Article: Fanfare For The Journeyman

[MileHighTwinsFan]

Definition-- jour·ney·man \-mən\:

a worker, performer, or athlete who is experienced and good but not excellent

 

In the nomenclature of the game we have many names for the journeyman.

On competitive teams we typically use the more endearing terms: role player, utility man, pinch hitter, defensive replacement. But on a losing team we tend to describe them in less complementary ways: placeholder, seat warmer, has been.A journeyman’s value is not typically described with season stats or career slash lines, but in single moments; when he gets a key hit, makes an outstanding defensive play or simply moves a runner over to allow the franchise player a chance to hit with a player in scoring position.

 

With a team like the Twins that is filled with players that meet the definition of journeyman, fans are quick to dismiss their value and instead pine for the brilliant prospect filled with promise and potential who is waiting in the wings.

 

Trevor Plouffe must have a clock ticking in his head. Intellectually he knows that his days as the Twins starting third baseman are numbered. Conversely, his competitive instincts keep pushing him to keep his job and show the world that he is not simply a placeholder for superprospect Miguel Sano.

 

Spring training and the first two weeks of the season were a struggle for Trevor. Despite coming off his best major league season, he had to overcome a late season freak injury, his average was firmly planted below .200 and the team had not started strong out of the gate. Anyone in his shoes would start to look in the rear view mirror to see if Mr. Sano was gaining on him.

 

Because of all he was up against, Plouffe’s walk-off homer in extra innings on Friday must have been particularly sweet.

 

The cathartic reaction from Plouffe as he screamed at his teammates in the dugout during his home run trot was a message to us fans. He is saying, I too was once a hot prospect, a player with potential. While it hasn’t worked out for me just yet – I am still here. I have worked my ass off and I don’t intend to go quietly into the night.

 

So today I take my hat off to Trevor Plouffe, Shane Robinson, and Jordon Schaefer and the other journeymen who may never make an All-Star game or get the long term, multi-million dollar deal. Get after it fellas, I respect your commitment. Hang in there, celebrate every success and know that when you do yield to that young superprospect, there is one fan out there who respects what you bring to the game.

 

Click here to view the article

[h2oface]

Yikes. Plouffe is classified and grouped with Schafer and Robinson. That has gotta sting a little.

[big dog]

Nice discussion of journeymen and Trevor Plouffe, but I wouldn't put them in the same group.  Plouffe's salary for this year is $4.8 million.  He's made over $7 million just in the last two years and he's certainly been a solid regular.  

 

I don't think there's any doubt Plouffe will get that long-term multi-million dollar deal you mention, though it certainly might not be with the Twins.

 

[HitInAPinch]

Not by any definition of the term is Trevor Plouffe a journeyman.  A journeyman is  player who has just enough skills, on rare occasions displays them at important times, to continue to interest other teams in a non-starting role.  Plouffe, from what I can see, has always been in the Twins system and a starter since, 2011.  Maybe.  He is an average player. 

 

"Superprospect Miguel Sano" ?  The history of baseball is littered with former "superprospects".  He and Buxton are not worthy of such nomenclature until they prove their MLB worth in the upper levels of MiLB.

[blindeke]

plouffe is a good piece to have on a good club, now that his defense has improved

[harren10]

You're probably under-rating Plouffie a little. But I'm with you on rooting for these guys who are battling under the radar. Good post. 

[Seth Stohs]

By "Baseball Definition" a Journeyman is someone who has been around for a long time and been in a whole bunch of different organizations. 

Plouffe has been in the organization since drafted in 2004. Only Mauer (and possibly Perkins, who was drafted in the same draft, two picks later, but I don't know which signed first) has been in the organization longer. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Nice discussion of journeymen and Trevor Plouffe, but I wouldn't put them in the same group.  Plouffe's salary for this year is $4.8 million.  He's made over $7 million just in the last two years and he's certainly been a solid regular. 

Exactly.

 

If you use the original poster's definition of journeyman -- "a worker, performer, or athlete who is experienced and good but not excellent" -- that could apply to Plouffe, although I tend to agree more with Seth's definition.

 

But at that point, there is no way Schafer fits under that same definition.  He's been among the worst hitters in MLB his entire career, in a group that generally exceeds him in defensive/positional value.  He's been surrendered on waivers twice in the last 2.5 years.  Given his service time, his salary is almost at an effective minimum.

 

If Schafer is "good", then every player in MLB is at least "good" too.  Maybe if you are considering a universe of players larger than that of MLB (say, including all minor leaguers), but then anybody who makes MLB could almost by definition be "excellent."  In that case, a journeyman would be more of a minor league veteran.

[Han Joelo]

I like the article and share in the hat tip to players like this, no matter how people feel the need to define them.

 

Plouffe feels like someone who is going to latch on with the cardinals or Giants and hit a big playoff homer someday.

Proud de is hard to get past auto correct.

[Boom Boom]

I don't believe that Plouffe will be forced out upon Sano's arrival. More likely, IMO, Plouffe will stick around at 3B and Sano will have a different position.

[Rosterman]

Jamey Carroll is a journeyman. Orlando Cabrera is a journeyman. Have been with multiple organizations, come off the bench, have had moments of starting. Solid, dependable players.

 

Plouffe could've become a journeyman early, another Ron Washington or Denny Hocking. Instead, he played where the Twins put him and learned. He didn't have to be great as long as he showed signs of striving (Hey, Killebrew started at second, was a first and thrid baseman and outfielder...did he shine defensively anywhere).

 

Plouffe is being pushed like Mientkiewicz was with Morneau, A.J. with Joe.  He will become expensive. He may be worth more. He may be worthless. His first free agent contract will bear that out. Happily he doesn't have to worry about overpricing himself out of a job, except with his hometown Twins (where you can't cut a player's wages more than 20%, for example, arbitration foolishness that often happens, etc.).

 

When he finishes his time with the Twins, will we put him in the same category as, say, Gaetti or Koskie. He is not a Buscher or Valencia.

 

And a step above being a journeyman is probably the category Roy SMalley fell into. He still played a lot of positions, moved around a bit, but he always managed to find a better than half-time job for his services.

 

Now Nick Punto...there's a journeyman!

[HitInAPinch]

 

I don't believe that Plouffe will be forced out upon Sano's arrival. More likely, IMO, Plouffe will stick around at 3B and Sano will have a different position.

 

Have you or anyone else here seen what Sano's throwing is like? 

[Boom Boom]

Have you or anyone else here seen what Sano's throwing is like?

Actually I have seen him play a bit in person. His arm is good. I'm more concerned that he doesn't have the agility necessary to play an adequate third base.

[big dog]

 

 

And a step above being a journeyman is probably the category Roy SMalley fell into. He still played a lot of positions, moved around a bit, but he always managed to find a better than half-time job for his services.

 

 

--

Roy Smalley retired with a WAR of 27.8 (finishing 4th in the league in 1979).  He led the league in assists for 5 straight years.  He was in the top 3 shortstops in the league for the same 5 straight years.  He started an All-Star game.  80% of his games were at shortstop.  If that's one step above journeyman, it's a heck of a step.

 

[Danchat]

Kinda ironic how there was just a new article on this website about an underrated player who's next in line to receive a new contract - Trevor Plouffe. That's a pretty stark contrast to him being called a journeyman here. You usually don't see two articles with opposite points on one website.

 

The article I was talking about: http://twinsdaily.com/blog/536/entry-6476-warne-the-minnesota-twins%E2%80%99-secret-extension-candidate/

[ashbury]

At the risk of spelling out and thus ruining the joke that every single other person here already got, I just want to offer recognition of and appreciation for the pun in the thread title.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMVB0B1_Ts

[h2oface]

 

By "Baseball Definition" a Journeyman is someone who has been around for a long time and been in a whole bunch of different organizations. 

 

There it is. Journeyman. You can't just use the dictionary for every word's application. You could be an all star and still be a journeyman if you play for a different team every year. The "been around for a long time part" is the lessor part of the definition, I think. Will Myer is almost a journeyman already. Delmon Young is a journeyman.

[ashbury]

Someone went to the trouble of compiling a dictionary a couple of decades ago, and I had it out for another purpose earlier tonight so it was at hand here.

 

The Dickson Baseball Dictionary has this: "Journeyman, n.: A veteran ballplayer who is reliable but not a star; consistent rather than colorful. Because it contains the word journey, it is often applied to those who have played for several clubs."

 

I take that phrasing to suggest that the last meaning is common but flawed. In the trades, the word journeyman has nothing to do with moving around geographically. The derivation refers to a day's work.

[goulik]

Laborers in the Middle Ages were organized into guilds with three levels of expertise. New recruits were apprentices taken in by a Master who would teach them a trade. The new Apprentice was not given the freedom to work independently but was closely supervised until they reached the skill level of a Journeyman, one who was adequate to do the job independently but not as skilled as a master. These Journeymen might continue to work for the same Master or they might move from Master to Master or even city to city seeking to learn enough to establish themselves as a Master eventually and become independent instead of employed.

 

Similar systems still are in place today. My brother in law is a master electrician in the state of Minnesota with his own business. Until he gained the license as a Master electrician, he was a Journeyman and had to work under a Master Electrician. My Mom was a Minnesota Master gardener and opened her own greenhouse.

[mikelink45]

All the arguments over journeyman miss the real story line.  In today's world we call them replacement players - the ones that score zero.  They fill the places and are neither positive or negative.  Plouffe is a replacement player and has value as that.  

 

He is not a journeyman, a star, an all-star, but he is good and he has a place.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

All the arguments over journeyman miss the real story line.  In today's world we call them replacement players - the ones that score zero.  They fill the places and are neither positive or negative.  Plouffe is a replacement player and has value as that.  

 

He is not a journeyman, a star, an all-star, but he is good and he has a place.

Actually Plouffe has been comfortably above replacement the past 3+ seasons.  Replacement level is pretty bad, a team full of replacement level performers would by definition win something like 49 wins over a full season.

 

Plouffe is actually solidly average, which is much more valuable.  2014 was his first year solidly above average, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep that up.