...there's also been rumblings about Hicks being a "head case"...and though he's listed as a switch hitter, he's not a very good one because he still sucks vs RHed pitching when batting from the left side of the plate.
...last year's (.235 .302 .359 .661) still = suckage, especially from a corner OFer. For his career it's even worse. (.206 .284 .311 .596)...,maybe he needs to bat RHed all the time and forget about trying to be a switch hitter...for now, he's a platoon player, and rightly so.
...it seems that derogatory splits somehow apply to Dickerson but not to Hicks...hmmm...deja vu...and I was not the one who touted Dickerson as "a future batting champion". That was a quote from an article and I'm far from the only person who thinks the Rays made a great trade. ...and the reason Dickerson was traded was because Colorado had a surplus of corner OFers...and TB acquired him very cheaply...looks like my point was unintentionally proven.
...as far as Murphy, not many catchers hit better than .277 last year. In fact, he had the highest BA of any AL catcher with 150 PAs or more. He's also a solid defender and the pitchers like pitching with him in there.
I know you weren't the one attributed with touting Dickerson as a possible future batting champion. And I know Dickerson is clearly the better more accomplished hitter than Hicks......while Hicks, 26 yrs old has yet to play more than 97 games in a season (last year) and has had 819 ABs stretched over three seasons, I would think it's still too early to label him as a type of career platoon backup player.
As for Dickerson, I was merely pointing out his lopsided stats away from Coors Field and vs LHP in regards to him being a possible "future batting champ", and there have been other "Coors Field hitters" in the past - but I do think the kid generally has shown to be a good hitter.
As for Hicks- yes indeed he has sucked vs RHP but let's just consider last season when he played more ( 97g) than his previous two seasons.
Hicks overall, .256 BA/ .721 OPS
Gardner .259 BA/ .742 OPS
Yes Hicks sucked vs RHP, .236/.663.....
....but was outstanding vs LHP, .307/.870 OPS.
And it's not a fair comparison of Hicks and Chris Young.
Young over a 10 year career has batted .
263/.837 OPS vs LHP, not so overwhelming is it?
...has batted just .
224/ .704 OPS vs RHP...... poor.
Maybe we shouldn't expect Hicks to continue to bat .307/ .870 OPS throughout his career vs LHP.....but it's reasonable to expect him to do "well" vs LHP and if he can raise his BA 15 or so points vs RHP as he gains more ABs and playing time, he'll be a good productive player who has already established ability to help the team with his glove and speed/SB..... he stole 13/16 bases in just 97 games and has a career 74% success rate at stealing bases....nothing to sneeze at, Gardy stole 20/25 bases in 151 games. Hicks is also insurance against injury to any of the outfielders......and I don't think it's ridiculous to say Hicks could eventually earn more playing time or outright take over a position.
And there's still a possibility Gardy won't finish his contract as a Yankee.
We may not like the Murphy trade or believe Trashman should've gotten more in return for him, but it's done......let's see how it turns out.
