Monday, November 3, 2008

Mike Cameron

The Brewers exercised the 10 million dollar option on Centerfielder Mike Cameron's contract today. I, for one, am not that happy about it. He struck out 142 times in 444 at bats. For you math majors out there, that is one strikeout every 3.13 at-bats. He produced in the other at-bats as evident by his 25 home runs and 70 RBI, but I think on a team that already strikes out a lot, he adds too much of that. He missed the first 25 games of the season and let's assume that he gets 4 at-bats per game during those games. That's 100 more at-bats, therefore his strikeout numbers project to 174 strikeouts. That would have put him 4th in Major League Baseball. I'm not asking for hits in all of those at-bats, but productive outs would be nice. I also understand that his defense was good, one error on the season. But he isn't getting any younger and he had already lost a half a step in my opinion over what he used to be in center field. I know you have to pay someone to play centerfield, but in one man's humble opinion, that 10 million could have been spent somewhere better.

3 comments:

Scott said...

They could still trade him. Regardless,
I am okay with the idea of having a veteran centerfielder out there who puts up those numbers minus a month. He is a good leader in the dugout too and can attract other veteran players to play for Milwaukee, sort of like an ambassador.

Kosi...are you missing Krynzel (sp?)?

richie said...

I agree with Scott on this one. I believe that Mike Cameron and Prince Fielder will be shipped to the Yankees. This would jive with what you have been saying about Prince, plus, the Yankees really like Cam. If he does stay, hes a good clubhouse guy and probably the best option anyway. Time will tell...

Kosi said...

I really don't think they signed him to trade him. Just an opinion based on the comments from Melvin and company. He will be the Brewers CF in 2009 and we will watch him strikeout almost 200 times. Here's an interesting stat to tell you how ineffective he was most of the year. Let's take April out because he only had 8 at-bats. He batted .360 in August which 9 home runs and 22 RBI's. Let me tell you the other months...

May - .212 7 HR, 17 RBI
June - .203 5 HR, 9 RBI
July - .250 3 HR, 14 RBI
September - .176 1 HR, 6 RBI, (34 K's)
Postseason - .154 0 HR, 0 RBI

Do you feel the same way now?