ESPN's Jayson Stark on .099 batting average

The Antonio Perez Line

It's ironic to see OAK, the MoneyBall team that cherishes walks and OBP having a guy who hits .099AVG & .180OBP all season. Not that Antonio Pérez was called up to be with the major league team for a week, not for a month, but he's been on the OAK's 25-man roster since Opening Day! He had had 91ABs this season; he's a full-time player. Pérez was traded from LAD to OAK with Milton Bradley for Andre Ethier (whom has been discussed here in CUB) at end of '05.

Antonio has nice hands and good defensive skills, which are presumably what A's wanted out of him. His bat all season has just made history according to Stark's article. OAK has Keith Ginter, a 2B and can play some 3B, who played with MIL before traded to OAK in its AAA affiliate. Ginter is not the kind of gloves-man Pérez is, but is not exactly a late-career Chuck Knoblauch or a Jason Giambi at 2B or 3B. OAK could have opted to have Ginter on its roster. The reason being that Eric Chávez has been struggling at the plate much of the season and he has had injuries on both of his arms. Pérez had more experience coming into this season at 3B than a solid-hitting Ginter. D'Ángelo Jiménez is another IF OAK has, but again, he is more of a 2B / SS than 3B. OAK did promote a minor leaguer, 2B / SS Mike Rouse earlier in the season, but he isn't a 3B (he was picked up by CLE after designated for assignment later). OAK doesn't have another solid option at 3B behind Chávez in its minor system (in AAA, that is; there are good reasons why teams don't want to bring up AA players too fast). The lack of depth at 3B for OAK is a problem, and why they just stuck with Antonio all season.

OAK has had problems with inconsistent offense productions from its IFs. All of its IFs under-performed offensively: Chávez, Mark Ellis, Bobby Crosby, and Dan Johnson (in case you're wondering, that was their Opening Day IF lineup). Others have to give OAK lots of credits for managing the problem by juggling its lineup (like shifting Swisher to 1B & using Scutaro at SS). OAK is 5th in OBP and has the 3rd most walks behind heavy-offense teams, NYY & BOS! Antonio's .099AVG didn't really hurt them that much, after all.