Agree on all fronts.
As noted in the coaching thread - Sweeney is a guy who appears to REQUIRE a minimum amount of PT to stay dialed in. He was well below that threshold during April. He's getting the PT he needs - and seems well positioned to being posting the .900 OPS figures he did in BOTH months of 2009 that he got more than 55 PAs.
I actually think Griffey is the type of player who may not actually lose much in the role of pure pinch-hitter. I think he NEEDS additional adrenelan in order to push the ball out of the park - and a pinch-hitting slot is perfect for that.
The real key here is that as a 25th man - (getting a few select PAs here and there), Griffey might be a plus. But, 25th men don't start 5 games a week. And if you're starting your 25th man 5 times a week -- well, you're doing a bad job of roster/lineup management.
=== In Case You Thought Jack Was Smart BEFORE ===
Ken Rosenthal revealed, during the Saturday afternoon game, something completely game-changing about the "As The Junior Turns" saga.
With the M's (suddenly and momentarily) on his radar for the Fox game, Rosenthal asked the M's whether their benching of Junior was designed to force him into retirement. (I think a few days ago we were talking about the ever-present fear, in clubhouses and Maginot trenches, that somebody might punch; this doesn't apply when you're dealing with TV personalities.)
The M's (Zduriencik) responded by saying that the "fadeway" scenario had been "discussed at great length" quote-unquote, with Griffey before a contract was offered to him. This occurred this year and last year!
In other words, the M's reached an agreement with Ken Griffey Jr., long ago, that if a scenario develops in which his production vaporlocks ... that the M's will (a) treat him with great dignity and (b) give his AB's to somebody who can help.
Griffey signed off on this. And it's consistent with his remarks yesterday to another national reporter: "I don't make out the lineup card. All I can do is wait."
..........
Rosenthal -- actually, Zduriencik -- had a big finish: Griffey will maintain an important relationship with the franchise after he retires.
Read: no hard feelings either way.
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=== Roster Flexibility ===
So Chuck Armstrong, commendably, wants Ken Griffey Jr. to share one October in Safeco Field, and all we're left to complain about, is that that this will take up one lousy pinch-hit batting slot on the bench.
For those who want to try to define this as root cause A of Catastropic Events B, C, D, and E, as though it were the introduction of Clay Bennett's ma and pa, we got one thing to say.
Go back to your WAR.
Show your work on the blackboard, if you're going to attribute even one game's worth to the 25th man, and pass out blue-and-teal chest ribbons over the human atrocity of this city's love for Ken Griffey Jr.
We mean that in a good way. ;- )
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=== 25th Man ===
Nobody begrudges a manager an Org Guy for the last roster spot.
If it's Willie Bloomquist or Jack Hannahan or whoever, the fact is that the 25th guy just doesn't shift the tectonic plates. You're talking half a win, maybe. Heavy on the "maybe."
Precisely because the 25th man has light impact on the win scale, good organizations use that spot to glue the clubhouse together.
If you want an increase the flexibility on this roster, you better use it towards run generation. Not run prevention. Jack Hannahan's career-high OPS+ is 2, give or take a coupla bingoes.
Ken Griffey Jr. might actually find a coupla home runs in his hip pocket this summer. An extra bench bat used to be Earl Weaver's idea of "flexibility." We'll see how it works for Wok.
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That's my opinion I could be wrong,
Dr D
Comments
FOr what it's worth...although I discussed the possibility of DFA'ing Sweeney if it would help make other needed roster changes possible, I observed back in mid April when Sweeney was going 0-fer and the fans were griping, that his swing looked just as good as always and that he was hitting a lot of warning track flies and hard one-hoppers right at people. I think Sweeney can and will be productive if used enough.
The importance of the 25th man is directly related to the other 24. One the 2001 M's, the 25th man was virtually irrelevant. The starting pitchers took the ball every 5th day and generally pitched deep into games. The last three guys in the pen were all lock-down relievers. The position players had almost universally great years and were healthy all season. Your "tenth guy" could have started for half the teams in MLB.
This season with the 2010 M's, you've got little production across the entire infield, your starting SS is made of glass, your starting LF is fragile and unstable, your catchers are completely green, your bullpen is a mess and your new DH even has trouble starting at DH four days in a row without pulling something. In that environment, that 25th man becomes a critical asset. This team needs a Willie goldang Bloomquist swiss army knife a whole lot more than a mascot snoozing at the end of the bench.
But how do you respond to the fact that you'll never find more than about 1.0 WAR difference, if that?
Not countering you - wondering what your take is on that.
Yours is the point that Geoff Baker has been making since April 6th, that he'd like to see exactly what happens if you let Mike Sweeney dial in with some steady play.
A very intriguing question, worthy of a book in and of itself, which types of players can operate well in spot play and which ones need PT.
Would guess that an aging player, who has to work around his declining reflexes, needs to having his funky swing timing more in tune...
Of course Sweeney's back may impact his max AB's in a season...
Still frustates that Sweeney didn't get more PT from the get go. One of Wak's few serious gaffes in his tenure here, IMO.
Sweeney, in another era ;-), would be a prime candidate for chemical enhancement. 34 YO, still has the eye and the bat, but could use just a leeeeeetle bit of help to stay healthy, recover faster, etc. Hopefully, being DH is enough to have the same effect for the rest of the year.