Tag: Reed Johnson

Xavier Nady and Reed Johnson

If Xavier Nady’s 2010 is 85% of Xavier Nady’s 2008, it gives the Cubs a much improved backup at the corner outfield positions and first base. It pushes Micah Hoffpauir off the team, but Micah had really pushed himself off the team with his 2009 struggles.

The concerns are

  • everyone’s been very careful to say Nady MAY be ready to start the season, and may not be.
  • the 2008 season might have been fluke
     OBP SLG
2005 321 439 (Padres)
2006 337 453 (Mets/Pirates - of course the SLG is going up)
2007 330 476 (Pirates)
2008 357 510 (Pirates/Yankees)

The 25 point jump in OBP would be great if he could sustain it, but a good portion of that seems to be BABIP increases that aren’t likely to be kept. And the big leap in power is a bit amazing and probably not going to stay that way.

It’s a bit of a risk/reward play, but this team needs to take some risks and have them work out if they’re going to be competitive this year. If he doesn’t come all the way back, he’s either an average backup outfielder or someone who can easily be pushed aside for a Colvin or Hoffpauir or someone else. If Nady can hit like 2008, the Cubs have a great option for when the starting outfielders inevitably go cold.

Signing Nady officially ended Reed Johnson’s time with the Cubs. It’s no surprise, and seemed to be headed that way at the end of the season. His teammates all love him, but he’s 33 and breaking down physically. Aside the foot injury that kept him out most of has last season, he’s got back issues and all sorts of other minor issues from a career of running out every ball and getting hit by many pitches. Reed can still hit lefties if he’s healthy, but the Cubs were hampered by too many people being question marks each day (Milton being gone helps here) and they have a lot of younger/cheaper options.

Reed will probably be okay for the Dodgers; he’ll be able to handle the pinch hitting/defensive replacement/occasional starter role. He probably just isn’t a good bet for the 300 PA spot that Nady’s filling for the Cubs.

Still wish the Cubs would get an actual backup option for 3rd (or a better option for 2B, but that seems unlikely.) It does sound like they’re out of money and will have to get lucky on an NRI panning out, so this team is pretty much set:

RF Fukudome
SS Theriot
1B Lee
3B A Ram
CF Byrd
LF Soriano
2B Baker/Fontenot
CA Soto

CA Hill
OF/1B Nady
2B Fontenot/Baker
SS Blanco
OF Fuld

SP Z
SP Lilly (DL)
SP Dempster
SP Wells
SP Gorz

RP Marmol
RP Guzman
RP Grabow
RP Marshall
RP Silva
RP Stevens
RP Caridad

with Castro and a whole host of pitchers looming as possibilities to steal a spot.

heading east

One last time? 01 SS The Riot 02 LF Soriano 03 1B D Lee 04 3B A Ram 05 RF Fukudome 06 2B DeRosa 07 CA Soto 08 CF Pie 09 SP Z! 10 SP Lilly 11 SP Hill 12 SP Dempster 13 SP Marquis 14 CA Blanco 15 PH Ward 16 IF Cedeno 17 … Continue reading “heading east”

One last time?

01 SS The Riot
02 LF Soriano
03 1B D Lee
04 3B A Ram
05 RF Fukudome
06 2B DeRosa
07 CA Soto
08 CF Pie

09 SP Z!
10 SP Lilly
11 SP Hill
12 SP Dempster
13 SP Marquis

14 CA Blanco
15 PH Ward
16 IF Cedeno
17 2B Fontenot
18 OF Reed Johnson

19 CL Wood
20 RP Marmol
21 RP Howry
22 RP Marshall (unless he blows it)
23 RP Lieber
24 RP Wuertz
25 RP Hart?

DL
22 RP Eyre
— RP Guzman

TBD
— OF Murton

Some thoughts here:

– I really like the Reed Johnson signing. He’s not the best of CFs, but I don’t think he’ll hurt the Cubs if he plays seven innings and Pie gets subbed in as late defensive replacement. Johnson hits the lefties great

2007 – 85PA 325/381/531 (all star numbers)
career – 701 AB 308/371/462 (solid numbers)

Moving Theriot out of the leadoff spot against lefties, if they put Johnson there instead as discussed, is really going to help the offense. These kind of situations are made for platoons, and Lou seems pretty comfortable using one.

On the days he doesn’t play, he’s the righty equivalent of Ward, waiting for the situational lefty to get in the game versus our weaker guys. And if he doesn’t pan out, the Cubs can cut him loose for a small price and bring up Sam Fuld in a couple months, and Sam is getting everyday ABs in the meantime.

The problem here is also liked the Craig Monroe trade for the same reasons, and uh, not so good. Johnson was available because of a roster crunch, but also because he spent a lot of last year hurt. Hopefully he’ll be a bit more fortunate in Chicago.

– The Cubs really should’ve never had Matt Murton to begin with. He shouldn’t have left the Red Sox, or he should’ve gone to the Twins or the Expos, that deal got a bit confused when they tried to beat the deadline. I think it’s best to look at Murton’s career as a Cub that way, “something for nothing”, instead of the possibly far more realistic “something instead of something lot more if they just gave him consistent time.” Regardless of Reed Johnson being signed, Murton was done as a Cub a long time ago. At least when Kosuke signed, but probably as far back as Soriano’s signing.

You can’t go back and fix the mistake of not trading Murton a season or two ago now, you’ve got to deal with the situation that now exists. The Cubs are fortunate there’s a good market to move middling corner outfielders; there’s plenty of teams both inside their division and elsewhere, though “solid to plus defender” doesn’t resemble the lost guy I’ve seen out there the last two years. If the Cubs can flip Murton for a non-40-man-roster guy with some promise and no track record, that’d be a fair trade and about what they should’ve ended up in the first place.

The Cubs sound like they’re moving on this, because they like Matt and they want to make it right for him, and I hope they can get this concluded quickly. He should not have to set foot in Des Moines again.

– the Trib’s subheadline on the roster moves “Fontenot’s versatility key to keeping him on roster” was intriguing to me, because the big problem with him has been his lack of utility fielding for what is a utility bench spot. What new things has Mike Fontenot learned that makes him more versatile?

Cedeno will be the back-up shortstop, but Fontenot proved he can play there in a pinch.

That’s versatility? Fontenot learning to play third would be nice, because it’d give a backup to Ram without moving people all around the infield. Though, the Cubs had a guy who was actually versatile, could play 3B, and SS, and 2B, but they just cut Alex Cintron to give Fonentot the spot.

Neither Cintron or Fontenot is going to add all that much at the plate; when they’re at their best, they’re empty batting averages lacking power or enough walks to make it meaningful. Fontenot is a little younger and probably a little cheaper, but not enough of either to make a difference.

I wonder what the real story about this roster decision. Did Cintron’s freak (batted ball to the face) and non-freak (hamstring) injuries concern the Cubs? Did they feel required to keep the Cajun Combo together? Did they want to keep around someone who they could option to AAA easily? The story they’re giving is Cintron was only here as a backup shortstop if Cedeno got traded to the O’s, but it still doesn’t explain why he was limited to that role.

– It would’ve been nice for Eyre to tell people he was hurt more than five seconds before the season started. Marshall was never going to make the rotation, he could’ve been pitching as a one-out guy for weeks. Baseball players, what are you going to do.

I think Pig would’ve be a better fit, but Marshall has earned a shot to take it. Everyone will play before they’re done.