Traffic Jam
THE DH has played 35 games this year, with 150 plate appearances, and has 0 homers.
1/4 of the season. Slugging in the 200's.
And the Mariners have six (6) bats they'd like to check out: Peguero, Wilson, Carp, and Saunders, with backup infielders Rodriguez and Kennedy who need DH at-bats too. Five of these guys bat left-handed.
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When the Oakland A's have young hitters who interest them, and who are ML-ready, they waive DH's who (1) are OPS'ing 100 and who are (2) losing ground to 100 as time passes.
If the A's had two of those six players missing time -- Peguero, Wilson, Carp, Saunders, Kennedy, and LRod -- they'd clear out Jack Cust.
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It would be one thing, if you didn't want to see what Mike Wilson and Mike Carp and Luis Rodriguez could do. But the Mariners do want to see what those players can do. They've said so.
A week ago, Zduriencik said "this is the right time and the right place for Mike Wilson." It's no longer the right time and place. Sitting on the bench for a week, Wilson is stale now. His timing is gone.
It would be the right time and place for him, if he went down and got his timing back, IMHO.
However, it is the right time and place for Mike Carp. Carp has had two trial runs at the majors before; he's about to turn 25 years old; he has solved AAA and played well there for a long time; he's red-hot in AAA as we speak.
No way that Mike Carp is not major league ready. He might be not major league talented, in which case you powerflush him and get on with managing your talent pool dynamically. But Mike Carp is ready. He's banged 40+ homers for your AAA team. He's circling the airport.
He's promot-able. The only reason he's not up, is because the M's are married to Cust.
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And even if you do get a few months' look at Mike Carp ... there are guys behind him you need to evaluate, right? The 40-man and the Rule 5 are always pressing you...
By next spring, are you going to get Mangini, Halman, and Tuiasosopo their big league at-bats... or do you just want to cut them loose right here and now.
There's a lot of PSI in the pipeline behind Jack Cust. He needs to be a major plus in Safeco to justify his parking spot. Like, 90+ RBI's.
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At this point, it seems to me that there had been a spirited internal debate on Cust this winter, the echoes of which are biasing the decision about when to hand the locker to the next guy in line.
Our guess is, that there have been people backing Cust hard, and now it's tough to push back at your friends just when Cust has been, um, better... (better than what? than himself...)
That's my crystal-ball gaze, anyhow... understandable that Capt Jack would hate to tell his favorite advisors, "Hey, Cust has shown he's got something in the tank. That's great. But we're shy on power right now and we better see if a few of these kids can come up with some. Maybe Carp can carry over his little power surge for us."
He'd hate to do that to his advisors, we're sure, but it's just a matter of doing it now vs. doing it later. Because:
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If Jack Cust plays the entire season at this pace, he'll finish with 32 runs scored and 44 RBI. In 140 games played.
And those stats are no accident; Cust isn't hitting. He's walking. He walks to first and then what?
Cust is on 1B, and then it is up to the bottom of the lineup to move him over -- three separate times. It's not going to happen.
If the M's don't swap out, their cleanup hitter will finish with fewer than 50 runs scored.
A walk is only worth so much.
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As M's fans, the sooner the M's transition the DH, the more pleased we should be. One of these kids might be a real good hitter.
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My $0.02,
Jeff