I'm kind of shocked at the 3 names I come up with, but Mitchell Parker and Luis Garcia are very good candidates, as well as Kyle Finnegan.
I love Young's D and his speed, and the .318 OBP is close to the line where I think he's an offensive asset. Offensive stats that don't look at his baserunning, like SLG, underestimate his offensive value because his HBPs and BBs are pretty frequently doubles. He's a disrupter. He's gotten on a bit over 150 times, counting errors, and scored 73 runs. I think the WAR numbers are legit.
That said, I like the balance in Luis G's game. He's stepped up to be a plus in the field, which I think shocks the heck out of everyone, and has shown decent power without distorting his game. I like the contact (just 16 K%). He's not in Young's class as a baserunner, but is not as
- prone as other regulars. My one doubt about him is his ability to hit lefties. This is a guy I would not have been surprised to see beat out in the Spring, so i suppose that may be why I lean to him over Young (who I thought might have beat out Robles).
Parker is a "where did this come from" guy. I still am a Gore fan, but his mid-season step back takes him out of consideration. Herz doesn't have the innings. Irvin has a good body of work, too, and more innings, so maybe I should lean that way, but he's a bit more homer prone. Maybe just don't want Parker's contributions overlooked, or maybe it is a recency bias.
As for Finnegan, performance counts. fWAR kind of hates him, and he's not the kind of high K, low BB guy I like, but I do think there's something to pretty reliably taking the ball and finishing games when you don't have a huge lead. He could end up with 40+ saves, and so far has only blown 5. That's locking down well over half the wins. Now he has a role getting guys like Ferrer and Salazar comfortable in higher leverage situations, being the guy they turn the ball over to and preserving their work, or even occasionally bailing them out of an 8th (or, for Salazar, turning it over to Ferrer for the last lefty in a jam, comfortable that Finny can pick up Ferrer).
