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The Cub Reporter
Looking In On Corey Patterson
Former Cub Corey Patterson has come a long way, and not in the direction any player wants to see his career go.
Since the Cubs traded Patterson to Baltimore in January, 2006, he’s had seasons of .276 and .269, with OPS+ numbers of 94 and 80, OBPs of .314 and .304, and a combined 159 strikeouts and 42 walks.
On Friday, Baseball Prospectus (subscription) pointed out that as recently as 2000, Baseball America had this to say about Eric Patterson’s older brother:
(Corey) Patterson offers the best combination of athleticism and baseball skills of any prospect in the game. He’s the best hitter, the faster runner and the top outfield defender in the organization. His other two tools, power and arm strength, are both above-average. His top-of-the-line speed is probably his most impressive physical asset… Patterson has more than held his own while being rushed through the minors… He has batted .195 against left-handers as a pro. He needs to tighten his plate discipline, and his ability to drive pitches that are out of the strike zone actually hampers his ability to draw walks… Scouts believe Patterson can correct all of those flaws with more experience. They’re understandable, considering his age and how much he has been pushed.
Marc Nomandin goes on to trace Patterson’s course through the intervening years, during which his flaws were not corrected. We still see the continued lack of plate discipline. The spotty power when Patterson pulls the ball. The complete lack of power when hitting to the opposite field. The “alarming” frequency with which he hits pop ups.
Normandin’s conclusion:
Patterson doesn’t have much appeal left when it comes to considering him for a starting job. He’s a fine defender, one of the best at his position, but every season you run him out in the lineup you chance seeing something like this 2007 campaign. At best, you’re going to see another 2006, which is fine for many teams as long as he can steal bases effectively and play well above-average defense in center, but at this stage he’s no sure bet to do these things consistently. Teams who still need another outfielder would be served best by locking up Patterson to a one-year deal with incentives and maybe a club option and using him as a fourth outfielder, which is a far fall from the days when he was a top prospect.
– Earlier this week, Dave O’Brien, writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suggested that Georgia native Patterson might be a candidate for the Braves’ centerfield job, a position left open by the departure of free agent Andruw Jones.
On Friday, however, O’Brien spoke to Oakland’s Mark Kotsay and, per the player, a trade between the A’s and Braves is imminent. In other words, Corey Patterson will still be looking for a team.
Another centerfielder, Mike Cameron, has found his team: the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers and Cameron, who will be suspended for the first 25 games of ‘08 after he tested positive for use of a banned stimulant, agreed Friday on a one-year deal with a club option for 2009.
This is bad news for the Cubs in a couple respects. First, Cameron is a talented player. Second, his signing will allow the Brewers to move the big hitting but defensively inferior Bill Hall back to the infield, where he will take over for Ryan Braun at third. Braun, a defensively inferior third baseman–25 errors and a fielding percentage of .895(!!!) in ‘07–will then be able to move to left.
That’s a lot of positives to net with a single free-agent signing.
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Former Cubs Players, Other Teams.
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39 Responses to “Looking In On Corey Patterson”
January 12th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Cameron’s not all that good a hitter anymore, and his defense has slipped as well. Moving Braun off the hot corner will help their infield defense, we’ll see how he does in left.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Thanks for the swift kick in our collective nuts with the Korey retrospective….
January 12th, 2008 at 1:09 am
“Moving Braun off the hot corner will help their infield defense, we’ll see how he does in left.”
Much easier place to hide.
January 12th, 2008 at 2:58 am
“Thanks for the swift kick in our collective nuts with the Korey retrospective….”
I’ve learned to put my cup in before coming to TCR. Lotta’ bad bounces here.
January 12th, 2008 at 3:05 am
A little easier. Braun was 25 runs below average last year according to BP. Your boy Lee was 17 in left, and Ramirez typically is around 20. Plus, like AramRam formerly a 10 or so runs below average guy, if you have the hand-eye coordination and reaction time to be a good hitter, you probably have the same skill set to catch the ball at 3rd, and with practice and experience you can make yourself a useful defender.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Cameron, who will be suspended for the first 25 games of ‘09 after he tested positive for use of a banned stimulant…
Dabbling in prognostication?
It’s still heartbreaking to read about Korey. Not as bad as reading about Prior, but still an excellent demonstration of why I am incapable of optimism.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Len Kasper was just on radio-
He felt Dempster is the “key to the rotation.”
God help us all.
Also Pie will break ST as CFer batting eight.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am
“…if you have the hand-eye coordination and reaction time to be a good hitter, you probably have the same skill set to catch the ball at 3rd, and with practice and experience you can make yourself a useful defender.”
Shhhh. Keith Moreland might be listening.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:51 am
tbone-
HAHAHA!
Great point.
January 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
From “The Baseball Analysts,” Corey Patterson has the second lowest OPS+ of any outfielder with over 3000 ABs since the start of the 2001 season.
Only person lower than him is Erstad, and just above Patterson is Pierre
http://baseballanalysts.com/ar.....igns_a.php
January 12th, 2008 at 10:45 am
all 3 have spend considerable time in Chicago.. ouch
January 12th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Pie batting 8th, what does that mean for Theriot? 2nd? I’m far more worried about how many plate appearances he’s going to get than I am how many innings Dempster will get.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
And Jay Payton is the 4th worst on that list.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I should also add, we shouldn’t be surprised that BP has found an excuse to piss on BA. They seem to enjoy doing that.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Sayonara Rolen.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....ped-f.html
January 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Bruce Levine was on the radio this morning and said that the Brian Roberts deal is off, says Angelos has been killing a couple of trade scenarios from McPhail and Henry. Yes the deal which everyone said was done was partially correct because McPhail thought Angelos would sign off on it but instead Angelos killed the deal. Levine says he doesn’t think Angelos wants to trade Roberts, from what he gathers the Brian Roberts talks are off because McPhail is asking too much and he thinks Henry will turn his focus on adding a SP, names Jon Lieber as a pitcher the Cubs are interested in and would be comfortable with him in the rotation. As a result the Cubs would have a surplus of starting pitchers as trading chips. (See my post from last night in the previous thread what McPhail was asking from Henry in order to agree to a deal for Roberts).
Baltimore reporter was on 720AM WGN radio with Dave Kaplan and said that Andy McPhail is wanting 1 pitcher (Sean Gallagher or Sean Marshall), (Pie or Tyler Colvin), Cedeno and 1 more prospect. Baltimore reporter says this is according to what he gatheredd from McPhail a half hour ago.
So the Sean Gallagher,Sean Marshall & Cedenio was not going to get the deal done
January 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
OPS+ is almost irrelevant when talking about speed guys like Pierre and CPatt. It doesn’t measure what they bring to the table like stealing bases, forcing fielder’s choices instead of double plays and drawing throwing errors. And OPS doesn’t measure what slow guys take away from an offense when they ground into double plays 25 times a year.
But talking about Corey Patterson, here are two numbers to consider, 86 and 82.
86 is the number of bases he stole in six seasons with the Cubs. 82 is the number in two seasons with Baltimore.
January 12th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
cwtp:
Your points are all good EXECPT that CP wasn’t supposed to be a top of the order speed guy like Pierre but rather a middle of the order run producer like, say, Barry Bonds (who I read a quote of CP comparing himself to).
January 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Roberts is a juicer. Who needs him?
End of story.
January 12th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Except it isn’t. The case against Roberts is among the very thinnest of all players mentioned in the report. The problem with the report, as many people pointed out when it was released, is that the unwashed masses would see a name listed and, completely ignorant of the evidence (or lack thereof) compiled inside, conclude that a Roberts is as guilty as a Pettitte.
January 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Problems with Roberts
1. He lied. First he said he never used steroids then he admitted he did after the Mitchell Report came out.
2. Over the course of his first six professional seasons he hit a total of 18 major and minor league homeruns. Then in 2005 he hit 18 in one season. I guess it took two years for that “one” shot he took in 2003 to kick in.
3. He’s all of 5′9″ tall. We already have this guy (minus the juice) playing for us. His name is Fontenot.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Your comparing Fontenot to Roberts? Seriously? Muahahahahah.
Anyways why stop at Roberts, just cuz your name wasn’t mentioned in the report doesnt mean you arent a juicer if all your looking at is stats.
Case in point….Jimmy Rollins. never hit more than 15 HR’s in his previous 5 seasons. All of a sudden he is a slugger…hit 25 and then 30 last year.
Or why dont we just accuse one of our own. Ryne Sandberg and his sudden power surge that led to an MVP award.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Yeah CWTP Brian Roberts off the juice = Mike Fontenot. Good call.
That and not even close. Brian Roberts is a very good player with or without juice, Mike Fontenot is not.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Mike C,
You can’t read or follow logic…
Brian Roberts hit 18 home runs in 6 SEASONS combined before he started taking steroids, with a career high of 5. Since he took “one shot, one time” he has seasons of 18, 10, and 12.
Jimmy Rollins had hit 95 in parts of 10 major and minor league seasons before he hit 25 and then 30. Rollins also had double digit hr totals consistently before the jump. Rollins could very well be a juicer too, for all we know everyone is a juicer. But Roberts total’s more than quadrupled in one season, and he admitted cheating.
He’s a piece of crap who should have his hands cut off, like the rest of them.
January 12th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
john lieber vs. jason marquis….discuss.
January 12th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
CWTP: There is no way, in no instance, that Mike Fontenot=Brian Roberts.
you may want to change your moniker after that one!
January 12th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
re 25:
pitch marquis for the first half and then trade him at the all-star break. Then move Lieber to the rotation
January 12th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
You dont seem to understand your basing that he is still on roids cuz his HR totals went up. Uhhhh that doesnt prove anything.
I will give you another example. Tony Gwynn….1996 he hit 3 HR’s….next 3 years he hit 17, 16, 10…. So was Tony Gwynn juicing between 1996 and 1999?
Many players go onto the majors by hitting more HR’s than they ever hit in the minors. As they age they tend to hit more HR’s. Brian Roberts had his career year at the age of 27…right in the sweet spot where most professional scouts say players usually have their best years. There are many examples of players just like Roberts having power surges in their career.
You just want to assume he has kept using since 2003. So what it took 3 years for the roids to kick in? Come on now. Your unwilling to believe a person would try it a few times and then say, “Thats not for me.”
Would could pose a question to the people on this site and ask how many of them tried smokin weed? Or maybe did a line of coke..and then just said, “that isnt for me.” I know i smoked some weed back in the day came to the conclusion, “it isnt for me” and never tried it again.
Finally i will leave you with Kenny Lofton. 1992-1993 hit 6 HR’s total. 1994 he hits 12….thats 12x as many as the previous season. Then he drops to 7, back up to 14, then goes out and hits 5 the next year, back up to 12, drops to say, goes to 15 and 14 HR’s hit the next 2 seasons.
Man he is on the juice, off the juice, on the juice, off the juice. The fact is cuz he hit more HR’s proves nothing on your end.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
*sniff *sniff…I’m sorry, what?
January 12th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I will give you another example. Tony Gwynn….1996 he hit 3 HR’s….next 3 years he hit 17, 16, 10…. So was Tony Gwynn juicing between 1996 and 1999?
Considering the way most fans convict ballplayers of steroid use, yes, that’s all the proof you need. Back on planet earth, an increase in home runs could be the result of any number of things.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
“Problems with Roberts
1. He lied. First he said he never used steroids then he admitted he did after the Mitchell Report came out.
…
3. He’s all of 5′9″ tall. We already have this guy (minus the juice) playing for us. His name is Fontenot.”
FWIW, C-Pat was also 5′9″ but occasionally had crazy power.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
“Problems with Roberts
1. He lied.
I have less problem with someone who comes clean after lying. Shows a conscious. Have more problems with someone who lies and is never bothered enough by it to care about fessing up.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
“Shows a conscious” Ugh. Try “conscience”.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Roberts is also conscious, though. So no problem.
January 13th, 2008 at 5:29 am
I have pretty solid evidence that Gwynn found a good portion of his power surge after making several stops to purchase known PED’s the Krisp and the Kreme at an undisclosed California location.
January 13th, 2008 at 5:36 am
‘con-science? That can’t be right, con-science.’
January 13th, 2008 at 7:30 am
‘con-science’ — the discipline of (allegedly) systematically disproving others theories and hypotheses. Of course, nobody here at TCR would adopt this practice. ~grin~
January 13th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
MikeC=pothead?
January 13th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
He never said he inhaled. FWIW.
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