Hmmmmmm.......: Here's a MiLB SS conundrum:    

A. Roster guy #1 has 462 career MiLB starts at SS, with a .961 Fld% and a 4.28 Rg/9.  

B. Door #2 has 262 Milb SS starts with a Fld% of .950 and a Rg/9 of 4.48.

C. Dude #3 has 383 starts, .947 and 4.49.

Which one is Taylor, which is Sardinas and which is O'Malley ?

(Insert Jeopardy Theme Song)

Times up!!  Alex, What is #1 is Shawn O'Malley, #2 is Chris Taylor and #3 is Luis Sardinas.

Correct, Moe,  for $1000!

Which one of those guys has 0 spring training starts at SS?   Well, that's too easy, O'Malley, of course.  But Shawn O'Malley had 53 AAA SS stats in '14 (.967, 4.38) and 7 more last year (1.000, 4.27).  The guy isn't chopped liver at SS. Willie Bloomquist played 2221 MLB innings at SS and he had a .971 Fld% and a 4.14 Rf/9.

Evidence is that O'Malley hits better than Bloomquist, btw.  He's hitting .400 in ST, OBP of .500 with a Dipoto style eye of 3-1.  He walked 158 pts in the bigs last year...OK, in only 57 PA's.  But he's shown a decent eye in AAA, too.

And he plays a truck load of other positions, as well.  He doesn't play 1B or C or he might be Campy Campaneris!

Put him on the 25-Man with a Romero and you've got flexibility up the wazzu:  A switch-hitter who flashes decent leather nearly everywhere (and a decent bat), plus a guy who plays 5 positions and hints at clubbing on lefties a bit.

I like Chris Taylor a lot.  I think he's a MLB SS.  But he doesn't go get it in CF, drats.  Sardinas, ditto.  We're short a back-up CF, I'm sure you are aware.  In case of an emergency (a Martin hammy or batting collapse), how comfortable are you with dialing 911-Boog-Powell?

BTW, Tyler Smith is breathing down some SS necks, as a Bloomie type player.  He's about to be MLB ready, in a utility-type of way. He's ready for Tacoma, certainly. How many SS can we keep there?  Oh, then there is Drew Jackson riding a rocket down on the farm.

We've got some SS's, if you haven't noticed, just in case some St. Louis-type team needs one.  And just in case they have a Tommy Pham or some relief pitchers.  And just in case we might need a Tommy Pham or a relief pitcher.

Just noodling, you understand.  But it is worth considering just what Dipoto/Servais value in our bench.  I've heard them praise at the altar of Run Prevention, laud the idea of versatility and complement the guys who are swining hot bats.  So what is the balance among those three bench legs?

Perhaps the balance is to just let Aoki play CF 35 times this year.  Perhaps.  But that doesn't do much for the run prevention model (he's not very good in CF).  But it would allow us to keep a Sardinas, a pure run prevention IF, or Taylor, a multi-modal IF guy.  And then you could keep Lee, a guy who is still pedaling with 1B training wheels on.  Well, maybe you keep him up.  Minus the question of who will be the #5 starter and who won't be, the bench IF/CF/1B questions are the most interesting of the spring.    

I've been all over the lot in my "Ah-Ha" moments, as I try to figure out the positional issue.  I still don't know.  But I do know all this would be much easier if one of the Smith-Guti'Aoki COF trio was able to (now) play a decent CF. Then you could keep a pure utility IF (Taylor or Sardinas, likely Sardinas in this case) and a RHB 1B type (take your pick).  As structured, we have to make compromises at either SS or CF, perhaps both.  I'm not quite sure that meets the Run Prevention/flashing the leather mantra we've heard all winter.

But what do I know?

So where are your benchy priorities?  Leather?  Utility??  Lumber???  O'Malley offers up at least two of them, maybe three, if his Eye continues.  Romero likely 2, and as a former 2B he might learn to be nifty around 1B.  Montero, Lee, Taylor and Sardinas offer up less than that.  Montero and Lee, just their bats; Taylor and Sardinas, their gloves and  IF utility.  However, it is true that Taylor (MLB '14, SSS) has shown some bat skills, too.  Did you realize his career AAA OPS is .855 (.390 OBP), which is only a smidgeon behind Montero's .866!  Sardinas at AAA?  .680, sigh.  But he's pretty young, remember.  All the same, he was just .602 at AA.  Tyler Smith eats that for breakfast.

Interesting times.  Go team.

Moe