Found 27 days ago on Cub Reporter: Yardbarker Blogger Network
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Let's give credit to Arizona Phil for this suggestion as he pointed out that Rajai Davis qualified for Super Two status and could be available if the A's want to save some money.

Year Age Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP 2006 25 PIT 20 17 14 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 3 2 3 .143 .250 .214 .464 22 3 0 0 2007 26 TOT 75 219 190 32 53 11 2 1 9 22 6 21 28 .279 .361 .374 .735 92 71 1 4 2007 26 PIT 24 57 48 6 13 2 1 0 2 5 2 7 3 .271 .357 .354 .711 87 17 1 0 2007 26 SFG 51 162 142 26 40 9 1 1 7 17 4 14 25 .282 .363 .380 .743 93 54 0 4 2008 27 TOT 113 226 214 30 52 5 4 3 19 29 6 8 40 .243 .272 .346 .618 68 74 1 1 2008 27 SFG 12 19 18 2 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 6 .056 .105 .056 .161 -56 1 0 0 2008 27 OAK 101 207 196 28 51 5 4 3 19 25 6 7 34 .260 .288 .372 .660 80 73 1 1 2009 28 OAK 125 432 390 65 119 27 5 3 48 41 12 29 70 .305 .360 .423 .784 112 165 12 7 4 Seasons 333 894 808 128 226 44 11 7 76 93 27 60 141 .280 .336 .387 .724 94 313 14 12 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/26/2009.

Those numbers sure are nothing to get you excited, at least not as a starter. On the other hand, he could make an interesting replacement for Reed Johnson as a center field platoon for Kosuke Fukudome if Fukudome stays in center. His career splits don't show a huge advantage versus lefties quite like Reed Johnson. Davis has a career .735 OPS against lefties vs .717 against righties, while Johnson has an .841 OPS versus lefties and just .707 versus righties. On the other hand, Davis is a game changer in the field. Fangraphs and BP both rate him highly and does the Fan's Scouting Report. Those defensive numbers helped contribute to WAR and WARP1 numbers near 4 for 2009 combined with his surge in hitting.

Of course, when you're a speed demon with little power and pedestrian walk rate, you know his BABIP numbers are gonna skew on the high side and lo and behold he had a .366 last year which will be tough to repeat.

I'd probably pass on any potential trade in this case if I were the Cubs. I know the Cubs wanted to add speed to their roster next year and that elusive true leadoff man, but getting in on Davis (maybe a Fuld for Davis trade?), wouldn't be much more different than trading for Juan Pierre or signing Joey Gathright. Yeah, if he could repeat his offensive numbers from last year, his defense and baserunning would make him worthwhile, but I have a hard time giving any assurances that he could repeat those numbers. As a possible platoon partner, yeah, he's gonna fare better than Fukudome versus lefties, but just because he's hitting from the right side I don't know if he gives you that much more over Sam Fuld or brining back Reed Johnson.


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