{"id":2365,"date":"2010-12-22T09:46:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T15:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2010-12-22T09:48:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T15:48:58","slug":"indians-sign-former-first-rounders-austin-kearns-and-travis-buck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2365","title":{"rendered":"Indians sign former first rounders Austin Kearns and Travis Buck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/austin_kearns_adam_dunn_studio_portrait_photofile.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2366\" title=\"austin_kearns_adam_dunn_studio_portrait_photofile\" src=\"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/austin_kearns_adam_dunn_studio_portrait_photofile-238x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"323\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/austin_kearns_adam_dunn_studio_portrait_photofile-238x300.jpg 238w, http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/austin_kearns_adam_dunn_studio_portrait_photofile.jpg 358w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This week the Cleveland Indians signed former first round draft picks <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kearnau01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Austin  Kearns<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bucktr01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Travis  Buck<\/a><\/strong> to one-year contracts. Kearns, who posted a .746 OPS in 461 plate appearances for the Tribe and New York Yankees in 2010, signed to a tune of $1.3 million and figures to be the team\u2019s fourth outfielder in 2011 behind <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/choosh01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Shin-Soo  Choo<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sizemgr01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Grady  Sizemore<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brantmi02.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Michael  Brantley<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 A former first round pick of the Reds in 1998, Kearns, now 30, has never panned out to be the well-rounded hitter that was supposed to complement <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dunnad01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Adam  Dunn<\/a><\/strong> in the Cincinnati lineup. In fact, he\u2019s been the exact opposite.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here are some staggering statistics regarding Kearns\u2019 inability to hit when behind in the count, especially with two strikes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Career batting average after 0-1 count: .202 (1,690 plate appearances)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Career batting average after 0-2 count: .142 (640 plate appearances)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Career batting average after 1-2 count: .152 (990 plate appearances)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Career batting average after 2-2 count: .164 (945 plate appearances)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Overall, Kearns is a .159 lifetime hitter (.510 OPS) in two strike counts, and has struck out in 798 of those 1,877 plate appearances.\u00a0 In comparison, he is a career .297 hitter (1.000 OPS) in 1,558 plate appearances when ahead in the count.<\/p>\n<p>The Indians also signed former Oakland A\u2019s prospect <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bucktr01.shtml?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker\">Travis  Buck<\/a><\/strong> to minor league deal that also includes an invitation to Spring Training.\u00a0 Drafted by A\u2019s in the first round of the 2005 draft, Buck put together a promising rookie campaign in 2007 when he hit .288\/.377\/.474 in 334 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, however, he has been plagued by an assortment of injuries \u2013 including post-concussions syndrome \u2013 and has appeared in only 88 games over the past three seasons.\u00a0 To his credit, Buck, 27, has continued to battle in the minor leagues &#8211; .298\/.364\/.463 in 121 at bats for Triple-A Sacramento in 2010 \u2013 despite being relegated to AAAA status.\u00a0 If he can stay healthy, the left-handed hitting Buck could be a much more valuable fourth outfielder than Kearns.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week the Cleveland Indians signed former first round draft picks Austin Kearns and Travis Buck to one-year contracts. Kearns, who posted a .746 OPS in 461 plate appearances for the Tribe and New York Yankees in 2010, signed to a tune of $1.3 million and figures to be the team\u2019s fourth outfielder in 2011 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1300,6,16,9,11,13,14],"tags":[155,642,1564,639,654,1561,1562,391,1563],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}