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Friday March 8, 2013

If it wasn’t for the Scutaro-Culberson trade in July,  the Giants may not have played as well as they did. He hit .362 as a Giant and only swung-and-missed 59 times throughout the entire season. Trading a top prospect for the 36 year-old may have seemed crazy at first, but it without-a-doubt paid off in the end.  As one of the best contact hitters in the MLB, he has a Career 3 Slash of .276/.340/731.  Last year his 3 Slash Line with the Giants was .362/.385/.859 in 61 Games.  The guy also hits well at AT & T for his Career (.322/.377/.827) – a park known to be extremely tough on Right Handed Batters.

By Kyle Holland (Giants Correspondent): Follow @TheKHolland13

2012 was certainly a season to remember for the NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro. After spending 8 years in the American League with the Oakland A’s, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox, Scutaro made his return to the National League appearing in a Colorado Rockies uniform. Halfway through the season they shipped him out to San Francisco in return for Second Base prospect Charlie Culberson. This turned out to be probably the Giants most important move of the season.

When Scutaro made his return to the Bay Area he was only hitting .271, about average for the league. Colorado thought it would be a good idea to trade the 36 year-old for a top prospect and plan for the future. The Rockies weren’t the only team to benefit from gathering a solid prospect for a 36 year-old average ball player.

Marco Scutaro 2012 NLCS Highlights:

Scutaro resigned this offseason for 3 yrs./$20,000,000. Scutaro expressed desire to stay in the City by the Bay – and a contract like this was just icing on the cake. With his career on its last legs this will probably be his last Multi – Year contract.

The second half from Scutaro may have been the biggest surprise of the year. He hit a whopping .362 and rounded off the season with a total BA of .306, a career best. One stat that not many people know may be his most impressive. Throughout the course of the 2012 regular season Marco Scutaro had 683 Plate Appearances. Through these 683 PA, he took 1,063 cuts.

Out of 1,063 swings he only missed the baseball 59 times. He only completely whiffed 5.6% of his swings. That’s an astonishing stat considering an average baseball player will strike out 1 in 5.71 PA and Scutaro struck out 1 in every 13.94 PA. He is a guy you can trust to at the very least put the ball in play.

It seemed fitting that the last out of the NLCS was a fly out to Scutaro in the pouring rain. In the 10^th inning in the World Series with Ryan Theriot on second, Scutaro came to the plate. It seemed as if it were fate that it was Scutaro who was at the plate on the verge of a World Series win. Scutaro lined one to Center Field as Theriot touched home plate in what would eventually be the winning run.

Scutaro hit for a NLCS record .500 in the 7 game win versus the Cards.This is after overcoming a small injury after Matt Holiday slid too far, and hard, into second base to take out Scutaro in game 2. He won the NLCS MVP with an OPS of 1.140.

Even though Scutaro was a huge part of the reason that the Giants won the World Series, it came as a surprise to some when he signed a 3 yr./$20,000,000 contract this past winter. He is 36 years-old and is on the last legs of his career. The chances of him doing what he did in 2012 are pretty slim. He is still going to be an average hitter like he has been his entire career – but it’s doubtful he will hit .306 again.

The Giants should have tried to lock Scutaro up for 2 years until he is 38 and see if they want to resign him for one more year.  Having said that, the price would have been steeper per year.  The club probably only had to add a few Million Dollars to add a 3rd year.  A team like the Yankees would kill for a guy like this right now – with his versatility and ability to hit for contact. 

Even though you can’t foresee anything from Spring Training, Scutaro is hitting pretty average right now. He has only appeared in 5 games due to having to report to the World Baseball Classic – and has only had 12 At-Bats. He is in the midst of his first World Baseball Classic game as I’m writing this and standing on second base. He is 1-1 with a double off of the wall in the top half of the 4^th.

The bottom line is Scutaro gets the job done. He hasn’t been a household name for most of his career but that doesn’t matter for a guy like him. He’s never been a superstar and never will be. What he is consistent. He keeps somewhere between a .270 and a .300 Average every year – and is a solid back of the lineup kind of guy. If he starts tearing it up like last year you can stick him at the number 2 spot. 

When the Giants lost Melky Cabrera for the rest of the season due to PED use, it was lights out play by Scutaro, Posey and Pagan that led the team to a fantastic final 2 months.  Even if Scutaro doesn’t duplicate his heroics in 2012 – he has enough credit in the bank with the fans, that they will not blast the management for inking the man to a deal that runs through the ages of 37 – 39.

WInning the NLCS MVP was only a sample of what the guy had done for the San Francisco club in 2012. The Giants went 38-23 (.623) in his 61 games – while he clubbed 88 hits and scored 40 runs. In the Post Season, he added 21 Hits in 64 AB (.328). He also had 8 hits in 19 AB (.421) in the 6 straight elimination games the Giants have won in the 2 playoff rounds prior to the World Series.  Several clutch hits and great defense added another dimension to the lineups arsenal.  The man also only Struckout 3 times in 70 Post Season PA for 2012.

(***The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the mlbreports.com or its partners***)

A big thank – you goes out to our Giants Correspondent Kyle Holland.  Kyle is a sophomore in high school has played baseball since he was 5. Although growing up in one of the best baseball towns in the major leagues, he has been a Giants fan since 2009. He credits his aunt with the Giants being his favorite team as she lives in San Francisco. Some of his favorite players include Buster Posey, Stephen Drew, Trevor Bauer, Stephen Strasburg, and Minor leaguer Danny Hultzen.  You can find Kyle on Twitter Follow @TheKHolland13

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