This was Lyle Overbay's fourth season with the Blue Jays and it was his best season since the first. He seemed to have Rod Barajas disease though, he was either hot or cold and rarely in between. He doesn't seem to be one of Cito's favorites, I'd like to see him batting in the 2 spot, at least against RHP but it doesn't seem like something Cito would try.
In the Community Project we guessed Lyle would have a .350 OBP and .450 SLG in 570 PA which, with his good defense would add up to a 2.5 WAR.
So we were short by 22 points of OB and 16 points of slugging, pretty darn close, but he only had 500 PA so we were a little high on that, Cito liked Kevin Millar too much. Fangraphs had his WAR at 1.9 but they had him as a below average fielder, which I really don't agree with. They give his value at $8.7 million, so we really aren't overpaying on the guy.
I guess it is no surprise to anyone that Lyle hit RHP much better (.282/.396/.509) than he hit LHP (.190/.256/.278). He really does need a platoon partner. I'd like someone better than Kevin Millar but we clearly need someone to spell him.
Overbay hit almost exactly the same on the road (.264/.363/.368) as at home (.266/.382/.463).
He didn't do well with RISP, .205/.366/.313.
His longest hitting streak was 15 games at the end of May and the start of June.
By Month Lyle hit:
April .250/.403/.500
May .294/.347/.515
June .246/.411/.478
July .227/.320/.364
August .329/.430/.507
Sept/Oct .242/.324/.440
Take out July and maybe September and you are looking at a pretty good season.
His favorite team to play? Oakland A's hitting 412/.500/.1.059 in 5 games. His least favorite team to play was the White Sox .071/.278/.071 in 4 games.
Fangraphs has his defense at a slightly worse than average (-1.7 UZR). I'm not sure how much you can read into UZR for first basemen. He only made 2 errors on the season for a .998 fielding average. I've always kind of discounted defense at first because that is the spot you put the guy that can't play anywhere else, but watching Kevin Millar this year I've changed my thinking some. I think a really bad first baseman can hurt you more than a bad fielder at other spots because the first baseman makes plays every game. An outfielder might not see a chance in a game, same with a third baseman so you might be able to hide a bad glove for a game or two.
He's been a good on base guy and like him as a player, but in a RBI spot in the order isn't the best for him. With him in a division with Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis and Carlos Pena he looks worse than he really is. He's not going to win you the division but then he's not going to lose it for you either. 2010 is the end of Lyle's contract and likely will be his last year with the team. I'm hoping it is a good one.