Magglio Ordonez benched, but for how long?
posted in 2009 season |The other big announcement today by Jim Leyland was the benching of Magglio Ordonez.
Obviously, Ordonez hasn’t been getting the job done lately. He had a hot May, but that might have been a bit of luck as much as anything. Lately, he’s pretty much earned the nickname “GIDP” because he keeps putting the ball on the ground. If he’s not hitting into a double play, either there were no base runners, or there were two outs. Yesterday, not only was he bad at the plate but he really bungled a fly to the right field wall that the better Tigers outfielders likely would have had. Watching the games alone tells you he’s no good.
For the sabermetric fans out there, Fangraphs tells a nice story. Ordonez ranks behind Josh Anderson and Clete Thomas, as for the value to the team.
ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark mentioned Ordonez in a column today:
The not-so-big O: He has fewer extra-base hits than Joe Thurston. He has a lower slugging percentage than Anderson Hernandez. He has fewer home runs than Brendan Harris. And no, we’re not talking about David Ortiz. We’re talking about another fallen bopper who has somehow stayed off America’s radar screen, Magglio Ordonez (.273 AVG./.343 SLG/2 HR/11 XBH).
“He might be Big Papi’s biggest fan,” said one scout, “because Big Papi has taken all the attention away from him. I’m not sure what happened, but this guy has aged a lot quicker than the norm. I don’t see him getting better. I see him getting worse. I don’t see the ball jumping off his bat at all. He’s up there now, and he’s just content to look for the breaking ball and hit soft line drives the other way. It’s almost like he’s playing hit-and-run every at-bat.”
Given the Tigers have the possibility of owing Ordonez $18M next year if he reaches certain milestones for plate appearances (Billfer has those exact numbers), there’s a lot at play right now. First off, this is the right baseball decision. The Tigers cannot keep playing him when he stymies the offense so much and contributes little to the defense. Second, if he’s really this bad this year due to aging or whatever, letting that large amount of salary kick in next season could really hurt. They have to get this figured out for the good of now and later.
So my only question is, how long is this benching for? I noticed last week Ordonez had three days off in seven. The extra rest did not exactly help him overcome what ails him. Is he going to start off on the bench most nights? Is this just for one night? Is this going to spill into the clubhouse?
There’s a lot of questions still left unanswered.
Update 7:20 p.m.: Steve Kornacki of Booth Newspapers shares a few quotes in his story. This could be several days worth of benching, for one, because everyone is a bit puzzled about the batting slump and Leyland thinks Ordonez needs a few days away from it all. And Ordonez’s take:
“Yeah, it will help to relax and not think too much. Everything is OK in (batting practice) and in the game I try to do too much.”Ordonez was asked if he, at times, was trying to hit two home runs with one swing of the bat to make up for his lack of production.
“Yeah,” he said, “I feel like I am trying to do that sometimes.”
I expect him to bounce back unless he is hurt. I dont understand why nobody is mentioning Placido. Those mere 24 ribbies would be a bit more if polanco could get on base a like usual. But, everyone is suffering right now. I am glad we are going though all of this now instead of hitting this slump in september! Glad to get this out of the way, make the changes and pick up the pieces with over half a season to go while we are in first place!!
Maggs might have more RBIs if he wasn’t near the top of the MLB in doubles played grounded into. Even when he’s got runners on, it’s a light tap to the second baseman. Polanco is certainly another problem, second in the order with less than a .300 OBP. (Why not put Inge there? Scary thought, of course, but his OBP was around .365 last I looked.)
It would be best for the Tigers if Magglio returns to form, that’s for sure. But if he doesn’t, his defense doesn’t justify his lack of offense any more.
Yeah you are right. I recall hearing about Maggs being near the top in that category. Forgot about that. Lucky for him, Polancos not been on base as much. Turns out that would make Maggs look even worse.
What about that scout saying Maggs is only going to get worse? Hard to believe. This guy had almost two seasons off a few years back. Hope that helps him in the long run. Just hard to imagine those amazing fantastic numbers he put up in 2007..not even two full seasons ago…was the beginning of a very quick ending for him.
I agree with you on the scout. I’m getting sick of anonymous scouts running their mouths like they’re big stuff, because it’s always an exaggeration. That said, that a player can drop off in his mid-30s doesn’t surprise me. I’m surprised at the extent, maybe, but not surprised that it’s happening.
Remember Higgy? Historically, this kind of thing (lost bat speed causing a sudden end to a slugger’s career) has been a pretty common way for careers to wrap up. Boog Powell, anyone? That’s the reason long contracts to 30-somethings are so risky. I would not be surprised if we look back 20 years from now and see that the ’steroid era’ was notable as much for guys like Palmeiro avoiding age-related decline as the plentiful dingers. That era is over – and while I certainly hope (against all available evidence) that it’s not happening to Maggs… it probably is. There is no replacement for him, either. The Tigers O will live or die with Magglio. As for Polanco, he never provided much besides singles and doubles and sometimes those just don’t fall – it could be all bad luck.
Nice reference to Higgy, Chris. I just glanced at his stats again for old time’s sake and man, we’d take those out of Ordonez right now. And yet by the end, I just remember how awful he was. So that really says something about Maggs this season.
As far as Maggs and steroids, I don’t know. A lot of people want to jump to that conclusion. And I don’t blame them for being skeptical of every player from the era on general principle. But until his name appears on a list, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. He’s also a guy that had a unique knee surgery five years ago. Maybe it’s finally catching up to him.
Scott Sizemore just could be a replacement for Polanco, if necessary. As for Maggs, keep hoping trade. Otherwise, the team gets a little better offensively without him in the line, but not much, and a lot better defensively. Certainly it’s not ideal. I’d rather have Maggs hitting like his old self again.
Hold on, you missed the point I was trying to make. I wasn’t suggesting that Maggs had been a PED user – I was suggesting that if there were currently no testing regime in place that the ‘Cream & Clear’ Maggs could probably have offset this sort of age-related slippage by starting to use PEDs. The impression that I have gotten is that many players, like Bonds, Palmeiro, Clemens, Sosa – even ARod started using 5-10 years ago for exactly that reason. As fans, I think we started to think that old adages about what to expect from older players didn’t hold true anymore due to modern conditioning. We’re going to have to get used to the idea that 35-year old players tend to decline (and even collapse) again.
Whoops, I did read that wrong. Sorry about that.
Nice call on Higgy. I always wondered if he just physically lost it or mentally lost it. That guy played for a horrible and atrocious organization his whole career. I liked to think he was just whipped emotionally. Got to think wallowing in loserland can have some effects on people.