The Feel Goods: Potential Zobrists and Branyans

Russell Branyan and Ben Zobrist.

Two guys no one expected to be sitting with batting averages over .300 and double digits in home runs here in June.

Why not?

Zobrist didn’t get a ton of hype while coming through the Houston and Tampa minor league affiliates.  I remember looking him up when the trade for Aubrey Huff took place. 

I was surprised to see the throw in had hit over .300 at every minor league stop and displayed line drive power and decent speed. 

Must have been his fielding but his long, lean frame looks pretty comfortable.

My guess is the steroid era affected scouts view of players not rippling with muscles and showing an ability to hit tape measure home runs.  Funny,  there was a pre-steroid time when guys got benched or traded for not handling the fundamentals Zobrist has those down.

Branyan is a different story.  He could always hit the tape measure shot but in the new age of baseball being sent down became being forgotten.  Branyan was a natural at first base.  Trapped in a Cleveland system full of first basemen he was tried at third and in the outfield then criticized for his defense. 

Take a look at the lines on Branyan when he’s been allowed to stay with one team and average four plate appearance a game.  The guy can hit. He has always hit. He’s always had a decent average. 

Ever heard that old baseball adage at the end of the year a .280 hitter is going to be a .280 hitter. No one ever let Branyan reach the end of the year.

These two got me thinking—there are probably enough players being told they aren’t starters, not getting four at-bats, not getting to the end of the year sitting on benches, and riding buses in the minors to put together an interesting if not competitive squad.

CF  Joey Gathright  (Norfolk) Baltimore Orioles

Gathright should be starting in CF for Chicago but they decided to go with RF Kosuke Fukudome in CF and DH Milton Bradley in RF.  Note to CUB management defense and pitching win championships.

Gathright has never hit below .280 when given the at bats per game and being allowed to play. Not in the minors and not in the majors.

Remember Vince Coleman and Willie Wilson?  Gathright is a great deal like them only he’s a better hitter. Now that he’s been established as a non-starter its doubtful he’ll ever get a real chance. He’s behind Adam Jones in Baltimore which makes more sense than the Cubs or Royals letting him get away did.

LF  Rajai Davis  Oakland

Davis and Colorado’s Ryan Spilborghs would be a nice Lefty-Righty combo in Left field.  Both have decent speed. Spilborghs seems more natural in LF and has a little more pop. Davis somehow picked up the Utility tag. It’s not a bad thing, but this is a guy who put up four straight season above .280 and with over 40 steals.  That’s not a bad thing either.

Either of these guys could start and not kill you.

Honorable mention: Todd Linden (Scranton Wilkes Barre) Yankees

RF  Nate Schierholz  San Franciso

A Left Handed Pull hitter putting the ball in McCovey Cove, seems like a plan. Seems like the plan they had when they built the park. So why can’t Nate Schierholtz get any at bats in San Francisco?  He’d get 30 home runs by accident.  

1B Jake Fox  (Iowa) Chicago

Jake Fox  can swat.  No doubt about that.  He could swat as a catcher, a 1B, a 3B, a RF and probably a LF.  I  smell utility tag coming the young Mr. Fox’s way.  Seeing that he’s in the Cubs organization he could end up traded for a more proven commodity. 

For now he’s behind the venerable Derek Lee at 1B, Aramis Ramirez at 3b, the incredibly mobile Geovany Soto behind the plate and Milton Bradley in Right field.

You almost get the feeling that if the Cubs developed their own players instead of falling for aging vets they could actually go deep into the playoffs.

We’ll never know.  It’s been this way since Lou Brock with the exception of the Dallas Green years.

I’d have Micah Hoffpair ahead of Derek Lee at this point, too.

2B  Willie Bloomquist  Kansas City  

Another guy labeled a utility player.  Bloomquist only had one full minor league season. He didn’t really excel in any category except stolen bases, 34. Since that time though he’s been a consistent player in limited at bats.  There was a time in baseball when second base was an offensive throw away position it was the defense that mattered. 

Today we’re still feeling the effects of the steroid era. We expect tiny little guys like Brian Roberts in Baltimore to post 20 home run years.  It isn’t going to happen.

It’s time to return to a dependable player .260-,270 who knows how to handle the bat in the number two hole, who can steal you a base, and get to enough balls to make your pitcher just a little better.  Sometimes that’s enough.

SS Angel Berroa Scranton Wilkes Barre (Yankees) 

Berroa was the AL rookie of the year in 2003.  Not bad. A little guy with a nice glove he surprised everyone with his pop at the plate. Considering the time frame, and his native home of the Dominican Republic you can wonder about supplements but he never really added the weight you’d expect going that route.

Berroa batted .287 in 2003, then .262, then .270. Then he had an off year Kansas City went another direction after .234 in 2004.

Anyone remember those pre-steroid years in baseball? Bud Harrellson in New York, Don Kessinger in Chicago, Larry Bowa in Philadelphia, Mark Belanger in Baltimore were all guys that hit less than a ton with no power at all but they were there for defense first and baseball was better for it. Maybe not fantasy baseball but real baseball.

3B Josh Fields Chicago White Sox 

A few seasons ago the White Sox were ready to move on from Joe Crede to Josh Fields, a power hitting former Big-12 Quarterback. He was a better athlete. He had more potential. He was a sure fire prospect. 

There’s a new prospect in town, Gordon Beckham. 

It’s an interesting position for Fields to be in. My gut says the Quarterback in him wants to compete. If he does I don’t think .265-,275 with 20 dingers is out of the question,  if he plays.

C  Michel Hernandez Tampa Bay

Catcher is a tough position to find because you usually have a hitter or a fielder at the spot and its rare to find both. Hernandez seems to have some of both. He’s looked solid behind the plate with Tampa and his partial stops have been solid offensively.

Those have been with the Pittsburgh organization (Doumit), Tampa (Navarro), St. Louis (Molina), New York Yankee (Posada), Philadelphia (Ruiz and Coste) and San Diego.  Okay, I don’t know how he got out of San Diego.

Backups  Eric Hinske, Pablo Ozuna, Cody Ranson, Todd Linden, Shelly Duncan, and who ever isn’t starting in LF.  The team would be short an extra catcher but those seem abundant.

These guys that never got a chance could play together and become a team of Zobrists and Branyans and Fontenots and Theriots. Somehow I think that team would surprise themselves and a lot of the other rugged individualists and fantasy gurus out there paying top dollar for name players.

Power, Speed, Defense all that’s left is pitching.