Iguchi Wants To Remain At 2B

According to Jim Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies asked Tadahito Iguchi about re-signing to play third base in 2008.  He said he wants to stay at second base, so he won't be re-signing with the Phils.  It was a creative thought by the Phillies given the weak market for third basemen.

Where might Iguchi land as a contender for the best free agent second baseman?  The Twins, Mariners, Mets, and Rockies seem like possibilities.

Comments

[ArodSucksAtLife]

Julian Tavarez was passed over for Kyle F'ng Snyder to take Tim Wakefield's spot on the World Series roster. He also failed to show up for a scheduled workout yesterday. This may have a bearing on whether his option is picked up next year by the Red Sox.

[anthoneytheghost]

id put money on the mariners signing kaz matsui, so ill say iguchi ends up a rocky. as i thnik the mets and castillo is essentially a lock and theres a good chance the twins got with casilla and maybe they are this years annual "fall for mark loretta as a good player" team.

[ArodSucksAtLife]

"id put money on the mariners signing kaz matsui"

http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lopezjo01.shtml

He sucks but he's 23, and cheap.

[anthoneytheghost]

im actually a fan of the m's sticking with jose lopez, but i see the mariners as a big time mover and shaker this offseason (i personally believe that they are going to trade for dontrelle willis) and wouldnt be surprised to see them upgrade at second, but at the same time they are the mariners and kaz matsui would be just the kind of misguided quote unquote upgrade that they are famous for. i dunno, i wouldnt be suprised is all.

[ArodSucksAtLife]

Was there a worse hitting infield in baseball this year than the Mariners? Damn they're awful.

[achilles17]

Are the odds of Matsui resigning with the Rockies really that slim? He has been solid for them, and it sounds like he wouldn't mind staying. I wouldn't think he would be terribly expensive, although the Rockies are going to have to save up for when all their guys hit arbitration.

[anthoneytheghost]

also absurdly overpriced as a unit. and if you throw in vidro it becomes really disgusting. almost definitely (havent actually done the math) the least offensive production per dollar spent in the majors this season.

[anthoneytheghost]

"Are the odds of Matsui resigning with the Rockies really that slim?"

i wonder how serious they were about moving ian stewart to second. i dont see it actually happening, but it would be an interesting experiment. i wouldnt absolutely exclude matsui from the rockies, but if i had one guess id take seattle.

[kab21]

I would disagree a little bit on Mariners infield regarding horrible and overpriced. Note the little bit.

Beltre played well offensively and defensively. Not quite at the $12M level, but well. Lopez struggled, but is cheap. Betancourt played well for a cheap SS.

The area that you are right about is 1B/DH. Sexson/Vidro/Broussard make close to $25M and didn't show anything for it. Fortunately all of them will be FA's after the 2008.

I'll refer to these as the Bavasi Bungles.

[anthoneytheghost]

yeah, those are pretty much the guys i was talking about. but a .319 obp from beltre is pretty brutal. id file that one under "at this point ill take whatever he gives" not worth 13 mil, but not terrible.

[Derrick]

got enough ads on this site? lol

[ArodSucksAtLife]

"Beltre played well offensively and defensively. Not quite at the $12M level, "

I actually think Beltre is worth every penny, and would be all for trading for him as a replacement for Lowell this offseason. He is the only thing saving that infield from being epicly awful.

http://ussmariner.com/2007/09/10/the-value-of-adrian-beltre/

[anthoneytheghost]

i dont think that beltre is as good as taht article suggests, but i also dont think hes as bad as alot of people do. reality is somewhere in the middle. i think the red sox can do better at third or first tho.

[WHIPit]

DERRICK:
"""got enough ads on this site? lol"""

Yeah, a whopping TWO ads. It's terrible, huh??

[WHIPit]

Scratch that...THREE ads show at a time. Still.

[gatling]

I don't get to see the Phillies regularly to know, but could Utley be moved to 3B? He's definitely got the kind of bat you'd like to see at the hot corner, and if he could hack it defensively and allow them to keep Iguchi, it would seem to make sense. Anyone here watch the Phillies religiously? Is Utley to good to move off of 2B? Could he handle 3B?

[ranholland]

remember the Astros might be in the market for 2B. the astros infield would look much better with Berkman-Iguchi-Everett-Wigginton than a Berkman-BURKE-Everett-Wigginton. Just being an astros fan.

[anthoneytheghost]

one of the things that makes utley so immensely valuable is that he can produce so well while at the same time playing a very good defensive 2nd base. you wouldnt move a guy like that for iguchi, utley gives the phillies the freedom to settle for league average production at third cause his production is so far above league average at second.

[zs190]

Utley scored really high on the defensive metrics if I recall correctly, seems counterproductive to move him to a new position when he's really really good at what he does and you take a defensive hit at both positions.

Makes sense for Iguchi to want to stay at 2B, he's comfortable playing there and his offense is much more valuable at 2B than 3B.

[Tim Dierkes]

I did put a new ad up top. But I also took out the ads where various words within the posts were double-underlined. Those ads sucked.

Also I used to have a square ad in every post but for the time being I'm just doing the first two. Seems a reasonable tradeoff.

[djskilbr]

Ya, I don't see the Twins going for a 2b in FA either. Both Casilla and Tolbert have a chance to be pretty good, and are about ready, and the Twins (at least Gardentool) seem to believe in Punto some, foolishly.

[ArodSucksAtLife]

"I did put a new ad up top."

Don't respond, you're fine.

[plh903]

Moving Utley would be retarded.

Did Ensberg to the Phillies not get talked about? That seems like it would have made a ton of sense.

[IowaCubs]

Seems like the Rox would get more value out of an aging Kaz Matsui than they would out of an average Iguchi.

Moving Utley to 3rd wouldn't be a terrible idea.

[jza1218]

What about the Padres?

I can see SD signing him to a short-term deal to man second.

It's relatively close to large Asian populations and is a contending ballclub every year.

[PhillyRocks]

Stop with the Utley to 3B bull. They tried that in the minors and it didn't work. What is the difference if the offense comes from 2nd or 3rd? You can get a better offensive and defensive 3B then Iguchi, which would make the team better. Don't you think?

[ae]

Utley played third for one season in the minors (when the Phils were trying to find a Rolen replacement) and was pretty bad there - .918 FP and 28 E in 123 games. that ship has sailed.

[nrmax88]

How about Victorino/Bourne to SD for Headley if Cameron leaves. Could make sense for both sides.

[H0RAT!0SANZSERIF]

I want Gooch back in Chicago. And while we're at it, swap Crede for Bourn + cash.