Garrett Atkins

Atkins has always been a poor defensive player no matter what measure you look at, and he doesn’t run well. The Pirates signed him to a minor league contract for 2011 with a non-roster invite.

2000-04: Hit well in minors without really dominating until second season in extreme hitter’s environment in Colorado Springs. Always showed doubles more than HR power, and good plate discipline. Ironically, got stuck in AAA due to presence at 3B of Vinny Castilla, whose career was almost entirely a product of Coors.

2005-07: With Castilla gone, took over 3B job and had huge peak season at age 26 in 2006. Showed very good strike zone judgment.

2008: Had decent season, but plate discipline and hitting against RHPs tailed off badly. Played first much of second half due to injury to Todd Helton.

2009: Hitting collapsed. In another irony, the Rockies’ charge to the playoffs began when new Pirate manager Clint Hurdle was fired and replaced by former Pirate manager Jim Tracy, one of whose key moves was benching Atkins much of the time in favor of Ian Stewart.

2010: Signed by Orioles as free agent to take over at least part of their 1B job. Hitting was abysmal, leading to release in June.

Atkins is expected to compete for a RH bench bat role with Steve Pearce, Andy Marte and Josh Fields. Of the four, he’d be easily the worst choice, so hopefully Hurdle isn’t influenced by any lingering affection for him. There’s no reason to think Atkins can turn things around. Except for the two-year period at ages when hitters tend to peak, he’s never hit anything other than miserably away from Coors. His isolated power has dropped sharply four years in a row. His line drive rate has dropped three straight years, replaced by groundballs, which won’t do much good given his lack of speed. According to fangraphs, he’s struggled badly with both fastballs and sliders the last two years, suggesting he can no longer handle hard stuff. I don’t know whether his contract contains an out clause in the event he doesn’t make the major league roster, but it’d be unfortunate to see him anywhere in the organization except Indianapolis.