Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Cubs Complete Outfield with Jacque Jones signing?

The Cubs signed Jacque Jones yesterday to a three year $16 million dollar contract. This is suppose to "Complete" the outfield. I will need to be convinced on this signing.

Jones has a lifetime batting average of .279, but has batted .254 and .249 in 2004 and 2005 respectively. He is averaging 117.75 Strikeouts over the past four years. He has a lifetime RCAA of -23. Jacque had a RCAA of -15 in 2004 and -7 in 2005. The league average for his position over he career is 17. So that puts Jacque 40 points behind the league average for the outfield. Jones is in the 36th worst position for lifetime RCAA for all active outfielders.

Jacque Jones will supply a bit of power with his bat. He hit 24 in 2004 and 23 in 2005.

I'm patiently waiting for Lee Sinins' analysis of this pickup.

We now have an outfield made up of Matt Murton in LF, Juan Pierre in CF, and Jacque Jones in RF. Corey Patterson will be the backup for Center and Right and Jerry Hairston will backup Left Field. What happened to Felix Pie?

Jacque has never played in the National League and will have to get familiar with the National League Pitchers and vice-versa. I really hope this will complete the outfield, but I will have to be convinced. Jones did bat .304 in 2003 and .300 in 2002, so it is possible he may pick it back up. We will continue to see Strike outs as if Corey is still batting.

I might be a bit to hard on him, but I guess I dream of outfield of .300+ lifetime hitters who average 30 homers a year.

Update 12/22/2005
It looks like I'm not the only one wondering about Jones. Take a look at what Phil Rogers wrote in the Chicago Tribune : It's tough to figure sense of Jones deal