Hinske Remains in Atlanta
In recent years, Eric Hinske has become nothing more than a bench player. Is being a reserve a disappointing career arc for a man with the 2002 Rookie of the Year award? Perhaps, but Hinske is notable for reasons outside of his potential’s steep demise.
One of those reasons is Hinske’s catholicity towards money. Evan Longoria credits Hinske for advising him to make his first million as quickly as possible. Clearly Hinske understands the time value of money. As such, it should be no surprise that Hinske signed relatively early in the offseason. What is a surprise, though, is the length and amount of dollars that Hinske received.
Say what you will about Frank Wren’s résumé during his time as Braves’ General Manager. One of his strengths is transparent in his ability to re-sign valuable bench players below market value; an attribute that both Omar Infante and David Ross can attest to its existence. It appears he pulled the trick once more from his hat with this Hinske deal, which calls for $1.35 million in 2011 and has the Braves holding a club option worth $1.5 million in 2012 (the alternative is a $100 thousand buyout).
Since 2006 (his first season with fewer than 400 plate appearances; a total he has topped once since) Hinske’s wOBA have been .357, .316, .347, .344, and .341. Such consistency makes Hinske a dependable above average hitter with the capability to play each of the corner positions (although his third base play is enough to Molière faint). Add in that Hinske bats lefty and his stock rises from total benchwarmer to someone with a platoon split who could step into the starting lineup without embarrassing himself against most starting pitchers.
That combination of skills has resulted in at least a half a win in each of those bench-riding seasons except one, which means Hinske would be worth something like 2-to-2.5 million on the open market if everyone believes a half-win is his true talent level. He will not be paid nearly that well. Instead, Hinske will make the wages of a player with an expected value of a third of a win; with the job security to boot. Maybe Hinske is a fan of going year-to-year, but in a market where Geoff Blum received two, wasn’t someone willing to give Hinske the same consideration?
If nothing else, Hinske is worth the salary should Freddie Freeman or Jason Heyward take his financial advice to heart as strongly as Longoria.
I never got the David Ross contract. I feel like he could start for more than a few major league teams, but took less to remain backup catch on the Braves. It’s always been weird to me.
Infante was just a nice find.
Hinske I get– he’s fat. I know, I know, it sounds dumb. But think about it: he’s being paid as a PH/backup 1B, not a starter, and not a backup 3B, LF, or RF. Yes, fangraphs says his bat outweighed his defensive shortcomings. But GMs see a 798 OPS (which isn’t very good at a corner outfield spot or 1B) and a fat guy who can’t move in the outfield.
That’s not a guy you can make a starter, and not a guy you trust to fill in the outfield for more than a game or two. The Fan Scouting Report grades him a 25 in 2010, 22 in 2009, 31 in 2008, and 30 in 2007 (out of 100). He’s routinely graded as one of the worst defensive outfielders in baseball.
I agree that Ross was quite the steal. Perhaps he has personal reasons for wanting to stay with the Braves, or perhaps he prefers his role as a backup catcher because it doesn’t tax his body as much. Either way, as a Braves fan, I’m glad they’ve been able to keep such a high-quality supporting cast on the team for such a relatively low amount these past few years.
As a fellow Braves fan, I too am always excited and reassured by our bench. Ross and Hinske, in particular, are well worth keeping around for their clubhouse presence alone. The team has embraced both, so much so that during the wild card chase last year, both Hinske and Ross were among the players elected to lead a player’s only meeting. Both are class acts and I’m sure as hell glad to have them on board for at least one more season.
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he cannot be worse than adam dunn, though!
True, but he also can’t hit 40 HRs.
I don’t get the “say what you will” comment regarding Wren’s tenure as Braves GM. Seems backhanded. Outside of the Kawakami and possibly Lowe deals, I’d say he’s made some incredibly shrewd moves.
I completely agree with this. In a superstar culture, Wren isn’t going to get a lot of credit, but he’s been the perfect match for Cox. He is incredibly gifted at building a bullpen, the Braves’ bench/depth is always among the most versatile and he generally squeezes very good value out of in-season deals.
I think the biggest marks since taking the reins in Atlanta are not the Lowe and Kawakami deals at all. I don’t tend to think of those as being particularly imprudent and they didn’t set the team back long-term by much (if at all). Instead, I think the hardest pills to swallow looking backward are deals for Teixeira (both to acquire him from Texas and send him to Anaheim) and Alex Gonzalez. But two bad trades don’t make him a bad GM.
Schuerholz made the trade to bring Teixeira to Atlanta, not Wren. I still can’t get over the Gonzo/Yunel swap though, ugh.
Schuerholz also seems to have arranged the trade that sent Edgar Renteria to Detroit for Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez, which Wren consummated in one of his first acts as GM. But nearly as impressive was the trade that sent Jose Ascanio to the Cubs for Omar Infante and Will Ohman, both of whom proceeded to have career years in a Braves uniform.
Braves fleeced the Cubs again? That’s like taking candy from a clueless GM.
Yeah Wren gave up a middle(ing) reliever for Infante & Ohman, got a career year out of both, then used Infante and another middl(ing) reliever to get a year out of one of the 3 best hitting 2nd baseman in baseball (His name is DAN UGGLA!!!). Frank Wren has been nothing short of awesome so far as the Braves GM.. Even the Derek Lowe signing that I hated is looking pretty good halfway through it (the guy carried us down the stretch this year)…
Granted, the Lowe deal doesn’t look very bad after this past year. He really picked it up, and was spectacular in the postseason. If he can duplicate that success next year, he is well worth the money spent.
I think that at the least Wren has been defensible. Yunel was bad and apparently the need to get him out of the locker roomwas great, he had no leverage when trying to move Tex (and the guy was to good to risk offering arby to). He may have over paid for Lowe and Kawakami, buy nobody saw Lowe as a real threat to bottom out, he’d been remarkably consistent, and the market put a premium on pitching that year (the Red Sox were right in that hunt). What really amazes me is his seemingly strong grasp if bullpens, he seems to understand the transient nature of bullpen success like few other GMs. Following JS was a tall order, but Wrenhas done well.
I know that team chemistry and all that is way overrated by most fans, but Yunel Escobar was apparently a truly toxic presence in the clubhouse. I remember what Joe Simpson said on the Braves broadcast about Gonzalez’s arrival in Atlanta. Simpson said that Gonzalez got a standing ovation from the team when he entered the locker room, indicating how they felt about Yunel being replaced. That’s pretty telling, and it wasn’t just Simpson who reported that sort of sentiment.
Gotta get your facts straight. Schuerholz was the GM on the Teixeira deal. Period. Wren was the GM on the Jurrjens deal. Period. JS even gave Frank credit for that one, saying, “Frank’s really proud of that deal. And he should be.”
Gonzalez is a solid shortstop with some sock. Given that Bobby was going to physically choke Escobar if he saw him cadillac another play, it was a good deal.
Frank overpaid for Lowe, but he had to in the circumstances at the time. Probably knew it when he did it. And in Lowe’s words, he hasn’t “exactly been tragic.”
I’d give Wren a solid “A”.
But I suppose it was okay when Alex Gonzalez jogged to first base on a line drive in the playoffs? The Braves did their best to demonize Yunel Escobar, who had been an extremely popular player just the year before.
So you’re pointing to one instance of Yunel’s replacement appearing that Yunel might have done. That doesn’t make your point right.
I distinctly remember Gonzalez being over-praised almost directly after the trade commenced, by Cox and his teammates alike.
It’s one thing if the manager does it, because he could have it in for a player. It was certainly plausible that Cox didn’t like Escobar from the get-go and was looking for any excuse to put him in the doghouse. However, when the players start to do the same thing as the manager, something’s wrong.
“potential’s steep demise” – “steep demise” doesn’t make any sense and seems like a muddled conflation of “steep decline” and maybe “quick demise.”
Scratching my head at catholicity. “The condition or quality of being catholic; breadth or inclusiveness”? Maybe just conservativeness or caution would have worked better?
“can attest to its existence” should just end after “attest to”
The Moliere reference is cute but “make” is missing from right before his name
I always see these errors and never comment because I assume that someone else will. Thank you for saving me from giving in to my English Major instincts!
Concur. Sometimes the writing here feels like a high school English class, where students fall in love with adjectives, adverbs and “wink-wink, how smart am I?” metaphors. If you have to reach for a thesaurus, slap your hand.