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Little birdies with terrific inside information and poor sourcing tell me that Josh Donaldson is on his way to Kansas City to join the A's, with Brandon Inge going on the 15-day DL (wimp). Oh, you know what? Susan Slusser apparently is hearing the same thing.
Josh Donaldson, Professional Enigma.
Here's a guy whose minor league profile was, "We don't know how much he'll drive the ball, but at least he has excellent plate discipline". Yet in the major leagues so far, Donaldson has walked 3 times in 137 PAs.
Donaldson also has shown the propensity to follow up one "great/lousy BA" or "great/lousy BABIP" season with its bizarro opposite. Donaldson batted a robust .346 for Boise (single-A Northern League) in 2007, but was hitting just .217 for Peoria (AA Midwest League) when the A's acquired him in 2008. No matter: Donaldson hit .330 the rest of the year for single-A Stockton. Then .270 for AA Midland in 2009. Then .238 for AAA Sacramento in 2010. Then .261 last year. Now .335 this year.
Perhaps Donaldson is a Carter-like player who generally struggles at a new level until he doesn't anymore. Or maybe he's a vampire whose batting skills vary greatly depending on how much blood he has been able to drink in the past 6 months. Maybe he is a really "patient pitch-recognizing fool" when surrounded by minor league mascots, but becomes exceedingly impatient and red-dot ignorant when flying charter.
What should we make of Josh Donaldson, who is now 26 years, 8 months old, sports a career minor league batting line of .275/.365/.470 (.815 OPS) and a career big league line of (you might want to hold onto something firm before reading) .154/.172/..246 (.418 OPS)?
