Who is Gabe Kapler?

[aracko]

OK - I understand he is the platoon mate of TGJ, but what is it about this guy that made the Brewers pick him out of all the available platooons?

 

I know that in 2005 he blew out his achillies, but what kind of a player was he before that? Do we think that he is going to be a right handed hitting Gwynn Jr? Does he slap the ball around and turns tough ground ball outs into infield singles? Does he have power? Does he have a plus arm? Can he play all 3 OF positions? Where has he generally hit in a batting order thru his career?

 

I like to think I have a pretty good grip on the Brewers roster, but Kapler is a guy who I am not at all familiar with. Please educate me on what I can expect from him.

[rluzinski]

This is all you need to know:

 

http://ciepley.com/images/blog/icon_kapler_lg.jpg

 

Well, that and he's considered a good defender who can play all 3 OF spots but can't hit a lick. His 2008 ZiPS projection:

 

.263 BA

.310 OBP

.397 SLG

.707 OPS

 

Gwynn's projection:

 

.260 BA

.325 OBP

.328 SLG

.653 OPS

 

At 25 years old, Gywnn has the better chance of making that jump and beating those projections by a wide margin (.280/.350/.375?). At 32 years old, Kapler is what he is.

 

On a side note, assuming a 2/1 split on a strict Gwynn/Kapler platoon in CF, here's the projected performance by the Brewers from CF:

 

.261 BA

.320 OBP

.351 SLG

.671 OPS

 

That is just terrible.

[TheBwaz]

I knew I never should have posed for that picture.

 

Kapler is one of those good clubhouse guys Doug and Ned like to have around. Maybe he is here to excorcise the Estrada mist in the clubhouse. If nothing else, he is like a second bench coach; he's been there, done that, and may serve as a calming veteran influence.

 

Yes, I know, we have Counsell for that as well. With him though I get the feeling he would rather stab you in the eye with a fork than talk to you. Kapler seems a bit more loquatious.

[lcbj68c]

Do we think that he is going to be a right handed hitting Gwynn Jr? Does he slap the ball around and turns tough ground ball outs into infield singles? Does he have power? Does he have a plus arm? Can he play all 3 OF positions? Where has he generally hit in a batting order thru his career?

 

I like to think I have a pretty good grip on the Brewers roster, but Kapler is a guy who I am not at all familiar with. Please educate me on what I can expect from him.

No, he will not be a right handed hitting Gwynn Jr. He doesn't slap the ball around like TGJ and he's not overly fast. In the last three seasons, he's had just twelve stolen base attempts and was caught 5 of those times. He seemingly has more power than TGJ considering he does hit for extra bases at a decent clip, however nothing like Mike Cameron. Baseball-reference has him listed as a similiar hitter as Mike Lamb, Danny Bautista, Coco Crisp and Milton Bradley. Most similiar by age and skills to Todd Hollandsworth and Jermaine Dye. He did play all 3 outfield positions for the Boston Red Sox in their World Championship run in 2004, as well ast 2005 & 2006. He batted all over for the Red Sox. Gabe Kapler By Game but I would say the majority was at 8th.

[bigredrobbo]

Listen, people, we've had Trent Durrington and Ben Grieve as 25th guy before, so a month of Kapler (platooned) before Cameron comes back is not gonna get my undies in a bundle...

[rluzinski]

I don't see the value in comparing this team to teams that were embarrassingly bad. It's only a month but I'm disappointed that a projected .671 OPS is the best Melvin could do, even when I consider the improved defense.

[Thurston Fluff]

I know Zips are simply an educated guess and should be taken as that but I don't know how well zips does in projecting someone who has not played for a while. Doesn't zips weigh performance from the near past more heavily than the distant past? Wouldn't not playing for a couple years naturally make it less effective for this type of projection than it is for a more normal player history? Is there some sort of caluclation added in for this tpye of circumstance? Is ther another player with a similar tpye history that Zips has projected as effectivley as normal players so we can at least judge the usefulness of zips for this particular case? Sorry for the 20 questions Russ but, knowing you, I figured you'd have the answers rolling around in your head if it related to stats in any way.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[BrewCrewForever]

Listen, people, we've had Trent Durrington and Ben Grieve as 25th guy before, so a month of Kapler (platooned) before Cameron comes back is not gonna get my undies in a bundle...

Great point, God is Kapler put together, that guy knows exactly where the weight room is.

 

[JohnBriggs12]

He signed a non-guaranteed contract to be a platoon partner for a month. I doubt there were other experienced guys out there willing to do that. Barring an injury, I don't expect him to be around long.