Giants acquired Mike Fontenot from the Chicago Cubs today in a trade. They gave up low-A outfielder Evan Crawford.
As you can see from his stats, he has absolutely no power and absolutely no speed. His fielding value for the year is negative. Frankly, Emmanuel Burriss with his speed and defense and Juan Uribe with his power would be better options as starting 2B and SS. I guess Fontenot is better than Sanchez, and will add depth while Renteria is out, but he honestly has no value as a starter. Even his platoon splits are not all that amazing despite the fact that he bats left handed (.286 vs. L, .284 vs. R). And his walk rate is mediocre. He's projected to bat .270 the rest of the season with 2 HR in 110 AB, but I would be surprised if he hit 2 HR during the remainder of the season, considering the fact that he only has 1 so far.
To summarize Fontenot: mediocre walk rate, horrible power, fielding, and speed.
Who knows, though? Miracles can happen. We've seen players unexpectedly perform well with the Giants. I'll let his bat, glove, and legs do the talking, but I don't expect much. Hopefully he won't be the next Ryan Garko.
The good: he has a high P/PA (pitches/plate appearance), and complements Sanchez, who cannot hit rightys at all (.232 avg); If he can even somewhat recapture that 2008 season while platooning, he'll be beneficial to the Giants.
What we gave up: Evan Crawford, an outfielder at Single A Augusta. He's batting .255 on the year with 4 HR in 432 AB. We don't appear to have given up much, thankfully.
