Continuing the theme that the season is over, let’s talk about the MVP for the Cardinals series.
For an October waiver wire pick up, I don’t think that anyone can say we didn’t get value for Casey. Re-reading the Fan Post that announced the signing was full of… well blah.
"…not sure I get it" – Our dear former leader Jeff Sackman
"I don’t know how he’d be an upgrade." – TheJay
"A major league equivalent of .636. A poor man’s Craig Counsell?" – roguejim
"He could be the next Jeff Cirillo!" – roguejim [Sarcasm?]
"McGehee was born on the day of the first World Series win in Brewers history. Picking him up off waivers was a no-brainer." – TheJay
No real emotion one way or another. There wasn’t even much emotion shown (in this post anyway) for the lost of many a fan favorite Joe Dillon who lost his spot on the 40-man for Mr. McGehee.
Here are Casey’s business vitals.
He is in the first year of his professional career so he made league minimum $400,000. The Brewers (or whichever team owns his contract after the December meetings) have to more years of full control, plus his three arbitration years of salary control.
From this morning’s BR page
88 Games (61 Starts)
289 PA
261 AB
46 Runs
78 Hits
15 Doubles
1 Triple
131 Total Bases
13 HR
49 RBI
26 BB
47 SO
.299 Ave
.358 OBP
.511 SLG
.870 OPS
124 OPS+
Defensively he isn’t exactly flashing the leather – at least consistently. At 3B has an .897 Fielding% where the league average is .956. But that is only in 46 games @ 3B. The rest of his starts came @ 2B where his fielding % is average but he only has 20 games started there.
The 2010 Season
The next savior to the organization is in Nashville waiting for spring training. In my opinion Mat Gamel has served his time and barring a colossal implosion between now and April 2010, he will be the starting 3B for Milwaukee next year. Yes there has been talk of moving Mat to Right Field, but let’s be honest, if the organization was going to make the switch, wouldn’t they have had him playing Right down in Nashville instead of waiting for Gamel to get to the Majors before making the switch.
Will Craig Counsel retire? Who knows. He is having a career year (.778 OPS) and could go out on a high note. Or he could play another year where Career Craig Counsel and his .695 OPS returns in the form of a 39/40 year old utility infielder. I believe that the decision to return is 90% Craig’s. Team manglement will re-sign Craig for another $1M if he wants to return.
Making the assumptions that Craig will return as super sub and Mat is the starting 3B, is there room on the roster for Mr. McGehee? How much playing time would he get? Looking at early 2008 as a model if McGehee isn’t starting, he probably won’t get much. Before Rickie went on the DL, Casey only started two games. And it wasn’t until Bill E fell completely out of favor with Macha that Casey began playing consistently.
There is no doubt that Casey is having a career year this year. I don’t think that it is reasonable to expect him to continue this pace through his career. His minor league numbers simply don’t support this production.
What is Casey worth on the trade market? I don’t know. Every time I speculate what someone is worth, I am put back in my place by someone who isn’t as clueless as I am. I don’t think that he brings back a big name. But can he get a #4/5 starting pitcher with a AA prospect? Is that shooting too high? Is he only worth an average RP?
What do we do with Casey?