Rockies Sign Lew Ford

That 2004 line was pretty impressive. He never came close to that level of play after.

i like Lew as a backup outfielder

Lew was a good player for about four months, until major league pitchers figured out that you either pitch him away or way in. Anything on the inside corner,he’ll yank down the line. Everything else will be an out. He came up when pitchers lived on the inside corner because most teams had lumbering power hitters who leaned out over the plate to drive the pitch on the outside corner. So they pitched to his strengths while pitching to the leagues weaknesses. Once they figured out how to pitch him, he stunk. And he never made the adjustments to take the outside pitch the other way and use his speed, at least not consistently.

Why he went to Japan instead of AAA is a mystery. Japanese pitchers do what he sucks at: Soft toss on the outside corner. He ended up getting sent to Japanese AAA which is the equivalent of high A over here, and still didn’t do so hot. If he can re-establish himself in AAA this year, he might makes a fourth outfielder for an injury-riddled team late in the year. But I don’t see him even as a long-term major league bench player.

Joing the Michael Ryans, Mike Restovichs, Dustan Mohrs of Twins back-up outfielders trying to find a major league job, not to mention the “hot” rookies of the likes of Garrett Guzman, Trent Oeltjen, Alex Romero and…Kevin West!