When Brandon Wood shuffles into Angels camp this month, his teammates should have one question: "Why did you bring your gear?" Wood will likely be the very last crumb at the bottom of the MLB cereal box.
Brandon Wood is a right-handed third baseman and occasional shortstop who hits likes a right-handed sofa salesman and occasional beer-leaguer. Selected in the first round of the '03 draft out of Scottsdale, AZ, Wood enters his age 26 season having compiled the kind of hitting resume that made Mario Mendoza famous.
This is an exaggeration, of course. Wood makes Mendoza look like Honus Wagner.
Take last season, for example. Please. Wood came to the plate 243 times, an indictment of either skipper Mike Scoscia or the Angels' farm system. He delivered six walks and 33 hits, six of them of the extra base variety. He fanned 71 times. His .146/.174/.208 batting line scores out to a 5 OPS+, meaning that Brandon Wood is one-20th the quality of an average MLB hitter, or slightly better than the assistant equipment manager. His -2.0 WARP suggests that Anaheim could have won two more games had they just replaced those 243 at bats with a decent-hitting pitcher.
None of this should have been a shock to Angel fans. In 236 plate appearance during his three previous seasons, Wood stroked a sizzling .191/.220/.312 with seven walks and 73 whiffs, for an OPS+ of 39.
The Mets' Rey Ordonez can find common cause with Wood, though Ordonez did manage a lifetime .246 batting average. But Ordonez won three Gold Gloves at shortstop. Wood is generally considered roughly an average third baseman and a nearly adequate shortstop if used sparingly.
No problem then, if he continues to suck wind with his back to the catcher. One more season of unmitigated fecklessness will render Brandon Wood's defensive ability utterly irrelevant ... except back in that beer league.
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