Jays Pick Up Fred Lewis from Giants

Really hoping we just send cash.

But it’s a day old and off the front page, so probably nobody saw it. I’ll repeat it here:

I’m going to jump in here and fill y’all in on Fred Lewis in what seems to be becoming a recurring feature: first Brian Bocock, then Merkin Valdez, now Fred Lewis.

The short version: Fred Lewis is a whole lot better than Merkin Valez or Brian Bocock.

The long version: Fred Lewis is a very useful player to have, but he’s also one of the most polarizing players around. You either love the guy or hate his guts.

If you hate him, it’s probably because you’re an old-school fan who turns up his or her nose at modern, Sabermetric analysis. You bemoan his lack of RBIs. You groan at all the times he strikes out looking. You look at his athletic ability, decide based on that he SHOULD be a star, but he’s not, so therefore he sucks. Above all, you think he’s the worst defensive outfielder in the history of the game, because sometimes he drops balls. Not THAT often – he had three errors last year – but when he does, he tends to do so in spectacular fashion, and it looks REALLY bad.

If you love him, it’s because you’re on board with the Sabermetric stuff. You love his OBP, his plate discipline, and his long at-bats that really make the pitcher work. You notice that, despite the occasional defensive blunder, he’s always been in positive UZR territory. In part, this is because a lot of left fielders are Adam Dunn – being above average in LF is a low bar to cross. It’s also because, despite having poor defensive instincts, he’s fast and athletic, and that makes up for the blunders. He has a nice throwing arm in LF, too.

Lewis had a really nice season for the Giants in 2008, and we were pretty thrilled. Not because he looked like a star in the making, but because Bill Mueller was the best home-grown position player the Giants had developed in the 20 years since Matt Williams arrived, and because he was the one guy on the whole damn team who wasn’t a hopeless hacker. It was pretty bleak, and Lewis was a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, in 2009, the Giants, in their infinite wisdom, decided to move him from hitting leadoff to #3. Prior to the season, they announced that, because of this move, they wanted him to transform himself into an aggressive power hitter. This was clearly idiotic – he’d never had a lot of power, but he had value anyway because of his plate discipline. In other words, they wanted him to go against his best quality as a hitter, and become someone he wasn’t. Early in the year, he pretty much looked like Fred Lewis – good OBP, not a lot of power. Then, around May, he got into a nasty slump that lasted, oh, a few weeks. Almost immediately, the fans who aren’t inclined to like him started braying for his blood – he only has 5 RBIs! He dropped that one ball, and that means he’s the worst defensive outfielder in the history of the game! Etc.

The Giants dropped him from the lineup, and he never found his way back – despite the fact that the other guys the Giants tried in LF – Eugenio Velez in particular – are clearly much worse players than Fred Lewis. What’s more, he recovered from that slump despite very limited opportunities – he posted a line of .277 / .388 / .398 after the All Star Break. Again, not great, but good enough to make him THE SECOND BEST HITTER ON THE TEAM after Pablo Sandoval. Still, his playing time just shrunk more and more as the season progressed, despite the fact that he was doing pretty nicely when he did play.

Anyway, the gist of it is this: no, Lewis isn’t a superstar. He won’t catapult the Blue Jays into contention with the Yankees just by showing up. But he’s a good, underrated player who can give you some real value if used the right way. Some people have mentioned using him in a platoon role – that would be a good idea. Against RHP, he’s .286 / .362 / .443 for his career – .285 / .352 / .457 in 2008, the one year he was an every day player.

A few more fun facts about Lewis:

- He’s the only left-handed hitter EVER to get four hits in a game off Randy Johnson
- He hit for the cycle just three days after his first call-up in 2007
- He stole home twice in 2008
- A not-fun-at-all fact: You may recall the story of Brad Ziegler’s skull being fractured by a line-drive while he was a minor leaguer; it was Lewis who hit the ball

Fred’s been one of my favorite Giants for the last few years. I’m really sad to see him go, even though it’s been a foregone conclusion for some time now. But I’m glad he’s at least winding up with another team I like.

and he doesn’t take PT from Snider. Hes 29, so hes got a couple years left in him of productive baseball and AA really did plan for a quick rebuild as most of our top prospects are pretty close so he should still be contributing when we compete.

I certainly hope we give up noting of value..holding my breath here.

means less Bautista leading off against righties, I’m all for it. Lewis has good numbers against righties (.805 career OPS against them) and especially brings good on-base skills to the table, making him a decent platoon leadoff man. A straight platoon would remind me a bit of the Catalanotto-Johnson days, where neither guy was a complete player but both were very useful and successful in their roles.

I don’t get the idea of sitting Encarnacion to use Bautista at third. We’re paying Encarnacion close to $5 million – if all we wanted for that money was a poor-fielding third baseman against lefties only, we had that for half the cost in Bautista and we could’ve just non-tendered Edwin. That we kept him means, to me, that he’s going to play everyday and see whether he can turn into a merely below-average third baseman instead of a really terrible one. I’m not particularly confident in that scenario, but if it works out the Jays have a very useful player under team control for another season. He’s a far better hitter than Bautista because he can hit righties (although of course he has to show he can bounce back from the wrist injury and poor 2009).

Gotta feel bad for Jeremy Reed. When he signed, though it was a minor league deal, he probably felt pretty confident about making the team – at least as the fourth outfielder, or maybe even getting a regular slot if Snider faltered in spring training. Only able to control his part, all he did was go out and produce one of the top offensive performances on the team in spring training. Failing to make the team came as somewhat of a shock, but at least he was first in line to make it back to the big league team. Sure enough a spot opens up quickly and he’s called up, only to now have the Jays trade for another outfielder who’s now ahead of him on the depth chart. Now it’s back to AAA and who knows if/when he’ll get called up again this year. Can be a tough game.

Speaking of which, the National Post’s got a blow by blow on Reed’s yo-yo trip.

Nice little conversation on this topic also going on over at this SB Nation site.