2009 White Sox player review: Carlos Quentin

October 28, 3:02 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Despite battling injuries, Carlos Quentin hit 21 home runs in 2009. (AP photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Through the season's first 12 games, it looked like worries about Carlos Quentin's wrist would dissipate quickly. Quentin had already hit seven home runs in just 54 plate appearances with an OPS of 1.240, seemingly putting an end to questions about whether or not he lost any power after having wrist surgery last year.

But then, Quentin's production slowed to a screeching halt. From April 21 through May 25, Quentin hit just one home run with a paltry OPS of .552 in 97 plate appearances.

And it was on May 25 that Quentin went on the disabled list with plantar fasciitis, which wiped out nearly two months of Quentin's season.

Even when Quentin came back, he wasn't really himself until the final month of the season. His season stats reflect that.

Key stats
GP: 99
PA: 351
AB: 399
Batting average: .236
OBP: .323
Slugging: .456
OPS: .779
OPS+: 98
wOBA: .340
2B: 14
3B: 0
HR: 21
BB/SO: 32/51 (0.60)
RBI: 56
BABIP: .223
UZR: -15.7
WAR: -0.5

If not for Quentin's September/October line of .261/.330/.489 with six home runs in 103 plate appearances, his full-season stats would have been much worse. The fact that Quentin even managed a .779 OPS and 21 home runs is pretty impressive given it seemed like he never fully got over his foot problems all year.

But Quentin's performance at the plate wasn't where the plantar fasciitis hit the hardest—it was with his defense.

Quentin's UZR of -15.7 is the reason why WAR rated him as a -0.5-win player this year. That rating had everything to do with poor range—and while Quentin never had great range in left, his plantar fasciitis was likely instrumental in his range component of UZR nearly doubling (from -7.4 to -15.7).

When both Quentin and Jermaine Dye were in the outfield, the White Sox had two defensive liabilities at the corner outfield positions. That doesn't have to be the case in 2010, though.

First, if Quentin is healthy, he won't be a complete liability. While his -5.7 UZR in 2008 wasn't great, it's not so awful that the White Sox will be extremely affected by it.

Second, if the White Sox don't pick up their end of Dye's mutual option, they can slide Quentin to right field—where Quentin has been good defensively in the past. He posted UZR/150s of 14.6 and 10.8 in 2006 and 2007 with Arizona, and while I wouldn't expect him to be that good in right in 2010, I would expect him to be an average or above-average defender there in the future.

But everything connects back to Quentin's health. If he can put together an injury-free season, there's no reason to expect him to hit 30 home runs with decent defense in right field. But if he's hurt and playing left like he did in 2009, there's also no reason to expect him to have another negative-win season.

Throughout his relatively short career, Quentin has ran into problems with his feet, wrist, labrum, rotator cuff, and hamstring since making the majors. He also underwent Tommy John surgery after being drafted by the Diamondbacks in 2003.

Keeping Quentin healthy needs to be priority No. 1 for the White Sox, but given his track record, that seems unlikely. So with that in mind, the White Sox need to have a viable backup option in the likely even Quentin goes down with an injury.

Barring some major breakthrough from Jordan Danks, that option doesn't exist in the minor leagues. If the Sox can find a way to bring in a player like Reed Johnson, he'd not only provide insurance for Quentin but for Scott Podsednik as well (assuming Podsednik comes back next year).

And if Quentin does play the entire year, there's no harm there. But from here on out, the Sox shouldn't plan on Quentin playing a full season.

That's really a shame, too. When healthy, Quentin is an elite power hitter who won't turn 27 until late August of 2010. He still has some great years ahead of him—but that's all dependent on him staying healthy.

And, for now, he hasn't shown that he can stay healthy enough to completely realize his potential and ability.

Links:

• There's an interesting discussion on Octavio Dotel going on over at Sox Machine.
• Cheat posted Bill James' 2010 projections for White Sox players. Before you go and start believing them, though, James is notorious for projecting high on young players (such as when he projected Chris Davis to hit 41 home runs prior to last year).
• Greg Walker told Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times "Look, I know if I was in a normal situation I probably would have been fired after this year."
• The Book has an excellent piece on lefty/righty splits.

IOW, how a batter does against RH pitchers informs us on how he will likely do against LH pitchers and vice versa. Why? Because there is not much of a spread in true platoon splits among ML baseball players yet there is a large spread in overall true hitting talent among ML baseball players. So if we see a large platoon split, like for a player like Howard, it is likely a fluke. If a player does really well versus RH pitchers but terrible against LH pitchers, both the “really well” and the “terrible” numbers are likely fluky and the “truth” is somewhere in between.