Jermaine Dye yea or nay

[RockRaines]

completely crazy

[pale_hose]

Of course he's a yay...he may have injury problems, but he didnt last year, and he helped us win the series...he's a b+ in my book...

[Steve9347]

You've heard that around Soxtalk, I would guess.  I haven't seen anything from the powers that be to indicate this is their thinking.

 

 

Yeah, I'm always reading the trash you bastards are writing and taking it seriously...

 

eh, we'll see what happens, i personally would prefer to see konerko-thome-dye, either way i think thome needs to be directly after konerko.

[chitownsportsfan]

I guess I didn't NorthSideSox72. Well good, I'm not that worried now, but I'll only really believe when I see it on April 1st.

[GreatScott82]

Dye was a gamble worth taking on last offseason. He was coming off a serious leg injury. That is why we got him pretty cheap. Got to love KW and his bargains It sure as hell payed off. MVP! MVP! MVP!

Edited February 16, 2006 by GreatScott82

[CanOfCorn]

He did lead all Rf'ers in HR's last season, and was the MVP of the WS.  I dont know if that means hes in the B category.

 

To me, it does. He's not better than Guerrero, Abreu or Ichiro, but he is better than average. So, I'll bump him up to B+, but that's based on last year only.

 

Career wise, I think he's a solid B.

[Chisoxfn]

Is Jermaine Dye one of the most underrated players in baseball?

Do you like him or think he's just average?

 

I read this alarming stat on ESPN: "The 128 strikeouts he posted last year were a career high, while the 49 walks were the lowest total among the five seasons that he has logged more than 130 games. Perhaps the most telling stat, however, is that Dye hit just .240 with runners in scoring position."

 

I like the guy especially after the Series, I am no ingrate and tip my cap to him, but wondered if you all thought we could do better?

For the money, if JD is healthy he is one of the better bargains in baseball. He's one of the better defensive right fielders and he's a pretty smart player. He had a lot of early season struggles, but aside from that he played tremendous for the Sox.

 

Considering he'll be in the 5 or 6 spot of the lineup (although I've seen a few people suggest him in the 3 hole) I think he's gonna be just fine for us. Plus he's a really awesome character guy and I'm glad our team finally has more of that.

 

That said, health issues are the main reason I wouldn't consider him totally under-rated. If he truly is behind all his injuries (last year was a good sign) than I'd definately say he's about as underrated of a RF as there is. Lets not forget he led all RFers in HR's.

[Chisoxfn]

Yea.

 

Dye had a very solid campaign in 2005, overcoming a slow start to post a respectable 274  .333  .512.  While not amazing numbers for a corner outfielder, throw in his salary and good defense and Dye is a keeper. 

 

Couple interesting things to note about Dye last year:

 

1) His ISO power numbers where the highest of his career.  Also, the percent of fly balls  he hit that turned into HR's was 16%, a very healthy percent.  It seems Dye benefits greatly from playing at homer happy US Cellular.

 

2) His BABIP was around 285, among the lowest number of his career.  He consistently posted a BABIB of over .300 in his "prime" years.  This suggests to me that he's lost some ability to make consistent good contact at the expense of greater power--not a bad tradeoff given he plays half his games at the cell.

 

3) His walk rate continued to decline, to only 8% of his PA's.  As recently as 03, his walk rate was 11%.  Like most of Dye's stats, this one was hurt by a very poor spring.

 

So what does this all mean?  I think we can expect about the same from Dye this year.  He benefits greatly from hitting at US Cell as a right-handed pull hitter, and he seems to have put his injuries behind him.  Hopefully Ozzie's newfound depth in the outfield gives plenty of time to rest Dye and keep him fresh throughout the season.

 

A line of 500 PA .279 .332 .520  is what I see for Dye.

I wouldn't exactly classify Dye as a RH pull hitter. When he was right he hits the ball as well as anyone on our team to RF and really has good opposite field power.

[Chisoxfn]

He's been worth the money so far but we'd be foolish to extend him after his deal completes. He doesn't seem like the type who will age particularly well . He's an average right-fielder with power numbers boosted by this park. That said, he's getting average money and has been a fine fit for us so far but he's not someone who should block Ryan Sweeney whenever he's ready.

When Sweeney actually starts producing at a high clip...than I'll consider getting rid of Dye.

 

But I don't like how people are so quickly willing to throw out the name of a prospect and hand them a spot. Let Sweeney take the spot away from Dye. Right now he's not ready to do that.

 

I hope Sweeney can get his wrist healthy and start becoming a more complete hitter (it would help him a lot if he could start driving the ball and a healthy wrist is key for that). He is a good athlete though and still very young.

[Heads22]

For the money, if JD is healthy he is one of the better bargains in baseball.  He's one of the better defensive right fielders and he's a pretty smart player.  He had a lot of early season struggles, but aside from that he played tremendous for the Sox. 

 

Considering he'll be in the 5 or 6 spot of the lineup (although I've seen a few people suggest him in the 3 hole) I think he's gonna be just fine for us.  Plus he's a really awesome character guy and I'm glad our team finally has more of that. 

 

That said, health issues are the main reason I wouldn't consider him totally under-rated.  If he truly is behind all his injuries (last year was a good sign) than I'd definately say he's about as underrated of a RF as there is.  Lets not forget he led all RFers in HR's.

 

 

I agree, especially with the character part. We saw how great chemistry can help a team.

 

Plus, I think JR would pay a guy nearly anything to be a Sox World Series MVP.

 

That being said, I still think we'll see Tad in the 3-hole at some point in this season if no one sticks. Not for good, mind you, but if his power comes back and his average stays up, it's a possibility.

 

***Jason: You do realize we have an edit function, right? You can quote all the posts in one reply. Post whore.

[pale_hose]

He did lead all Rf'ers in HR's last season, and was the MVP of the WS.  I dont know if that means hes in the B category.

 

he led all right fielders in the AL

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

^^^^

 

Dye more than earned his money last year.

 

 

^^^^

 

What he said.

 

 

Letting Maggs walk and bringing in Dye was the best move of KW's many good ones last off-season.

[WilliamTell]

^^^^

 

What he said.

Letting Maggs walk and bringing in Dye was the best move of KW's many good ones last off-season.

 

Yeah and I was one of the ones that was very angry about Maggs leaving, it's almost hard to remember Maggs now, I have that World Series championship clouding my vision.

[SSH2005]

he led all right fielders in the AL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dye led the entire MLB in homeruns as a right fielder. Sheffield (34 HR's) and Vlad (32 HR's) hit more homers than Dye (31 HR's) but they hit some of them as a DH. Sheffield hit 27 homers as a RF'er and 7 as a DH. Vlad hit 27 homers as a RF'er and 5 as a DH. Dye hit all 31 of his homers as a RF'er.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/battin...0&hand=a&pos=rf

Edited February 16, 2006 by SSH2005

[CWSGuy406]

 

ISO -- SLG% minus batting average, I think.

 

BAPIP -- Batting Average on Balls in Play.

 

I believe by BABIB, he meant BAPIP.

 

And PA is plate appearances...

 

Of course, it's probably better to actually inquire and learn what they are (even if you aren't statistically oriented), rather than being ignorant and making a comment like "completely crazy", but I'll digress.

[chitownsportsfan]

For some reason I always type BABIB instead of BABIP.

 

ISO just takes away the singles from slugging to give a better measure of "power" Ichiro has a decent slugging percentage but then again he bats .340 most years and isn't a good power hitter.

 

PA is just a good denominator for getting averages for things like walk rate and strikeout rate.

[greg775]

I was very angry about Maggs leaving too. I was so wrong on that.

And even Carlos Lee. I was so wrong about that.

KW and Oz are quite the combination. I think they've earned lifetime contracts

with the World championship.

I love reading these threads. Seeing Thome's name so much I couldn't help but

wonder. I wonder how long Oz will go with him IF ... I said IF ... he produces as badly

as he did last season before that injury finished his season.

[chitownsportsfan]

I have to say that I thought the Maggs departure was a bad decision. However, in hindsight, I'm sure KW knew much more about his medical situation than I did. KW did a great job finding Dye from the scraphead and locking him up for 3 years at a very reasonable rate.