chavez or rolen?

[trevisc]

I'm assuming because of their pitching staff they are going to be in the hunt for a title. If that is the case arent they more likely to go GET a hitter instead of trading away Chavez? I take Rolen, but Dont see Chavez gettting traded.

I see the opposite. I think they have very little hitting and will be out of the race by mid season.

[NZF]

I'm assuming because of their pitching staff they are going to be in the hunt for a title. If that is the case arent they more likely to go GET a hitter instead of trading away Chavez? I take Rolen, but Dont see Chavez gettting traded.

I see the opposite. I think they have very little hitting and will be out of the race by mid season.

I agree. IMO the A's big 3 SP's WIN totals may well be way down on expectations. Poor offense and no Foulke. If they use Arthur Rhodes as their closer and early suggestions are that they will they win no more than 75 games.

He may have the stuff required of a closer (awful 2003 though) but no way has he got the mental toughness of a closer.

[baseball genius]

I've stated before that I dislike Chavez because he can't hit lefties. I like Rolen by a long shot.

[tddf30]

I would have gone with Chavez last year bc of having Tejada with him but now i have to go with Rolen, but i do say that u have plenty of 3B out there

[ramble2]

I've stated before that I dislike Chavez because he can't hit lefties. I like Rolen by a long shot.

This is a common complaint, but it's misguided. There are a lot more RH pitchers than LHers, and Chavez is far superior to Rolen at hitting RHers. Look at their overall averages. Unless your league counts 'avg. vs LH' as a separate category, it shouldn't make a lick of difference how Chavez his lefties if his overall average is okay.

I discussed this in the previous thread. Here's an excerpt:

What about Chavez's trouble hitting lefties? And Rolen's ability to hit lefties (good ability, too).

Let's take a look at what the consequences of this are:

Rolen
01 avg vs. LH: 283; overall avg: 289
02 avg vs. LH: 288; overall avg: 266
03 avg vs. LH: 283; overall avg: 286

Chavez
01 avg vs. LH: 257; overall avg: 288
02 avg vs. LH: 209; overall avg: 275
03 avg vs. LH: 220; overall avg: 282

Take a look at the overall avgerages. Sure Chavez has trouble hitting lefties - but he's killing RH! In 01 and 03 the difference in overall averages is statistically insignificant. In 02 Chavez actually hit .09 better than Rolen! So Chavez's inability to hit lefties is not dragging his value down below Rolen.

Considering that Chavez is entering his peak years, even a small improvement in his ability to hit lefties could boost his overall average over .300. Rolen is pretty steadily set in around .280-.290.