Tony Clark Has Some Value
I've decided that I wish I were an ESPN Insider, because at the same time I learned that the Twins are legitimately interested in Tony Clark, I saw a Buster Olney article claiming that he's #1 of the top ten free agents with good value this offseason. Unfortunately, I can't read the article because I'm not paying ESPN for it.
I must say, I'm a little perplexed as to why Olney thinks Clark might have good value. (I don't know his reasoning, just that Clark is #1 on his list.)
I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Clark can be a full time DH at this point in his career, and we're obviously not planning to replace Morneau at 1B. Over the past eight years, he's had 400 ABs in a season exactly once, and it was in 2001. Clearly, his employers have not considered him a fulltime player for quite a while.
On the other hand, he shows clear power potential. In 2007, he hit 17 HRs despite only 221 ABs. Before being limited by injury in 2006, he hit 30 HRs in 2005. This is probably not another Rondell White / Tony Batista signing, because Clark has had reasonable production much more recently than those two had, and Clark has at least claimed that he'd like to move to the AL and become a DH and shoot for 400 ABs in a season again. (Although I'm sure Gardenhire would claim that Clark hits better when he's playing in the field, which he says about everyone.)
I don't know what to conclude about this. If we're intending Clark to be a fulltime DH, I think he's a bit below what we should have been looking for. If he's a DH platoon with Craig Monroe, that might not be so bad -- the jury is of course out on both of them. If he's supposed to spell the starters at 1B and DH as well as provide a legitimate hitter off the bench, then it's probably a good move. I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that Clark+Monroe is an upgrade over White+Ford on the bench.
There's still a lot of work to be done, but at the very least Bill Smith is demonstrating that he's going to try to get things done a bit more proactively than Terry Ryan did before him. We'll see what else he does (and if he can get even these minor deals done).
Posted by Sean Schulte at 2007-11-17 19:36:00
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