FanPost

Josh Reddick

ALL STATS HEREIN ARE ACCURATE AS OF 8:32pm EST. 7/22/2014

I have lost my patience with Josh Reddick. There is no denying that he is not what he used to be; his breakout year in 2012 seemed to vaporize as quickly as it arrived. He logged a 0.226 batting average and a 0.307 on base percentage last year. Apologists will turn to his glove and arm in right field to justify his offensive performance that consists of mainly singles that are few and far between. Indeed, a man with a grand total of eleven extra-base hits has little to be proud of.

Don't get me wrong- I love singles and walks. They are vital elements of table setting that baseball wouldn't be the same without. I have no problem whatsoever with a singles-only hitter- as long as they have a respectable batting average. Reddick's average thus far in 2014 is 0.229.

In Major League baseball's 2014 season, 12,233 runs have been scored. Spread across 30 teams, each team has just under 408 runs to their names, on average. The Athletics steamroll that total at 485, or 119% of league average. Therefore, each hitter on the A's should theoretically have 119% of the offensive performance that the average major leaguer has. I like to turn to OPS+ in these cases. OPS+ is a mathematically simple stat to manipulate, seeing as though the average OPS+ is exactly 100. Therefore, to pull his weight, an A's player should, in theory, have an OPS+ at 119% of 100, or simply, 119.

Here's where things get interesting, though. The A's, as a team, have an OPS+ of 107, bringing into light the fact that the Athletics' totality is greater than the parts therein.

Whether you operate by the 119 benchmark, of the 107 benchmark, Reddick is not pulling all of his weight. In fact, he's only pulling 79% of it, going by the 107 total. It would be even less, needless to say, if I had done my math based on the 119 total, which I believe to be more accurate.

Apologists will point to Reddick's defense. This, I cannot, and will not, deny. He's a good defender. Here's the issue, however: He's a right fielder. Not a shortstop or center fielder. Right field is just not as important. It's the position, tied with left field, at which good defense is the least valuable, second only to first base. (There's another reason not to like Daric Barton). You won't see many people complaining about a game lost because Stephen Vogt misplayed a blooper in right field, but those who say that an unturned double play or a passed ball sank their team are a dime a dozen.

Now, I have an ulterior motive for writing this. I have a theory (not an accusation- just a theory) that I need some feedback on. I think that Reddick was on steroids in 2012.

I know that some A's fans want to boil me in oil right now, or maybe shoot me into the sun out of a high-speed catapult. But please, hear me out.

2012 saw three A's players get suspended for steroid abuse: Jordan Norberto, Fautino de los Santos, and Bartolo Colon. Those were just the ones that got caught. Case in point, there were steroids flowing through the A's clubhouse. Then, MLB came down on Bartolo Colon like a ten-year-old's sneaker comes down on a small insect. My theory professes that Reddick put down the syringe out of fright for his career. And his stats showed it, too. Almost immediatley thereafter, his average, power, and some might say his speed, all slipped, and he hasn't recovered since.

Again, I am not accusing him of anything. As far as I know, he is a good person who wouldn't spite his team and his fans like that. However, this is a theory that explains a lot and does have some convincing arguments in its favor. Do I think Reddick was on steroids? No, actually, I do not. I just cannot imagine him doing that. Is it possible? Yes, of course it is.

Either way, Reddick needs to go. He could be trade bait for a young team looking for a player under team control for the foreseeable future. This problem will probably be made more apparent by Kyle Blanks' impending return.