Cliff Floyd, have bat will travel

[JohnBriggs12]

According to reports in the Chicago papers, Cliff Floyd won't be back with the Cubs in 08, and contrary to earlier reports, Floyd has no intention of retiring. In fact he's instructed his agent to contact every team in MLB.

Floyd, although he'll be an old 35 and often broken down, epitomizes professional hitter. Even you OBP wonks should note his OBP was .373 last season. With Gross still around, perhaps the Brewers could maximize the LH portion of the left field platoon by splitting the job between Floyd and Gross keeping both sharp to be that dangerous bat off the bench late in games.

[crewcrazy]

From what I've read, Cliff has his heart set on returning to Florida to conclude his career, and the Fish want to sign a couple veterans this offseason to complement their young players. Considering Floyd's injury history and his lack of power last year, I think I would take a pass on him, but that's just my opinion.

[JohnBriggs12]

"Cliff had his heart set on returning to Florida"

 

No mention of that in today's Sun-Times article. Earlier Floyd had said he wanted to stay close to his Chicago home. Gordon Wittenmeyer wrote Floyd "has told his agent to reach out to every major league team".

 

His lack of power is of no concern to me. First 9 HR in under 300 AB is hardly without power. If you watched the Cubs this year, Floyd hits rockets but often doesn't get elevation but so what? The Brewers already have 7 guys capable of hitting between 25-55 HR. What Floyd brings is a very high percetange of quality AB's and he can hit tough pitchers in key situations.

[colbyjack]

Floyd is a good suggestion, and the Cubs used him well last year to make sure they had his bat available all year long, limiting him to 40-50 ABs per month. While he historically has hit RHPs much better than LHPs, he did hit LHPs pretty well this past year, with the small sample diclaimer of course. And I do like JohnBriggs' idea of having either him or Gross on the bench late in games, and I do for the most part prefer the lefty bats that are out there to the righty ones (Kearns I think is about the only righty hitter that has been brought up regularly that I think would be a good fit).

 

If the Brewers were to only pay Floyd about $3M, what he was payed last year, and handled him similar to the Cubs did last year to keep him healthy, I think he's a very solid option. He also more than holds his own in LF, and could fill in at 1B from time to time if needed.

[JohnBriggs12]

Floyd would also make a very handy guy to DH in AL parks.

[dadofandrew]

Floyd would be a decent stopgap, but I certainly would not focus on him. Again, I'm not sure he'd outhit Gabe, and I'm pretty sure he'd be worse in the field.

[colbyjack]

Floyd would be a decent stopgap, but I certainly would not focus on him. Again, I'm not sure he'd outhit Gabe, and I'm pretty sure he'd be worse in the field.

 

Gross hit .235/.329/.437 last year, which is incredibly close to his career numbers, and he hardly faced any lefty pitching. Floyd would out-hit Gabe, to me that is not a question at all.

 

And as I noted above, Floyd is a decent defensive corner outfielder. Gross has more versatility, but I think a lot of people unfairly assume Floyd isn't good defensively, possibly because of his injury issues.

 

It doesn't seem as though the money would be much of an issue either since he made $3M this past year with the Cubs. I would prefer a guy like Ryan Church or Austin Kearns, a couple of names tossed out before, but Floyd makes a ton of sense as a stopgap since the organization clearly appears to be keeping LF warm for LaPorta. He actually would be nice to keep around for another year even if LaPorta is the LF to start the '09 season.

[Fatter than Joey]

I like Cliff Floyd -- I sure wouldn't be mad if he was on the Brewers

[dadofandrew]

Gross hit .235/.329/.437 last year, which is incredibly close to his career numbers, and he hardly faced any lefty pitching. Floyd would out-hit Gabe, to me that is not a question at all.

 

Cliff has put up .324/.407 and .373/.422 the past 2 seasons, and ain't getting younger. As I said, I don't trust him to be an iota better than Gabe, as he'll be in year of 36. Expect less production, as well as more injuries. That makes him a role player at best to me. Not a bad fallback, but I would not aim for him.

[JohnBriggs12]

"he'll be in year of 36"

 

Boy, Al that's a stretch. He hasn't turned 35 yet.

[Fatter than Joey]

Boy, Al that's a stretch. He hasn't turned 35 yet.

 

Yeah, those years he played in Montreal are still considered as 1 year.

 

1 Canadian year = 1 American year.

 

Al needs to DFA his fact checker.

[dadofandrew]

I must have had 35 in my mind, and then added another one, thinking I had not yet. Still, 35 is 8 past his mythical prime, so he is unlikely to uimprove, and he seems to be well on the fade. As I said, I'd say Gross may outhit him.