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Snakepit Appraisals: Mark Trumbo

Was Operation Trumbo Drop(Copyright Clefo 2014, any use of this term must be preceded by a wheelbarrow full of euros delivered to my front door) a success or an unmitigated failure in the eyes of the Snakepitariat?

By Charlie Gebow
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Strengths
  • "When injured, Trumbo made comments that reflect his winning attitude. " - Makakilo
  • "The lineup is better with him than without him" - GuruB
Weaknesses
  • "He was every bit as bad at getting on base as expected, and probably would have struggled to reach 30 home runs, even with a full season." - preston.salisbury
  • "...as the season unfolded it became evident that Trumbo was not going to be the valuable addition to the roster I had hoped for." - coldblueAZ
  • "And Trumbo's .293 [obp] not offering much protection for anyone." - xmet
  • "He’s brittle with his feet problems. He’s a liability in the outfield. This guy is another KT hangover." - ford.williams.10

Towards 2015
  • "Trumbo’s offensive projections still indicate he should be the team’s second most productive hitter next year. If he can avoid being a stumbling, bumbling player in the field he might even get back to being about a 2 WAR player." - shoewizard
  • "I think if he is healthy he should put up 30+ HRs this season…for another team though :) He should be playing 1B or DH." - fsudude
  • "One of my concerns is that if he has so much potential as a hitter, why aren't AL teams in need of a 1B or DH making offers that would be hard to refuse?" - xmet
Comment of the Thread

Y'all had way lower expectations than I did, I guess.

I sort of expected that, if the team traded their one of their best pitching prospects and a starting-caliber CF for a guy in a win now move, that he would at least contribute positively to winning now. Nope. That -1.3 fWAR is the second-worst total by any Diamondback position player since 2006. Shouts to 2013 Jason Kubel, though.

I wasn’t expecting it, either. He’d put up 2.1, 2.3, and 2.5 fWAR during his first three full seasons. He wasn’t just worse than he’d been in Anaheim, he went from being basically average to one of the very worst players in baseball essentially overnight. There are a lot of reasons for that, since he was injured and the season spun out of control and all that. But I don’t see how you can give him anything other than a 1, given just his performance last year relative to expectations.

by Zavada's Moustache on Dec 18, 2014 | 4:09 PM

The Tally

  • 5 - Highly Satisfied: 2%
  • 4 - Fairly Satisfied: 5%
  • 3 - Neither Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied: 28%
  • 2 - Somewhat Dissatisfied: 34%
  • 1 - Very Dissatisfied: 36%

170 votes cast here, which is the most so far of Brandon McCarthy fandom not being involved and with Brad Ziegler trailing by more than 100 at the time of writing, could take home that crown. Also, there were way more comments than usual to sift through for quotes. Y'all got strong Trumbo opinions, which makes sense considering he was the prize acquisition of the 2013-2014 offseason, and being acquired for two fairly well known and liked prospects. A lot of you had low expectations for Trumbo from the get go, leading to some 3-based grade inflation. As if you said "Yes, this somewhat expensive player had an OBP under .300 and missed a lot of time with a lingering foot issue and was supposed to be a big part of the team in 2014. I expected all that." Only by the grace of Cody Ross is Trumbo not the lowest rated position player in this poll.

  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. Joe Thatcher 3.68 (57)
  12. Eury de la Rosa 3.63 (91)
  13. Cliff Pennington 3.52 (62)
  14. Tuffy Gosewisch 3.50 (113)
  15. Brandon McCarthy 3.43 (542)***
  16. Jake Lamb 3.31 (115)
  17. Gerardo Parra 3.14 (122)
  18. Zeke Spruill 3.09 (89)
  19. Wade Miley 2.94 (122)
  20. Didi Gregorius 2.75 (106)
  21. Miguel Montero 2.67 (128)
  22. Mike Bolsinger 2.67 (117)
  23. Bronson Arroyo 2.63 (125)
  24. Matt Stites 2.56 (92)
  25. Will Harris 2.49 (61)
  26. Randall Delgado 2.25 (122)
  27. Martin Prado 2.16 (75)
  28. Aaron Hill 2.11 (91)
  29. Mark Trumbo 2.01 (170)
  30. Addison Reed 1.99 (114)
  31. Cody Ross 1.48 (105)
  32. Trevor Cahill 1.07 (147)

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