Willy Taveras - 2009 to date

[WebScorpion]

5-for-5 tonight and scored 4 runs. He's beginning to make Walt look really smart... I'm pretty happy with a .381 OBP and 8 stolen bases in 9 tries out of our leadoff spot.

[mth123]

5-for-5 tonight and scored 4 runs. He's beginning to make Walt look really smart... I'm pretty happy with a .381 OBP and 8 stolen bases in 9 tries out of our leadoff spot.

Kudos to Taveras. I've been one of his biggest critics and he is doing really well right now as a lead-off guy. If it continues the Reds will be in the thick of it all year.

[nate]

Willy's locked in at the plate right now and that's great to see! I hope he keeps it up; it will make for a lot of early leads!

[BuckeyeRedleg]

I wasn't a fan of the Taveras signing, but he's having a really good year to this point and I'm hoping he can maintain his current pace.

[Falls City Beer]

Walt can sniff career peaks like some guys just know when to buy and sell; there is a place for some intuition in this game.

[TheNext44]

From Fay's Blog:

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com

The Willy Taveras signing was seen as a mistake in a lot of circles. The guy had a .309 on-base percentage last year, after all, not what you want from your leadoff man.

But Walt Jocketty was pretty adamant about wanting to add Taveras. He called Taveras' agent the minute Colorado non-tendered him. The Reds signed Taveras because they thought he was better than he showed last year in Colorado.

So far, it looks like a pretty good move. Taveras went 5-for-5, equaling a career-high, scored four runs and drove in two. He’s hit in 12 straight games, hitting .408 over that stretch. He's up to .315 overall with a .381 on-base percentage.

“He’s been huge,” Jerry Hairston Jr. said. “Over the last seven or eight games, he’s had an impact.
Anytime a leadoff hitter scores four runs . . .”


Taveras is hitting the ball with authority. He has eight extra-base hits in 111 at-bats. He had 18 in 479 at-bats last year.

"He's been working on it," Dusty Baker said. "(Brook Jacoby's) been working on it with him tirelessly, changing his stroke little by little, getting some timing and rhythm. You see he's been driving the ball. It's not in the air as much. It's line drives and ground balls. If he keeps working, he's going to hit a lot."

I was definitely in one of those "circles" when he signed.

I liked what he was doing at the beginning of the season, but still thought he would end up being either a meaningless signing, or a regrettable one by the end of the season.

Count me as officially out of the "circle."

This is a rare case where a hitter actually got better, significantly better after turning 27. Got to hand it Jacoby, and to Willy himself. And it's not just the #'s and his current streak that has converted me. Just compare his AB's to Janish's. Janish is currently OPS'ing .843, but watching him bat, it's hard to imagine him continuing this pace. Kinda like Bako at the beginning of last year.

But Willy is really crushing the ball and having strong PA's nearly every time. And even if he does hit a slump, I can see him bunting more to keep his OBP high.

While I doubt that he will be OPS'ing close to .800 at the end of the year, I can see him OPS'ing above .730 with an OBP of over .340, which with his speed and defense, would make him in my mind as at least a league average CF. That is something I never thought he was close to being.

[thatcoolguy_22]

Walt can sniff career peaks like some guys just know when to buy and sell; there is a place for some intuition in this game.

Coming from a guy who was against the Wily signing just as much, if not more than everyone else... I concur completely.

WJ has proven it over and over. I once thought it was all Duncan and Pinella getting the most out of the players but maybe Walt's intuition played a larger role than I previously thought.

[jojo]

This is a rare case where a hitter actually got better, significantly better after turning 27. Got to hand it Jacoby, and to Willy himself.

I think it's a little early to move the Taveras experiment into a Phase two clinical trial....

[Puffy]

I was not one of those people who hated the signing - but I think he needs to go after the end of this year. Tavares is an odd year/even year type player (Bret Saberhagan was the king of this for a long stretch in the 80s). The Reds picked him up in time for his good year. Now they need to be smart and use the good year and then cut ties.

Its all science

[SMcGavin]

It's still really early. But I will say this, right now Willy Taveras is making me look stupid, and I love every minute of it.

[NJReds]

I was not one of those people who hated the signing - but I think he needs to go after the end of this year. Tavares is an odd year/even year type player (Bret Saberhagan was the king of this for a long stretch in the 80s). The Reds picked him up in time for his good year. Now they need to be smart and use the good year and then cut ties.

Its all science

So you're saying that you are not onboard for a 3 year-$20 contract extension?

[REDREAD]

I've got a Nyjer Morgan and Jeremy Reed that says otherwise.

Morgan was drafted by the Pirates and is still in their organization. He's just entering his third year. We would've had to give up something to trade to get him. I must admit, I don't know a whole lot about him, but he's only been in 45 games in CF for his entire career (and about the same on the corners)

Jeremy Reed is a step down from Taveras, but in all fairness, he is a cheaper player. I guess I will concede that one as a possible option, but he's not exactly an upgrade.. cheaper perhaps, but certainly a lower floor if he was given playing time too.

I think a lot of people forget that Walt commented that Wily needed to change his approach and up his OBP when he was signed and that Walt and Quirk thought it was fixable. So far, Wily is doing a great job. Maybe they looked at Reed and others and decided they had no upside that could be fixed.

I mean, it's like Schrourek is a better bet to be fixable than Jimmy Anderson.
A smart GM tries to place educated bets instead of just throwing random players against the wall and hoping they will stick. So far, Walt has been right, and I think the criitcisim needs to be reserved at this point.

[REDREAD]

But you could have had him for some bellybutton lint that looked like Willie Stargell.

Not so sure about that. Why would the Pirates give him away, considering he is still so cheap? You are making the case that he's comparable to Taveras. If that's the case, the Pirates are getting a 3 million dollar/year player for almost minimum salary. They aren't going to give that away for lint.

[Falls City Beer]

Morgan was drafted by the Pirates and is still in their organization. He's just entering his third year. We would've had to give up something to trade to get him. I must admit, I don't know a whole lot about him, but he's only been in 45 games in CF for his entire career (and about the same on the corners)

Jeremy Reed is a step down from Taveras, but in all fairness, he is a cheaper player. I guess I will concede that one as a possible option, but he's not exactly an upgrade.. cheaper perhaps, but certainly a lower floor if he was given playing time too.

I think a lot of people forget that Walt commented that Wily needed to change his approach and up his OBP when he was signed and that Walt and Quirk thought it was fixable. So far, Wily is doing a great job. Maybe they looked at Reed and others and decided they had no upside that could be fixed.

I mean, it's like Schrourek is a better bet to be fixable than Jimmy Anderson.
A smart GM tries to place educated bets instead of just throwing random players against the wall and hoping they will stick. So far, Walt has been right, and I think the criitcisim needs to be reserved at this point.

Neither Morgan nor Reed has ever been a fulltime player either. It's an apple and trucks comparison.

Walt has so far been right about Nix, Hernandez, Taveras, Masset, Rhodes.

The guy's made a career out of stomping other teams' guts at the margins of his rosters. While other teams get 50 innings of Majewski, Jocketty's teams get 70 innings of Masset; while some teams get 350 ABs of Juan Castro, Jocketty's teams get the same number of ABs from guys like Nix or Placido Palanco. Status quo for him. I'm not feelin' the Walt-hate either.

[REDREAD]

It all comes down to his OB. If it's above .350, he's doing enough of his job to keep it. If it's below .325 then the Reds could have found his level of speed and defense for the major league minimum.

so, over 500 plate appearances, that's just a difference of 12.5 walks/singles.

12.5 walks is the difference between a 3 million dollar player and a 350k player? Seems like noise to me over 162 games.

IMO, it's more complicated than OBP to dictate whether Tavares is earning his money or not. The guy is on pace to score over 100 runs. Even though that is a counting stat and not good for comparing him vs his peers, if he scores 100 runs for this offensive challenged team, he's a bargain. Phillips and Dunn were the only two Reds to score 100 or more runs last year.