Posted October 21, 200915 yr MLB.com With so many outfield prospects in their system, Alejandro De Aza got caught in a numbers game. The Marlins didn't have a priority to retain the 25-year-old, who now will be getting an opportunity to play elsewhere. The White Sox on Wednesday claimed De Aza off waivers. At Triple-A New Orleans, De Aza batted .300 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs. He also appeared in 22 games for the Marlins, and he had 20 at-bats, batting .250 with a double and three RBIs. Injuries hurt De Aza in recent years. De Aza won the starting center field job in Spring Training of 2007, but early in the season he suffered an ankle injury that limited him to 45 games that year. He missed all of 2008 due to injury. The Marlins are projecting Cameron Maybin will be their Opening Day center fielder. The team also has Rookie of the Year candidate Chris Coghlan in left field. The Marlins also have outfield prospects John Raynor, Scott Cousins, Jai Miller and Bryan Petersen, who is in the Arizona Fall League. Florida's top prospect is outfielder Michael Stanton, a 19-year-old also getting some extra work this fall in Arizona.
October 21, 200915 yr nice pickup by chisox.... to bad he was never able to stay healthy with us.... i think he'll do great in chicago...
October 21, 200915 yr Damn. That sucks, i always liked him. Good luck to him, hopefully he stays healthy and tears it up over there.
October 21, 200915 yr Damn, De Aza actually showed some promise. Hopefully he can be really good with the Sox.
October 21, 200915 yr Author Not a big loss. He's one of those Robert Andino types. Someone who put up some decent numbers in AAA and everyone immediately began to overrate despite having no success at the ML level.
October 21, 200915 yr He was a combination of not staying healthy and not given a legit opportunity from the club.
October 21, 200915 yr He was a combination of not staying healthy and not given a legit opportunity from the club. No, he's one of those guys who will never be a starter in the big leagues, yet people are infatuated with him b/c he showed some speed and didn't embarrass himself defensively, in his limited time. Same thing with Robert Andino last year, and if Emilio Bonifacio would've played on the bench as the utility player he is, we'd be talking the same way about Bonifacio, as well. Bottom line is...these are guys that are easy to let go b/c they are not that good.
October 21, 200915 yr What I really enjoyed this year was De Aza coming up and actually looking competent at the plate, working the count (especially in key pinch hitting situations), and getting some hits in limited playing time, and getting sent down to the minors. All the while Bonifacio was striking out on three pitches in the dirt, yet getting to start every day. De Aza is a fringe player, but he could have had some real use as a bench outfielder.
October 21, 200915 yr De Aza went to the right place as the White Sox don't currently have any backup outfielders on the roster with major league experience. But he is not really much of a loss to the Marlins.
October 22, 200915 yr Author De Aza went to the right place as the White Sox don't currently have any backup outfielders on the roster with major league experience. But he is not really much of a loss to the Marlins. I bet you a beer De Aza doesnt play a game with the White Sox next year, or even get on their roster.
October 22, 200915 yr Good luck to him, IFhe can stay healthy he could be a solid ballplayer. I think I would rather have him than Jai Miller, if they were worried about roster spots.
October 22, 200915 yr I'm not arguing that (in fact I'm not arguing at all) De Aza is some phenom or anything special but if memory serves didn't he make the Opening Day roster with the Marlins at least once and I think it was twice so regardless of what some may think the professionals within the organization who evaluate players for a living thought he was not without the talent to play at the major league level. That said, one could also posit that those same people allowed his departure, so while I don't think it's the end of the world that he's gone to Chicago, we never had a chance to see what he was capable of with a full season under his belt. Again not drawing any comparison but if one were to look at Chris Coghlan's first month or so in the bigs and used that as a snapshot of what kind of player he was, in hindsight it be a tragically flawed assessment. Spike and others above may be right he never plays an inning but you never know who gets traded, who gets injured, etc. and what happens if he's in the right place at the right time. Dan Uggla would be an aging utility player scratching out a living in AA ball right now if the Diamondbacks still had him under their control so personally I hope the guy nothing but the best and hope he earns (operative word) a spot on the White Sox roster in 2010.
October 22, 200915 yr I hope he can stay healthy and be the solid LH reserve OF that I expect he can.
October 22, 200915 yr Author I'm not arguing that (in fact I'm not arguing at all) De Aza is some phenom or anything special but if memory serves didn't he make the Opening Day roster with the Marlins at least once and I think it was twice so regardless of what some may think the professionals within the organization who evaluate players for a living thought he was not without the talent to play at the major league level. That said, one could also posit that those same people allowed his departure, so while I don't think it's the end of the world that he's gone to Chicago, we never had a chance to see what he was capable of with a full season under his belt. If I remember correctly, he won the job and actually started on Opening Day in 2007 entirely because he had a monster spring training (ask Abraham Nunez how significant this really is). I do suppose that warrants him consideration for a spot on the ML roster but it doesn't mean that he was necessarily going to be a good player. Of course, this also came at a time when the Marlins had no idea what to do with the CF position. He struggled pretty horribily from the beginning and then got injured. I think he got the attention he did just because of that spring training season that he had and the fact that the Marlins were really struggling people to find his position. Judging by abstract talent isn't always foolproof. If it were, we wouldn't have dealt with so many games started by the likes of Reggie Abercrombie or Emilio Bonifacio. I suppose Chicago gave him a look simply because he had a decent season in New Orleans in 2009.
October 22, 200915 yr I'm not arguing that (in fact I'm not arguing at all) De Aza is some phenom or anything special but if memory serves didn't he make the Opening Day roster with the Marlins at least once and I think it was twice so regardless of what some may think the professionals within the organization who evaluate players for a living thought he was not without the talent to play at the major league level. That said, one could also posit that those same people allowed his departure, so while I don't think it's the end of the world that he's gone to Chicago, we never had a chance to see what he was capable of with a full season under his belt. If I remember correctly, he won the job and actually started on Opening Day in 2007 entirely because he had a monster spring training (ask Abraham Nunez how significant this really is). I do suppose that warrants him consideration for a spot on the ML roster but it doesn't mean that he was necessarily going to be a good player. Of course, this also came at a time when the Marlins had no idea what to do with the CF position. He struggled pretty horribily from the beginning and then got injured. I think he got the attention he did just because of that spring training season that he had and the fact that the Marlins were really struggling people to find his position. Judging by abstract talent isn't always foolproof. If it were, we wouldn't have dealt with so many games started by the likes of Reggie Abercrombie or Emilio Bonifacio. I suppose Chicago gave him a look simply because he had a decent season in New Orleans in 2009. De Aza probably got more hits in his first week as a Marlin that Nunez ever did. And I think in pretty much the only game he started this year, he had a multi-hit game. It's not like he was a star waiting to happen, but he did have some skills that could be very useful at the major league level.
October 22, 200915 yr I'm not arguing that (in fact I'm not arguing at all) De Aza is some phenom or anything special but if memory serves didn't he make the Opening Day roster with the Marlins at least once and I think it was twice so regardless of what some may think the professionals within the organization who evaluate players for a living thought he was not without the talent to play at the major league level. That said, one could also posit that those same people allowed his departure, so while I don't think it's the end of the world that he's gone to Chicago, we never had a chance to see what he was capable of with a full season under his belt. If I remember correctly, he won the job and actually started on Opening Day in 2007 entirely because he had a monster spring training (ask Abraham Nunez how significant this really is). I do suppose that warrants him consideration for a spot on the ML roster but it doesn't mean that he was necessarily going to be a good player. Of course, this also came at a time when the Marlins had no idea what to do with the CF position. He struggled pretty horribily from the beginning and then got injured. I think he got the attention he did just because of that spring training season that he had and the fact that the Marlins were really struggling people to find his position. Judging by abstract talent isn't always foolproof. If it were, we wouldn't have dealt with so many games started by the likes of Reggie Abercrombie or Emilio Bonifacio. I suppose Chicago gave him a look simply because he had a decent season in New Orleans in 2009. Actually, he was good if I remember correctly before he got injured. (...Looks it up...) Yeah, he hit .303/.314/.455. Not exactly the OBP you want to see, but a good BA with a good SLG. He had a hit in all 8 games he started, his last game was a PH appearance where he got an out. But yeah, you're basically right. He had that great 2007 ST, won the CF job, got injured, had a great 2008 ST, won at least a platoon spot in CF, and got injured in an exhibition game versus the Yankees.
October 23, 200915 yr I remember all of the people here crying when Robert Andino left (I take pride in being his greatest skeptic) and he went .222/.274/.288/.562 in Baltimore this past season in nearly 200 ABs, by far the largest number he's ever received at the ML level in his career. I think the only person who expected Andino to be anything more than Amezaga was Dim. I think you misjudge's people's optimism in what he was doing in AAA. It wasn't about him being a ML starter, it was about him becoming a ML back up. With his defense, he has to hit better, but he doesn't have to put up a good OPS to be an OK cost controlled MI bench player.
October 23, 200915 yr How about Bryan Petersen will replace De Aza, as a 4th OF? He has performed very well in AFL. He can take a job of all outfield position. If it happen the accidently callup in 2010, Petersen might be.
October 23, 200915 yr I'm not arguing that (in fact I'm not arguing at all) De Aza is some phenom or anything special but if memory serves didn't he make the Opening Day roster with the Marlins at least once and I think it was twice so regardless of what some may think the professionals within the organization who evaluate players for a living thought he was not without the talent to play at the major league level. That said, one could also posit that those same people allowed his departure, so while I don't think it's the end of the world that he's gone to Chicago, we never had a chance to see what he was capable of with a full season under his belt. If I remember correctly, he won the job and actually started on Opening Day in 2007 entirely because he had a monster spring training (ask Abraham Nunez how significant this really is). I do suppose that warrants him consideration for a spot on the ML roster but it doesn't mean that he was necessarily going to be a good player. Of course, this also came at a time when the Marlins had no idea what to do with the CF position. He struggled pretty horribily from the beginning and then got injured. I think he got the attention he did just because of that spring training season that he had and the fact that the Marlins were really struggling people to find his position. Judging by abstract talent isn't always foolproof. If it were, we wouldn't have dealt with so many games started by the likes of Reggie Abercrombie or Emilio Bonifacio. I suppose Chicago gave him a look simply because he had a decent season in New Orleans in 2009. Actually, he was good if I remember correctly before he got injured. (...Looks it up...) Yeah, he hit .303/.314/.455. Not exactly the OBP you want to see, but a good BA with a good SLG. He had a hit in all 8 games he started, his last game was a PH appearance where he got an out. But yeah, you're basically right. He had that great 2007 ST, won the CF job, got injured, had a great 2008 ST, won at least a platoon spot in CF, and got injured in an exhibition game versus the Yankees. Yep. In '07 he was hurt early by stepping on a sprinkler in Washington and tried to play through it for a while. In '08 he got hurt running into a wall and Carroll (I believe) at the same time in the very last ST game, an exhibition game at Joe Robbie vs the Yankees. But I believe he had the CF job locked up to start that season. Cameron had shown in ST that he wasn't ML ready yet, while ADA showed he could play decent enough defense, had good base running skills (natural base stealer), but tended to chase the off speed stuff a little too often (common young player mistake). It's unfair to compare him to Abraham Nunez. He was a guy that shined in ST but couldn't bring that over to the ML level while still playing healthy. Key words: playing healthy. He got his chances with us while we were trying to showcase him for a future trade, but basically showed he could hit into a DP with the best of them. I think ADA can be a decent ML player if he can stay away from those freak injuries. Nunez never even made a decent bench player. I wish him luck. He's an exciting player to watch that can make things happen on the bases. I think we will be hearing his name often enough. But we are pretty deep in OF positions, hard to determine who to protect. I think I would have protected him and hoped Jai slipped through, but I haven't seen very much of Jai's playing time.
October 23, 200915 yr I would like to remind everybody that Andino is awesome, and that he is an intagibles player, meaning stats do not measure the things he does for the teams he's on. Ex: While with the marlins, while pinch running, he tagged up from 3rd and scored on a pop up to 2nd base with 1 out. No other player would've had the instincts or the presence of mind to take home on that play, and while it doesn't go down on the stat sheet, it had a huge impact on the games outcome. Thus Andino's greatness can never fully be appreciated. I still believe, despite Andino's struggles during his later stints as a starter, that he can be successul. He was actually doing very well when first put in as the starting SS.
October 23, 200915 yr I would like to remind everybody that Andino is awesome, and that he is an intagibles player, meaning stats do not measure the things he does for the teams he's on. Ex: While with the marlins, while pinch running, he tagged up from 3rd and scored on a pop up to 2nd base with 1 out. No other player would've had the instincts or the presence of mind to take home on that play, and while it doesn't go down on the stat sheet, it had a huge impact on the games outcome. Thus Andino's greatness can never fully be appreciated. I still believe, despite Andino's struggles during his later stints as a starter, that he can be successul. He was actually doing very well when first put in as the starting SS. Actually, it does go down on the stat sheet. It's called speed score, in which Andino is still below average.
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