|
2008 As frustrating a player as Feliz is, you can't argue that he's fooling anyone. He's had the same season three years in a row, showing durability, a low batting average, a walk a week, 20 homers, and good defense. If he's batting seventh for you and you're not paying a lot of money and you get OBP from everywhere else... well, he's still only a three-win player. He was fourth on the Giants in WARP3 last year and two of those four, Feliz and Bonds, aren't coming back. Send in your season-ticket renewal checks today! 2007 Determined to pay more attention to Feliz`s power than his total inability to get to first base, the Giants have re-hired him for 2007. No team in baseball got less offense (.234 EqA) from their third basemen last year than the Giants, because no other set of third basemen were within 30 points of the dreadful .277 OBP put up by the Giants contingent. When the worst hitter at a given position files for free agency, you should let him go. By definition, there are better options. That`s the 1951 to 1966 Frank Thomas that PECOTA is comparing Feliz to, not the modern day DH; think of him as Frank Thomas the Lesser. 2006 The Giants kept insisting that Feliz would become the full package if only he got a season`s worth of plate appearances. Now they`re saying that he can`t handle the defensive yo-yoing from first to third to left and that`s why he`s yet to break out. The truth is that he can`t take a walk and he struggles against right-handed pitchers. A .295 OBP is a high price to pay for 20 home runs. With Edgar Alfonzo gone to Anaheim, Feliz will become the full-time third baseman, where his glove, at least, will make him more of an asset. 2005 In a year that started with the Giants crowing about their next star offensive player, Feliz finished the season with the same incomplete skill set and lukewarm production that make him the new Tony Batista. For all his prodigious power, Feliz shows no interest in improving his strike zone judgment, and lacks the offensive game to be an everyday first baseman. He's a useful super-utility man who's blocked from his best defensive position by Alfonzo. There are few teams in baseball more poorly constructed than the Giants; if Bonds weren't around, they'd have blown this whole thing up years ago. 2003 Heralded as the Giants third baseman of the future after his 33 HR season at homer-happy Fresno three years ago, Feliz showed a little pop in his extended major league tryout in 2001, but nothing else. Last year, it was just the “nothing else.” He may never get the playing time to prove otherwise, but it’s looking more and more like 2000 will go down as his career year. 2002 Big power numbers in the Pacific Coast League convinced the Giants that Feliz, a Jim Presley hit-alike, was ready to take over at third base. He was awful, ceding much of his playing time to Ramon Martinez in the second half. Desi Relaford should push Feliz into a platoon this year, a role in which he can succeed (1085 OPS against lefties last year, .300 with good power against them in Triple-A in 2000). 2001 A borderline prospect at third base, Pedro Feliz is a true low-OBP slugger. I was doing a local radio show on which talk turned to the Giants' farm system. We were discussing the lack of position players when a number of people called in and read me the riot act for not being high on Feliz. The reason I'm not is simple: he's a shaky defensive third baseman who has drawn a grand total of 105 unintentional walks in seven minor-league seasons. You want to be a good player in the majors? Get on base. You want to get on base while drawing less than a walk a week? Hit .350. Feliz won't. 2000 He spent a second year in Double-A with no change in performance. Feliz has a good glove at third base and can hit the occasional home run. Ultimately, though, all you need to know about Feliz is this: in two years at Shreveport, he's had 855 at-bats and walked 28 times.
|