Final Bench Job Hoffpauir's to Lose

[Little Slide Rooter]

i'd wager a guess Rivas would just get called up if an IF got hurt.

 

Or we could get Nomar for probably less than what we paid for Neifi Soap Dropping Perez 3 years ago.

[E.J.]

Don't think this deserves it's own thread, but the Indians designated Andy Marte for assignment today. He was in the top 100 prospects as late as 2006. Might be worth a look for a backup to Aram.

 

http://castrovince.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/02/tribe_trades_for_salas_designa.html

Well, you knew the Andy Marte Era would come to an end sooner or later here in camp, and it didn't take long.

 

The Indians traded for RHP Juan Salas today, sending Minor League INF Isaias Velasquez to the Rays.

 

Salas, 30, was designated for assignment by the Rays on Friday. He spent most of last season with Triple-A Durham, going 4-5 with a 2.62 ERA and one save in 28 appearances. He also made five appearances for the Rays, giving up five runs over 6 1/3 innings over two stints.

 

Salas has spent his entire career with the Rays. He's made a total of 47 appearances over the last three years, going 1-1 with a 4.44 ERA in 52 2/3 innings.

 

To make room for Salas, the Indians designated Marte -- their former "third baseman of the future." Marte never got his bat going in the big leagues. The Tribe will have 10 days to trade him, release him or outright him. Perhaps this will be Marte's opportunity to get another chance elsewhere. We shall see.

[CubColtPacer]

I'm not a fan of Marte in this situation. He is a likely total bust, but even if he isn't he'll need at-bats to figure it out in the majors. The Cubs won't be able to give that to him, so the team would just end up having a backup 3rd baseman with a likely terrible bat and average defense.

 

If the Cubs were a bad team who already had a hole at third? I'd potentially try Marte then and let him hopefully develop. But I don't see the value in him as a bench player.

[Backtobanks]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

[E.J.]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

There were spring training photos a few days back of him taking grounders at 3b.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

[sporrer17]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but it would be nice to have Casey McGehee as a RH bat off the bench and backup 3b/C/1b option.

 

Is Matt Craig still around for backup 3b?

 

Fox as the backup corner guy/RH power hitter off the bench isn't horrible. Hard to use rookies in that role, but we could do worse.

[SouthSideRyan]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but it would be nice to have Casey McGehee as a RH bat off the bench and backup 3b/C/1b option.

 

Is Matt Craig still around for backup 3b?

 

Fox as the backup corner guy/RH power hitter off the bench isn't horrible. Hard to use rookies in that role, but we could do worse.

 

Matt Craig signed elsewhere because we woulda sent him to Peoria this year to get some work in at bullpen catcher.

 

Lou Piniella still hates Fox from 2007.

 

Casey McGehee was the worst Cub in the last 50 years.

[sporrer17]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but it would be nice to have Casey McGehee as a RH bat off the bench and backup 3b/C/1b option.

 

Is Matt Craig still around for backup 3b?

 

Fox as the backup corner guy/RH power hitter off the bench isn't horrible. Hard to use rookies in that role, but we could do worse.

 

Matt Craig signed elsewhere because we woulda sent him to Peoria this year to get some work in at bullpen catcher.

 

Lou Piniella still hates Fox from 2007.

 

Casey McGehee was the worst Cub in the last 50 years.

 

First two just made me laugh...but why is McGehee so bad?

[NCCubFan]

Casey McGehee was the worst Cub in the last 50 years.

Todd Hundley begs to differ.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

McGehee went 4 for 24 with a double and 8 K's last year. He has no minor league success to fall back on, nor is age on his side.

[CubsWin]

What about Damion Easley? He's not the ideal back-up by any means, but there aren't a lot of options left. He hasn't played a lot of 3B in the last two years but logged 122 innings there in '06. The same goes for SS where he didn't play much the last two seasons in NY but did play over 200 innings there two years ago. He has good splits against lefties over the last three years and we all know how Lou likes the veterans. I'm not really making his case, just hadn't heard his named mentioned. Its either him, Nomar or whoever becomes expendable during spring training.

[Brett]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

At present, I imagine he can back up catcher about as well as he can back up third.

[Backtobanks]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

 

I didn't mean Fox as the 2nd C, I meant only as an emergency catcher.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

 

I didn't mean Fox as the 2nd C, I meant only as an emergency catcher.

 

If by emergency, you mean we don't plan on winning and want to watch a lot of dropped pitches. ok.

[jersey cubs fan]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

 

I didn't mean Fox as the 2nd C, I meant only as an emergency catcher.

 

If by emergency, you mean we don't plan on winning and want to watch a lot of dropped pitches. ok.

 

That's pretty much what an emergency catcher does.

[TruffleShuffle]

Has Jake Fox ever tried 3B? He could be pretty valuable as a utilty player if he could play corner OF/C/3B/ and probably 1B.

 

Jake Fox can't play C.

 

I didn't mean Fox as the 2nd C, I meant only as an emergency catcher.

 

If by emergency, you mean we don't plan on winning and want to watch a lot of dropped pitches. ok.

 

That's pretty much what an emergency catcher does.

 

yeah if your emergency catcher has done as much catching as jake fox has, consider yourself lucky. usually the emergency catcher is a scrubby middle infielder who did a little catching back in high school.

[SouthSideRyan]

The point(at least my point) is you don't worry about an emergency catcher when deciding who your final roster spot goes to.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

The point(at least my point) is you don't worry about an emergency catcher when deciding who your final roster spot goes to.

 

 

Thank-you.

 

I like Jake Fox, but he doesn't provide any value as a catcher on the roster. If he's on the roster, he's going to be a 1b/3b/lf. He doesn't offer much value as a rf either.

 

For that, I think we could do better and should do better.

[TruffleShuffle]

i've come around on hoffpauir. he's not the second coming of lou gehrig but his numbers last year were overwhelmingly-good at iowa, and he also raked at tennessee the previous year. more importantly, he doesn't strike out all that much - jason dubois (AAAA slugger) has struck out around once a game in his minor league career, or in almost 27% of his minor league at bats. hoffpauir struck out 0.63 times per game or about 17% of his ABs. his last two years at iowa the k-rate is only 13.3%. it seems like something has clicked, at least the past three years he seems to be a lot better at driving the ball than he was early in his cub career.

[nilodnayr]

i've come around on hoffpauir. he's not the second coming of lou gehrig but his numbers last year were overwhelmingly-good at iowa, and he also raked at tennessee the previous year. more importantly, he doesn't strike out all that much - jason dubois (AAAA slugger) has struck out around once a game in his minor league career, or in almost 27% of his minor league at bats. hoffpauir struck out 0.63 times per game or about 17% of his ABs. his last two years at iowa the k-rate is only 13.3%. it seems like something has clicked, at least the past three years he seems to be a lot better at driving the ball than he was early in his cub career.

 

Hes a starting 1b on a non-playoff team and a very good #1 PH off the bench/back up 1b on a playoff team

[TruffleShuffle]

i've come around on hoffpauir. he's not the second coming of lou gehrig but his numbers last year were overwhelmingly-good at iowa, and he also raked at tennessee the previous year. more importantly, he doesn't strike out all that much - jason dubois (AAAA slugger) has struck out around once a game in his minor league career, or in almost 27% of his minor league at bats. hoffpauir struck out 0.63 times per game or about 17% of his ABs. his last two years at iowa the k-rate is only 13.3%. it seems like something has clicked, at least the past three years he seems to be a lot better at driving the ball than he was early in his cub career.

 

Hes a starting 1b on a non-playoff team and a very good #1 PH off the bench/back up 1b on a playoff team

 

agreed, that's how i view him. actually he probably doesn't project to be much worse than lee over the next three years so if we could find someone dumb enough to take lee off our hands at full price, i'd be all for it.

[Backtobanks]

The point(at least my point) is you don't worry about an emergency catcher when deciding who your final roster spot goes to.

 

I didn't mean that he ought to be given a roster spot because he's your emergency catcher. My point was that if he could deliver some right-handed power off the bench and back up 1B/3B/LF he might be worth thinking about. His experience as a catcher would be a plus, but only in an emergency. I think Murton was the emergency catcher a few years ago, so he would have to be better than that.

[Brett]

i've come around on hoffpauir. he's not the second coming of lou gehrig but his numbers last year were overwhelmingly-good at iowa, and he also raked at tennessee the previous year. more importantly, he doesn't strike out all that much - jason dubois (AAAA slugger) has struck out around once a game in his minor league career, or in almost 27% of his minor league at bats. hoffpauir struck out 0.63 times per game or about 17% of his ABs. his last two years at iowa the k-rate is only 13.3%. it seems like something has clicked, at least the past three years he seems to be a lot better at driving the ball than he was early in his cub career.

 

Hes a starting 1b on a non-playoff team and a very good #1 PH off the bench/back up 1b on a playoff team

 

agreed, that's how i view him. actually he probably doesn't project to be much worse than lee over the next three years so if we could find someone dumb enough to take lee off our hands at full price, i'd be all for it.

That's exactly it. And I hate thinking it, because I've been duped by the Dave Keltons of the Cubs past, but I really can't see Hoffpauir being THAT much worse than Lee over the next few years.

[nilodnayr]

i've come around on hoffpauir. he's not the second coming of lou gehrig but his numbers last year were overwhelmingly-good at iowa, and he also raked at tennessee the previous year. more importantly, he doesn't strike out all that much - jason dubois (AAAA slugger) has struck out around once a game in his minor league career, or in almost 27% of his minor league at bats. hoffpauir struck out 0.63 times per game or about 17% of his ABs. his last two years at iowa the k-rate is only 13.3%. it seems like something has clicked, at least the past three years he seems to be a lot better at driving the ball than he was early in his cub career.

 

Hes a starting 1b on a non-playoff team and a very good #1 PH off the bench/back up 1b on a playoff team

 

agreed, that's how i view him. actually he probably doesn't project to be much worse than lee over the next three years so if we could find someone dumb enough to take lee off our hands at full price, i'd be all for it.

That's exactly it. And I hate thinking it, because I've been duped by the Dave Keltons of the Cubs past, but I really can't see Hoffpauir being THAT much worse than Lee over the next few years.

 

 

Agreed, and Hoff is a fantastic defender as well.