so he’s at the whim of fate a lot more than most other good players, when line drives fall like they should, he’s above average, when they fall more then they should, he’s awsome, when they just keep flying right at guys, he’ll look terrible.

to compare, Robinson Cano is a sort of similar calibler guy, though Cano appears to have somewhat more pop. and still has significant upside and at least shown stretches where he was a good fielder. but Cano in 08 also demonstrated the same fallacy of a guy who doesn’t walk but hits a ton of line drives, sometimes they just keep falling into gloves.

While Renteria is a borderline signing, it’s not a terrible one. He’s not going to block the Giants from signing or moving in for another player. He’s not going to block anyone of conceivable worth. And yes, maintaining draft picks is a big deal.

I’m just not sure I understand the fuss.

http://tinyurl.com/8ok8r

Predicting Renteria’s line drive rate is perhaps the easiest thing to do in baseball as he’s one of the most consistent line drive hitters in baseball.

For the last five years, his LD% has never been lower than 22.2% or higher than 23.3%.

GB%: 2008 – 45.8%, Career – 46.2%
FB%: 2008 – 32.0%, Career – 31.0%
LD%: 2008 – 22.2% Career – 22.8%
HR/FB%: 2008 – 7.1%, Career – 7.4%

His 2009 projection is 285/.345/.417 with average defense.

That makes him not easy to find and quite valuable, a league average hitter while playing shortstop.