Raul Ibanez has a single in two plate appearances tonight against the Padres, but that’s probably not nearly enough to buy the Phillies OF — subject of prior whispering campaigns — a reprieve in the eyes of Phillies Nation’s Corey Seidman, who argues, “there is no reason Ibanez deserves to play everyday on a contending team.” Surely falling out of the NL East race would be a small price to pay in order to salvage a good man’s employment?
Raul endeared himself to this fanbase last year by putting together a miraculous April and May, but has hit .234 since with one homer every 30 plate appearances. Wanna take a look at some more ugly numbers?
* – Ibanez™ slugging percentage in 2010 is .371, lower than David Eckstein, Jeff Keppinger, Will Venable, Jeff Francoeur, and Gaby Sanchez.
* – He is 85th in the NL in batting average, 65th in on-base percentage, and 70th in slugging percentage.
* – His OPS+ this year is 89 (100 is league average.)
* – Ibanez has eight multi-hit games this season (played 54.)
* – Ibby has been worth 0.2 wins BELOW replacement, and his WAR is 20th out of the 24 NL leftfielders with 100 or more plate appearances
And to top it all off, Ibanez has been the fourth worst defensive leftfielder in major league baseball this season “ ahead of only Carlos Lee, Ryan Braun, and Lastings Milledge.
Financially, releasing Ibanez is no worse than releasing those Geoff Jenkins and Adam Eaton last season, and while consecutive years of dead money may be hard for a GM to explain to his superiors, it™s better than paying a player to hurt your team.
And who would replace him, on the field and on the roster? If you’re going to propose eating his contract, what’s the backup plan?
In the quoted article, Corey suggests OF Domonic Brown, currently tearing up the Eastern League. (http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/92571844.html)
As little bang for the buck the Phillies are getting from Ibanez, he is not a make-or-break player and with Ben Francisco being even worse at the plate, I am pretty sure the game plan is to keep in there and hope he can pick it up
or at most demote him to 7th in the order when Jimmy Rollins returns. I cant see the Phils writing him off until next season. The Phils have not been known for accelerating their prospects and Dom Brown is not going to be promoted from AA into the Phils starting lineup.