David Golebiewski of FanGraphs has a quick analysis of the Eric Patterson trade up. It sounds like a good deal for the Sox, if only because Golebiewski spells out just how beat up the Sox organization is up the middle.
Patterson, 27, was originally a Cubs prospect taken out of Georgia Tech in the eighth round of the 2004 draft. In July of 2008, Patterson was shipped to Oakland (along with Josh Donaldson, Sean Gallagher and Matt Murton) for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin. The lefty hitter holds a career .303/.368/.478 triple-slash in 2,570 career minor league plate appearances. Displaying decent pop (.175 Isolated Power) and adequate strike zone control (9.3 BB%, 19.3 K%), Patterson also stole bases with an 80.6% success rate.
In the majors, Patterson’s got a career .224/.301/.340 line in 378 PA, with a .300 wOBA. Corey’s little brother has walked 10.1% of the time, whiffed 28.4% and has a .116 ISO. He has nabbed bases at a 91.7% clip, with 22 SB in 24 tries. Out of minor league options, Patterson made Oakland’s roster out of spring training but was recently DFA’d to make room for Coco Crisp. ZiPS projects that Patterson will hit .248/.310/.399 for the rest of 2010, with a .320 wOBA. CHONE thinks he’ll bat .261/.322/.411.
I don't know the differences between ZiPS and CHONE, but they seem to be relatively close, with CHONE a little more optimistic (perhaps CHONE has seen Daniel Nava highlights and assumes Patterson will outperform his skills).
If we get a line like that out of Patterson, I think we can be happy. Add decent hitting to good defense and baserunning, and hope that our pitching holds up over the course of Pedroia's injury, and maybe we won't fall too far out of the race.
A few other fun, meaningless Patterson stats: July is his worst month (good timing!) and he inexplicably hits 100 points higher hitting 8th in the lineup than 9th. He also is widely considered a bust of a prospect, failing to live up to his older brother Corey's skill level (which is a little depressing if you've seen Corey play), and had a minor behavioral issue while breaking in with the Cubs.
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