James Loney
Without context, his .281/.357/.399/.756 line with a .332 wOBA makes him about a league average hitter. Unfortunately, Loney plays a position where being league average also means being bottom of the barrel. Loney ranked a horrid 23rd in the majors in wOBA among first basemen who qualified at the position, and there's no other way to describe that other than terrible.Perhaps the saddest part about that ranking is the fact that Loney actually progressed this year. His walk rate jumped from 7.0% to 10.8% and he cut his strikeout rate from 14.3% to 11.8%. Loney's power didn't follow suit though, as his ISO dropped from .145 to .118, leading to more questions about whether it would ever come.
Defensively, he ranked 0.7 UZR/150 and 3.02 PM/1350, so he's about an average defender. I didn't buy for one second that he was as bad as UZR ranked him last year, as Plus/Minus has had him around average for his career.
There are those out there who believe Loney is a plus defender at first, but I just don't see it. Statistically speaking, he's average at best. Then as I watched him play, I came to the conclusion that he's the type that gets commonly overrated by those who watch the games.
What I mean by that is Loney has great hands and a great arm, so he'll make special looking throws and special looking plays where minimal movement is involved. However, he's still a remarkably slow and awkward individual, and his lateral movement is poor. Basically, he doesn't get to a lot of balls, and when he is asked to use his arm, he is frequently erratic with the accuracy of his throws. Therefore, an average rating seems like a fair overall assessment.
So where does this leave Loney's future with the organization? Not in good standing if I was running it, but perhaps that's why i'm not. Still though, it's hard to be positive.
As i've explained on this site many times before, there were two schools of thought about Loney's projection among scouts. One group had him as a slugging first baseman that would use his size to produce power. The other had him as a line drive spray hitter with 15-20 homer power. As more time passes, it's becoming clearer that the big power isn't going to come. I was personally in the latter group, and while I have always hoped things would turn out different, it appears Lyle Overbay might be a best case scenario for him. And quite frankly, at first base, it's just not acceptable.
Loney's still cheap, so it's not like he's hurting the Dodgers, but if there's an opportunity to move him for a good player, I wouldn't hesitate.
Doug Mientkiewicz
Not much to say here, is there? I thought he started off looking like a quality reserve off the bench, but then he took an unnecessary swan dive into second base and hurt himself.Jim Thome
Thome is only listed as a first baseman here by default, because he couldn't play the field, and was essentially a pinch hitter with the Dodgers. However, it was still a great idea to acquire him, as it cost the Dodgers only an organizational depth type of minor leaguer.I feel that he was under utilized while in blue, especially in the playoffs. It's unfortunate, but it's not any fault of his own. Thome had only four hits as a Dodger, and none of them were of much importance, but I still can't see much downside to his presence on the roster.
