Kevin Millar

[Rob]

Now let me start this off by saying I know he's not a great option. He's injured about 20% of the time, and his drop in power last year when steroids were being tested for is certainly disconcerting.

 

However, he's still a career .289/.365/.477 hitter... which is certainly better than Jacque Jones.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I'd probably throw 3-4 mil at him and offer him a chance to win a right field job. Even if he just throws up a 754 OPS like last year, he's still a more useful part off the bench than we're used to.

[RockTheIvy]

Now let me start this off by saying I know he's not a great option. He's injured about 20% of the time, and his drop in power last year when steroids were being tested for is certainly disconcerting.

 

However, he's still a career .289/.365/.477 hitter... which is certainly better than Jacque Jones.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I'd probably throw 3-4 mil at him and offer him a chance to win a right field job. Even if he just throws up a 754 OPS like last year, he's still a more useful part off the bench than we're used to.

 

Isn't he pretty lousy defensively? Like really lousy?

[jmajew]

Now let me start this off by saying I know he's not a great option. He's injured about 20% of the time, and his drop in power last year when steroids were being tested for is certainly disconcerting.

 

However, he's still a career .289/.365/.477 hitter... which is certainly better than Jacque Jones.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I'd probably throw 3-4 mil at him and offer him a chance to win a right field job. Even if he just throws up a 754 OPS like last year, he's still a more useful part off the bench than we're used to.

 

Isn't he pretty lousy defensively? Like really lousy?

 

Yeah, I thought that was why he was moved to 1b. I wonder if he is any worse than Aubrey Huff defensively.

[Rob]

Now let me start this off by saying I know he's not a great option. He's injured about 20% of the time, and his drop in power last year when steroids were being tested for is certainly disconcerting.

 

However, he's still a career .289/.365/.477 hitter... which is certainly better than Jacque Jones.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I'd probably throw 3-4 mil at him and offer him a chance to win a right field job. Even if he just throws up a 754 OPS like last year, he's still a more useful part off the bench than we're used to.

 

Isn't he pretty lousy defensively? Like really lousy?

 

In 193 career games in left field, he's 2 runs above average.

170 games in right field, he's 9 runs below average.

And in 425 games at first base, he's been 20 runs above average.

 

(I omitted third base because he's only ever played 28 games there and hasn't since 2002.)

[Cubzfan64]

Having watched Millar play in Boston the last 2 years here is my opinion:

 

1. He's a typical "class clown" type of guy - you tend to either hate him or love him - generally considered to be a real good clubhouse guy (when he's happy)

 

2. He's an EXTREMELY streaky hitter!!!! When he's hot, he can really drive in runs, but when he's cold he can't move runners over and more often than not can't even make contact. in 2004, he got hot in parts of the second half of the season - enough to keep him playing most of the time. In 2005 he never hit a hot streak of longer than a week or so - he ended up platooning alot with Olerud.

 

3. I don't know who to compare him to because I haven't seen alot of the other guys mentioned for RF, but I would have to say he's generally below average defensively.

 

4. He considers himself to be an everyday player - he claims that he can't get hot unless he plays regularily (like every day), even though that didn't help him last year. As much of a good clubhouse guy as he can be when he's happy, he can be a sour disgruntled guy when he isn't playing regularily.

 

To sum it up, imho I don't want to waste the $$ on him - although other options out there seem to suck, a full year of Millar as a regular in RF would suck just as much if not more.

[Rob]

1. He's a typical "class clown" type of guy - you tend to either hate him or love him - generally considered to be a real good clubhouse guy (when he's happy)

 

Considering the type of guys on this team now (in particular, Dempster), I think he'd get along with everybody extremely well.

 

2. He's an EXTREMELY streaky hitter!!!! When he's hot, he can really drive in runs, but when he's cold he can't move runners over and more often than not can't even make contact. in 2004, he got hot in parts of the second half of the season - enough to keep him playing most of the time. In 2005 he never hit a hot streak of longer than a week or so - he ended up platooning alot with Olerud.

 

Yeah, I think that's fairly well known about him. But given the way the Cubs put up with Burnitz last season, they're more than willing to accept streaky hitters. Hell, they kept Neifi going even after his one hot month.

 

3. I don't know who to compare him to because I haven't seen alot of the other guys mentioned for RF, but I would have to say he's generally below average defensively.

 

This is another one of those situations where the numbers don't show the same thing. While I'll grant that defensive numbers aren't completely accurate on a year-by-year basis, the fact is that he's not nearly as bad in the field as it looks like... kind of like a backwards Omar Vizquel.

 

4. He considers himself to be an everyday player - he claims that he can't get hot unless he plays regularily (like every day), even though that didn't help him last year. As much of a good clubhouse guy as he can be when he's happy, he can be a sour disgruntled guy when he isn't playing regularily.

 

Well, considering the fact that Boston doesn't want anything to do with him, and absolutely nobody is looking at him as a potential starting right fielder, I think he'd take the job. He might not be happy all season... but damnit, we hired Dusty for his supposed "players' manager" title.

 

To sum it up, imho I don't want to waste the $$ on him - although other options out there seem to suck, a full year of Millar as a regular in RF would suck just as much if not more.

 

I'm not really advocating handing him a buttload of cash and the starting job. IMHO he's just the sort of low-risk, high-reward player we should be targeting. Cause even if he's not doing wonderful and we sink to the cellar, some playoff bound team would be willing to take him off our hands for the rest of the season to cover for their injured starter.