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My thoughts. Given my bias that nobody on the planet can accurately judge defensive runs allowed -- I don't buy into the mathematical judgement here. (He's +30 offense - 10 defense equals +20 runs).
What I believe is that the club is perfectly willing to have defensively ADEQUATE players -- but is unwilling to have defensive liabilities.
I have already posted my thought that the club is experimenting with Tui at short for the very purpose of filling the Grand Canyon gap on the farm in regards to MI backups. (Throw Ackley into that mindset, too).
I don't believe for one second that they are trivially experimenting with players defensive positions if their mindset is "must be gold glove". The idea, (from my view), would be utterly ridiculous. Trying Ackley at second, trying Tui at short - IMO - is a CLEAR indication that the club isn't even remotely as myopic about defense as the current blog-o-think seems to believe.
Defense was the focus in 2009 because it was the ONLY thing Jack could get on the cheap. And where he could get non-defensive talent on the cheap, (Sweeney, Branyan, Griffey), the club swept in and picked it up.
Methinks there's a major astigmatism with the public view of Jack and defense - assuming "what he got" is "what he wants" - instead of "what he got was what he could afford to get".
That said - I think calling Jack Wilson "an extension" bends the reality a bit. Mostly, they diced his salary into two seasons, to reduce the payroll load for this one.
My thought is that Tui gets to play SS in Tacoma this season, and if he proves to be "competent", his bat could easily supplant Wilson by 2011. (Wilson's injury history obviously potentially speeding up that time-table).
The key point here is that in order to get ALL guys to buy into defensive stewardship, you can *NEVER* simply look the other way defensively. If you run the +20/-10 idea - and implement it -- I think the side-effect, is you risk getting -50 at the other 8 positions, because you've become a hypocrit. Anyone who has ever worked in corporate world should know that perceived favoritism can utterly destroy office morale.
I tell you though -- I REALLY like the idea of Ackley at second and Tui at short from 2011 to 2021. And if you get the together THIS YEAR in AAA, you set up the possibility of building a Hall of Fame DP combo as the base for a dynasty. But - you rush that process, get monofocused on winning 2 extra game (maybe) during 2010, lots of landmines. It's WAY easier for a player to work on learning a new position, (and fighting the fear of embarassment), in AAA rather than telling them to do so - AS ROOKIES - in the majors.