That.
When Casey started dropping his shoulder and golfing low FBs into the outfield with authority I got interested.
Not seriously interested, since they were just singles, but he wasn't doing that when I watched him before. And since he's still keeping his head above water, bravo for him.
My comp for Good Kotchman has been David Segui, not Grace. Grace (119 OPS+ career over a LONG career, some years at 130+) is the next notch up from Segui (110 OPS+ career, hit his stride at 28 and done at 35, only had 1 full year over 124).
But there's definitely nothing WRONG with being Segui - great glove, 15-20 HRs, 30 doubles, and a vacuum for infield ricochets from his teammates.
If Kotchman can be Segui, I can be satisfied at his price point. The difference between the 115 OPS+ that makes the glove-master-at-1B viable and Kotchman's previous 95 is just too much for me to swallow.
I don't think it's gonna last, but I'd be more than happy to actually welcome Kotchman to the team if it does. Right now his first couple of weeks have been as good as anyone could have dreamed them to be.
Congrats to him.
~G