Thoughts on Placido Polanco going into season.

Note: I wrote this before Polanco started the season en fuego, currently 5 for 8 with a grand slam, double, 6 RBI, 4 runs scored, and a gritty hit-by-pitch.

That said, he just grounded into an inning-ending double play.

3/4/10

Chris Wheeler calls Placido Polanco “Polly.” No sir, I don’t like it. I prefer to call him “The Garish Grimace,” because of his penchant for bearing his exceptionally pearly ivories all 9 innings.

I’m not sure that I like Polly for the team much, either. My preference would have been Adrian Beltre, who signed a one-year $9 million deal with the Red Sox, with a mutual option of $5 million for a second year. Polly’s deal is $18 million for three years. It’s possible that Beltre wouldn’t have taken the same deal as Polly, but I would have offered it. As long as Beltre is recovered from his torn testicle, he provides better defense and more power than Polanco. He is also ostensibly 31 years old to Polanco’s 34.

Beltre would have been a clear upgrade from former Phillies 3B Pedro Feliz in terms of youth, batting average (lifetime .270 against lifetime .254), power (averages 5 more HR a year, and Beltre played in power-sapping Safeco Field for the past 5 years while Feliz played 2 years in Philadelphia’s launching pad), and speed(averages 8 more SB per year). Beltre fields his position just as superbly as Feliz. Beltre would also have slid nicely in the seventh position of the batting order behind lefty Ibanez, providing him with protection.

My only real worries with Beltre are his recovery from his nad-smacking and whether he is a positive influence in the locker room. He is a Scott Boras client, and anybody who signs with Boras is contractually obligated to wear blood diamonds, drink unfair trade coffee, and eat whale meat.

In going for Polanco over Beltre, the Phillies are getting a declining player with a batting average that has dropped from an excellent .341 in 2007 to a no-frills .285 in 2009. His strikeout total has increased for four straight years. While he won a gold glove at second base last year, Polanco hasn’t played a ton of third base, so it remains to be seen what kind of defense he can provide.

Now, I do believe Polanco can be an upgrade from Feliz, but I’m not sure he is as significant an improvement as Beltre would be. Even for a hitter in decline, Polanco’s batting average is astronomically better than that of Feliz. But little else about Polanco sticks out to me as a huge step up. Polanco is a little better on the basepaths than Feliz. He strikes out less*, but grounds into roughly the same amount of double plays.

I don’t hate the Polanco signing; I’m just not a big fan of it. I think there were other options at third base, I don’t know if batting Polanco 2^nd works better than having Victorino there, and most importantly, I wish we would have asked Feliz to take less money (he said he would have) and used the extra bank to KEEP CLIFF LEE for an extra year so we could go into 2010 with a ridiculous rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Blanton, and Happ.

Bringing Feliz back for less wouldn’t make up the entire cost of keeping Lee, but would it have made the number more palatable for the Phillies? What would 2010 look like if we keep Lee instead of losing Feliz and gaining Polanco? Polanco should make the lineup more productive in 2010, but he may also cost the Phillies some games if he misses balls that Feliz would have gobbled up. Keeping Lee in the rotation, on the other hand, makes the rotation three aces deep for a team that scored tons of runs last year even with the ho-hum bat of Feliz. The Phillies win the NL East either way, but I think they’d be a better team with Lee and without Polanco.

Mark DeRosa, Mike Lowell, and Dan Uggla were the other options the Phillies could have pursued for 3^rd base in 2010. DeRosa was a free agent who wound up getting 2 years and $12 million from the Giants. Lowell and Uggla would have required a trade.

University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School graduate (!) Mark DeRosa has more pop than Polly, but he’s older (35), coming off wrist surgery, and is a career utilityman- so it’s hard to say how he’s going to do at the dish or in the field. He’s got a cool nickname stemming from his (now corrected) irregular heartbeat: “The Pulse.” He would have been a risky signing, but he would’ve been a threat coming out of the 7 hole in this lineup. Like I said, Polanco’s recent stats are similar to Shane Victorino’s, so I feel like having Shane bat 2^nd and having a power threat like DeRosa bat 7^th would be an overall improvement for this lineup. I’d rather have a homerun guy batting 7^th; Shane’s talents for getting on base and stealing aren’t going to help him when he has Carlos Ruiz and the pitcher unable to drive him home. A power bat in the 7^th position is more likely to drive home those in front of him, and it doesn’t matter if he’s quick on the basepaths if he’s going to be stranded.

Mike Lowell is kind of banged up; the Rangers pulled back on trading for him because he had some bum thumb. But when that guy is healthy he can pick it and rip it. If he could’ve been had on the cheap and the “keep Lee” scenario was in effect, I might take him.

Uggla was an intriguing possibility. His batting average is ca-ca, but he smashes homeruns. He’d provide more juice than DeRosa batting 7^th, and he was the youngest of all the Phillies 3^rd base options. The only problem with him is that he hasn’t played much 3^rd base. If I knew that he could field the position, he’d be my number one choice. Can you imagine a Phillies lineup in which five players had a legitimate chance of hitting 30 or more homeruns? I’m a fan of the dingers.

At any rate, it’s Polanco now. And he’s making me look like an idiot 2 games in. Keep it coming.

*I don’t see why not striking out is considered such a big deal in and of itself. If you’re not striking out, but your other batting stats don’t impress, doesn’t that mean you’re making just as many outs as a whiffer who’s other batting stats are similar? I’d rather have somebody who strikes out and avoids a double play. If I’m seeing this wrong, please show me the light.