FanPost

Really Ned, Really?

Are you Insane?

The last time Juan Uribe was guaranteed a regular job he was coming off his 2004 season in which he hit .283/.327/.503 giving him a solid 111 OPS+. He then had an OPS+ of 85, 83, 74 during the subsequent three seasons while getting over 495 plate appearances each year. A performance some would call dismal including the team he played for which turned him into a part time player and then kicked his butt out of town so hard he ended up on the West Coast playing for the Giants because no one else would give him a job.

While playing for the Giants he came up big with his best season in part time work in 2009, and even followed that with a decent 2010 season in full time work. Is this the case of the crappy AL Juan Uribe becoming a NL stud just by virtue of moving to the NL?

Uribe does two things well, hit home runs, and play defense. He does one thing really really bad, and that is get on base where his career .300 OBP makes Juan Pierre look like Ted Williams. He had those same skills in the winter of 2009 but no one was interested. One year later those skills are heard to be netting him a three year / 21 Million dollar deal.

As Eric noted in the comments Juan Uribe now has a chance to challenge Marquis Grissom for having the worse season for a Dodger to hit 20 home runs. The current leaders:

                                                                                  
Player OPS+ HR Year Age PA R 2B 3B RBI BB BA OBP SLG OPS Pos
Marquis Grissom 71 21 2001 34 468 56 17 1 60 16 .221 .250 .404 .654 *87/9D
Todd Hundley 86 24 1999 30 428 49 14 0 55 44 .207 .295 .436 .731 *2
Eric Karros 88 23 1993 25 658 74 27 2 80 34 .247 .287 .409 .696 *3
Adrian Beltre 88 23 2003 24 608 50 30 2 80 37 .240 .290 .424 .714 *5/6
Gil Hodges 97 22 1958 34 532 68 15 1 64 52 .259 .330 .434 .764 *35/972
Adrian Beltre 97 21 2002 23 635 70 26 5 75 37 .257 .303 .426 .729 *5
Eric Karros 100 31 2000 32 663 84 29 0 106 63 .250 .321 .459 .780 *3/D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/29/2010.

Oy vey

This is a fan-written post that is in no way affiliated with or related to any of the authors or editors of True Blue LA. The opinions reflected in this post do not necessarily reflect those of True Blue LA, its authors or editors.