Money for Nothing and Sticks for Free: How Many Outfield Bats is Too Many?

Yesterday during the White Sox’s 162^nd game they were struggling with Detroit’s Freddy Garcia. Gavin Floyd had just tight-roped out of 2 straight innings, giving up one run in each of them. The Sox were down 2-1, and OF Dewayne Wise was leading of the sixth against Garcia. Announcer Hawk Harrelson begged Wise to get something going to keep the Sox season alive. Wise battled taking the count full, and taking ball four high and away. Two pitches later, Wise stole 2B on a 0-1 slider away from Jermaine Dye. This in effect knocked out Garcia who immediately grabbed his right shoulder leaving the game. Wise took third on an Armando Galarraga wild pitch to Dye pushing the count full. To the glee of the ever objective Harrelson, Wise scored on a ball four wild pitch to Dye tieing the game at two, and starting the rally punctuated by an Alexei Ramirez grand slam, and keeping the Sox alive for today‘s tiebreaker game.Wise has been a welcomed addition with the Sox’s struggles to find a consistent outfield.

On May 2, Wise signed a Minor League contract, and wasn’t called up until May 23. He played in 5 games going 0-6 with only one start on May 28. He was designated for assignment the next day, and cleared waivers before being out righted to AAA. Wise was recalled June 17, when Paul Konerko went down. He immediately started platooning with CF Brian Anderson, until Konerko returned July 8, moving Nick Swisher back to the outfield. Wise was relegated to bench duty, especially after the trade for Ken Griffey Jr., until Carlos Quentin hurt his wrist September 1. (Quentin was another cheap bat, but probably won’t be returning for the Postseason.)With Quentin out, Griffey’s inability to play the outfield, Nick Swisher’s inability to hit left-handed pitching, .197/.359/.386, and Brian Anderson’s inability to hit anyone, career 67 OPS+ in 268 games, Wise could be a very important piece to any Postseason success.

Tampa Bay Rays- The Rays have the great story of Carlos Pena, but I wanted to limit this to players acquired for 2008. In January, the Rays acquired utility player Willy Aybar in a trade with Atlanta for a minor league pitcher. Aybar was the opening day starter at 3B, after phenom Evan Longoria didn’t make the big league club during Spring Training. The Rays were still a year or two away, so it made sense to make Aybar the transition at 3B before Evan Longoria was ready. After only 10 games, Longoria was called up and immediately started hitting. It looked like Aybar was to be relegated to day games after night games, but then Pena got hurt in June and Longoria in August, and Aybar proved to be a super-sub. He ended the season starting 18 games at 1B, 6 games at 2B, 40 games at 3B, and 2 games at SS.

On April 22^nd, the Rays traded A Ball Pitcher Josh Butler to Milwaukee for reserve outfielder Gabe Gross. Before this trade, right field for the Rays was a hodgepodge of a five man platoon featuring names like Nathan Haynes, and Justin Ruggiano, and Barry Bonds rumors a plenty. Gross played well in 120 games in RF, and another 5 in CF, hitting .242/.333/.404.

Sometime RF, and former Rookie of the Year Erick Hinske, hit 20 home runs, the most since his rookie season, without playing 50 games at any position. He was signed to a minor league deal on February 7^th, after winning a World Series as a bench player for Boston. Hinske has played in 133 games for the Rays, starting 49 in RF, 40 in LF, 18 at DH, 11 at 1B, 8 at 3B

Chicago Cubs- Do you remember when Felix Pie was Lou Piniella’s answer in CF? I didn’t believe it either. The Cubs signed Toronto castoff Reed Johnson days before Opening Day, and Pie was sent to the minors May 14, the day before Jim Edmonds was signed. Edmonds and Johnson are combined costing just over $2 million for their services, and playing nearly all of their games in CF, have combined numbers of .283/.359/.484 with 27 home runs, 101 runs, and 99 rbis.

Crowded Outfields- All three of these teams have crowded OFs. The Angels also have 6 OFs who have started at least 40 games in the OF, and the Dodgers have Juan Pierre as their 4^th OF, who has started 98 games in center and left. The Cubs also have utility man Mark DeRosa, and the emergence of Micah Hoffpauir who could see time in RF. The Rays have the return of Rocco Baldelli and the emergence of Francisco Perez to help against left-handed pitching, and play in left if Carl Crawford is not available.

Historically speaking this a lot of platooning, but it has worked in the past. Taking a look at the 2 examples, some that have brought glory, and some that haven’t. Lenny Dykstra played in 2 World Series, 1986 with the Mets, and 1993 with the Phillies: one to a glorious success, and the other to a devastating defeat. Both of these teams had packed outfields.

 *The Blue Jays didn’t start a left-hander during the series. Incaviglia and Chamberlain started a combined 159 games in 1993.

The other example is personification of the 1985 World Series. The Royals CF was Willie Wilson, and had a righty/lefty platoon of Darryl Motley and Pat Sheridan in RF. Lonnie Smith was acquired from the Cardinals for OF John Morris in May to play LF, and Lynn Jones was the defensive replacement for Smith in LF. Also the Royals had the 39 year old Hal McRae who was a bench player during the series, because the old rules alternated the DH rule every other year.

The Cardinals started out with Lonnie Smith in LF, but he was quickly replaced by Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman. Willie McGee patrolled CF, and Andy Van Slyke was their primary RF. But in the NLCS, Coleman was run over at Busch stadium by an automated tarp sidelining him for the series. The Cardinals replaced him with the combination of Cesar Cedeno, signed as a free agent in July, Tito Landrum, and Mike Jorgenson.