of the head of Zeus, fully formed.
I think the lower end is Grace; the upper end is more like Todd Helton, if you subtract a bit for playing half his games at Coors Canaveral.
"Kotchman hate?" From whom? I'd say there was worry (well placed, as he had shown no signs of developing power and had completely lost his discipline post last season’s cup-o-coffee), but I’ve never heard anyone suggest he was done.
And don't forget, Grace was a really good pitcher, too, for all of one inning. Wish I'd saved that video -- it was priceless.
Well, gee, Matt, it's not like he's actually getting those kinds of numbers against good pitchers, now is he? I mean, point taken about Erstad not getting those kinds of results against selfsame lousy D-Ray pitchers, but even so, it's fair to say he's got a ways to go yet before he's a reliable contributor.
I heard Joe McDonnell the other day say....
Something one never wants to read... Ever.
Something one never wants to read... Ever.
# posted by 
: 8/19/2005 03:15:00 PM
: 8/19/2005 03:15:00 PM
I don't think the Angels have a choice. But his strings of 0-fer games against Seattle and Oakland, and a complete blanking in the Toronto series, make me really nervous.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.