The Padres will sign Jody Gerut to a minor league deal, according to Tom Krasovic of AOL FanHouse (on Twitter). The Brewers, who released Gerut earlier in the month, are about to face off against the Padres. Oddly enough, the Brewers acquired Gerut from the Padres last year for Tony Gwynn Jr., who happened to hit the disabled list today.
Gerut, 32, has not played in a major league game since May 22nd. He posted a .197/.230/.366 line with two homers in 74 plate appearances this year, before he missed two months with a heel injury.
So techincally, they acquired Tony Gwynn Jr. for a cycle, a few home runs, some good times with a stanford grad, and about 3 months worth of DL time. In exchange, they got the best defensive outfielder in Baseball, a catylyst, and a ton of WAR.
And a .611 OPS?
A catalyst and a ton of WAR? Come on man. Gwynn has had a good year in the field but he is awful offensively and his track record isn’t that great for defense anyway. I dont see Gwynn’s season ending injury as a bad thing.
Not a bad thing? Is that some kind of a joke? The Padres are a great team. The greatest aspect of the Padres is their defense. Gwynn was our best defender. HUGE loss.
1. The Padres are in 1st place and he is a reason for that so when you say his injury isn’t a pad thing, I’m guessing your making a joke.
2. he has had some huge clutch hits for the Padres. he’s worth 2.0 WAR. He also steals bases and again, is a catylyst for the entire team.
1. Gwynn is the reason the Pads are in first? Give me a break. Its not a joke.2. Huge clutch hits? Catalyst? What are you talking about. He isnt even good enough to crack the starting line-up.Fact of the matter is much better players will now get to play with Gwynn out. Gwynn’s good defense still wasnt enough to make up for his putrid offense.
So I’m guessing you don’t watch the Padres play.
I agree with you that he is an important asset to the team. His defense is great, and without a doubt it is one of the elements that have kept the Pads at the top of the division, but he isn’t a good offensive player, and he isn’t a catalyst. His defense is just good enough to offset his poor offensive line. It’s never a good thing to see any player go down with an injury, but the Pads aren’t crippled by this injury.
Apparently you dont watch them play. They have rattled off wins and Gwynn hasnt been starting.
The problem with WAR is that is relies far too heavily on a stat, UZR, that fangraphs readily admits needs a 3 year sample size to be considered reliable. Tony Gwynn is a fantastic example of this when compared to another center fielder, Andrew McCutcheon. Casual baseball fans to professional scouts would all rather take McCutcheon between the two, but, alas, they have virtually the same WAR (Gwynn – 2.0, McCutcheon – 2.1). Also, from watching McCutcheon, he looks to be a more than capable CF’er and could be far above average. He has excellent speed and doesn’t seem to take bad routes or get bad jumps, so why does UZR not like his defense this year? I’m not interested in doing the research at the moment, but my point is that while fangraphs values both players (almost) equally, you really need to evaluate where that value is coming from. Defense has so much less impact on the game than offense and WAR treats them as equals factors when attempting to determine the overall value of a player.
You can have him, Gerut sucks! He was out for 3-months with a heel bruise. Come on man!
He’s a decent outfielder and can play centerfield but he can replace Gywnn and also Willy Mo Pena and Jody could be September 1st call up and be good for the Padres
Okay, you can make jokes or whatever, but according to UZR/150, Gwynn is the best defensive player in Baseball. According to UZR, 3rd best defensive outfielder in Baseball.
Right, because batting average is the only thing that matters.
Because this line is beautiful .212/.313/.299/.611
Defense my friend, defense.
Never use UZR/150.
Okay, we’ll he is 3rd among outfielders in UZR and I’m not the biggest UZR fan myself, but I think uzr is only good for judging outfielders
No. Seriously, do you want me to explain?
Listen, the Padres rely on 3 things…Pitching, defense, and timely hitting. The Padres aren’t asking Gwynn to hit .330, the expectation is to do what he does, and quite frankly, he is among several reasons why the Padres are in 1st. The Padres had a good platoon of Denorfia and Gwynn and they were great in their respective role, but when it comes to Gwynn, his defense and speed is really his game. And that will be missed, expecially in spacious Petco.
So back to UZR, again, I barely refer to UZR, but in Gwynn’s case, that is how I think it’s fair to judge his play.
He actually was pretty bad, at least in his time (that he wasn’t on the DL) with the Brewers.
His stats this year .197BA/.230OBP. These are great stats for an extra major league outfielder? He’s been crap since the Brewers acquired him for Tony Gwynn Jr. What a waste of 2 million! You’re telling me there is no one better for 2 million? I find that hard to believe!
You’re right. The Padres do rely on pitching, defense, timely hitting as well as good baserunning. In Gwynn they lose the defense and the speed. Since the Padres are in Milwaukee, maybe they should ask about the availabiklity of Carlos Gomez. He is a clone of Gwynn except from the right side. The Padres can’t expect Denorfia to patrol center all the time. The Padres will surely miss Gwynn in the clubhouse, but if they get Gomez they may not miss as much on the field.
Good idea. he’d have to pass through waivers first though. Not sure if he would.
Hairston, Venable, Denorfia and Cunningham can all handle CF.
Losing Gwynn is not as huge as you people make it out to be. Anyone with a pulse puts up better offensive #’s than Gwynn and his defense isnt good enough to make up for it. He was on the team for one reason, his name. His speed (not blazing fast) and defense (which wasnt good before this year) are nice, but Luis Durango is faster has a similar skill set now, but is younger with way more upside.
Fact of the matter is, the team continues to win without Gwynn starting and they will continue to win without him on the roster. They dont need to pick up a clone of Gwynn. They have better players that will ow get that playing time, which wasnt much right now anyway.
I believe he’s down in AAA right now, so he may just sneak through. Gomez would be just what the Doctor ordered.
Seriously? Come on man.
Listen, Gwynn and Denorfia had a really good platoon going. No one asked Gwynn to hit 300 he’s fulfilling the expectation
Down the stretch I hope we don’t miss Gwynn late in close games. It doesn’t really matter how his defense was before this season, what matters is how he played this season. Unfortunately non of the guys you mentioned can cover ground the way Gwynn can and has this year. I beleive the knock on Durango, even with all of his speed, takes bad routes to balls. Something you don’t really want to do in Petco. Go Padres.