My thoughts on Aoki: Love this signing. For the question about hitting lead off yes he should due to higher OBP vs Pagan but Bochy always favors the guys who were here first. So with that in mind I would hit him 8th in front of the pitcher so we have a constant on base presence who can steal bases in that spot. 29 doubles a year, 25 steals a year on average. 353 OBP career average. Hes a perfect fit for this park. baseball-reference/players/a/aokino01.shtml Defensively he will be playing left field. Left field at AT&T is a heck of a lot easier than right field. For the lack of power point the Giants have enough in Belt/Pence/Posey. They should all hit 20+. Everybody has to get onbase around them. People are blasting him for one bad series. Who doesnt have a bad series? He got left out of the lineup for a better defensive guy when they came to AT&T. Heck even Pence misplayed a ball or two in right field in the world series. Pence and Pagan dont exactly take the most direct paths to the ball at times either but they make it work. This era is not about power. Its about getting onbase and clutch hitting. The Giants have three 20+ home run hitters in Belt, Pence and Posey. Thats enough to get the job done the other guys just have to get on base. I think only the Toronto Blue Jays had two guys on their team hit 30+ home runs last year. Also like the 2012 Giants the 2014 Royals hit the least home runs in Baseball last year. This fanbase will love him. Hes a true gamer and not the biggest guy around either. Hes a scrapper and a cockroach. Iirc we just won three in five with a bunch of cockroaches and scrappers right?
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:16:23 +0000