Dobbs DFA

Greg Dobbs was designated for assignment today. Let’s take a look at him.

Dobbs broke into the majors in 2005 as a 25-year-old with the Seattle Mariners, he’d eventually find his way to Philadelphia and in 2007 he received enough playing him time to hit 10 homers with a .335 wOBA in more than 350 plate appearances. The next year he’d be restricted to mostly pinch hitting, a role he’s since been confined to, and he’d post a .354 wOBA with nine homers. Generally speaking, you don’t expect a player to hit more home runs the less time he sees, but Dobbs did that. In 2009 everything seemed to fall apart and in 2010 he’s got a higher on-base percentage (.222) than wOBA (.218) in 73 plate appearances.

Of his 1,078 career plate appearances, 261 are of the pinch hit variety. That’s about a quarter of the time that Dobbs went to the plate he was in a role where offensive performance is expected to decrease by something like 10%. Suffice to say, Dobbs’ raw numbers (.312 wOBA) would be understandable if they sold him a little below his true talent level based on poor inch hitting numbers. Oddly, though, Dobbs had a slash line as a pinch hitter of .251/.314/.413 for his career; almost equal to his starter slash line of .269/.311/.418.

ZiPS has him hitting less than league average (.319 wOBA) which is really all that matters with Dobbs because defensively he’s a sub-par third baseman without much playing time elsewhere. Weak beat, weak glove, will travel isn’t the most attractive classified ad, but it’s the one Dobbs will submit while on the waiver wire. Odds are, he’s heading to Triple-A, but some team might fall in love with his 2008 and give him a shot.