Q.  How do you know whether to roll the dice on him?

A.  That's just the thing.  Ideally, you would bring him to camp, and audition him for 30 days. 

In those 30 days you will see whether he's now (1) the old bat-control guy with (2) some pop in his swing now.

It's not rocket science.  The guy's always had a 1:1 EYE, and still does ... somehow, in 2010, he kept that, while putting his butt into the swing. 

Either he can make that work, in March, or he can't.  Bring him in and see if he can.  That's the org's ideal situation (and the player's undesirable situation).

The problem is why Rodriguez would agree to that!

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Q.  Why would he agree to that?

A.  ML orgs are not dumb; all 30 of them now have Voros McCrackens working for them, scouring the minors for guys like Rodriguez.

Luis Rodriguez would have been on everybody's sticky note, the way that Dustin Ackley and Justin Smoak are on everybody's Roto war sheets for 2011.

I'm kind of surprised that Rodriguez wouldn't have scored a major league deal with somebody.  But at the least, you've got to figure that the M's promised him the best chance at a starting job...

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Q.  So the Mainframe crunches that Rodriguez could start at short next year?

A.  SSI presumes, and correct us if we're wrong, that Jack said this to him:

"Hey, Luis.  Our shortstop and second base positions are in flux for next year, and we think you've become our next Russ Branyan.  Come to camp and hit the ball well and you're probably in there."

So Rodriguez came here, as opposed to taking one of his other 12 enthusastic offers.

Or not.

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Q.  Or not?

A.  Admittedly, the Mariners have been dogmatic about pretty defense.  Rodriguez is most definitely not an "oooh, aaaah" shortstop.  Look at his thighs.  (If that sounds icky, just pretend you're a TSA temp.)

If Rodriguez is ruled out by a glove-first-SS policy, then Jack musta said "Hit the ball in camp and we'll get you 350 AB's with us as our fifth infielder."

At least, my crunch is that Rodriguez had to have some reason for coming here.  If not PT, then what?

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Q.  Where is SSI on that one?

A.  I think that pretty-defense absolutes can leave you scoring 500 runs.  But that's just me.

+20 runs with the bat, and -10 defensively, that's +2.0 easy wins when compared to -10 runs with the bat and +0 runs with the glove.

And if Rodriguez is about as good with the glove as (say) Josh Wilson or Chris Woodward, then it's +3.0 wins.

Let's skip the pretty-glove absolutes this time round...

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Q.  Bullish on this turning out to be a Branyan-type find?

A.  Will be the #1 storyline, or close to it, next March.  Eyes slideways.  If Rodriguez is clearing the fence when he squares the ball up, he could pull an Aviles, a Torres act for us.

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Proceed to Level 102 Scan,

Dr D