The Rich to Get Richer?

SI’s Jon Heyman reports that the Phillies are going to go hard after 3Bman Chone Figgins.  That makes a lot of sense.  They have the money to give him a big free agent contract, and he would be a significant upgrade over Pedro Feliz, at least with the bat.

Fangraphs rated Figgins’ defense at the hot corner even higher than Feliz in 2009, but the real difference, as far as I’m concerned, is Figgins’ lifetime .363 OBP, compared to .293 for Feliz.  That’s huge.

Also, Figgins would be a perfect fit for the Phillies’ explosive line-up.  One weakness the Phillies have had the last two years on offense is their lack of a true lead-off hitter.  They’ve been using Jimmy Rollins, who really is not a great lead-off hitter because he doesn’t get on base enough (.329 lifetime OBP).

Rollins routinely scores more than 100 runs a year, because he runs well, hits for power and has a bunch of great hitters behind him.  However, because he doesn’t walk much, he also routinely makes around 500 outs a year.  Ouch!

If the Phillies do acquire Figgins, they would be far better served batting Figgins lead-off and dropping Rollins to the sixth slot behind Utley, Howard and Werth.  Now, that would be a murderers’ row, and given his normal power numbers, Rollins should easily drive in more than 100 runs a season in the 6th slot.

I also saw a report that the Tigers are willing to trade CF Curtis Granderson and that the Yankees are interested.  Trading Granderson would be a big mistake for the Tigers.

Although Granderson’s OPS has dropped in both 2008 and 2009, there just aren’t a lot of centerfielders in baseball with 30-HR power.  Granderson will be paid $25.7 million total over the next three seasons (an average of less than $9 million per year), according to mlbtraderumors.com, in the years in which he will be 29, 30 and 31 years of age.  Since the Tigers are expected to be a contending team in the AL Central in 2010, I’d hold on to him.