Reds sign outfielder Alex Sanchez

Today, the Reds signed outfielder Alex Sanchez, 29 years old, to a minor league contract. Aside from having tested positive (with some incredibly lame excuses...) for steroids, I know nothing about him. But let's look at some stats:

Year	Team	AB	2B	HR	OBA	SLG	OPS	GPA	SB	SB%
2003	MIL/DET	557	23	1	0.319	0.363	0.682	0.234	52	68%
2004	DET	332	9	2	0.335	0.386	0.721	0.247	19	59%
2005	TB/SF	176	11	2	0.353	0.432	0.785	0.267	8	62%

His only season in which he performed well was the most recent, but that was in only 172 AB's. For his career he's struck out 233 times and walked 76 times, a 3:1 ratio. Not great for a speed guy. Furthermore, his speed has thus far been largely ineffectual, as he's under or (at best) around the 67% mark, which is the point at which stealing bases switches from being costly to advantageous.

I haven't seen a ton of fielding information on him as he played so little last year. Baseball Prospectus has him ranging from -8 to 0 runs above average in centerfield over the past 3 years. Chris Dial's ZR translations have him at -22.7 runs above average last year in CF (note the "-" signs on those numbers). All in all, I don't think this guy can help us much, especially with guys like Freel or Denorfia also able to play centerfield. -j