Tuesday, January 15, 2013

#43-Dante Bichette




Drafted by the Angels in 1984 the 17th round selection he played at Salem in the Northwest League where he put up some undistinguished numbers and improved a little bit the next year at Quad Cities. In 86, playing at Palm Springs and Midland he hit .278 knocked out 22 homers and drove in 109. That earned him a promotion in 87 to Edmonton in the Pacific Coast League where he was solid but not really showing what he would do in a few years. 
Debuting in 88 with the Angels he had three more less that memorable seasons racking up a combined WAR of -0.3 over 178 games. In the spring of 1991 he was sent to Milwaukee for Dave Parker. Looking back at his time with the Angels he said "I always had confidence in my ability… . They (Angels) just never showed much confidence in me." In 91 and 92 he was able to play 246 games and had a WAR of -0.7. Five years in the majors and he had a combined WAR of -1. After 92 he was traded to the expansion Rockies and he started to put up the numbers that would define his career.
In 93 he hit .310 drove in 89 and knocked out 21 home runs. After another good season in the strike shortened 94 he had his first big season in 95. A .340 average combined with 40 homers and 128 RBI's was the start of his five great seasons in Colorado. A runner up in MVP voting to Barry Larkin he followed that season up with .313, 31, 141. In the 1995 NLDS against the Braves Bichette hit .588 with a homer and 3 RBI's in 4 games. In spite of his performance the Rockies lost to Atlanta. During those five years he averaged .318, 31, 128. In spite of the terrifying numbers he put up his combined WAR was a miserable -0.5! No chance of Cooperstown after that. His combined defensive WAR was a horrific -11.1. Some of the reason for the poor defensive numbers was a bad knee that was slowing him down and when he got to the Reds in 2000 his decline was clearly in evidence and he was in Boston before 2000 was done. One more year in Boston with more Angel like numbers and a poor spring of 02 with the Dodgers saw Bichette realize his career was over and he retired. 

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