Let's talk about Josh Hamilton

[Orange Juiced]

BJ has too much dog in him. In Tampa, he has Longo to keep him in line. He's scared shitless of Longo. I don't think we have anyone here willing to get in his face. At the right price, I'd take him, but he ain't going to come cheap.

 

I do wonder what he'll get on the open market. It's an interesting case. I do think most teams see that he has vast potential but isn't really living up to that potential. And that suggests something is wrong with him - be it attitude, work ethic, whatever.

 

His ops+ by season:

 

2007: 136

2008: 108

2009: 82

2010: 106

2011: 115

2012: 106

TOT: 105

 

If you look at that you see that he's not performing at the plate much better than an average hitter. That's not worth big bucks.

 

But then you see what else he can do: steal bases, play defense, and note his pretty nice WAR numbers (according to fangraphs):

 

2007: 4.5

2008: 5.0

2009: 2.4

2010: 4.0

2011: 4.1

2012: 2.6

TOT: 22.6 (3.8 per year)

 

3.8 WAR per year, at about 5.5 million per win = more than $20 million a year. So if you look at it *that* way, he's worth big bucks.

 

It's going to be very interesting to see just how much he gets paid this offseason. You get him, you take a risk that he's going to never live up to a big contract. But if he does put it all together, the guy can be an absolute baseball monster.