There’s a reason I like to pick on Ryan Theriot. That reason is because he’s not a very good hitter. In case you were fooled by Theriot’s “awesome” start to the season, when he put up a .337/.370/.386 line good for a .757 OPS, you probably weren’t fooled by his May. Because it was awful.
Theriot just finished a month in which he hit .236, got on base at a .257 clip, and SLUGGED .245. That’s a .502 OPS, if you’re counting. If you ARE counting, you barely needed to take off your shoes and socks to count the total number of bases for Theriot in the merry month of May. There were only 26 of them.
Theriot walked once while striking out twelve times. Basically, he was facing the 2008 version of Mariano Rivera every single time he went to the plate in May. Little Ryan scored eight runs and drove in two. He had ONE extra-base hit (a double) in the entire month. He stole only four bases.
Meanwhile, Theriot’s diminutive former college double play partner was stellar in May. Mike Fontenot hit .347 during the month with a .407 OBP and a .633 slugging percentage. That’s a 1.040 OPS. In less than half the starts, Fontenot had nine times the extra-base hits and more than five times the RBIs. He also had five more total bases in only 11 starts. He drew three times the number of walks (um, 3), while striking out a third of the time (4 times).
That’s why I sincerely hope that the report by our GOOD FRIEND Paul Sullivan that Theriot may have been benched for Fontenot isn’t another one of Lou Piniella’s classic flip-flops. Like moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. Or moving Alfonso Soriano down in the lineup against right-handers a couple of years ago. Or batting Starlin Castro second.
At this point, even the flaming-assed Jeff Baker is a better option than Theriot. In May, Baker went .231/.286/.346 for a .632 OPS. As terrible as that is, his OPS was 130 points higher than Theriot’s. Baker had one more RBI, one more extra-base hit, and one more walk than Theriot did in only 28 May plate appearances.
Anyone calling for Baker to get cut should be looking further down the bench (and slightly downward). Anyone calling for Theriot to get cut should be high-fived. By me.
