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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Nick Punto: backup or starter?
Since I got on Joe’s case for calling Nate McLouth a 4th outfielder, I’ll get on Jack’s case here for calling Punto:
He’s a great bench player who can adequately fill in at any non-1B infield position, but any team that starts him wont’ be a perennial playoff contender. That is, unless that team’s catcher is Joe Mauer.
What’s strange is that Jack made the case of how underappreciated Punto is. He did a great job at highlighting everything. Then he made a mistake in his conclusions: he called him a great bench player (I’m not sure what that means on its own, because Pujols would be a great bench player too), but based on the rest of his statement, it’s clear he means that he should only start when needed, but a team cannot count on him to start every game if they intend to make the playoffs. This conclusion came out of nowhere.
He’s a career 8.6 WAR in 2530 PA, or an average of 2.4 WAR per 162 G. He is going to turn 32 years old, which is the only reason to POSSIBLY think of him as a bench player (or at least a platoon candidate). But, Jack didn’t talk about his age at all. Otherwise, I think Jack’s conclusion is unsupported.