Calhoun: Breakout Candidate

[LAAMike]

I do not understand the hate for JB Schuck.  At .293 he was a very welcome addition to our depleted lineup.  Sure he does not have a lot of power but strikes out significantly less that Kole Calhoun.  The OBP of .347 vs .331 is not that big an advantage for Kole Calhoun.  Still, I am excited to see what Kole can do. 

[Angelsjunky]

I do not understand the hate for JB Schuck.  At .293 he was a very welcome addition to our depleted lineup.  Sure he does not have a lot of power but strikes out significantly less that Kole Calhoun.  The OBP of .347 vs .331 is not that big an advantage for Kole Calhoun.  Still, I am excited to see what Kole can do. 

 

I don't think its as much hate for Shuck as dissonance beween how much Scioscia seems to love him as a "plucky white guy" and how good he actually is. Shuck did well last year, but that .293 BA is pretty deceptive - it was an empty .293 with no power or walks, and his defense was rather suspect, as evidenced by his mediocre 0.5 fWAR. In other words, Shuck has some value but would be relatively easy to replace - there are a lot of similar players in the high minors. He reminds me of another Orlando Palmeiro - a solid 4th outfielder but if he's getting more than 2-300 PA, then something's wrong.

 

Anyhow, the problem with players with good BA and nothing else is that when the hits don't come they have nothing to fall back on. That said Shuck's 2013 BABIP of .325 could be sustainable, so hopefully he's able to keep his average up. But if it drops to .270 or lower, all of a sudden his value plummets.

[Mark68]

I do not understand the hate for JB Schuck.  At .293 he was a very welcome addition to our depleted lineup.  Sure he does not have any power but strikes out significantly less that Kole Calhoun.  The OBP of .347 vs .331 is not that big an advantage for Kole Calhoun.  Still, I am excited to see what Kole can do. 

Fixed.

 

Honestly, I think the "hate" is more people here knowing that Shuck is what he is...a 4th outfielder, but Scioscia not knowing what he is.

 

If Shuck plays more than Calhoun, for any reason other than Calhoun being injured, most fans will turn into Linda Blair imitations.

[eaterfan]

Shuck will play over Calhoun and Hamilton from time to time. That still makes him a 4th outfielder. Scioscia has always rested his guys and tried to get his bench in the game so they will be ready if they are needed to produce. I expect Shuck to play in about 60 games this season getting about 1.5 starts a week to keep guys fresh, filling in for guys on the DL or who are day to day, and entering the game as a sub. There is nothing wrong with that usage for a 4th outfielder. I think most here will agree but will complain every single time he starts and no one is hurt.

[Troll Daddy]

I'll on the KC bandwagon and would like to see him leading off this coming season. I'm thinking that Freese might be batting second with Trout behind him.

Kole needs to come out of the gate strong to keep MS happy.

[Homebrewer]

Hopefully Dipoto has been watching Scioscia long enough to know what we know...

Best case scenario would be including JB in a package with Kendrick etc, to get he SP/RP we still need, in a trade.

Keeps the draft pick and takes MS's historic stubbornness out of the equation. 

[eaterfan]

The difference between Shuck and Calhoun will be smaller than between Lindsey and Kendrick. Now a pitcher could make up that difference but then you get a huge dropoff with Ibanez playing any innings in the outfield.

[wopphil]

Dipoto could make the decision really easy for Scioscia by simply optioning Shuck to Salt Lake.

[Hollyw00d]

Fixed.

Honestly, I think the "hate" is more people here knowing that Shuck is what he is...a 4th outfielder, but Scioscia not knowing what he is.

If Shuck plays more than Calhoun, for any reason other than Calhoun being injured, most fans will turn into Linda Blair imitations.

he was the angels "defensive player of the year" last season lol...thats all you need to know about the location of their heads (in their @sses)

[LAAMike]

What were the options to playing Schuck last year?  Bourjos was hurt and then Pujols went home which kept Trumbo out of the outfield.  Yes, I agree that he is probably a 4th outfielder but we only had two outfielders for most of the season so we had to play our 4th - cannot blame Mike S for that. 

[Llewyn Davis]

The things is Shuck is extremely limited. He's not a terrible player by any stretch. But he hits for an empty average. No power whatsoever and his OBP was only so-so last year. He's also not a very good outfielder. So his value is pretty much tied to his batting average. Shuck hit 11 points higher than Calhoun last year, yet Calhoun's OPS was over 100 points higher than Shuck's. And there's plenty of room for growth with Calhoun, too.

 

That said, Shuck did demonstrate a much better walk rate in the minors, so you would think he would be more selective moving forward. His OBP could definitely improve, but he won't magically develop power.

 

All you have to do is look at what Shuck and Calhoun each did in the California League and the PCL to see who is the better player and who has more upside.

 

When Shuck played at Lancaster, his ISO was actually below .100. Same with the PCL. That's seriously hard to do. Calhoun might have Alex Gordon upside. To me it's not even close, and that's no disrespect to Shuck, who is probably a league average 4th outfielder.

 

Calhoun should start every game that he is healthy enough to do so. If he needs some rest, Shuck can spell him. Talk of him taking away starts from Calhoun is very discouraging. Hopefully, MS hasn't completely lost his mind.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Llewyn Davis

[LAAMike]

I am certainly not advocating having Schuck take any at bats from Kole, as Schuck is a fourth outfielder.  Let's hope we do not need our fourth outfielder as much this year.  I do not think that it was a case of Mike S being stubborn, just that he did not have any other options last year.