During this past offseason, the Chicago White Sox were strongly pursuing free agent center fielders Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand. They started with Hunter, and couldn't sign him. They then tried for Rowand and that didn't work either. They had to "settle" for Nick Swisher by dealing for him from Oakland. However, when you look at the numbers here, nearly every number, and certainly all the key ones, favor Swisher:
| 2008 Projections |
| | | | | | | | |
| | Age | Avg | OBP | SLG | HR | Walks | OPS |
| Swisher | 27 | .265 | .384 | .524 | 36 | 102 | .908 |
| Hunter | 32 | .282 | .339 | .494 | 27 | 45 | .833 |
| Rowand | 30 | .287 | .348 | .452 | 17 | 38 | .800 |
| 2007 Statistics |
| Baserunning | CF Fielding Plus/Minus | |
| Swisher | +22 | +4 | |
| Hunter | -10 | 0 | |
| Rowand | -1 | -4 | |
Sometimes what you want may not be what's best for you. In this case, that's exactly what happened to the White Sox. Swisher may not wind up in center field for the Sox, but he is a very valuable acquisition for them, especially because he can play center field well if needed.
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Note: Projections are from The Bill James Handbook: Projections Update 2008 available at www.BaseballInfoSolutions.com
Copyright © 2008 by John Dewan.
Permission to reprint or broadcast this information is granted only if used in conjunction with the following citation: "Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™,
www.statoftheweek.com."