Season in review: David DeJesus

I was looking through our media library, and it looks like the only pictures we have of DeJesus in the system are of him in a Royals uniform, his wife, and his ridiculous truck. That's pretty much summed up his year as a player. He didn't do anything in particular to raise anyone's ire, but never really distinguished himself either.

Here are DeJesus's numbers for the year, along with his projection going into the year

DeJesus did distinguish himself in one way: he had the most walks on the team with 61. That's 17 away from the Cubs next best walker….Alfonso Soriano. That pretty much sums up the Cubs offense this year. Alfonso Soriano drew the second most walks. Soriano.

The eyeball test said he didn't embarass himself out there in RF this year, and I would have guessed that he was average to above average. The advanced metrics disagree (SSS applies, as usual). DRS had him at -4, UZR had him at -4.9, and what ever B-Ref is using now had him at -11 in RF. He was only -1 in baserunning, so that should be solidly above average for a Cubs player.

DeJesus started off the season with a cold bat, hitting only four extra-base hits (all doubles) in the month of April. There was nothing wrong with his eyes though, as he still posted a .350 OBP despite a .250 AVG. His walk rate for the whole year was 10.5%, and he never strayed much more than a percentage point in either direction in every month of the season.

DeJesus's two best stretches of the season were the month of May, in which he hit four triples, and mid-August, in which he hit four homers in eight days. His best games by wRC+ (excluding pinch hitting appearances) were his two-homer game on 8/15 against the Astros, a five RBI day in Miller Park on 5/11, and a 5/4 game in Wrigley against the Dodgers in which he was a single short of the cycle. In terms of WPA, his best game was the aformention Brewers game, and his worst game was in the opening game of the Cubs first series with the Brewers on 4/9. DeJesus went 1-5 with three strikeouts and a TOOTBLAN, 'good' for a -0.25 WPA.

If you're looking for room to add someone in the Cubs outfield next year, DeJesus had a .225 wOBA in 115 PAs vs LHP this year. Small sample sizes, regression, etc. applies, but he might be a platoon player at this stage in his career. A Soriano DeJesus platoon would probably be pretty productive but would never happen. Too bad aside from Soriano pretty much everyone else (Brett Jackson, Tony Campana, Bryan LaHair) is left-handed. That is, except for Joe Mather.