SnakePit Appraisals: Cody Ross

Strengths

• "If the hip accident never happened, he could have been productive." - AzRattler
• "About the time the Diamondbacks were beyond through for the season, he started to finally come around, albeit in limited duty." - James Attwood
  
• "The final numbers aren’t pretty. But considering he was recuperating from a major injury, that’s somewhat to be expected. The blame belongs on those who didn’t let him get it right in Reno." - preston.salisbury
• "He performed as expected." - xmet
• "It is impressive that he managed to come back as soon as he did from the injury." - JoeCB1991
• "2014 looks like a process he had to go through to get back to some semblance of the player he was before the injury. The positive developments after the first couple months and encouraging finish were very unexpected, which is why I considered giving him a somewhat satisfied." - Fangdango
• "I thought he’d never play again." - Diamondhacks
  

Weaknesses

• "Hated the signing from the start, made Eaton expendable to the previous regime. Performance did not justify his contract and even after the injury I expected significantly better than the waste of at bats he was this year." - rapdawg
• "We signed Cody Ross, because they believed that he was a clutch hitter, gritty player that Justin Upton was not. Basically flipping Upton for Prado and adding Ross, was supposed better than having Upton (so we are told). So, from my perspective, injury aside, I am very unsatisfied, because he (and Prado) never came close to what Upton did/has done these last few years (ya, I am still bitter about that trade)." - Xerostomia
  
• "Yuck, is all I can say about Ross’s contribution to the ‘success of the Ariizona Diamondbacks 2014 season’ He was brought in to be that .280 hitter with line drive power to all fields and stabilize our outfield. He hasn’t come close to that expectation since he signed that big contract." - ford.williams.10
• "Cody is like a 1973 Pinto...Fun in it's day but now...Nothing but a bomb " - cnsieler
• "Completely useless on the field and took too much time away from younger and cheaper options when he was seeing a lot of time in the starting lineup." - JoeCB1991
• "By the time he really started to come on again (compared to his previous endeavours) all of his ABs and time on the field came at the expense of younger, cheaper, better, still-developing talent." - James Attwood
• "The fact that he did [play], and hurt the team doing so, is testimony to his grit and the club’s unprovoked optimism." - Diamondhacks
• "I expected more from ol’ Beady Eyes and his fiendish pacts." - kishi
  
• "Hello my REAL name is crap bag ponzi." - david,munter
  

Towards 2015

• "If Ross sticks around, he could actually have a productive 2015. My reasoning? From June 1 onward (about the time they gave up on him as a starter, thereby taking away a lot of the pressure) he posted a .796 OPS. His defense was a concern, but there’s reason to think he’ll be better in the field (due to health) and he has good value as a platoon player, at least... While he has no chance to be worth the money he’ll make if he’s still with the team, I wouldn’t be surprised if he returns to posting an OPS+ in the 100-110 range, as he did every year from 2011-2013." - preston.salisbury
• "Holding onto the likes of Cody Ross is the antithesis of that mission. He needs to be DFA’d immediately and tell the Partners that their money went poof when they signed Kevin Towers as their GM/Baseball Expert. By holding onto the likes of Ross, he’s blocking younger, better players from reaching the Dbacks roster and contributing." - ford.williams.10
  
• "Don’t know what value Cody will provide next year. I think they’ll take a look in spring training and decide then." - MrMrrbi
  
• "Another off season to continue working on strength and flexibility and his game unconstrained by actual injury should only continue the progress going into next season. While it’s unlikely he’ll earn his $9.5M in 2015, I feel a lot better about his chances of at least being a positive contributor. I think there’s a reasonable chance he could end putting up a surprise bounce-back season." - Fangdango
  
• "If he is on the short side of a strict platoon in 2015, he might still hold some value, but it certainly will not be enough to justify his contract." - James Attwood
• "It is time to put some of the expensive toys in the trash. Cody is tying up a ton of Money. He can not hit anymore. He is just a little better than Trumbo in the Outfield which is not saying much." - cnsieler
  

Comment of the Thread

Ross' 2013 WAR Total was a fluke and a mirage

He put up a big fat goose egg in batting runs, and his +20 fielding runs on bWAR are highly suspect. He never had more than +15, and that was in 2008 when he was a lot younger in a lot more playing time

From 2009-2012 he average -3 fielding runs…. So how did he get 20 fielding runs in 2013 ? Yeah, I’m not buying.

The zero batting runs, while lower than expected, were a reflection of what we got out of him at the plate.

Injury was a bad break, and maybe another year removed from it will help him regain power, but don’t count on it.

Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete.: Jeff Sullican

by shoewizard on Dec 11, 2014 | 4:54 AM reply rec (4) flag actions

The Tally

• 5 - Highly Satisfied: 1%
  
• 4 - Somewhat Satisfied: 1%
• 3 - Neither Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied: 11%
• 2 - Somewhat Dissatisfied: 18%
• 1 - Very Dissatisfied: 69%

Yeah, pretty much as expected: though I'd like to thank Cody for popping into the SnakePit [there's not really any other way to explain the sole "highly satisfied" vote. I mean, even his mother only gave him a three...] There was the legitimate issue of how much his hip injury affected him, even after he returned this year, though as shoe's comment expresses, his 2013 may have been flukishly inflated by defensive metric variance. Since he's still under contract for 2015, the opinion appears to be that he may have some value against left-handed pitching, but not many expect him to justify the $9.5 million he's due for next season.

The scoreboard

1. David Peralta 4.82 (162 votes)
2. Evan Marshall 4.76 (119)
3. Josh Collmenter 4.71 (151)
4. Paul Goldschmidt 4.64 (168)
5. Ender Inciarte 4.51 (111)
6. A.J. Pollock 4.48 (132)
7. Chase Anderson 4.18 (161)
8. Chris Owings 4.13 (112)
9. Oliver Perez 4.12 (94)
10. Vidal Nuno 3.96 (92)
11. Eury de la Rosa 3.63 (91)
12. Cliff Pennington 3.52 (62)
    
13. Tuffy Gosewisch 3.50 (113)
14. Brandon McCarthy 3.43 (542)***
15. Jake Lamb 3.31 (115)
16. Gerardo Parra 3.14 (122)
17. Wade Miley 2.94 (122)
18. Didi Gregorius 2.75 (106)
19. Miguel Montero 2.67 (128)
    
20. Mike Bolsinger 2.67 (117)
21. Bronson Arroyo 2.63 (125)
22. Will Harris 2.49 (61)
23. Randall Delgado 2.25 (122)
24. Martin Prado 2.16 (75)
25. Aaron Hill 2.11 (91)
26. Addison Reed 1.99 (114)
27. Cody Ross 1.48 (105)
28. Trevor Cahill 1.07 (147)

He avoids replacing Cahill in the cellar [that score is looking more and more untouchable!]. But Cody is more than half a point behind third-paced Reed, and one wonders whether anyone left will displace Ross from the runners-up spot.  I don't think it's any coincidence that the bottom spots almost all go to our most expensive players who, virtually without exception, failed to play up to expectations. There's a moral in there for new management.