Thursday Afternoon Tazoberry
=== Mike Sweeney ===
Two doubles off the best reliever in the AL, other than Brandon League. :- ) I seriously doubt that you could hit two doubles off Naftali Feliz. I also seriously doubt whether any other Mariner could do so, except Ichiro.
Seriously. Do you think Ryan Garko or Franklin Gutierrez could double twice in the same game off that animal?
............
It's not about a spring hot streak. It's about Mike Sweeney being a special hitter. Even in 2009, Sweeney was quick at the plate, quick and strong, with a real good eye.
We've been talking about the ability to hit the ball up the middle -- to let the ball get deep in the zone -- to slow the game down. Compare Sweeney to my hero Griff. Junior's gorgeous swing has always taken an extra tick to get to the baseball, and he'd tell you that. He often did say that, in his prime, that hitting was harder for him than for Frank Thomas or Jim Thome.
:FKey7: Sweeney might still be the M's best hitter other than Ichiro, which kinda poses a problemo.
I'd be just fine with this:
- 11 pitchers
- Strict LH/RH platoon at DH, Griffey-Sweeney
- Unstrict LH/RH platoon at 1B, Kotchman-Garko
- Bradley in LF, if he's hurt he's hurt
And then every blinkin' ace pitcher that we go against, faces a custom-made lineup stacked against him. You level Griff, Bradley, Ichiro etc against Jered Weaver, and you've got Mike Sweeney, Eric Byrnes, Ryan Garko against Scott Kazmir.
You reply, that's too much of a logjam. I refer you to this Milton Bradley team, which had four (4) bat-only players too many.
The 2007 Oakland A's had these 1B/LF players on the roster, at various times, of course:
- Dan Johnson
- Shannon Stewart
- Nick Swisher
- Milton Bradley
- Travis Buck
- Mike Piazza
- Jack Cust
- Daric Barton
- Bobby Kielty
- Not to mention Chris Snelling, Ryan Langerhans and others
There's nothing forbidding a Mike Sweeney ballclub, other than a paradigm paralysis that says veterans shouldn't throw elbows for playing time.
You can see one man who doesn't accept this paradigm: Billy Beane. If you like wins-per-payroll-dollar, Beane is still fresh.
The awkwardness of a Sweeney/Garko/Griffey roster is real, but its degree of awkwardness is being blown way out of proportion. It would be somewhat awkward; it would not be totally insane, unthinkable, impossible, etc.
Sweeney won't insist on many AB's.
Cheers,
Dr D