Give you one guess who was GM when the Phillies drafted the Mr. Michaels.

His pre-2008 stats were pretty OK, so this move is one of those “hope last year was a fluke” sort of things. That might actually happen, since his BABIP was 30-40 points lower than his usual (2008 = .263, whereas the last time he had a BABIP under .300 was 2001, when he only got 6 AB). On the other hand, his strikeouts went up a tick last year, too. Can probably expect him to OPS near 700, which, for comaprison, would be significantly better than Michael Bourn’s .588 for 2008. He used to hit lefties pretty hard, so bat-wise I guess we’re hoping he returns to pre-2008 form and basically becomes an RH Darin Erstad.

Defensively, he looks like he can play any of the outfield spots at average level or better, though it’s been a few years since he put any significant time in at CF, so if you have to take Bourn out, you’re probably better off putting Erstad in his place. Defense is generally described as “solid”, and a google of “Jason Michaels defense” turns up some people describing some memorable catches.

Personality-wise, he’s been described as “gritty” “hardnosed” and has “bluecollar appeal”, which reminds me a lot of a recently departed Astro who had the nickname Lunchpail. His photo on his PECOTA card looks like what happens when you forget it’s picture day, so you throw on a hat at recess and try to make the best of it:

Most exciting signing ever! :p

Obviously, Wade hopes he returns to the form he showed in those Phillies’ years when Wade was GM. The guy was able to post an OPS in the .800’s in that era. He probably won’t reach those peaks again. But he looks to have a decent bat, and the Astros can use a RH bat off the bench. It’s too bad that he doesn’t look like a fit for CF, since we could use a RH platoon CFer. Probably at this point in his career, he would be like using Orlando Palmeiro in CF…in other words an emergency back up for CF. But his defensive metrics in RF are pretty good.

Maybe it’s a bad day. But there’s $750,000 of the money it would have taken to keep Ty Wigginton.