I agree that he would make an ideal # 2 hitter, but given our current offensive skill level, I think he should stay at # 3 at least thru 2008.

Long range, ideally Gordon would fit into the 3 hole, with Butler hitting 4th - but that may be another couple of years away.

Here's an interesting comparison on Teahen's offense (and this is completely subjective; I didn't run any comparisons of the "most like this guy" type): He seems like a young Jim Edmonds with the stick. Some of the younger posters might not remember that Edmonds was a 2 hole hitter for the Angels at one time. Great combination of on base skills with good, if not great secondary slugging avg skills. (Remember, you can make up for being a "just" 20 HR guy if you are always chipping in 35 or 40 doubles with another 5-10 triples every year, like Teahen might be capable of).  If Teahen ends up with a career like Edmonds, I think we all would be quite satisfied. Who knows, maybe he ends up better?

Now that I look at Edmonds, his hot stretch (2000-2004, as Billex Gordler points out) was from age 29-33, which is arguably starts a couple of years later than one might guess would be the most prevelant age range for one's best 5 year span.

Looking at what Teahen has done by age 25 with the stick, and (perhaps optimistically) looking at Teahen's height, frame, swing, and athleticism, one could argue he could potentially develop into nearly as good an offensive player as Edmonds was.

Naturally, he would have more value as a CF or 3B, but the ballclub has already hinted that he might be a candidate to move to CF one day. Who knows what that might mean? It could mean they move DeJesus to LF to make room for somebody in RF, or it could mean they might entertain the idea of trading DeJesus around, say 2010 or so, or it could just be idle speculation by a KC Star reporter desperate to fill his column.

The following are season-adjusted stats (162 games) for Teahen, thru the current, and Edmonds, which I used thru his 2005 year for ease of calculating. This seems reasonable close to similar time frame, as Teahen was born on 9/6/81, and data is for 283 games played to date, when is 25 yrs 8 months old. Edmonds was born on 6/27/70, and his stats are for 253 games played by the end of the 2005 season, at which point he was 25 yrs 3 months old.

Edmonds 283/343/472  53 BB 140 K per 162 games, and a BABIP of 334

Teahen 273/343/445   59 BB 133 K per 162 games, and a BABIP of 330

What does it all mean?

Well, for pulling a player comparison out of my ass, that wasn't too bad.

Edmonds increased slugging percentage as he aged seems higher than a normal amount to me, so most likely Teahen will not start turning in 600 slugging percentage years. On the other hand, if he starts turning in 550 slugging years (and that doesn't seem that unreasonable, does it?), then we have one HELL of a productive bat on our hands, don't we?

I haven't touched the park-effects aspect of this, and frankly I don't want to. My gut tells me Kauffman is taking some HRs away from Mark; of course, it most likely helps him with all other hit types. Edmonds did compile his best years while STL was playing as an avg to above avg hitter's park (or at least that's what I think off the top of my head).