Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Is Hee-Seop Choi Available for Cheap?

Hee-Seop Choi may be leaving the Dodgers soon:

The strapping first baseman who was once long on potential but is now woefully short on results has a one-year, $725,000 contract. But a loophole that applies to most one-year deals would allow the Dodgers to pay Choi just 45 days' salary - about $178,000 - if they release him by March 29, something they could do only if he clears waivers between now and then.

All of which would seem to suggest the enigmatic Choi won't be a part of the Dodgers' organization when the Opening Day roster is set.

I doubt there are many who would disagree, but I'd take Choi any day over Hatteberg. Maybe we'll get a shot at him. He'd be a brilliant waivers pickup given our new hole at 1B. And if not waivers, maybe he'd come cheap in a trade. LA certainly doesn't seem to value the guy.

Check out his PECOTA projections for the this year (Hatteberg and Casey shown for comparison):

Name EQBA EQOBP EQSLG EQA VORP Defense
Choi 0.27 0.371 0.511 0.291 17.6 0
Hatteberg 0.261 0.347 0.373 0.247 0.0 -4
Casey 0.306 0.365 0.450 0.275 19.3 0

(EQBA is the projected park-adjusted batting average, EQOBP is projected park-adjusted OBP, etc. EQA is a projected park-adjusted metric of total offense, adjusted to the same general scale as batting average. VORP is another overall measure of performance, given in as Value over Replacement Player, and is park-specific.) Projections are just projections, though the PECOTA ones are based on comparable players...which included David Ortiz... If nothing else, he's still a guy that has a lot of upside. Whereas Hatteberg is a known, and very mediocre commodity. -j

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