A while ago, John Sickels' made a comparison of Justin Ruggiano to Jason Bay; when the Rays acquired Ruggiano, I took a liking to him -- having a name like Ruggiano naturally draws my fandom -- but I must say, John Sickels knows all. Per PECOTA his #2 most comparable player is, of all folks, Jason Bay, and the silly thing is that trend is on a rise. Of course other comparable include Craig Monroe, Ryan Langerhans, and Ryan Ludwick, but for a player to be named later I guess we could do worse.
Is it nuts to think that perhaps Andrew Friedman unearthed the next Jason Bay?
Career minor league numbers:
Bay 381 G 54 HRs .301/.391/.487
Ru 417 G 55 HRs .307/.396/.508
With all the recent talk of Crawford, Dukes, and Baldelli being dealt, perhaps it's time to comfort into the idea of Ruggiano being a key member of the 2008 team. At the very least I would expect him to take Jonny Gomes at-bats, and I would expect him to become a key bench bat next year, and perhaps living up to his ZiPs line of .288/.365/.464.
Also, it's Thursday night, and my new BtB column is up -- it pertains to the arms of the Yankees' "holy trinity", and I promise before the next week is out I'll get back to doing some opinion writing around here rather than just being the rumor poster.
Your thoughts, predictions, projections on Ru?