The Texas Rangers have traded outfielder Freddy Guzman to Detroit for catcher/first baseman Chris Shelton.
Who are these guys? Glad you asked.
Guzman once was known as Pedro De Los Santos and played second base in the San Diego Padres organization. Then when the visa crackdowns came along, his name changed and he aged a few years. Guzman has decent on-base skills and is fast. His ceiling is a poor-man’s Juan Pierre, but really, he’s a fourth outfielder. Actually, so is Pierre, but I digress.
Shelton spent all of 2007 in the minors after batting .273/.340/.466 for the Tigers in ‘06. The guy …read more

The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed center fielder Andruw Jones to a 2-year deal worth a reported $36 million. That’s a little pricey for my taste, but not outrageous, and it’s only two years. The problem is, this signing leaves me with more questions than answers:

What happens to Juan Pierre? If he slides over to left, as some have speculated, he becomes even more worthless than he already is. Don’t get me wrong, as a Padres fan, I’d love nothing more than to see the Dodgers run Pierre out to a corner spot every day, but I can’t bring myself …read more

With the season winding down, I got to wondering who’s stinking up the joint? Here are the players with the lowest OPS+ by position (minimum 430 PA, roughly what it would take to qualify for the batting title if the season ended now) and the pitchers with the highest ERA+ (minimum 140 IP for starters, 40 G for relievers):

Worst Position Players of 2007

Pos
Name
Team(s)
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS+

Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of September 9, 2007.

C
Jason Kendall
Oak/ChN
.245
.300
.313
63

1B
Lyle Overbay
Tor
.239
.317
.397
85

2B
Josh Barfield
Cle
.245
.273
.326
59

3B
Nick Punto
Min
.199
.286
.255
46

SS
Tony Pena
KC
.256
.276
.334
56

Omar Vizquel
SF
.239
.299
.295
56

LF
Jason Bay
Pit
.253
.331
.424
95

CF
Juan Pierre
LA
.290
.323
.347
73

RF
Delmon Young
TB
.293
.322
.416
92

Quick comments:

Kendall and Pierre have humongous contracts. Kendall’s is up at the end of the ‘07 season, …read more