Community Projection: Pedro Feliz

The eternal question. The tendency with Pedro Feliz is to puff him up as some sort of Keyser Soze of lackluster production; the invincible source of all the Giants' evils and disharmony. He might have been the least productive starting third baseman in the majors last year, at least with the bat. At the All-Star break, though, he wasn't that bad. It seems so distant and abstract, but Feliz was having a Gold Glove kind of year and hitting .274/.306/.486. He wasn't exactly giving the Giants a significant edge on the competition, but he wasn't their main concern.

His second-half was absolutely rugged. He hit .202/.248/.348, which has to be one of the worst stretches in recent Giants history. If the first half was a poor man's version of an early '90s Matt Williams, the second half was Johnny LeMaster without the excuse of playing in a pitcher-friendly era. He just isn't the kind of hitter that will weather slumps well. A pressing Pedro Feliz is even more likely to flail at sliders, and that starts a nasty little feedback loop. Felipe Alou also refused to give him any sort of rest, and the end of the season featured a smoldering husk of a player that wasn't really that good to begin with.

If Feliz hit for that first-half 274/.306/.486 in 2007, it would be a minor victory. It's not impossible; Feliz had that kind of season in 2004. In theoryland, players like Feliz break out -- even past the age of 30 -- all the time, so that might not even be the ceiling. In a cold tenement of realityland, we've all watched Pedro Feliz against major league pitching. We've seen him hack at 3-1 fastballs when a walk would mean the tying run. We've seen him swing at first pitches in ninth innings of games where the Giants are down by more than one run. If he hasn't figured it out by now, he isn't going to. The only real mystery seems to be how long Bruce Bochy will put up with it, especially with Rich Aurilia in the picture. I'd almost rather start Lance Niekro at third at this point.

Pedro Feliz

AB: 471
AVG: .255
OBP: .289
SLG: .413
HR: 16