D-Lee - #3 Hitter?

So what do you all think of our very own Derrek Lee? Personally, I think he is ULTRA over-rated, that is if anyone thinks all that much of him these days other than Lou Piniella. But if you read the comments from The Lou blog, you already know this. Actually, if you have ever talked to me about D-Lee, you already know it too.

While he may be finally out of his DP funk from 2008, he is still just simply NOT clutch and that is a TREMENDOUS flaw for your #3 hitter. Here's a Cubs team that led the NL in runs scored last year, but the #3 hitter in a career high number of plate appearances couldn't manage even 100 RBIs. How is that possible? I'll tell you how...NO POWER! D-Lee finished with a very respectable .291 BA, but managed only 20 HRs in a hitter friendly home ball park. Hmmm. To me, BA is the most overrated stat in baseball. It is not about how many hits you get in a game; its how many runs you score. To that end, the #3, 4, and 5 hitters have the biggest responsibility to drive in those runs. Sometimes you just need a single, but a lot of times you need extra bases so while he hit a respectable .308 with RISP, he only drove in 63 runs in over 180 plate appearances. Now, I won't compare him to Albert Pujols because, as much as it pains me to say it, he's just the best ball player in the game right now although he plays for the mortal enemy (sorry White Sox, I know the Cubs are your mortal enemy, but we just really aren't that concerned about a team we play 6 times a year) Cardinals. But let's compare him to Ryan Howard, shall we? Hey, it's my blog! Ryan Howard batted a smooth .320 with RISP and drove in 90 runs in 223 PAs. For all you anti-math guys out there, that's 27 more RBIs in just 43 more PAs. Further examination shows D-Lee had only 1 HR with RISP while Howard had 12. As a matter of fact, out of D-Lee's pathetic 20 HRs in 2008, only 5 of them were NOT solo while Howard hit 26 out of his 48 HRs with runners on base.

So while Lee hit for a .291 BA, he only drove in 90 RBIs while Howard "only" hit .251 but drove in 146 RBIs. How do you like BA now for an offensive stat?

Just for Rob...since you couldn't lay off protecting your boy D-Lee in my The Lou blog, here's another stat for you...while D-Lee is "average to slightly above average in rbi opportunties", he's tied for the team lead (Ramirez has been hurt and Bradley has been AWFUL) in RBIs with the likes of little Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot (my personal favorite Cub), and Mr. April (a.k.a. Kosuke Fukudome). Even with Fukudome's inflated salary ($11.5 million), if you add all of them together (Theriot - $500K, Fontenot - $430K), they still don't surpass D-Lee's ($13 million).

So, is it D-Lee's fault he just isn't that good? A little, right? But what about the knucklehead that has implanted him in the #3 or #4 spot in the lineup since he's been here? Ya, you know who I'm talking about...The Lou! How long can you live off a career year that happened 4 years ago? That's ancient history at this point, isn't it?

My thanks to the Cot's Baseball Contracts blog for all the salary data - http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/chicago-cubs_112114177768677294.html.