Add new comment

I want to see more fight in the club - this losing streak against division rivals seems to have demoralized them.  But Smoak was dragging for a month before that.  He's a man grimly holding a position and looking for reinforcements that aren't coming fast enough.  
I might honestly switch him in the lineup with Ackley.  Smoak is a calm-tempered but no-nonsense kinda guy.  Ackley is The Man With No Name, as you intimated earlier.
Smoak's a cool and easy 2nd banana who will do just fine once he's not THE MAN in the lineup.  But Ackley's not a first banana yet and Smoak feels like he should be helping the rookie and not the other way around (sophomores are like that).
I'd like him to be 3rd banana personally.  A sort of Tino Martinez, either for the Mariners or the Yankees.  Ackley's Derek Jeter.  That means we need Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill.
So go get me Prince Fielder and Carlos Quentin already and let's go put the Rangers and Angels through a wall. ;)
If only it were that easy.  That's Jack's problem: He needs offense now but can't get quite enough for the money he has to spend, so he'll need to work the trade market as well.
But Fielder/Quentin, Kubel/Upton, Rasmus/Sizemore style pairings are quite nice in theory.  I dunno how Jack's gonna turn em into some kind of fact, but he's got a couple months to figure that out.
We just can't be running Kennedy in the 3 hole and Olivo in the 5 hole in 2012.  We've gotta be past that point next year, or Jack's not doing his job right.  That's the next fight, to somehow turn the arms we have into the bats we need before we run out of time on both.
When the front office adds a Fielder type, it sends a different message than adding a Cust.  And it has a different result on the field too.
IMO, we're getting close to sending that message.  If we're not close, then Jack's gonna lose his job to a man who can take whatever assets he's collected and turn them into a winning team.
The guy's name is Gillick.  He was just on the field a couple nights ago, and he lives in town.  Don't give him a chance to steal your job back, even if he's just called an "advisor."
Get this offense thing FIXED.
~G