adambr2

Only 3B backup, only SS backup, only 2B backup. It's scary to think how many AB's he'll get this year if he's on the team the entire season. We're already getting the first taste of that now with Gonzalez on paternity leave. Him and Ramirez are probably going to need 15 days off or so apiece this year at their age, that's already 30 starts for Cesar. Plus, what's the chance that the entire infield avoids the DL this season? Not very good.

To highlight my point on Ishikawa, Corey Hart can easily fill in at 1st if Gamel needs a day off. That's never a problem since outfield is probably where we're deepest at. Even if it was, Kottaras has even played a little bit of 1st. I doubt having him do it once a month or so would be a problem. There is really no purpose to have Ishikawa on the team. If anything, it just gives RRR a way to jerk Gamel around if he shows any signs of struggle at 1st.

Well, Izturis is costing them $875,000. Hairston is making $2.25M this season. So assuming Hairston would have taken identical money to stay if we had offered it, that's an extra $1.375M that it would have cost us to keep Hairston over Izturis. I have a hard time believing that there was no way to accomplish that.

He never really was, save for one overperforming year in 2004. It's a wonder he's been able to skate by in the league this long.

Gamel definitely leading the league in expletives.

I definitely more appreciate now what Hairston brought to the table. A bench player who can give you serviceable defense anywhere in the infield and doesn't suck at the plate. Probably aren't too many of those.

Does it seem to anyone else that Doug and Ron just didn't do a very good job constructing the bottom of this roster which may come back to bite us this year? We have a lefty reliever, but no LOOGY. While I don't necessarily have a problem with Parra's presence on the team, we have multiple long-men with no real defined purpose other than to eat up innings. We would be much better served having strictly a LOOGY in the pen to be able to call on this year in big situations facing some of the elite lefties late like Votto. There is no one in the pen right now that you'd feel good about against an elite lefty. I don't understand why we did not pursue this yet again -- LOOGY's are not particularly hard to come by and not expensive. The infield is baffling. Ishikawa is strictly a backup for a position that you really don't need a backup for since 1st base is probably the easiest position on the diamond to find a replacement for in a pinch. Meanwhile, you've got an even worse player in Izturis backup up three different positions. This is all made worse by the fact that there really is no righty off the bench (Izturis is a switch hitter, but too terrible of a hitter to count), unless you count Gomez, which you really don't as part of a strict platoon. Our righty option off the bench is a first-year lefty hitter, literally. So to sum it up, still no LOOGY, still no righties on the bench, and an awful infield bench.

I can't imagine that there is a worse player in baseball than Cesar Izturis.

Curious, does the strike zone for Chipper Jones only include pitches right down Main St?

It's starting to become more of a surprise if Weeks DOESN'T strike out.

If we are in contention at the break, I would imagine we'll try to find a decent utility infielder for cheap. But that's still probably half a season or more of a complete hole in the lineup anytime an infielder needs a day off. God forbid any one of them goes on the DL and "Izzy" is forced into regular playing time. At this point no level of ineptitude will cost him his spot since we have no backup SS without him.

He's only playing because Gonzalez is on paternity leave, in case you hadn't heard that Yeah, I know, I'm just referring to the fact that he's going to get far too much playing time this year because of the fact that he is the only guy anytime Gonzalez, Ramirez, or Weeks needs a day off. Over the course of the season that's going to add up to a lot of AB's for a really bad hitter. When Counsell left I didn't think they'd possibly be able to replace him with someone who would make me miss him, but that's exactly what they did.

Ugh, more Izturis. A really awful player backing up 3 positions. He's going to get way too much PT this year unless we find an alternative. I know the budget was already stretched, but an extra $2.5M or so to keep Hairston would have been well worth it for this roster.

Anyone have a problem with Lucroy being pinch hit for Kottaras with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 9th? I didn't, I thought it was the right call. I'm sure he did not anticipate George sitting there with the bat on his shoulders while 3 strikes got thrown right by him. I have a problem with Cesar Izturis being on this roster, but that's in part also a Melvin issue.

He always has a real nice opening day, sometimes even the first several weeks of the opening season, before breaking our hearts and crashing back down to earth in a big way.

He always has a real nice opening day, sometimes even the first several weeks of the opening season, before breaking our hearts and crashing back down to earth in a big way.

Fail.

Fail.

Gamel is a better hitter than Gonzalez. Whether he's a rookie or 13 year veteran, Gamel is a better hitter than Gonzalez. Easily. Also, there is no rule that says the catcher must bat 8th. Why must things be so complicated with RR?

Gamel is a better hitter than Gonzalez. Whether he's a rookie or 13 year veteran, Gamel is a better hitter than Gonzalez. Easily. Also, there is no rule that says the catcher must bat 8th. Why must things be so complicated with RR?

Not saying this isn't true, but if so it doesn't make much sense to me. Do all the negotiating yourself and then just bring an agent in for the part where he needs to cough up a commission? Seems like he could hire a lawyer for a few hundred bucks an hour to look over the contract and save a few million dollars.

Okay, evaluating a little more after a year, here are the things I like: I do like the fact that his players respect him and seem to be willing to play hard for him. I think I might like the shifts, although I'm not sure yet, but I at least like the fact that he's thinking. I like the fact that he doesn't let his backup catcher rot on the bench every day if he needs a pinch hitter because he's afraid of what will happen if he gets hurt. I like how his bullpen management improved in the second half, although I think that's greatly attributable to the bullpen being "dummy-proofed" with the K-Rod acquisition. Here's the things I hate: - The fact that because he was given a very talented team that won close games last year and ended up with 96 wins, he basically has immunity for the next several years because that's just the way it goes. - Kameron Loe overuse/misuse. - Ron, if my boss calls me at 3 pm on Saturday and asks me to come in and work til 5, did I really get the day off? No, and neither did Lucroy. Give him one. Kottaras is not atrocious. You can let him finish his games. - I realize this isn't all your call, but please remember that old does not always = good. - Not saying smallball doesn't have its place once in awhile, but when all of us watching at home know that the squeeze is coming, or that Nyjer is about to bunt, the other team probably does too. - Speaking of Nyjer, why can't he lead off?

Roenicke is quite stubborn, he was the last one to figure out last year that Wil Nieves was really, really terrible. So I don't expect anything to change until things go way beyond the point of painfully obvious. I would like to think Green is down solely on the basis of him getting every day AB's, but I don't think it is. I don't think we are heavily invested in him as a starter, I think at this point, Green's likely prospect outlook is as a career backup infielder who has nice pop and can play 2nd and 3rd. I think it's the youth that's keeping him down.

You didn't think we'd go a year without keeping a really crappy replacement level veteran on the 25 man roster, did you? I'll pencil in Izturis for about 300 AB's and about 300 instances of Roenicke referring to him as "Izzy".

As I mentioned I do think it was a terrible trade looking at it straight up, but I do agree that you have to look at the bigger picture and ripple effect. Independent of the Marcum/Lawrie trade, I think there was a small chance of landing Greinke while still having Lawrie. #1, had we still had Lawrie, would the Royals have accepted the same trade? I have to think that telling them, "we want Greinke, but we won't give you the best player in our mediocre farm system" would have been an impossible sell. They would have demanded Lawrie be the centerpiece of the package. Also, even if they didn't, would Greinke have waved his NTC, which he wouldn't do to go to Washington, to come here? With no other moves having been made, I doubt he had any real reason to think that a 70-some win team from 2010 was making a big push with him alone. So in the end, we almost did essentially "buy" a division title on the back of Brett Lawrie alone as he is the key cog of which I don't think either Greinke or Marcum is here without. We sacrificed an entire 6 cost controlled years for him though, and we'll never know if patience instead would have been rewarded with a bigger prize. But I agree if you're going to shop Lawrie, do it aggressively and with due diligence. Get a younger pitcher with staying power that you can build a rotation around, not a soft-tosser with a #2 starter ceiling with a history of arm trouble. Same mistake IMO that he made with Sabathia, too much focus on the short term when alternative solutions that can help you not only for the present, but the future (like Greinke would have been in 2008), could have been had for similar packages.