Hitting The Cutoff Man

It's human nature to go with what you know. It's safe, it's comfortable, and even if you're ultimately disappointed, at least you know the nature and severity of that disappointment in advance. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't," as the saying goes.

There are examples of this everywhere. People continue to vote for the same terrible politicians. They get back with ex-boyfriends and girlfriends and watch reruns of mediocre sitcoms. We're all guilty of these types of things -- it's difficult to avoid.

Baseball teams (which are of course run by humans ... I think) are the same way. For the most part, Organizations are getting smarter and smarter, thanks to advanced statistical analysis and various technological innovations, but some habits are hard to shake. And so we have what I'll call the "name value problem." (Creative!)

Take the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds are fighting to keep pace with the Reds in the NL Central and have dealt with some bad breaks along the way, such as injuries to guys like David Freese, Kyle Lohse and Brad Penny and underperformance from others like Skip Schumaker and Brendan Ryan.

Other than swapping Ryan Ludwick for Jake Westbrook, St. Louis mostly has attempted to make up for these issues by recycling has-beens like Jeff Suppan, Aaron Miles, Randy Winn and now, Pedro Feliz. This strategy generally has been used instead of giving those at-bats or innings pitched to mostly unproven minor league players who probably could do at least as good, if not a better job. Only when a young player has instantly found huge success (like Jon Jay) has he been given a real shot to stick in the lineup.

Looking at Feliz specifically, what do the Cardinals see in him? Well, he has been a good defensive third baseman (13.7 UZR over the past three seasons), and with Freese out, that's something the Cards are lacking. But it's almost impossible to understate how bad of a hitter Feliz is. His .555 OPS this season is the worst of any MLB player with at least 300 plate appearances this season, "bolstered" by a .221 on-base percentage. When your OBP is a terrible batting average for a backup catcher, that's a bad sign. FanGraphs' wins above replacement metric, which accounts for defense, has Feliz being worth -1.5 wins this season, the worst in baseball.

This is all leading up to my point, which is: If Pedro Feliz was a 25-year-old named Fedro Peliz putting up the exact same .221/.243/.311 line and playing the exact same quality defense, the Cardinals would not even consider trading for him. If someone brought up the idea in a front office meeting, he immediately would be reassigned to "Designated Steak 'n Shake Delivery Boy."

But because this painfully terrible player is not Fedro Peliz, but Pedro Feliz, certified Veteran Who Knows What It Takes To Win, he is considered the answer to what ails the Cardinals.

Feliz better be glad he has his name, because it's probably the only reason he has a job.

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