FanPost

Dellucci another Michaels? Not so fast my friend...

I was excited to hear that the Indians signed David Dellucci to a 3-year, 11.5 million dollar deal. After reading many reactions to the signing, I was surprised to see that many writers and fans are claiming that Dellucci is nothing more than a more expensive version of Jason Michaels. I strongly disagree and here is why.

First, Dellucci has never really had a full season to play as an everyday player. In 2005, he had his best opportunity as an everyday guy with Texas, and hit a career high 29 homers that year. He admitted that after the 2005 season, he was inspired to train harder in the offseason and came into 2006 with the goal of hitting 30 homeruns. To his dismay, the Rangers traded him to the Phillies before the 2006 season, and he wasted away on the bench, only getting spot starting duty and pinch hit duty. On July 31st, 2006, the Phillies traded right fielder Bobby Abreu to the Yankees and Dellucci got a shot to finish the final two months of the season as an everyday player, and again showed more success in that role.

What's most encouraging to me is when you examine Dellucci's numbers when he has been an everyday player. If you take his totals from the 2005 season, and add them to his totals from August 1, 2006 (when he became the Phillies everyday RF) to the end of the 2006 season you get these numbers:

AB-555, H-141, 2B-20, 3B-6, HR-35, RBI-83, BB-93, K-147, AVG-.254, SLG-.500, OBP-.361

That's a solid line. Yes, it's troubling that he had more strikeouts than hits, and yes, a .254 average is not perfect, but for a corner outfielder, the power numbers (35 homers and .500 slugging) are very encouraging, especially when you compare them to Jason Michael's 9 homers from the left field spot in 2006. What do I like even MORE about those totals? In Dellucci's numbers listed above, he has 555 at-bats, just about a full season's worth of at-bats. When you compare his totals (.254-35-83) to other major league outfielders, you see he is on par with some very interesting names. Take for instance Pat Burrell (.258-29-95) or Jeff Francoeur (.260-29-103) or how about Ken Griffey Jr. (.252-27-72), or Craig Monroe (.255-28-92). In fact, some would be surprised to know that Dellucci actually most accurately compares to Nick Swisher (yes, the Buckeye), and his (.254-35-95).

Now, I think we as Indian fans would be more accepting of this signing if instead of David Dellucci it was a Pat Burrell, Craig Monroe, Ken Griffey or Nick Swisher, but none of those players would come as cheap as 4 million a year for 3 years. In Dellucci we have potentially the same production as some quality major league outfielders, and we did not break the bank to get it.

I applaud Shapiro for the move, and I welcome Dellucci with open arms.

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