What would one be getting if they signed Marco Scutaro?
Written by Joe Veno on August 20, 2009 – 11:29 PM -As you may have heard, Marco Scutaro is going to be a free agent after the season. And he will be sought after by multiple teams looking to shore up the shortstop position. But if a team decides to ink Scutaro to a multi-year deal, what exactly will they be getting?
If you follow baseball astutely, then you probably understand that this would be a career year for the Blue Jays shortstop. A guy that has never posted an OPS+ greater than 96, all of a sudden posts one that is 118. A hitter that was basically league-average in the category of getting on base, all of a sudden reaches base well over 38 percent of the time. And a player, Scutaro, that has never Slugged over .400, now sits with a .442 Slugging percentage.
That would be defined as a career year, my friends.
And all this comes at age 33. Meaning it is not likely to repeat itself, not to this degree anyway.
But hey, I am not getting on Scutaro. Good for him. I am glad to see someone experiencing success late in their career. I just wonder whether or not it will be sustained, even for another year.
See, players at the age of 33 don’t generally learn the game, and take their game to another level. They don’t typically become 5 ‘WAR’ players, when they have never topped anything over 2.7. So forgive me, I may end up being wrong. But I just don’t think Scutaro will ever come close to repeating this performance.
Here are hiw ‘WAR’ totals since 2002:
-0.1, 0.3, -0.3, 1.6, 1.0, 0.2, 2.7, 4.7
There is an outlier there. And of course it is 2009. Marco can probably be that player of 2008, the one with the 2.7 ‘WAR.’ But to ask him to be a star, as he has been this year, is simply asking too much.
One aspect of his ‘WAR’ that is much improved–along with his bat. Is his defense. He has been mediocre with the glove, according to UZR, his entire career while manning short. But this season in 115 games, his UZR sits at a pretty 7.6. Is it actually better? Or is it a flaw in the metric? I really don’t know the answer to that, for I am not a scout, and I do not watch the Blue Jays enough to evaluate an individual defender.
If a team, say the Red Sox, is interested in Scutaro this off-season, then be aware. Be aware of what he might revert to. It wouldn’t be a bad signing by any means, but the price and length have to be looked at long and hard.
Tags: Boston Red Sox, Marco Scutaro, Toronto Blue JaysPosted in Boston Red Sox, Player Analysis, Toronto Blue Jays | 1 Comment »
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Given Theo’s struggles at the shortstop position, this one makes me cringe. Scutaro will seem attractive, but I think you are right. I have him on my fantasy team this year… but I won’t be drafting him next year…