At least he isn’t Brian Jordan. Mondesi’s career in a nutshell: He came up with the Dodgers in late 1993, hitting .291/.322/.488 in 86 AB. He then hit .306/.333/.516 in 1994, winning the Rookie of the Year award. It looked like he’d be a star for years… But he never got better. With the Dodgers through 1999 he put up a series of seasons of about that level. In 1997 he hit .310/.360/.541, his best season in all categories, but not a whole lot different from what he normally did. His batting average faded a little but he picked up a few more walks to compensate.
For two and a half years, he played for the Blue Jays, for whom he had one year like his Dodger season then faded, then went to the Yankees for two half seasons. They unloaded him on the D-Backs in late 2003. His 2003 season was pretty similar to his old standard, .272/.343/.484. He then got into a mess in 2004, playing briefly and poorly for the Pirates before jumping the team claiming there was a kidnap plot against a family member in the Dominican. Whether this is true is not clear, but he managed to finagle his release from the Pirates and hooked up with the Angels. But he soon got hurt, and soon enough he jumped them too, failing to show up for a rehab assignment.
If his head is screwed on right and he’s healthy he can give a Brian Jordan Mark I-level performance, say .275/.332/.488 — his career line. Considered a good defensive outfielder with a cannon arm, his range factors are only fair in recent years and his assist rate isn’t that high. Was 22-for-33 as a base stealer in 2003 and has probably slowed down a good bit. The Braves say he’s their right fielder and I guess that’s so, unless he flips out again.
I remember all of the whining and complaining about the Drew trade. Look how that turned out. I mean its possible to win the lottery twice isn’t it? I mean its possible isn’t it? Right? Trying hard to be positve here. Pretty strong praise there ‘At least he isn’t Brian Jordan’.
My question is how quickly will we know if his head isnt screwed on straight? Spring training, first month, break … I either want to put up his career line or to fail miserably and be cut quickly. I hope that he doesnt limp along in between those two extremes because that is what would hurt the team.
Maybe I am an optimist, but I really like the pickups for the outfield. Mondesi is a pretty good defensive outfielder. I think he really has a lot to prove. He is finally back on a winning team, and will be a starter. He does not have the pressure of being the man. He puts up decent power numbers, good for a 6-7 hitter ( I assume this will about be his spot ) and has a slighlty better than league average. Jordan still hits lefties pretty well, and seems to do better after an injury year. He needs rest, and when he gets it, he seemed to be effective. If you look at his Ranger comeback, he started to decline when he played a lot of back to back nights. He will still have better than Klesko range, and remember we had a gimpy chipper in left for half the year last year, it was not that bad. If Ryan can give us a .274 / 10hr year and play solid D, then I think the platoon will give us an average left fielder, 20hrs, 265 average, and will not hurt on Defense. As a 8 hole, that is better than I would expect. Definitely more potent than some of the 90’s 8’s (lockhart anyone). Even if Raul and Jordan burn like the phoenix after the first 3 months of the season, it gives marte and francouer time to develop a bit. Who knows, maybe Ryan takes the fulltime job in right and Marte comes up and fills left field beautifully.