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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Edwin Encarnacion to AAA

Again, I find myself dumbfounded at the ignorance of a move made by a Major League Baseball club. Edwin Encarnacion was demoted to Triple A this morning. Edwin is a guy I have been hyping as a Buy Low candidate, and there is no better time than now to get him. It seems somewhat likely the Reds will trade Edwin to a team that realizes how good he is. And considering what they took for Austin Kearns last year after he was demoted, I doubt they'll be hard pressed to find a suitable trading partner. Edwin is much better than Kearns, but the Reds are treating him terribly.

Edwin's K rate is actually down from last year, and his Contact Rate is at around 81%. His BB rate is down too, but 8.2% isn't bad. A 20.7% LD Percentage is pretty good too. I still believe the power is there, as I actually expected 25-30 out of him in the preseason. The one he has hit this year went a long way, so I still expect him to put up good power numbers once he gets back on his feet. If his owner drops him, it might be a good idea to stash him away.

Now that I think about it, this may actually be a blessing in disguise for mine and several other peoples' fantasy teams. Ryan Freel, who I own in a couple leagues, hasn't been getting regular playing time with Josh Hamilton around. With Edwin gone, he now will. Then if Edwin lands on an appreciative team who can wait out a run of bad luck, I'll have the two everyday players I thought I'd drafted at the beginning of the year.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What teams are likely to make a trade for Edwin?

Derek Carty said...

Well, teams that seem to need a 3B include the Twins and the Pirates, as well as the Phillies, but I doubt the Phillies are astute enough to trade for Edwin. The Giants and Tigers could use an upgrade as well, but honestly, any team with a keen eye for value could get Edwin fairly cheaply from the Reds right now. Teams in need of a 1B could also be potential trade partners as Edwin would be cheap and move to first might not be super difficult.

Anonymous said...

It's his defense that needs work. He has too many errors and his defense is not consistent enough to keep him in the majors. I would guess he'd have the same problem with almost any team. Tampa seems to be happy playing crappy defenders but who else?

Derek Carty said...

I haven't looked a lot into defense as it doesn't have a huge impact on Fantasy Baseball, but in 2006 Encarnacion was 20th in Zone Rating among the 21 Third Basemen that qualified. Hopefully a team will overlook his defense and focus on his offense.