If Smoltz was done we see some hug drop in velocity and K rate which just isn't there. He might not be able to make it through a full game but he can still pitch.
Buster Olney had ESPN make this huge productive out tracker in the past but had to cancel it in quiet embarrassment when the leaders in productive outs were the worst scoring offenses in the league.
About the only place I pay attention to ESPN anymore is Neyer's reopened to the public blog and the comments there are fine but given thats a very self selecting group.
I'm not saying that it means Salome needs to be dealt all it means is that Lucroy is certainly pushing Salome. I don't hate acquiring Snyder I just doubt that DBacks need to take on Hall to get rid of him. This is a guy who put up good numbers 2005-2008 and isn't terrible for a catcher this year.
Lucroy has been dominating AA since his slow start. Lucroy over the last 28 days:0.333 0.446 0.522. The DBacks could pretty much give away Snyder, they don't have to take on an onerous contract to move him.
Lopez might have learned to hit or he could be going through a peak period and is about to return to his past form. His success this year is BABIP driven (.352). If he returns to his normal BABIP (.320) he returns to being the poor player he was every year except 2005.
No the best way to have a more consistent offense is to add more Kendalls. Scoring is right bounded by zero, the closer to zero the scoring average is the less variation and the more consistency!
And if you don't ignore the fact that Looper and Suppan are throwing up tons of gopher balls both are below replacement level. Looper is pitching about 2 wins worse than projected.
Part of this is just my exhasperation with the term "consistent" since its become coach speak for "playing better". If a player goes 3 for 4 a manger will coem out and say he needs to be more consistent in other games. Or that Parra needs to be more consistent other games. No, Parra needs to pitch better not reduce the variation of his outings.
Actually lots have called for him to move to RF which means they thinks he's good in LF. If you're average among a group that contains Manny Ramirez, Carlos Lee, Adam Dunn, and Alfonso Soriano you might not be that good.
You want a consistent offense? Get a bunch of poor hitters together. If you average very 1 run a game you'll be really consistent. When people say consistent they mean better in general.