Jermaine Dye had a fabulous 2000. Given his age, the pedigree he carried with him, and his fielding, he appeared to be more than a guy having a career year. But this year, so far, has thrown his step up in doubt.
He has not been patient at the plate in KC, which may have been the problem. I’d suggest that knowing he was the Player to be Traded may have induced a bit of panic, a bit of pressure that screwed him up. Or maybe the bigger strike zone kept him out of those advantageous counts that helped him so much last year (he hit .440 when ahead in the count).
In any case, he’s a guy with skill who is down. There’s no guarantee, of course, but if you need to make a run Dye is a lot more likely to have a huge final two months than someone who is hitting .350.
Hmmm, maybe I’m overselling that angle. It’s more fair to say that he’s more likely to be better from here on out than he’s been so far. Of course, someone already has him in your league.
Which brings us to Neifi Perez. Perez has always been a decent hitter for fantasy teams because he played in that park in that lineup. As everyone in the world knows, except perhaps for Allard Baird and Tony Muser, he has sucked on the road. Rob Neyer argues that traded Rockies often put up better numbers than their road splits indicate, probably because there is some head games that go into being king of the world a mile high.
Perez could be a little better than nothing, but he could easily hit .235 and earn in the minus.
Jose Ortiz got overhyped because of the truly fantastic year he had last year. I may have overhyped him. I know I was blown away by his stats. I don’t know what the current thinking is about his playing time, I imagine he’s going to help determine that by the sort of start he gets off to.
He’s definitely worth a pickup if you’re playing a wrong-side-of-the-platoon guy. Or worse. I suppose the question is whether I would drop Desi Relaford to pick him up. I don’t think so, but I don’t have enough FAAB left to get into the fight, I don’t think.
Finally, Juan Uribe got the call. He and Ortiz are playing tonight and I suspect they’ll get most of the AB, with Terry Shumpert filling in here and there. Uribe is not nearly the hitter Ortiz is and while his AVG in Colorado Springs was nice, that’s as good a hitters park as Coors and the pitchers aren’t nearly as sophisticated. He might fill a hole, but he’s unlikely to bust out in any meaningful way this year.
ESPN.com: MLB – Dye cast in wild-card race: A’s become player with deal