As you may have heard, the Florida Marlins are conducting a yard sale. Strewn about the long folding tables on the front yard of team owner Jeffrey Loria are players such as Josh Beckett (a "sold" tag on his toe), Mike Lowell (similar tag, but no transferable warranty included), Carlos Delgado (purchased by the Marlins just last year; I guess they failed to keep the receipt), Juan Pierre (a wind-up doll, watch him run!), and several others.
Two teams in particular have been playing the part of the obscure trinket collector who patrols the suburbs early every Saturday morning looking to round out the contents of her display case -- the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox, each circling the block, each looking for a pitcher.
In the end, it appears to be the Red Sox who managed to acquire Beckett. And so, the Texas Rangers, now desperate for pitching may have to look elsewhere, willing to part with third baseman Hank Blalock to do so. Buried in an ESPN article on the likely Red Sox/Marlins trade is a report that the Twins, Devil Rays, and Phillies are interested in Blalock.
If the Phillies were to acquire Blalock, he would represent quite an upgrade over David Bell at third base. Blalock, who turned 25 this week, has had quite a start to his career. In his first full season as a starter, 2003, Blalock hit .300 with 29 HR and 90 RBI, with an OPS+ of 118*. He followed up that campaign with 32 HR and 110 RBI, while batting .276 with an OPS+ of 111.
Last year however represented a decline in production: 25 HR, 92 RBI, with a below average batting average (.263) and OPS+ of 94. Most troubling was Blalock's home/away splits:
AB HR RBI OPS
Home 313 20 63 .895
Away 334 5 29 .611
But make no mistake, despite having a down year, Blalock would certainly improve the Phillies lineup. In 2005, he contributed 14 win shares to his team, while Bell chipped in just 9. Should Blalock return to his 2003-04 form, the position would go from a weakness for the Phillies to a strength. In addition, Blalock is relatively cheap, slated to make "only" $3 million in 2006.
Obviously many a detail would have to be worked out, the largest of which is who the Phillies would send to the Lone Star State. One may assume that the Rangers are hard pressed enough for pitching that they would be interested in just about any starter the Phillies possess. A smaller detail to work out is that Blalock is a left-handed batter. If he were acquired, the Phillies lineup would become incredibly left-handed biased, too much so.
But to me, if the Rangers want Cole Hamels, or Gavin Floyd, or nearly anyone except for Jon Lieber or Brett Myers, I'd jump on the deal. Pronto, Kemo Sabe.
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* OPS+ is a statistic that normalizes OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage -- a combination highly correlated with run production) so that 100 is equal to the league average and is adjusted for park effects. Think of it as "batting I.Q."
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