Justin Ruggiano

[Erick]

Discuss.

[Dr Beinfest]

I'm going fluke with Ruggiano. If he can win a spot in Spring Training, it's for a bench spot. Otherwise, I'm only taking him if and when we don't have enough players to fill every spot next year because our depth sucks ass.

[Erick]

Chose platoon player. I think his #'s against right-handed pitching are, indeed, fluky.

[gizmo]

Going with CF starter. I don't really anticipate us getting Bourn or Victorino, and its not like Yelich will be ready at the start of the season. With the limited amount of playing time Ruggiano has received throughout his career, I don't think its entirely fair to flat out call him a fluke. For all we know, he's another Dan Uggla (but older).

[Anonymous]

I think he should be our everyday CF for next season. He'll die down against righties, and lefties for that matter, but I think he'll be respectable in the end. On top of that he's a plus defender.

[EricWiener]

2012 is a fluke, but he is an every day CF. He looks to be more solid than Ross, even if the absurd performance does not hold up. He can play the position well, has some speed and there is no reason to believe he cannot be an .800OPS MLB player. Much of the delay for him was being in the Tampa Bay organization's OF depth.

[Dr Beinfest]

Man, everyone is ready to throw away 2013 and 2012 isn't even over. That's crazy. Even for everyone who feels this season is a fluke for Ruggiano, you're still voting for giving him a serious role?

[EricWiener]

2012 is a fluke because it is not reasonable to expect him to be a 1.000 OPS player. Shave 200 points off and he is a top 5 CF in OPS and a top 25 OF overall. At a minimum he is going to be a great bench/platoon mix with Dobbs.

[yokofox33]

Unless we sign a CF I don't see why Ruggiano isn't the opening day starter in CF. I agree with Eric in that his OPS is flukey, but I still think he's a very solid bat even when he regresses. If we do sign a CF then I have no problem with him starting in LF or platooning with Dobbs.

[Sumlit]

I'm going with fluke year, but still keep him around just in case.

[Michael]

Sign FA CF, move Ruggiano to left.

[marlinscuba]

Starting LF next season and we bring back Lee or sign Morales away from LAA...sign Bourn and move Boni to 2B...

[Hotcorner]

I'd give him CF unless they go get a pricey FA which I doubt happens.

[NOTtheILMarlins]

It's been too long to consider him a fluke. Some players just take longer to figure things out.

He should be a starter next year just by what he's done this year there is no reason to throw out someone unproven, assuming we fill one of the outfield spots (LF or CF).

But if it is a fluke I hope he has at least 8 more years of fluke play.

[canada-marlin24]

I'd say 4th outfielder but he needs to prove it next year but I wouldn't bank on it.

 

But who knows he could be the next Michael morse. But I would rather move lomo and go after a proven bat.

[97marlin]

he is an .800 OPS guy in the minor leagues. That type of production isn't bad, and who knows maybe the 1.000 isn't a fluke and he really is a god. give him left and see what he can do.

[pollythewog]

if we get .800 OPS from him next year (which I think we will) in LF and + defense then that is more than adequate

[BroncoBob27]

He will be back next year for 2 reasons. He will come cheap and he has earned a shot. But I doubt the team pencils him in anywhere. Just go into ST and let the players fight it out for the positions. Too many holes to fill and I don't think there will be enough cash to fill them through FA.

 

Those October meetings should be interesting. But I think Ozzie's stamp on the team will be greater than it was this year. If they keep to their biz plan then I expect them to come out of those meetings saying 2013 is a rebuilding year.

[LRizzle]

He'll be at worst a platoon guy and 4th OF, but I doubt we go into the season thinking "ok, LF or CF is figured out because we have Ruggiano". You can do that with SS and RF for us but that's about it. That being said, he should get 400 AB's next season, giving us solid defense and a .825 OPS. Which I very much like, not to mention he's cheap.

 

I kind of want to vote for all options. It WAS a fluke year, but doesn't mean he'll regress to a .650 OPS. And he'll be more than a platoon guy but not an everyday locked up starter in any one position. It also depends on who we sign in the offseason I guess.

[UltimaKilo]

Trade hi, while his stock is worth something. We don't need another Gaby Sanchez situation.

[nekromantique]

everyday lf...at least until september callups come around and they (most likely) bring up yelich and/or ozuna. (yelich's only knock is that he doesnt have a very strong arm, so hell probably move to lf and if ozuna is ready to move up, his speed is definitely good enough for cf...and he has the arm for it)

 

i think bonifacio will be in cf again to start, and theyll probably have hernandez as the backup cf if he can learn to get on base at a better rate.

[LRizzle]

For the record Ruggiano so far in 88 games and +300 PA's, has produced a 3.0 WAR, good for 29th in the NL, is a oWAR of 2.4 and dWAR of .5. So at the very least he's a cheap, plus defender with a solid bat.

I don't know why anyone would want to trade him, he'd be far more beneficial to us if he panned out and showed consistency.

 

I know some of you want Michael Bourn for CF, he caught my eye because he's 6th in WAR at 5.5, 3.0 oWAR and 2.8 dWAR.

He's the 2nd best defensive player in terms of efficiency and position scarcity, only behind Darwin Barney of the Cubs and Yadier Molina coming up in 3rd. If we had Ruggiano in LF, Bourn in CF, and Stanton in RF (who's a .4 dWAR) that'd be a pretty great defensive OF and OF in general. Lots of athleticism. Power from Stanton, speed from Bourn, and solid/cheap hybrid Ruggiano.

[pollythewog]

I think Ruggian's 2nd half is pretty indicative of what we'll get next year: 800+ OPS, speed, and a good defender. Start him in LF, put lomo on 1b, and no more of this lee next year nonsense!

[Puma]

I say give him a chance to show he can do it again. He's definitely earned that chance.

[LRizzle]

Just wanted to rekindle this because my bud was in some fangraphs chat with some baseball guys. And the summary according to him was that they believed Ruggiano is a 4th OF, Bonifacio is a util guy (I sorta agree with that), and that Peterson needs more at bats(also agree with that). But the Ruggiano comment really put me off.

 

Here's a good read from them however.

http://www.fishstripes.com/2012/8/13/3238646/can-miami-marlins-justin-ruggiano-keep-up-2012-performance

 

Here's a summary of it if you don't wanna read it all

"In other words, expect Ruggiano to be around a league average hitter. In the previous article projecting Ruggiano, I expected him to hit about 10 percent better than the league average, so this exercise has yielded results that are a little more skeptical. Call the range for Ruggiano between an OPS+ or wRC+ of 100 to 110; in other words, he should be expected to hit between league average and ten percent better. If Marlins fans are expecting a player close to whom they saw this season, they will be in for disappointment. But if they think he is an acceptable major league hitter, history seems to point to that being the case."