SaberMets.com: Delgado

December 07, 2004

Delgado

Carlos Delgado and Richie Sexson are the two big names being thrown around the kickball field when it's time to choose a first-baseman for 2005. If I'm the Mets, I want Delgado, not Sexson. Sexson is a nice player, but I'm not really interested in him.

I've read two main baseball-related knocks against Delgado as his name has flown around. The first is his age. Delgado is 32, Sexson will be 30 in a few weeks. So Delgado is 2+ years older, which is not as big a disparity as some would have you believe.

The second knock are his home/road splits. I wouldn't pay too much attention to those, and here is an example of why. Here are two players:

                   AVG   OBP   SLG
Player A Home     .319  .450  .687
Player A Away     .256  .388  .529
Player A Overall  .280  .408  .607

Player B Home     .299  .419  .614
Player B Away     .269  .388  .508
Player B Overall  .284  .403  .561

Player A has a more pronounced home/road split, and slugs about 45 points more. Their AVG and OBP numbers are almost identical. Player A is Jim Thome, representing his last three seasons in Cleveland (2000-2002). Player B is Delgado, representing his last three seasons in Toronto (2002-2004). Thome was also 32 when he left as a free agent and signed a 6 years/$85 million deal with the Phillies. Thome has put up seasons of .266/.385/.573 and .274/.396/.581 for the Phillies. This season, playing half his games in a hitter's park, Thome posted an OPS that was 123 points higher on the road!

The Mets won't have to go anywhere near 6 years/$85 million for Delgado. I think 3 years/$33 million would do it, and I think he would make a transition similar to that of Thome, but maybe a dozen fewer homeruns, higher average, similar walks, more HBP.

Eric | December 7, 2004 - 12:10 AM EST | TrackBack: 218
Category: Mets Rumors

Comments

I couldn't agree more about Delgado. The Mets biggest need offensively this year is a power, lefthanded hitter. Delgado fits that perfectly and we have an open spot on our team for his position. Whatya know?:) One criticism I have also seen is Delgado's defense at firstbase. Personally I think he is an average fielder but I have seen people say he is at best that if not worse. That would be coming more from the people who want a defensive specialist at firstbase like Mientkiewicz though.

Posted by: Hojo4Life - December 7, 2004 at 09:50 AM EST

UZR has Delgado at -2 for 162 games compared to -3 for Sexson, which are average. Neither will hurt you with the glove, but neither will kill you either. Mientkiewicz is a +17 and Tino Martinez is a +15, so they're certainly elite defensive first-basemen, but their offensive production, Minky particularly of late, pale in comparison.

Posted by: Eric Simon - December 7, 2004 at 10:34 AM EST

Delgado's UZR was +12/150 games last year, 6th best in baseball.

Posted by: OFF - December 7, 2004 at 05:37 PM EST

Thanks, OFF.

Posted by: Eric Simon - December 7, 2004 at 05:57 PM EST

Yeah the defensive stats for Delgado are interesting. Alot of people are of the opinion that Delgado is not that good defensively. Many times using that as to why they don't want him at firstbase for the Mets. But I always thought in watching him play in Toronto that he was decent at firstbase. I guess the stats say that he is and that Sexon is not better there defensively.

Posted by: Hojo4Life - December 7, 2004 at 06:33 PM EST

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