Troy Glaus Statistics and History – Baseball-Reference.com

Glaus is one of those guys who has spent his entire career living down a big season early on, one he really hasn’t proven to be capable of matching. In his second full season in the big leagues, 2000 with the Angels, Glaus led the AL with 47 homers and hit .284/.404/.604. The .284 was really more of the mirage than the homers; he hit 41 the next season and has seasons of 38 and 37, but he’s a .255 career hitter. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been a valuable player. Glaus walks a lot, so his career OBP is .359, and there are those homers, 304 for his career.

Anyway, the Angels, who thought that his big year was for real, wound up considering him a mild disappointment, and then he missed about half of the 2003 and 2004 seasons with injuries. He signed with the Diamondbacks as a free agent, and had a good year in the bandbox before getting traded to Toronto for Miguel Batista and Orlando Hudson. He had another good year there in 2006, but started to have injury issues and missed part of 2007 before getting traded to the Cardinals in a weird challenge trade for Scott Rolen. At this point, he’s having shoulder issues, and might have played first base, but Albert Pujols. He had a strong 2008, but missed most of 2009 with shoulder surgery.

The Braves want him to play first base, something he’s only done six times in the major leagues. Ken Caminiti aside, picking up first base should not be that hard for a player considered a good glove man at third, as Glaus was. I’m not really concerned for his defense, I’m concerned for his health.