Yesterday afternoon the Seattle Mariners traded Trayvon Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for Robert Andino. Trayvon Robinson came to the Mariners at the trade deadline in 2011. His skill set is interesting with growth but redundant as the Mariners have a number of outfielders in the system with a similar skill set. We traded from a position of depth.

Andino is a utility infielder with experience at SS, 2B, and 3B, his skill set is actually fairly similar to Robinson but he shouldn’t be an impact player for the Seattle Mariners. However, Andino does fill a need the team had going into this offseason, a competent reserve infielder. Last year, Munenori Kawasaki filled that role and was known for his energy off the field more than his performance on the field. Because Andino can play three infield positions, he assumes the role that both Kawasaki and Chone Figgins were taking up last year. This frees the Mariners to be more flexible with their roster this year and hopefully that will prove much more beneficial than Robert Andino’s on field performance.

Lets take a quick look at both player’s performance last year and their projected performance next year:

At just a glance, we can see that the two players are very similar; high strikeout, low contact hitters. Both players are able to take a walk and can generally be regarded as slap hitters. Trayvon shows a bit more power growth but he’s always had that potential (he hit 26 HRs in AAA in 2011) although its never transferred to the Major League level.

Quickly lets take a look at some of the more advanced components of the chart above:
PA – Plate Appearances: The number of times a player appeared at the plate.
BABIP – Batting Average on Balls In Play: Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
K% – Strikeout Percent: Measures how often a batter strikes out per plate appearance.
BB% – Walk Percent: Measures how often a batter walks per plate appearance.
Value: This number is the result of my projection system. Basically, its a number that shows how this player compares to other players at his position with 0.0 being average.