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| Casey Kotchman |
Kotchman, 28, played with the Tampa Bay Rays last season and finished 8th in the American League in hitting (.306) and 10th in on-base percentage (.378). He also had 24 doubles, 10 home runs, 48 RBI, and a .800 OPS in his 146 games played. His batting average, on-base percentage, and games played were all career highs. In his 8-year career he is a .268 hitter with 59 HR, 332 RBI and .733 OPS, and where he really helps is his ability to limit strikeouts as he has just 289 strikeouts in 2588 career at bats. He is a former Baseball America MLB Top 25 Prospect for four straight years from 2002-2005 when he was in the Angels system.
Kotchman is a plus defender and should help improve the Indians' infield defense on the right side. Last year he finished the season with a .998 fielding percentage (2 errors in 1201 total chances), leading all Major League first basemen in that category for a fourth consecutive campaign (2008-11). His career .998 fielding percentage (11 errors in 6076 total chances) is the highest in Major League history for those with at least 700 career games at the position.
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6 comments:
Tony, I know that Kotchman was signed, at least partially, because of the defensive upgrade that he provides at first base. However, a friend of mine showed me Matt LaPorta's defensive stats from Fangraphs, which seem to imply that LaPorta played some solid defense during the 2011 campaign. I know that Kotchman's OBP is a major upgrade, but how much of a defensive upgrade is he over LaPorta?
I don't know what your friend saw on Fangraphs, but they may have misread something. According to Fangraph's, LaPorta had a -5.9 UZR and -8.6 UZR/150. In comparison, Kotchman had a 1.6 UZR and 2.2 UZR/150. UZR is the top public fielding stat front offices use. Kotchman is a significant defensive upgrade over LaPorta on stats alone, but also in scouting as he just has a more natural feel for the position, is much smarter, and is just a much, much better fielder.
Good call on the salary they'd pay for Kotchman Tony. And a good signing at $3 million. His numbers from last year look like an aberration, and I doubt he'll come close to matching them, but he should be an upgrade over something like having Marson as the everyday catcher with Santana at 1b
I disagree that he won't be able to match his numbers. I live down in Tampa and followed him last year. Of note when he came back here (he's from the area) was the fact that he had to have a correction on his eyes. He got a bacterial infection in his tear duct in the past that damaged his vision, so everything was blurry and he played that way. He also had serious problems with depth perception.
He may not hit .306, but I think he's a solid .285+ hitter with an OBP that runs about 70 points higher than the BA. He's not going to hit much more than 10 HRs in full time service, but he doesn't K much and I think he can improve on doubles and get to around 25.
He's an asset in the lineup and an asset with the glove. Of course, power is preferred at 1B, but the defensive upgrade coupled with a higher batting average and lower K rate mean a strong improvement at 1B over LaPorta.
"asset" at the plate is a stretch. He can/should certainly hit .270-.280, but with no power, and at a position where good defense isn't as important, he's not that valuable at that level. He needs to hit around .300 to be an average producer overall (of course average is much better than what Laporta's been), he was middle of the pack for 1b in terms of wOBA and overall WAR in '11 when he hit .306. He had a .335 BABIP last year with an 18.3% line drive rate. If his eyesight was really the difference, you'd think this would show up somewhere other than BA, higher walk rate, more line drives, more power, something, but all of his rates were right around his career averages, so it looks like he just got a little lucky with some hits falling in last year. He had 153 hits in 500 at bats last, if just 13 of those don't fall in, that's .280
Maybe asset is a stretch, but he's not a blackhole in the lineup. He should be an improvement over LaPorta. He will be an improvement with the glove.
But his 2.8 WAR is a significant improvement over LaPorta's -.8. I should have qualified my statement meaning that Kotchman is an asset in comparison to LaPorta. He should be an improvement.
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