White Sox player review: Jermaine Dye

October 29, 2:24 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Dye rebounded from a rough 2007 to have a good year in 2008.

The player:

Jermaine Dye

Position: Rightfield

Vital statistics
Batting average: .292
OBP: .344
SLG: .541
OPS: .885
Home runs: 34
RBI: 96
Runs: 96
BB/K: 44/104

In July of 2007, Jermaine Dye looked like a goner. The White Sox were batting with the Royals for last place in the AL Central and Dye's contract was set to run out after the season, making him a perfect player to trade to a contender (in this case, Boston) looking for a bat to solidify their lineup.

However, Kenny Williams' "win now" plan, which was evident in the offseason with the Nick Swisher trade, was to keep much of the same players around who struggled to win 70 games in 2008. Dye was one of them, and he received a two-year extension shortly after the July 31 deadline.

2007 was not the kindest year to Dye—he hit just .254 with an OBP of .317 and saw his ISO fall from a whopping .306 in 2006 to .219. He only drove in 68 runs, too—not exactly what the White Sox needed from a middle-of-the-order hitter.

Dye had about a normal season in terms of line drive rate/BABIP in 2007—not by the .120 "normal" difference, but by his career standards. Dye's LD rate has always been around 0.09 or 0.10 below his BABIP for his career, even in his monster 2006 season. So when his LD rate dropped to .190 in 2007, his BABIP subsequently dipped to .271.

Granted, Dye played much of 2007 with a leg injury that certainly hampered his numbers. The hope was that he would come back in 2008 healthy—and that's exactly what happened.

Dye played in 154 games this year for the White Sox, amassing 645 plate appearances—the most he has had in one single season since 2001, when he split time between the Royals and Athletics and had 675 plate appearances.

He started the season off slowly, posting an OBP of just .307 with just one home run in the first month of the season. Dye caught fire in the next three months, though, hitting 23 of his 34 home runs in May, June, and July. However, when the White Sox lost Carlos Quentin's bat in September, Dye did not pick up for the lost production. It took Dye until September 26 to hit his first home run of the month, and he only had driven in six runs in the month prior to September 26. He did go on a little hot streak at the end of the year, picking up nine hits, two home runs, and seven RBI in the last five games, but overall, September was not a kind month to Dye.

Overall, though, Dye had a very good year at the plate. For someone who made $9.5 million in 2008, an OPS of .885 and 34 home runs are very good numbers. His ISO went back up to .249, which is about what the White Sox should expect from the 34-year-old outfielder from here on out.

Defensively, Dye continued to show his age. His range has gone drastically down from when he joined the White Sox in 2005, and while he made some spectacular diving catches, they were on balls that he likely would have caught on the run three or four years ago. He still has a decent enough arm, but it's taking him longer and longer to get to balls in the gap or down the line. It's not like it's Dye's fault he's getting old—he's just far more suited to play first base or be a full-time DH at this point. The problem with Dye's range in right field was amplified when Ken Griffey Jr. was inserted as the starting centerfield late in the year, as any ball hit into the right-centerfield gap became an adventure.

Griffey will be gone next year, but if Dye stays around—which is far from a certainty—his defense will continue to deteriorate. His offense shouldn't dip as much as his defense, but he'll likely regress at least a bit next year.