Add new comment

Carp may have had his career's worth of those this year. He may be fine in LF for a long time. He certainly hasn't been terrible out there.
Hey, I'm high on Carp, always have been. He's a lefty who can launch. When he's been given daily AB's, at any level, he hits.
I said in September that Smoak's hot streak was not terribly welcome in my book. I think it just cemented that we keep him and give him a bunch of whacks. I'm not sure he's anything different than he was in the two years prior, however. His hot streak just came at the right time. Maybe he's a new guy, with his new approach. I remain unconvinced, but if he is will welcome it.
If you asked me who I would rather give 600 1B AB's to, I would say "Carp!" in a heartbeat. a no-brainer for me. But I think he's gone in a package deal.
I just see him ended up hitting 30 homers as a 1B/DH in Boston or some such place.
I just don't think you can let Liddi go. He's a classic CIF guy who can help a team, if you don't expect him to hit .280. And he's a RHB, which we can use on the bench.
A Seager, Franklin, Ackley, Ryan, Smoak, Liddi seems like a decent arrangement.
Add Wells, Saunders, Guti, Thames
Then Montero, Jaso and a utility place holder until Zunino arrives in town.
Start the Season with Triunfel up, instead of Franklin to gain the Arb year.
But, of course, these are all guys we currently have. A trade is likely. We will see how much value we have in Smoak as we chase a MOTO bat.
Make it Gordon, and Thames goes.
AT DH next year, I wouldn't be surprised if the regular diet was a platoon of Montero and Jaso. Give Montero 30 starts at C and 30 more at 1B and you get 120 starts out of him. Do you platoon a 22 year old? You do if his career #'s vs lefties are .343-.390-.483 and .227-.267-.368 vs righties.
Minus Zunino, I catch him a bunch, Jaso a bunch and DH them both a bunch. But Zunino is ours. Is he Pudge? Bench? Merely Fisk? I don't know...but we're going to see a bunch of hiim to find out.
Jaso, BTW, is a career .270-.368-.421 guy vR (.302-.419-.508 in '12) He's a career Mario Mendoza vL.
If we're talking about platoons, this is the most natural one on the planet.
Can we platoon at DH, SS and OF? Earl would be dang pround were we to do so.
moe