Sean Casey, who helped the Tigers win their title in '06, is now a member of the Boston Red Sox, so I went fishing for a performance 'snapshot' of him to see what we were getting for our $800,000.
He broke in with the Indians back in '97, but only played in 6 games. He went on to the Cincinnati Reds and as the 20th century turned into the 21st, he'd managed to elevate his batting average into the 300s for three straight years. He's still a lifetime .300 hitter, though just (.301).
He had a short love affair with the home run ball. Between '99 and '04, right in the middle of his career, he hit 104 of them (17+/year). He's hit 28 of them in the other five years of his career.
I thought it might be interesting to look at him from the standpoint of where he would 'sit' in the Red Sox roster; in other words, using his performance last year with the Tigers, where would each of his stats place him in the Red Sox roster.
His hits last year (134) put him in between Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew. Doubles (30) place him between Manny and Drew. His home runs put him in the less than illustrious company of WIllie Mo Pena and Alex Cora. RBI totals (54) sandwich him between Coco and Dustin Pedroia. Total bases of 178 put him in a wide gap between Varitek at 183 and Alex Cora with 80. He only stole two bases (one less than David Ortiz, for heaven's sake), so it doesn't seem likely that we'll be seeing him tearing up the base paths, any time soon.
His average of .296 is tied with Manny's and a notch above Kevin Youkilis (.288); not bad company at all. On-base percentage (.353) is right between Varitek and Coco; again, not bad company. Can't say much for his slugging percentage, though (.393), which puts him in the company of Alex Cora and Eric Hinske.
All things considered, it looks like a decent deal for a player that will be able to step in at third and/or first base when called upon. Though not, like the poem, anything resembling "the mighty Casey," we can certainly look forward to something like "the 'he'll do' Casey.
Keywords: Boston Red Sox, Coco Crisp, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, Kevin Youkilis, Manny Ramirez, Sean Casey
