Wilson Betemit hit a homerun in his first plate appearance as Yankee. You gotta like that. :) So belatedly, I'm talking about the Yankees' deadline trade here.
Last year there were rumours that the Yankees were looking to trade Scot Proctor for Wilson Betemit and my response was "do that in a heart beat!" Well, this year, Brian Cashman finally pulled that trigger and sent Scott Proctor back to the Dodgers for Betemit.
There's a piece of analysis on Betemit here.
Betemit's played the equivalent of one full defensive season at third, where he's been exactly average. That doesn't really help the Yankees much, because they have a fairly decent 3B already. However, as the area where's he's seen the most playing time it gives us more data that shows he's a bit better of a defensive player than his career numbers at 2B or SS would indicate.I really love the analysis done by the guys at Replacement Level Yankee Weblog. It's a must-read blog for me. Anyway. The reason *I* wanted a trade for Betemit is much dumber than that. In the Sony PS2 baseball games I've owned and played each year, one of the first things I do as Yankee owner is ship out the dead-wood vets for prospects. Betemit's name as a ballyhoo-ed prospect has meant that I've always traded a Tom Gordon or a Farnsworth-less at the start of the season for Betemit and reaped decent rewards for it across his fictional career. Hey, it's cheesy, but true.
Betemit was a good pickup who gives the Yankees an option who can play full-time should any one of Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, or Alex Rodriguez get hurt. He's also a better hitter than Andy Phillips, so he can be used at first base. He hasn't played there yet in his career, but as an infielder he should be able to make the transition fairly well.
According to MLB4u.com, Betemit only had about 2 years of service time entering this year, so he'd be under club control for the next three years. He turns 26 in November, so he still has some potential upside as well.
As for the dearly departed Scott Proctor, he will be missed. He hasn't been great this year, but he's been pretty good, and he was a very important piece last season. His peripherals were all markedly worse this season, as K rate dropped and his BB rate has nearly doubled. He's giving up more fly balls this year and more HRs as a result. The Yankees probably did what they almost never do here, and sold high, while Proctor's perceived value is still pretty high. They'll look to replace him with some combination of Luis Vizcaino, Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain, Edwar Ramirez and Chris Britton
At least on paper, this looks like a great trade for Brian Cashman.
That's right. I'm basing my approval of Betemit on the basis that I've done it on the PS2 numerous times and it's always been good. Laugh away! :)
*That* and other things, mind you...
Looking under the hood of Wilson Betemit, prospect, is this history here.
The guys started playing in the Braves system at Age 15! he was in High A 19, and actually got called up by the Braves that year (2001) - where he had 3 ABs, and got a .400 OBP(!)
Okay, LOL, Extreme-Small-Sample-Caveat applies there but you then see him as a 22y.o. and hitting . 170/.230./.170 in 47ABs for the Braves. Of course in 2005, he hit .305/.359/.435 in 246ABs and then .281/.344/.497 for the Braves before he was shipped out to a pitcher's park in LA. In fact the NL West has 3 pretty extreme pitchers park in San Francisco, LA, San Diego so his 174 ABs in L.A. only produced a 241/.306/.437 line.
The point is, his numbers are good.
His peripherals tell an even more interesting story. His BB/K ratio is 0.66 this year, a huge improvement on the 0.35 last year and his career of 0.43. his Isolated power is .259 this year, and while the .231 Average looks bad, his BABIP was .268. If his BABIP regresses to the league mean of around .300, we're looking at a guy who would be a .270/.400/..530 sort of hitter. At age 25.
In fact, the projections by Marcel, Bill James, ZiPS and CHONE all have his BABIP higher than his current .268 to account for his speed. In other words, his upside is that we'd be talking about a .290/.420/.540 kind of player. Unlikely as that is because it's one of those best-case-scenarios, you'd buy that share for the price of a Scott Proctor.
No comments:
Post a Comment