Let me begin by saying that I’m a Sean Casey fan. I think he’s overrated, I think the Cincinnati media hypes him more than is realistic, and I think that he’s being used incorrectly by Dave Miley. That said, however, he was great last year, and he’s always a wonderful ambassador for Cincinnati baseball. I’ve been a big Casey supporter over the years, and I do own a Sean Casey #21 jersey.
Of course, here at RN, I have advocated trading him, because his perceived value is much more than his actual value, and trading him would open up a spot in the lineup for Wily Mo Pena. I just think dealing him (preferably for pitching) would help the Reds to improve immediately.
Anyway, I thought this was interesting. Posted with permission from Matt, this was recently posted on the Reds listserv. As always, this doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of RN, though it’s probably pretty close to the mark:
Casey has reached terrible levels. But because he has a .289 batting average everybody (outside of the analysis-nerds) loves him. Somebody needs to tell Miley that this guy is HURTING your team in the 3-hole. He now leads the league with 11 GIDP, on a pace for 52, the previous all-time record is 36 for a 162 game season.
Among the 12 regular 1B in the National League
Casey is 12th (LAST) in HR with 1
Casey is 9th in OBP with .329
Casey is 12th (LAST) in SLG with .385
Casey is 12th (LAST) in OPS with .714
Casey is 5th in 2B with 10Casey with RISP
.350 OBP .400 SLG .750 OPS
Casey RISP w/2 Outs
.533 OBP/.692 SLG 1.296 OPS
Dunn is one of the best hitters in baseball.
Among the 12 regular LF in the National League
Dunn is 1st in SLG .660
Dunn is 1st in OPS 1.087
Dunn is 1st in OBP .426
Dunn is 1st in HR 10
Dunn is 1st in 2B 10
Dunn is 1st in BB 27Dunn with RISP
.538 OBP .667 SLG 1.205 OPS
Dunn RISP w/ 2 outs
.542 OBP .533 SLG 1.075 OPS
This means that Dunn fails LESS than 50% of the time with Runners in Scoring position! For everyone carping about his strikeouts, I want them to think about that for a second. Dunn makes an out LESS than 50% of the time with RISP… But he hasn’t had a Sacrifice Fly, so he must suck.
I changing my oldest sons name to Forty-four.
It doesn’t matter, but my son’s name is…you guessed it.
Casey.