Add new comment

Casey Kotchman was paid 3.5 million dollars. There were no bat-first first basemen who could even remotely competently field their position at that price range. Branyan wanted two years and we said no to that...which was a reasonable move IMHO, though I might have given him his two years and hoped his back didn't explode. But the other options all cost 6-10 million a year...we didn't have that kind of money under the new budget.
We could have gone after Cust, but does anyone here think Cust is anything better than a -10 run defensive first baseman with the potential to strike out 200 times while costing his other infielders dozens of errors? Cust has never played a competent first base...let alone an average first base. I can understand passing on Cust if you're thinking your defense has to be good enough to back a 700-run offense (at that time, no one....NOT ONE PERSON HERE...thought this was going to be a 500 run offense, so don't bring that argument here.
The point is...acquiring Kotchman was a desperation move caused by a thin budget and a lot of money going out to other players. It had nothing to do with Z's mindset being exclusive to fielding only.