FanPost

Are there replacements for TPJ in the Royals' system?

(aka Beating A Dead Horse)

Of course most of us think that pretty much any living human being would be a better replacement for TPJ, but other than Luis Hernandez are there viable options for stop-gap solutions?

But the reason this post really exists is to link to a great site

Minor League Splits dot com

which I haven't really used before, that gives Total Zone ratings (among other things) for many minor league players:

http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/cgi-bin/pl.cgi

Mario Lisson, 25 - career MiLB OPS .717, TZ R/150 at SS 8

Tug Hulett, 26 - .811, 7 (in his 4 games as a pro at SS he did not shine, to say the least, but he's been pretty good at 2B and decent at SS in the minors in limited PT, so maybe he shouldn't be written off at SS)

Irving Falu, 26 - .685 , 1 (he did have one season where his R/150 at SS was 16, but also one where it was -18)

Jeff Bianchi, 22 - .783, 10

Chris McConnell, 25 - .670, 7

for reference: TPJ's R/150 was 18 in his 2005 AAA season and -13 (!) in his 2006 AAA season, career OPS .647; maybe this speaks to the high variability (and suspect meaningfulness) of the Total Zone stat.

Well, that's not much in the way of immediate help as far as a defensive replacement, though all of these guys are decent defensively. Can we start a petition for LISSON NOW!?

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.