Russell Branyan played first base for the Seattle Mariners in 2009. He currently looks for work as a free agent. Branyan’s batting average represents a very small percentage of his offense. I’ll take a page from Bill James’s early abstract to make the point (click for a larger image):

Russell Branyan, BA vs. OBP and slugging percentage. OBP on the horizontal axis, slugging percentage on the vertical axis.

Considering just his .234 career batting average, it would appear that Russell was not a good hitter. His .331 OBP and .491 slugging percentage show a different story. His hits account for about 57 percent of his OBP, while his BA accouts for less than 50% of his slugging percentage. This is, if you will, a Moneyball graph. Players like Branyan were players who tended to get undervalued when traded or looking for jobs as free agents. To Jack Zduriencik’s credit, he recognized Branyan’s value and received a pretty good season from the first baseman. A team like Kansas City could do a lot worse than signing Branyan, instead of someone like Mike Jacobs.