Our own devil_fingers spent an inordinate amount of time creating his own methodology to evaluate catcher's defense based on throwing out runners, preventing wild pitches and passed balls, throwing errors, and catching errors. Not surprisingly, the three Royals backstops fared poorly: Pena was -2.9 runs in limited playing time, Buck was -4.8 runs in more playing time, and Olivo was 113th out of 114 at -8.8 runs (thanks Mike Napoli).

With too many outfielders and a full 40-man roster, the Rockies have designated corner outfielder Matt Murton for assignment. While no future star, Matt Murton is a nice player who can hit for average, take a walk, avoid strikeouts, hit the ball in the gaps, and play an average to slighly above average corner outfield. A right-handed hitter, he has mashed LHP (career: 306/374/483, 857 OPS) while holding his own against RHP (career: 276/340/412, 752 OPS). Only 27, he is under club control for four more years (although he may qualify for arbitration next year as a Super 2). There is not a lot of upside, but with regular playing time, he could be a league average (~2.0 WAR) player -- maybe a little more with an age 27-29 peak bump -- for near the league minimum. At the very least, he would make a very good fourth outfielder, especially for a team with two left-handed hitters starting in the corners (like say David DeJesus and Mark Teahen). And yes, a right-handed (and cheaper) Mark Teahen is a fair comparison.

This would be a little move, but one that could push the Royals back in a positive direction at little cost.

R.J. Anderson of Fangraphs and D-Rays Bay takes a quick look on players who have been essentially average this year. "Borrowing" the idea from somebody else "appropriately named Devil_Fingers," he lists a few average players, some surprising (Jason Bay? Really!), some not (Mark DeRosa), based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR). The Royals' own Billy Butler gets a shout out.

One player who missed the cut was Adam Dunn, who despite mashing the ball this year, is still below average because he plays awful, awful defense in both the outfield and at first base. If Dunn was a DH, however, he would actually be average to slightly above average.

Eric Seidman at Fangraphs has a nice article summarizing research on when sample sizes become (somewhat) reliable for hitters. The research suggests that the following stats begin to stabilize with the corresponding number of plate appearances:

50 PA: Swing %
100 PA: Contact Rate
150 PA: Strikeout Rate, Line Drive Rate, Pitches/PA
200 PA: Walk Rate, Groundball Rate, GB/FB
250 PA: Flyball Rate
300 PA: Home Run Rate, HR/FB
500 PA: OBP, SLG, OPS, 1B Rate, Popup Rate
550 PA: ISO
Did not stabilize by 650 PA (the cutoff): BA, BABIP

The underlying work was done by a well respected analyst who goes by the handle Pizza Cutter at the Statistically Speaking blog. His research on pitchers is here.

Or so says one of the totally legitimate rumor sites. Considering Pena historically has struggled against RHP and has a questionable defensive reputation, he might actually clear waivers.

This clears a spot for the return of Jose Guillen.