Player Review: Cliff Floyd

"It was awesome, man," Floyd said. "If this is the way I'm supposed to go out, it's unbelievable. The guys were great, we had a great time. Everybody in the organization is first-class. We went through a lot this year, we grew up as a team and as a family. And it was a treat to be around guys that really wanted to work hard and make this change. I'm definitely happy to be part of it."

http://blogs.tampabay.com

Cliff Floyd grew to be one of my favorite Rays. If it wasn't smoking the ball for a line-drive double it was taking a huge hack on a ball and just missing, if he wasn't buying Ed Hardy shirts for the team (including Maddon) it was deflecting criticism for Beej. Cliff just seems the consummate pro.

Apart from providing sportswriters and columnists fodder for their veteran-centric approach to improvement, Floyd also had his best year since 2005 posting a wOBA of .362 (wOBA+ of 107). His OPS of .804 was below his career average (.842), but he still ranked 3rd in OPS on the team (of players with more than 200 ABs).

One thing I'll remember about Cliff this year was how hard he swung and, when he made contact, how hard he hit the ball. He still hit a lot of line-drives (20.2%), but he chased more pitches than usual (28.6% to 24.91%). These swings of course generally looked like he was going to kill himself trying to get to him, and they also resulted in a higher k-rate than his career norm (23.6% to 19.9%).

Cliff Floyd was the ultimate professional. If this is the end of his career, then I'll be disappointed and hope to see him in clubhouses across the league in some other manner. He took BJ under his wing, came up with big hits in the pinch (WPA of .49), and generally did what the team needed of him.

The Big Red DH will be missed, but he will never be forgotten.

All stats are from Statcorner and Fangraphs.