Found January 05, 2012 on The "Mc" Effect: Yardbarker Blogger Network
The Pittsburgh Pirates are heading into another season with Garrett Jones being one of the biggest bats in their lineup. While that is largely uninspiring, I think Jones is more valuable to this team than many people give him credit for.Chances are that Jones spends most of his time in 2012 playing first base. He will be sharing that time with Casey McGehee, at least while the Pirates give Pedro Alvarez another shot at third. I took an in depth look at that platoon a little while ago, and I discovered that a true platoon of Jones and McGehee would actually size up well to what the Pirates would get by paying a lot more for guys like Carlos Pena, Derrek Lee, or Casey Kotchman.But for now let's take a closer look at Garrett Jones by himself... Last year Jones hit .243/.321/.433 in 148 games. He hit 16 home runs, had a 10% walk rate and a 21.8% strikeout rate. His BABIP was a little bit low at .283 (his career average is .294) and he came in with a wOBA of .338. All-in-all th...
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