Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Hot Stove Part XXIV / Trojan Horse

Troy Glaus has been one of the more underrated run producers of the last few seasons and yet, for some reason, people still fawn all over Eric Chavez and Hank Blalock when in fact Glaus is their statistical superior. Examine the career average AVG/OBP/SLG numbers for each:

Glaus - .253/.358/.501
Chavez - .275/.350/.496
Blalock - .274/.338/.471

These numbers may seem close. In fact, some people might look at Glaus' .253 average and shun him. The more telling numbers are his clear advantages in OBP and SLG over Blalock and his edge in those categories over Chavez as well. He's a run producer who will now become the AL's second-best 3B behind Alex Rodriguez (just for comparison's sake, ARod's career average AVG/OBP/SLG stats are .307/.385/.577).

Glaus now gets to go head to head with these two aforementioned 3B as he has been shipped back to the AL where he will man the hot corner for the totally redesigned Toronto Blue Jays. In exchange, the Blue Jays gave up former closer Miguel Batista, now made redundant by BJ Ryan's presence, and infielder Orlando Hudson. For the D-Backs, they get a solid defensive infielder in Hudson and another arm for a bullpen that always seems to have an injured player. For the Blue Jays, they erase the mistake of Corey Koskie, signed last off-season, and beef up their lineup with another bonafide power hitter. Their lineup now looks something like this:

RF Alex Rios
LF Frank Catalanotto
1B Lyle Overbay
CF Vernon Wells
3B Troy Glaus
DH Shea Hillenbrand
SS Russ Adams
C Gregg Zaun
2B Aaron Hill

While not nearly as good as the Yankees or Red Sox lineups, it's drastically improved now that Eric Hinske and the aforementioned Koskie are not factored into the equation. The Jays can now trade Koskie back to Minnesota, where he belongs.

The Blue Jays 2006 payroll has jumped from $40M to $80M with the additions of Glaus, Overbay, BJ Ryan and AJ Burnett. They might have succeeded in bumping the Red Sox down one spot in the AL East.

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