I think the hubbub over whether or not to tender Mark Teahen is a mountain which has been made out of the mole hill of $3M which would only amount to 1/25th or 4% of the Royals likely 2009 MLB payroll. Much ado about very little.

he should be on the team just because of the versatility…and bc his obp is way out of line w/ his career numbers this year…the guy has value…something like what we wanted out of ross gload but did not get

The reason that I want to post this is because I feel I represent the average fan. I am not a big stats guy, I still rely mostly on the typical offensive stats of BA, HR, and RBI to judge a players performance.

Then that makes it quite difficult to take any stats-based argument you make seriously.

But yes, I agree that there’s nothing wrong with keeping Teahen around as a sub.

and want him to remain a Royal just because he has the best public persona of anybody on the team—a “face of the team” type guy. And yes, he’s got some fielding versatility (LF is probably not one of those positions—there’s a reason he and Guillen flip flopped early in the season, Guillen wasn’t going to go to LF willingly unless they all realized that it was much worse to keep Teahen in LF). But this end of the season opportunity to get him some reps at 3B could be the best thing that could happen to him and to KC, as he simply presents more value as an everyday 3B for someone else. While everyone concedes 2006 was a fluke, should he have some better than his season average offensive production while playing 3B, some other front office could conclude “It’s worth taking a chance to see if he gets more comfortable at the plate if he’s more comfortable in the field playing his ‘natural position’” and thus take a chance of him leveling out somewhere between 2006 and current production.

In short, if a team thinks he still has enough offensive upside worth giving him the 3B spot, the Royals can get more in trade for a starting 3B than a supersub on the roster is worth to them in 2009-2010. This gives Teahen a chance to start at 3B and the Royals a chance to get something positive for the return of competitiveness (now realistically scheduled for 2011). So, for the sake of everyone, trading Teahen makes the most sense.

I think you make a good point about a clubhouse guy, with these young players, that can be more valuable than many of us know.

CRASH DAVIS NOW!!

I see no reason why we shouldn’t at least keep Mark around in case he finds the magic beans that produced his 2006 season.

A few weeks ago, we took a look at the best/most valuable player for each team. This week, we’ll switch to investigating the worst/least valuable hitter for each team. Next week we’ll do the pitchers.

#25 Kansas City Royals (Dartboard Factor = 70, 69): Mark Teahan. So many choices here as Tony Pena, Joey Gathright and John Buck put up fights but are edged out by Teahan thanks again to defensive positioning. Teahan had a rough freshman year but seemed to shake it off in his sophomore season, but fell back in the year following (2007) and has suffered a complete collapse in 2008. Part of it is bad luck on BABIP, but his lack of power isn’t helping matters.