Giants Advise Winn To Seek Employment Elsewhere

Those are his 2008 stats, which I am guessing you got because baseball-reference is not showing 2009 stats right now (easy mistake to make). I'm guessing they're recalculating park factors right now.

His actually slash stats for '09 were: .262/.318/.353.

As a Cubs fan, is he not the perfect fit? Not a bad guy, great OF defense, and can hit near the top of the order.
Hopefully Hendry can do something to get him, if he hasn't already wiped out all of the Cubs money for the next four years.

Had to do a double take when I read his line. Knew it wasn't correct.

Winn is a solid player who will have no trouble finding a starting gig. There aren't many teams out there that wouldn't benefit from acquiring him.

I was already thinking about the Yanks maybe kicking the tires on Winn if Damon doesn't work out. Another switch hitter in the lineup who gives you quality at bats and plays terrific defense.

actually cycub... Mike Cameron is the perfect fit... the guy may hit .250 but he still hits 20+ HR and 85+ RBI... Mike Cameron 1 yr. 7MM gives Tyler Colvin a chance to get 400+ ABs in AAA and be ready for opening day 2010...

And based on your comments, Bredberg, I see you are from the "hypocrite" department

Winn could be an interesting option for many teams this offseason. He'll come cheaply and won't require a long contract. If I were Billy Smith, I would attempt to trade Young while his value is up due to his solid second half and take on Winn for one year with an option. Winn would be fine near the bottom of the order and help shore up the defensive problems in the outfield, while ridding Young who is likely to dissapoint this next season and eventually be replaced by one of the young OFs in the system anyway.

Am I reading FanGraphs right? Is it saying last year Randy Winn was a +40.6 UZR/150 as a left fielder? I know you expect more pop out of your LF, but holy crap.

Winn is at an age where you can't assume his 2009 output is a fluke. It's very likely he's hit a wall. That .671 OPS in 538 ab's is telling and troubling. He can still steal bases though at not nearly a high enough rate to offset his poor .OPS and while his defense is good anyone starting him for that is going to end up with a net negative if he really has hit a wall offensively. I could see teams taking a chance on him as a backup but anyone starting him and putting him at or near the top of the order is taking a big chance.

Any Giants fan saw this one coming. We need power out of RF. He had a down year, he usually ends the season at or around .300. He would be a good pickup for any team. Seems like a decent guy as well. Good luck Randy.

I agree that Winn is not exactly suited to be a #2 hitter in a lineup at this point in his career. However, he is a switch-hitter that has been a good contact hitter for a long time, with excellent defense. He screams fourth outfielder/defensive replacement on a good team.

He might be a good fit back in Seattle?

"Am I reading FanGraphs right? Is it saying last year Randy Winn was a +40.6 UZR/150 as a left fielder? I know you expect more pop out of your LF, but holy crap."

Yeah, but its a fairly small sample size that obviously had an outlier in it. He mainly played RF, where he still posted an impressive 17.4. And his overall 20.1 is pretty sick. But I think the most amazing thing is that his defense still only resulted in a 1.7 WAR overall - wow was his bat ever horrific last season.

Probably a fluke as far as the bat goes, and his Defense has been the same the last two seasons - so worth a gamble on a short (ideally 1 year) deal for someone.

Reading his aggregate OF UZR/150 as "a stellar +20.1" can be more than a bit misleading, Mike.

You see, Randy Winn -- as a highly utilized outfielder -- did not play only one outfield position; rather, he spent a fair amount of time at all three. That's the obvious part. Here's what is not.

Winn played 1191 relative innings in the OF this season. 770 of those innings, or about 65% of his playing time, was done in RF, where he registered a +9.6 UZR, a +17.4 UZR/150. That's good for 4th on the straight UZR list of RF's who played minimum 750 innings at the position, and would put him first on the UZR/150 list for RF's. So this confirms what the common assumption is so far: Winn is one of the top RF's in the league, with a superb range and relatively strong sure-handedness.

Now let's take a look at his LF stats. Here's where it can get a little deceiving. His LF numbers make up about 27% of his aggregate OF numbers, and they're in a word equivocal. His straight UZR, +7.9, is really huge considering the small amount of time he spent at the position, but you have to keep in mind how UZR is measured. His performance is weighted against league average, which is tainted by the fielding production of such stiff bodies as Manny Ramirez and Adam Dunn, among many, many others. They sink the standard of league average like lead in an airplane. Utilizing Winn's UZR/150 for his LF numbers (+40.6) is utterly ridiculous, as his time spent borders on "sample size," and it really tells us nothing other than Randy Winn would be one of the best left fielders in the league if he played there full time, which is like bragging about being the tallest person at a midget party with a height of 5' 10".

The last 8% or so of Winn's time in the OF was spent in CF, where he stunk in a minuscule amount of time. Bump that out to career cumulative numbers, and you can see that that's a current trend of the last few years with Winn, who has a combined -7.2 UZR over about 450 innings the last few years in CF. Basically, when compared against the league's CF's, Winn has a lesser range and a considerably worse arm (which is surprising, considering he has a slightly above-average arm when weighted against RF's).

All in all, what is told of Winn is that he is probably a lock to be a top 15 RF and a top 10 LF, considering regression due to age. His defense in CF is horrible, though, and his appetizer sized numbers in LF influence his aggregate OF numbers in a very deceiving way, which is why I tend to disregard OF UZR's completely (given that a LF is not the same as a CF is not the same as a RF).

While Winn is a very good OF -- and I'll even go so far as to call him 'great' -- he is not going to be putting up +20 UZR/150's at any one set position over an extended period of time anytime soon.

I think Winn would be a very good choice as someones 4th OF or the LH side of a corner platoon situation.

Dbacks:

John Dewan's Fielding Bible is, in my opinion, much more reliable in rating defense. Here's a summary of Winn's Fielding Bible Plus/Minus ratings over the last 3 years combined:
LF (565 IP): EVEN
CF (456.2 IP): -6
RF (2747.1 IP): +38

Winn is obviously most comfortable in RF where he is a top 10 fielder. He's an average LF, and a below average CF. UZR over less than about 1000 IP, is a crap shoot. Note: +38 means Winn made an astounding 38 more plays than the 'average' MLB LF over the last three years.

As a giants fan I will say that Randy Winn is a great guy and club house presence but with that said...I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER TO HEAR THE NEWS THAT HE WILL NOT BE COMING BACK!!