That would be the most fearsome hitter the Giants have.

The injury is somewhat concerning, but until I hear that he won’t be back for the 2009 season, I’ll give him a shot.

I dont think we really know yet what Fred Lewis’s best possible scenario is, to be honest. I don’t see any reason to think it’s necessarily worse than Wily Mo Pena’s.

wanted the Giants to sign Cantu or McPhereson and we very very very pissed off when we signed Castillo (not Bautista).

You seem to be really down on Lewis. The guy just got done with his first full season. He may regress next season or he may get better. Either way he’s shown that he is a starting outfielder.
There are players better than Lewis. Pena is not one of them.

In a season and a half in the majors, Lewis has been an above average LF. You took one look at his BABIP and decieded that he’s a 4th OF at best. It’s not that simple. There are some reasons to believe that he can maintain a high BABIP. And even if he can’t, there are no reasons to believe that Pena is better – power isn’t everything. This team lacks power, but it also lacks good players in general, and Lewis is one of the few players on it that look like they could be reasonable starters. So thank you, but nah.

I think the Giants were saving 3B to start Frandsen with Aurilia as backup for both 1B and 3B in case either Ortmeier or Frandsen failed, I presumed. His blown tendon blew that plans to shreds. Castillo (not Bautista) was only picked up to check him out; he seemed slated for the minors when we picked him up, but then Frandsen soon injured himself and opened a spot for Castillo to start.

They definitely kicked the tires with McPherson and they “mutually” agreed to look elsewhere (I think Boras agreed that they “mutually” agreed). I liked Cantu, not sure why he didn’t end up here, but perhaps he chose the Marlins, rather than the Giants didn’t pursue him. We don’t know that, but a lot of people here like to assume the worse about Sabean.

I understand your logic about Pena, but he has shown little ability to hit against RHP, besides homers. And he’ll be 27 next year with a regressed 2008 season playing for a team that was desperate for outfielders who could take a starting position. 27 years is past prospect-hood, it’s put up or shut up, and he didn’t put up.

People love to bring up examples like Carlos Pena to justify this move, but for every Carlos Pena, I’ll bet there there many more Hee Seop Choi’s. I think I would rather take a risk at 1B than force a player who has been developing nicely to the bench, as that would send the wrong message to the prospects we currently have on the team that the team shows no loyalty to you even when you are doing well, and Lewis was doing well. That’s always a consideration which people forget when fantasy baseball managing.

While the team is looking for some middle of lineup power, with his low OBP, Pena really should be batting 7th (which is where Molina should bat, but that’s another story). And most studies I have seen states that OBP is undervalued relative to SLG in OPS, so I think it can be argued that Lewis’ superior OBP (since they have similar OPS) makes him more valuable.

In addition, there is no reason to believe things will get better for Pena in 2009, he had a pretty horrible season in 2008. Basically, your stance appears to be: he was OK before, he has high potential, he is low cost, lets throw the jell-o on the wall and see what happens; meanwhile, lets throw Lewis under the bus. I could see doing that for a Carlos Pena type, he actually showed good stats previously, not sure why nobody wanted to give him the chance, but Pena has been very inconsistent and pretty bad at hitting RHP, except for HR.

Perhaps you can explain your LD% into BABIP translation as well. It is my understanding that you have to combine LD, GB and FB% to get a melded BABIP for the player. Perhaps, because of his speed, he gets more base hits from his GBs than regular players. Perhaps he has fliners that were dropped in the FB category instead of the LD category. There seems to be something lacking here with your method or perhaps I’m missing something.

Lastly, you are only aware of Lewis from an outside perspective, I’ll grant that. The Giants have been eyeing him to become a middle of lineup hitter since they drafted him, they felt that he had the tools to both hit up top and eventually hit for RBI, hitting 20/20 annually. Reportedly, he adjusted his hitting to be more of a leadoff hitter, getting on base, and thus would swing for more power should he hit in the middle, as planned.

I would rather take a chance on a hitter who has been hitting and well in the majors and trying him out than a failed prospect who has never shown much ability to make contact nor get on base much. I don’t want a Dave Kingman type of hitter, makes our offense too dependent on the homer, I think, as he would be a hole in the lineup anytime he doesn’t hit a homer, which would be most games.

Is Power…

That’s what I was looking at when adding Pena. Combine that with his age and hes a great fit.

I would take a year long gamble on Pena to see if he can pull everything together. If not, no big deal.

However, your ‘gamble’ of keeping Lewis has zero upside. Essentially, it has only downside. Everyone knows what Lewis is going to provide, and it isn’t going to be much.

Because they have a neighborhood of the same name.

I just scrolled up to the Garza pictures and I think they’re moving. D:

It’s Adam Jones, right?