I don't mean to beat this horse anymore.....but I will. Hope you'll endulge me, Doc.
In '96 Bernie had 62 X-base hits, Tino 53, O'Neill 54, And while Sierra had only 29...he platooned at DH with Cecil Fielder, who had 21. So they got 50 from the DH. AND....Duncan had 42, Jeter 41.
You can win without tons of taters. However, you still need one guy who can punish misses (Jack Clark with the old Cards, Tino and Bernie above)....AND you need 4-5 guys with 40+ x-base hits. 2 should be above 50.
Do all that....and then all those walks = runs.
Langerhans can't to it (nice ofer zero last night with 4 BB's though). Saunders stinks against lefties. Figgins? Surely you jest! Olivo/Gimenez? Uh-uh! Ryan...Nope. Jack Wilson/Kennedy? Not wilson, but Kennedy has been over 40 3 times in his career. Last time was '09. So....With the current line-up, Kennedy has to reach back and replicate his career type best, Cust must smash, Milton must smash, and Smoak must smash...and Ichiro needs to do it again (he's has 39 and 46 the past two years). No margin for error.
Homers ain't everything....but you have to rattle some walls.
The Figgins keep and the Langerhans/Saunders platoon are bad decisions exactly for that reason.
moe
Add new comment
1