I suppose that Z and Wedge could say, "Heck, we're in the hunt right now with Figgins! He'll warm up a bit, so let's stay with him."
They could say that. It would be silly....but they could. The issue is simply that we have 3 IF's (LRod, Kennedy, Ackley) who are better than Figgins right now.
I suppose Wedge could force the issue by giving LRod 2 starts at third each week AND batting Figgins 9th when he does play. But even when Figgins goes all pout-ville on you, you still just bench him. Heck, why not just do it in the first place.
Ironically, this whole issue comes down to two Z bad decisions. Firstly, he signed Figgins to an expensive long-term contract (based on an outlier year) and then covered his arse when Wakamatsu tried to do the right thing. Z is married to Figgins, in a baseball sense. This situation was WAY predictable, and many of us did just that. This past winter Z should have dumped Figgins for a broken down Dodge Dart or Kevin Kouzmanoff, whichever offer came first. Kouz is way cruddy this seaon but is actually better than Figgins. And at least you could bench/DFA Kouz. GM's are supposed to make decisions that benefit the team. There is no reasonable scenario that plays Figgins a lot that benefits this team, minus the minor miracle of Figgins hitting .280 from here on out. Were the M's destined for no better than 70 wins then you might play Figgins and pray you could unload him next winter. But even that would be a decision that blocks players that might help in the future. Currently, Figgins is hurting a team in the thick of a playoff race.
Figgins' performance this year is historically bad for a 3B. If you set the parameters at .220-.250-.300, which are all better numbers than Figgins currently has, and search for comparable 400 PA 3B since 1970, you will find exactly ONE. Pedro Feliz, for the '10 Astros & Cards, went .218-.240-.293. That's it. One "fulltime" 3B in the last 40 years has performed as badly as Figgins projects. No 3B has hacked away with those numbers for 500 PA's, a figure Figgins is easily on pace to better.
Even if you give Figgins year end numbers of .240-.300-.300 (which means he gets hot), you still find only 8 other guys (excluding Feliz) who performed that badly since '70. That list include such names as Jerry Kinney, Jerry Royster, Coco Laboy and Mike Pagliarulo. Brooks Robinson, '75, was actually the best player on that list, but he was still an A+ fielder. He hit .218 in 550 PA's.
Figgins isn't just bad right now, his incredibly bad for a full time 3B.
This team isn't going to get much offense from CF this year and you have a defense first SS and C. You can say that your DH is OPS+ing 100, but is is misleading, as well.
There is a solution. It involves Ackley at 2B, Kennedy at 3B (Holy snot, Pete Rose played 3B for back to back WS title teams...You're telling me Kennedy can't play the position) and Figgins watching a bunch.
Even if Figgins hit .280 the rest of the year, it only marginally improves his value with other MLB GM's.
He's toast. Continuing to pencil him in just to prove it is incredibly addle-brained.
Bench him.
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