Monday Musings
Friend of FireGardy.com, Grizz, will be making the trek down to spring training in a few days. I doubt he and his band of merry men will have access to a computer, so I will make attempts to talk to them via telephone and update the site that way. Also, I will be trying to convice them to take a tire iron to Nick Punto’s head. Or to Gardy’s for playing him so damn much.
Has anyone else been as disappointed with Brendan Harris as I have. I mean, I though he was going to be the clear cut starter at second, basically handed the job. However, he has played like garbage, Punto is still Punto, and Casilla has played very well. You’d think this would be a no-brainer, give the job to Casilla. But no. Gardy will make this hard. As has been discussed in this space before, Gardy loves guys who can “catch the ball” and everything else is just gravy. No! Baseball has many aspects. Let’s say we have 3, to keep it simple: hitting, fielding, baserunning. Punto is well below average at hitting, below average at baserunning, and average (at best) at fielding. So overall that makes him a below average player. Is Gardy ignoring two thirds of the game here? Possibly more if you were to break hitting down into more categories (average, power, eye, etc.). This is just not good. I really expected Harris to come in and take the job from day 1, thus making Gardy’s decision for him. He didn’t do this, so now Gardy must actually make a managerial decision, and he isn’t good at that.
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I didn’t expect Harris to be handed the job, but I did expect him to come out and try to win it. He certainly hasn’t done that.
Then again, it’s just spring time. I don’t think the decision on 2B has been made yet, and there’re still a few weeks to decide between Casilla and Harris. Or just idiot it up and go with Punto.
Even if Harris were playing well right now, it’d still be a hard decision between him and Casilla. Casilla’s better in the field — more range, surer glove, stronger arm — and has disruptive speed. Harris has a better bat. It’s actually difficult to tell which this lineup needs at the moment.
I guess “handed” isn’t exactly what I meant. I thought he should know that all he had to do was show up, hit a little bit and the job was his. He also had to stay away from costly mistakes in the field. He didn’t need to flash gold glove play, but stable no mistakes play at second. I also didn’t expect Casilla to tear it up this spring, either. But Harris’ shaky play means more ABs for Punto. Which usually tranlates in L’s for the team. I’m not sure how I feel about Casilla at second. He is a natural SS, and I don’t like when players play out of position. When the Mets signed Kaz Matsui, a SS from Japan a few years back, they bumped their top SS prospect, Jose Reyes, to second. One of the espn guys compared Reyes playing second to using a Ferrari only to drive the short distance to the grocery store. Or something like that. Basically, I don’t think we are maximizing Casilla’s potential playing him at second of SS. But thats just me.
I actually did expect Casilla to do well this spring. He got his (large) cup of coffee last season, and totally lit it up in his winter league. He’s ready to go.
I agree about moving players out of their position, as a general rule. But look at it this way: We have Everett for one year, so he’ll be spending most of his time locking that spot down. At the same time, we need to continue developing Casilla as a hitter, which we ought to do by giving him ABs. Have him play 2B, which is easier than SS (that’s what everyone says, and in my experience I agree). Then Casilla is our 2009 SS unless Plouffe explodes or something.
Harris gets nothing unless he earns it, the way I see it.
If Gomez and Casilla both make the team (I think they should either be starters or in Rochester, not riding the bench), we have them Batting 1 and 9 I think, that is pretty freaking disruptive for the pitcher. With either of them on (or both) hitters will see many more fastballs, if he throws a breaking ball, or changeup, Gomez will almost certainly steal. The number of pitch outs will increase as well, possibly increasing overall total team walks, thus increasing opposing pitchers pitch counts, which gets us into their bullpen faster. Sounds like it can do nothing but really help the middle of the order. So after that (rambling) train of thought, having both those speedsters in the lineup will benefit everyone.
Will benefit everyone if they get on base. If both of them have an OBP under .300, it creates a whole lot of outs that the middle of the order has to compensate for, leading them to try too hard and subsequently fail.
It’s exactly the difference between 2006 (when the secondary players were hitting, which helped the middle of the order to drive them all in) and 2007 (when the secondary players didn’t hit, forcing the middle of the order to overcompensate).
Oh … and I’d bat them 8 and 9, unless one of them shows .400 OBP ability. But that’s just me.
I agree, I fully expected to see Harris win the job, but he picked a bad year to have a terrible spring. Also, I would rather have Casilla Gomez go 8 9 rather than 1 9. I am sick of leadoff hitters who cannot get on base. Speed is a great asset to a leadoff hitter, however OBP is way more important. I would not mind having Mauer lead off. Plus, Mauer has been a pretty solid baserunner and is pretty quick for his size. I would hate if the job was left for a really fast player who couldn’t get on base. Plus, if either of them do get on base as 8 9 hitters, it is just bonus for the next time through the order.
Those are all very good points. However, I have come to the realization that Gardy will not do anything that we (and conventional wisdom) say are best for the team. He has an idea of what a leadoff hitter should be: fast. If he isn’t fast he can’t bat leadoff in Gardy’s lineup. Its terrible logic, but it is what it is. Terrible.
Well conventional wisdom says that the best leadoff guy is both fast and high-OBP. That’s extremely rare though, so you have to pick one. Most managers actually do choose speed over OBP, given the choice. So in that regard Gardy’s no more of a twit than most managers; it’s just that he’s going to a further extreme about it. Gomez is faster than anybody, but at the same time gets on base less than anybody.
It’s unconventional wisdom that tells me Mauer should be our leadoff hitter. I don’t know if it’d work out that great, but it’d probably be better than teams that bat Soriano leadoff. And almost certainly better than Gomez/Span.
I should note that when I say “unconventional wisdom,” I’m using the word “wisdom” loosely.
Punto is average at best at fielding!? Are you freaking kidding me? Say what you want about his hitting, but that’s just ridiculous.
People think he is good because he runs fast, and hustles. He makes relatively easy plays look good. But even if you bump his fielding to above average that still doesn’t make him a good player worth starting. And another thing that bugs me is he is a pretty fast guy, but some how isn’t a very good baserunner.
I had made the mistake of rating Punto as an excellent defender for years. It’s easy to do; he’s renowned for being a good fielder, it’s the only thing he’s good for, and he certainly looks slick with the glove. There’s such a thing as an all-glove, no-bat player; there’s no such thing as a no-glove, no-bat player.
But every advanced defensive metric puts Punto at below average at best in the field, both in range and with his arm. I don’t think they’re the gospel, but they’re good to go by.
Punto’s value is as a super utility player that can adequately play any position. A team needs one of those guys, and Punto’s a pretty good one. Let’s just not romanticize his abilities and stretch his role on the team.
Way to wax eloquently. Punto’s defense has been over rated for years. He makes about 5-10 highlight reel plays a year which the fans love and then proceeds to not get to balls that he should get to. I also like the idea of Gomez and Casilla batting 8-9. If one manages to get on-base well then you bump them up, but not before that.
Also I like the new banner. Especially all the pics of Gardy getting tossed!
Good point about the highlight reel plays. They’re why most people still think Jeter is good in the field. What they have to realize is that fielders generally have to play more than 10 balls a year.
And thanks, I think the site’s new look is definitely better.
cheap and wholesale tires