Special Guest Columnist - Jerry Modene
January 3, 2005
Alomar Alright
By Jerry Modene
There's been a lot of talk about how poor a player Roberto Alomar has become these past few years. I thought I'd take a bit of a look at that.
And as it turns out, Alomar *has* struggled, but really, only compared to the level of where he *used* to be.
In the past three seasons, he's hit .266, .258, and .263 in 1277 AB's (335 hits, for a .262 overall average), with 20 HR and 116 RBI and 28 SB.
That *is* lousy - compared to what he used to be able to do.
But then again, it's not bad compared to the other guys the Cardinals are considering:
In the past three seasons, Alex Cora has hit .291, .249, and .264 in 1140 AB (301 hits, for a .264 overall average - the .291 came in a 258-AB season), with 19 HR and 109 RBI and 14 SB.
In the past three seasons, Miguel Cairo has hit ..250, .245, and .292 in 805 AB (215 hits for a .267 overall average), with 13 HR and 97 RBI and 16 SB.
As I say, it's only in comparison to what he used to be able to do that Robbie Alomar looks bad. In comparison to the alternatives, he's right there with them - and given that Cora and Cairo are apparently looking for multi-year deals worth $2 or $3 million a year, and Alomar is apparently willing to take a $500,000, non-guaranteed contract (with,
I'm assuming, some incentives), I can see why the Cards are talking to him.
(FWIW, Mark Grudzielanek has hit much better than any of them - .271, .314, and .307 the past three seasons in 1274 AB - 375 hits for a .294 overall average - but he's not nearly the defensive player as the other three, and I think the team needs defense more than offense at 2B.)
