Ya he's got some prowess with the glove. Thats never been his problem. He was labeled as an Ozzie Smith/Omar Vizquel field-a-like early in his career and, sans a few times where he's tried to make too flashy of a play, has done nothing to dispel those comparisons.
However, his work at the plate is awful. Granted the whole team has been sucking but he's really been overrated offensively so far. Even last year when he "rejuvenated" our offense, he still hit pretty poorly down the stretch. If you look at his stats, he was batting .316 early in September to fade down to .283 at the end of the year. While .283 is still very respectable, this year has confirmed that we should look at his early stats as an aberration, not the norm. Any time a player gets called up, he has a good window where teams haven't built up a good book on how to get him out yet. When he was called up, the other team wasn't expecting crap out of him and spent most of the pre-game video on V-mart, Grady, and Pronk. Once he started hitting though, people started to study up on him and expose his offensive deficiencies which, as were finding out ala the .198 avg, are numerous and plenty.
All that being said, AC has a lot going in his favor. He's got big balls, great poise, and is smart. As you noted, he did have a walk off single the other week, he somehow coaxed that two out, 9th inning walk off the Angels a couple weeks ago, and the homer yesterday. That combined with some huge hits in the playoffs and you've got the resume of a potential dangerous clutch hitter. But, lets face it. The dude is way overrated. I project him to be a .250, 12 hr, 22 sb a year guy with a couple of future gold gloves waiting for him. While that would be an impressive career, it's not one that strikes you as "Franchise Player." Personally, as much as a I love him, I would've liked to see us package him with Sowers, Laffey or Adam Miller this summer and acquire a big bat. If we didn't trade Cliff Lee because of the old "buy low, sell high" adage, then why didn't we sell on him then? His stock will never be higher than it was and someone who knows how to hit right now.
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