On Corey Dickerson

One of the pleasant aspects of the Pirates 2018 season has been left fielder Corey Dickerson.  First of all, we were all somewhat surprised when Neal Huntington pulled off the deal that brought Dickerson to Pittsburgh in February. The Bucs did not surrender much for the guy who had been an All-Star for the Rays in 2017, but he came with a red flag attached, which was the precipitous decline in performance from Pre-All Star Break to Post All Star Break in '17.  You can read what I said about it at the time.

https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2018/02/welcome-corey-dickerson.html

Well, as I said, Dickerson has been a pretty good performer, so much so, that some are speculating that he might be traded when Huntington goes into fire sale/salary dump mode later this month.  My friend Dan Bonk says that this would be a mistake since (a) the Pirates have control of his contract through next season, although he will be eligible for salary arbitration this off season, and (b) he has been "the Pirates best player" this year.  Dan also says that the team should overpay him in order to keep him, but, come on now, this is the Pirates we are talking about here.

This leads me to two questions:

1. Has he, in fact, been the Pirates best player this year?
2. Will he decline in the second half of the season as he did last year?

You know what that means, don't you? It's Spreadsheet Time!!!!!!

Corey Dickerson - 2018	AB	Hits	BA	Runs	HR	RBI	OPS
March	6	1	0.167	1	0	1	0.333
April	93	30	0.323	15	3	15	0.907
May	101	31	0.307	9	2	15	0.799
June	76	20	0.263	8	0	1	0.603
July	48	17	0.354	7	2	5	1.026
YTD (pre-All Star Break)	324	99	0.306	40	7	37	0.809
Rank on team		1st	1st	4th	T-5th	T-4th	6th

Has he been the team's best player? Well, he does lead the team in hits and average, so there is that.  His power production has not been what was hoped.  He hit 27 HR for the Rays last season, and is on pace to hit just 11 this year (over the course of 500 AB).  Also, he has five assists from the outfield this year and has yet to make an error, but I will leave defensive analysis to the SABRmetric seam heads.  He also does things which can't be quantified - at least not by me - like choking up on the bat when he has two strikes and trying to go to the opposite field to get a hit.  The "old schoolers" just love stuff like that!

After a blazing start in April, he tailed off just a bit in May, and  he tailed off a lot in June, but he has picked it up in July, so I don't suppose we can draw any conclusions just yet.  

While I am not ready to say that he has been the Pirates best player, he has been a pretty good one, and he is someone that probably would bring some value at the July 31 trade deadline, certainly more than, say, Jordy Mercer or David Freese or even Josh Harrison would.  My hunch is that Huntington is more likely to deal Dickerson that he is Starling Marte or Gregory Polanco, but in the end, though, who knows what Neal is going to do.  Whatever it is, he will justify it with his usual line of bullshit and obfuscation with the strong implication that he alone knows what is best for the team, and that we fans out there are just a bunch of idiots who have no clue.