Seattle Sports Insider

POTD Tug Hulett, 1

Posted by

8/27/10

.... went 5-for-5 Thursday, had two more absolutely smoked hits Friday, which brings him to 16-for-34 (.471) for Tacoma.

In his first AB on Friday he got a jam pitch on 1-2 from a LHP and just blistered it into RF. In his third AB, he calmly worked the count to 3-1, looking completely relaxed against a sidearm LOOGY type, and on the challenge FB blasted a line-drive double into the corner.

His followthrough looked more like Ken Griffey Jr's than it looked like Jack Wilson's or Jose Lopez'. This kid is not your typical middle infielder when he has a bat in his hands.

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He actually looks like a hitter up there on all kinds of pitches. Tell you the truth, he reminds me more than a little of Chris Snelling, if Yoda played shortstop. (I'm not saying Hulett will be an impact player in the bigs.)

Sabermetrically: Tug has a career OBP of nearly .400 in the minors. In Phase I, he had a 1.00+ eye in the low minors. In Phase II, he realized that he could hit these feebs, and ratcheted his SLG up to .500.

Phase III, at Pawtucket this year, he might have gotten sullen over hitting a dead-end with an org. When you know you're not going to get a promotion, well ..... He changes teams, gets new hope, BAM with the first game he's Billy Williams again. That could be what happened :shrug: .

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Sabermetrically he could be something of a find, a guy who performs better than his funky body looks like he could.

An intriguing pickup by Zduriencik. Can't see any reason that he couldn't outplay Josh Wilson, at the least.

Hulett looks more like a 2B than a SS, but you don't have great options at SS short-term. (Though, I still would like a clear explanation for why Chone Figgins can't play SS. He's got a third baseman's arm.) If nothing else, it would be quite a kick seeing a LH hitting, offense-first shortstop to break the monotony.

Taro Sez

I like Hulett even though he hasn't had as good of a season this year. Curious why he hasn't gotten a shot yet somewhere.

Plug him in..like tommorow. What in the world do you have to lose?

A lefty Marco Scutaro? Maybe, lets find out now.

The only thing that we could venture, as to why he hasn't gotten a shot, is that he certainly doesn't have a SS's body. He almost looks like he's got a little bit of a tummy, maybe not, but he must have like a 39-inch belt :- ) and when's the last time you saw that at SS in the majors?

Actually, Hulett's probably not overweight, probably just a little squat. And there've been guys like that at SS in the bigs. Certainly the scouts aren't going to be throwing him any office parties, but if that's what happened, if he got labeled as too stocky for SS (and we don't know whether that's true) then you've got a potential Moneyball situation.

Again, we don't even know whether the scouts complain about his physique; we're just kind of assuming that they do. But we do know that Jack Zduriencik has absolutely nothing against stocky ballplayers. He's supposed to be a big Prince Fielder fan, and Z hasn't shied away from other slow guys.

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BTW, probably not everybody here is aware that Tug's dad, Tim Hulett, had a nice little career as an ML infielder. Meaning that Tug is comfortable around celebrities.

Part 2

Comments

Well done!

Doc,

I was all over Hulett a couple of years ago, during his Tacoma stint in '08, and in the cup-of-tea he got in the bigs that year. He's well worth a considerable MLB shot right now and he was then.
In '08 and '09 he was a very fine hitting AAA-MIF'er. Kind of a Moneyball type. OBP of .382, slugged nearly .500. Even this year in Pawtucket, where he hit terribly, he walked .127! He's got command of the strikezone, takes a lot of pitches, and has some pop. In both '08 & '09 he had more than 40 X-base hits at AAA, in fewer than 100 games. Had more than 40 in '07, too. MLB teams can win without a bunch of homers...but to be good you basically need 5 guys that get 40 x-base hits. (Every team that played in the AL Championship Series between '00-'09 had at least 5 guys with 40 extrabase hits except the '05 Angels and 06 A's who each had 4 guys over that number...and the A's had 2 other guys with 37 and 39 and the Angels had other guys with 32,33,35 & 39.
He won't hurt you at 2B with the glove, can play third, is Yuni-ish at SS and played 20+ games as a COF as recently as last year. He's listed at 5'10-185, BTW. What is not to like.
I was very disappointed when the M's let him go after the '08 season.
To tell you the truth....I would much rather see (and it's not even close) the M's pay him th minimum and start next season with him at 2B (if you're not giving it to Ackley in April) than pay Figgins 9M clams. I'm willing to bet that his WAR would be in the same ballpark...OPS too. Once Ackley is up, Hulett is that very versatil, pop-ish 4th IFer'
Between he and Tui you would have two very versatile guys, both with some upside pop.
The M's are not going to the playoffs next year...but Tug is the kind of guy who might turn into a 7 year very useful player.
Hulett can field his position (and a couple of others) wears out arms and has pop...or it looks like he has all those attributes. Let's see him get a shot.

Moe