Fred Lewis been dropped to 5th outfielder

[gp956]

Gaston says that Dewayne Wise has passed Fred Lewis on the Blue Jays depth chart, largely because of his defensive ability.

“Wise has jumped above (Lewis) for me,” Gaston said. “Wise is the only guy who can play centre field (besides Vernon Wells) and he’s probably the second-best defensive guy on this club. He’s also swung the bat pretty well when he’s been in there. If they bring him back, he’s probably going to be the fourth outfielder.”


Second half: .229/.319/.357
Overall: .276/.334/.444

Looks like he pissed off Gaston with this comment: "I come to the park every day to play. To see my name not in the lineup some days, I mean, it's mind-boggling."

 

[calsnowskier]

Everyone was in this kids corner after the accident and he was a real feel-good story because of it.

Since, his mouth has turned him off to two organizations and at least one fan-base.

A PERFECT case-study in how NOT to handle yourself...

 

[gp956]

Exactly. He's really blown it with two organizations. You can't do that when you're a below median player, if you want to continue playing. Not to discount losing out on post retirement opportunities, as well.

 

[sfsportsfan]

i wiki'd lewis and saw that he lead the league in 2008 with 2 steals of home? wtf? i dont remember a giant ever stealing home, lol

 

[SFGRTB]

i wiki'd lewis and saw that he lead the league in 2008 with 2 steals of home? wtf? i dont remember a giant ever stealing home, lol

I remember. It was the deadly double-steal ombo with Randy Winn.

Winn would start to steal second, Lewis would wait, then charge. It was cool.

 

[gp956]

LOL. I reverse jinxed Freddy. He played and went 3-4 with a walk tonight.

 

[msgkings322]

You seem kind of focused on Fred. Any particular reason?

Personally I thought he could be Bonds-lite when he came up. It was disappointing to be wrong on that one.

 

[gp956]

You seem kind of focused on Fred. Any particular reason?

Personally I thought he could be Bonds-lite when he came up. It was disappointing to be wrong on that one.

I soured on Freddy after he revealed himself to be a poor defender. Then I turned on him when he showed he was a malcontent when he wasn't playing everyday. As for the focus, it's just me checking on the accuracy of my assessments on Freddy. But there is a back story to that.

Last year Fred became symbolic of all that was wrong with Sabean and Bochy. Where the essential story was they ruin young players, were dinosaurs in the game, and willfully ignorant of the statistical approach to the game. So Sabean/Bochy bashing invariably involved touting Freddy. And after his hot start in Toronto and DeRosa's wrist problems, the Sabean bashers were in full zenith.

Fred Lewis discussions became epic over at McCovey Chronicles, were talking more than a few one thousand post threads. And those discussions usually devolved to discussions of the relative merits of scouting vs. stats, and more specifically the UZR metric, as it seemed to say Fred was an above average defender in LF. Now for background, the posters over there are a fairly young and intelligent bunch, yet a bit too credulous about the accuracy and precision in the statistical approach to the game for my taste. As those discussions developed, attitudes polarized. If you thought Fred was mediocre then you were a mouth breathing, knuckle dragging Neanderthal Sabean fluffer. If you loved Freddy then you were young, sharp, and progressive.

in parallel with all that, ElJim and i had similar discussions about Freddy at the ESPN boards, where he essentially took on the McC attitude. And, again, after Fred's hot start a couple of threads were created in a "i told you so" fashion.

What's particularly sweet vis-a-vis the McC discussions, is that the creator of the UZR stat reworked some his parameters in the off-season which resulting in knocking Freddy's rating down quite a bit, and combined with his poor rating this year, he's now a slightly below average LF fielder according to UZR. I made a mocking post over at fan graphs about that (in yet another Fred Lewis is great and Sabean is an idiot article) where I stated that it looked like ordinary fans were able to discern Freddy's defensive abilities with decent accuracy and 1/20th of the data.