Sam Fuld

[JockJones]

Went 4/4 today to up his avg. to .396. What in the world is this guy doing?

[NonProfitCow]

The same thing he did for 50 PA in 2009.

[Little Slide Rooter]

move over Lou Brock.

[BeerHere]

I watched a portion of that game yesterday, he also made a stellar catch in CF.

[UMFan83]

Both Rays fans are in love with him. Quite the fan favorite.

[Prizefight]

This replaced the planned Manny Ramirez bobblehead...

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSBETLHberIr54joTLxD0yrhz7KpcUqsbvRRFvq408aqcLn9mWM

[TruffleShuffle]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/sam-fuld-and-the-value-of-defense/

[UMFan83]

Through the minors, Fuld exhibited not only relatively neutral platoon splits (as he demonstrated to Jon Lester last night, getting a single and a steal off the transcendent left-hander), but he also showed a knack for getting on base. One can only imagine this proved particularly useless while he wasted away in the Cubs minor-league system.

[Post Count Padder]

I always liked him and thought he'd make a decent platoon/4th outfielder. Didn't expect this and I doubt he keeps it up much longer. But good for him.

[sneakypower]

i'm glad he's getting an opportunity, but it's bothersome that we end up gifting bench spots every year to corpses like Reed Johnson, when Sam Fuld, who serves about six roles on the bench much better, gets discarded to the scrap heap

[MembersOnlyJacket]

i'm glad he's getting an opportunity, but it's bothersome that we end up gifting bench spots every year to corpses like Reed Johnson, when Sam Fuld, who serves about six roles on the bench much better, gets discarded to the scrap heap

 

Reed Johnson is a veteran who's been through the wars of a season...

[bukie]

i'm glad he's getting an opportunity, but it's bothersome that we end up gifting bench spots every year to corpses like Reed Johnson, when Sam Fuld, who serves about six roles on the bench much better, gets discarded to the scrap heap

If discarded to the scrap heap means being involved in a trade for Matt Garza, then I'm really OK with it.

[sneakypower]

you know what i mean. his inclusion obviously had no bearing on that deal going through, whatsoever

 

i'm willing to bet it was something along the lines of "hey, you gonna use that Sam Fuld?" "eh, probably not, here you go..."

[Guest]

When you have 2 LH starting caliber OFs that are capable of playing CF, there's not much room for Sam Fuld.

[bukie]

The way I saw it, Fuld was well behind Colvin and Jackson for major league duty, and the Cubs actually used what value he had to contribute to the Garza deal. Obviously, Tampa wanted him for some reason.

[sneakypower]

i guess Fuld, or Reed Johnson rather, is just a red herring in this discussion, when my greater point is that i absolutely abhor the way Hendry treats the bench as some lost cause, clubhouse presence placeholder spot on the roster

 

miles, neifi, koyie hill, enrique wilson, two stints of tony womack, jose macias, bako, o'leary, goodwin, ramon martinez, rey ordonez, monroe, or a dozen other retreads to whom he's inexplicably loyal. i'll concede Ward and Edmonds were perhaps the two exceptions, but the point well remains

 

it's putting it lightly to say he's obviously not much of a dreamer

[Guest]

Don't forget Walker, Pagan, Fontenot, Colvin, Baker, and DeWitt.

[sneakypower]

good point, those guys bring his grade up to, like a D+

[Guest]

I think you're being a bit hard on him. Getting a bench full of quality players is not easy, but it seems Hendry's made great strides in that area. How many of those guys on the negative list are 2006 or before, and how many are since? Same with the positive bench assets.

[CubColtPacer]

good point, those guys bring his grade up to, like a D+

 

Compared to what? How many teams really have what's considered a good bench?

 

Here are the NL playoff teams last year "benches" (I'm including everybody who got over 100 PA who was not listed in the starting lineup on Baseball reference since it's so hard to sort out a bench over the course of a year). The two exceptions was Andres Torres who was not listed in the starting lineup even though he had 570 PA so I substituted him for Shierholtz who only had 252 PA. I also threw out Jerry Hairston since he started so much for the Padres (and he was terrible anyway).

 

Phillies: 363 PA .667 OPS, 197 PA .768 OPS, 176 PA .583 OPS, 147 PA .729 OPS, 138 PA .813 OPS, 136 PA .475 OPS, average age 32.67

Giants: 267 PA .707 OPS, 252 PA .676 OPS, 221 PA .644 OPS, 173 PA .712 OPS, 140 PA .696 OPS, 139 PA .692 OPS, 104 PA .537 OPS, average age 31.28

Reds: 243 PA .834 OPS, 228 PA .723 OPS, 226 PA .763 OPS, 226 PA .757 OPS, 182 PA .805 OPS, average age 29.2

Padres: 317 PA .769 OPS, 307 PA .726 OPS, 241 PA .557 OPS, 239 PA .631 OPS, 148 PA .653 OPS, 147 PA .748 OPS, 120 PA .607 OPS, 111 PA .781 OPS average age 28.75

 

Just for reference, here are the Cubs of last year:

 

Cubs: 394 PA .816 OPS, 347 PA .660 OPS, 231 PA .552 OPS, 224 PA .739 OPS, 204 PA .689 OPS, 185 PA .734 OPS average age 28.17

 

So there's really only one good bench out of the 5.

 

I'm not a fan of the Cubs bench from 2003-2006. But the last 5 years the Cubs have had a bench that has ranged from average to great. The standards for benches are much higher in perception than these benches actually are in reality.

[Exile on Waveland]

I don't find it coincidental that something else changed after 2006.

[mike2482]

i guess Fuld, or Reed Johnson rather, is just a red herring in this discussion, when my greater point is that i absolutely abhor the way Hendry treats the bench as some lost cause, clubhouse presence placeholder spot on the roster

 

miles, neifi, koyie hill, enrique wilson, two stints of tony womack, jose macias, bako, o'leary, goodwin, ramon martinez, rey ordonez, monroe, or a dozen other retreads to whom he's inexplicably loyal. i'll concede Ward and Edmonds were perhaps the two exceptions, but the point well remains

 

it's putting it lightly to say he's obviously not much of a dreamer

 

Don't forget John Mabry.

[tfarks]

Clear winner for Hendry with this guy:

 

http://rowlandsoffice.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/randall-simon.jpg

[Little Slide Rooter]

I always liked Fuld, and have no problem with whatever he becomes or doesn't become and have no regrets about using him as a throw in. The fact is, when it comes to big market teams like The Cubs, these types of players will always be 4th-5th outfielders or spare parts in AAA. More power to you Sammy. Go hit that ceiling and become a better defensive Scott Podsednik.

[d_money]

I don't like the fact that Quade openly admits the Cubs have no speed threats on the team when we had a guy here who could disrupt the basepaths and we trade him. I'm glad he's doing well.