San-Man, as usual, brings solid game onto the SSI hardwood:

Frustrating to see you mention the back issues - followed immediately by the question about should he be playing 1B - and you don't link the two.

Pretty sweet to hear that my shtick frustrates somebody.  My wife has taken to smiling bemusedly at it. Okay, more frustration to follow, what say?  -DrD 

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Can Sweeney play a competent 1B?  Absolutely.  The reason to not play him at 1B (IMHO) has absolute zero to do with his defensive skills there.  It has to do with how much you are willing to push the back issues.  One quick step to the right - or dive to the left or maximum stretch to catch an errant throw from third -- and Griffey is your primary DH for the next 15.

As a 47-year-old who is sitting here in back pain me-self :- ) I can testify that some back problemos are susceptible to "burst" injuries, and others ain't...

If the twisting of the back in a baseball swing or golf swing is causing a chronic bone-and-cartilege degeneration, then muscle strains are not problematic any more than for other players.  If you're Fred Couples and you have chronically-overstretched ligaments from turning your back too far, then a sideways lean to grab your grandchild might not offer any danger whatsoever.

If, however, Sweeney's back issues go to the soft tissue, then absolutely.  G-Money could speak to this better than I could...

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For sure your point is well taken that Sweeney is carrying the club right now, and you don't want to risk the mother lode.  :- ) Gotta love somebody coming in from the angle of "Sure the club is better with Sweeney at 1B, but you gotta take care of the Big Dog"...

However, we also wind up with a risk-against-risk dilemma, too.  If you do NOT get Bradley and Sweeney into the lineup together during this next string of 14 games ... do you wind up -12 games behind?  If so, is Mike Sweeney in your plans for next year anyway?  Maybe it's a case of empty-the-magazine while you have breath left?  :- )

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The fact that the brainy M's are letting him play the field suggests, to me, that they have watched him get tweaked through swinging the bat, and not as much from other athletic activity.  Could be wrong of course...

One thing I do like here:  Sweeney seems to be one of the very few players who is 100% comfortable hitting from the DH slot.  Poor man's Edgar.  This certainly speaks to the wisdom of simply letting him do it the rest of the year, preferably full time if the rest of the roster allows it.

Anybody know the nature of Sweeney's injuries?

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San-Man follows up strongly:

Me?  I still say that Sweeney proved that his body cannot handle playing the field five years ago.  At this point, my best guess is that his body likely needs at least 3 days (72 hours) off to repair itself after any game played in the field.  (Of course, even if true, this opens the door to playing him in an afternoon game before an off-day as being relative low-risk).

Yeah, that's probably true.  You see a lot of Edgar in the guy - DrD 

The recent streak proves one thing hands down.  Sweeney still has TONS of ability.  In fact, he NEVER lost the ability.  What he hasn't had for 5 years is HEALTH.  My position?  Every single decision about Sweeney's PT should be focused squarely and completely on one (and only one) variable -- HEALTH.  He doesn't have platoon splits, (never has).  He isn't beyond his prime and done (like Griffey).  He isn't a head case (like Bradley).  He's likely the best hitter in the entire Ms organization at the moment - with one monumental weakness  -- which is ... er ... weakness (specifically, his back).

If the team loses track of that and gets "greedy", thinking he can play 3 games a week at 1B -- he's going to tweak the back (guaranteed) -- and either hit the DL, (the GOOD consequence) -- or, more likely, will attempt to play thru it, and hit like Ronny Cedeno for a month while not allowing his body to heal.

Personally, the fact that Wak DID keep him out of a couple of games after he got hot to me is the best sign in the world.  I read that as the proper focus -- that Sweeney is frail - and that if you want him for the 100 games he might give you, you're gonna HAVE to hold him out of any game where he's not feeling 100%.

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Good stuff,

Dr D