Pepper, May 31
Q: What do you do with Jeff Clement? You've got absolute embargoes going on at 1B and DH island.
A:
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better freeeeeeeee your mind insteeee--heeaaaaaad
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
What do you do with Jeff Clement, when you feel he's ready to come up to the big leagues for good? You powerflush your paradigm paralysis, and you play Junior in left.
*Cyber-Seattle* pravda'ed us into thinking that you can't let Ken Griffey Jr. anywhere near the outfield. Through sheer ferocity, cyber-Seattle cowed everybody into scared silence on the issue of Junior playing defense. I haven't read a word, anywhere, not one, about this completely obvious solution.
I got news for you. Junior played 123 games in the outfield last year. He played 133 the year before that.
The White Sox come armed with much, much better data than ANYbody in cyber-Seattle, and they deliberately traded for Ken Griffey Jr. to play CENTER field for them.
.... I think with Raul's defensive numbers this year ....
2007: -23
2008: -10
2009: +5 (so far)
... it will be easier to "get" the problem with dogmatic applications of defensive measurements.
We don't get to talk as if UZR gives the "correct" valuation of a player, and you don't get to argue that a Pat Gillick who disagrees, is making an error. You have to acknowledge that dissension is reasonable, when it comes to defensive evaluations.
Very possibly, the Mariners DO think that Griffey's a detriment on defense (seeing as they yanked his backside out of the OF in a real hurry). ... But! That little defensive variable, at ONE glove position, doesn't mean enough to blockade your franchise #3 pick.
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IF you think Jeff Clement has a working strategy for dealing with inside pitches, and you think he's ready to get up here .... you DH Clement and play Junior in left. Of course, you still mix-and-match the rotation. Clement gets some games at catcher, and a few games at 1B, and of course Junior gets some games off.
Wlad gets some games in center field. Endy Chavez, with a .233 OBP in May, plays left out. His first 50 AB's never did transcend his previous 2,300 AB's, and now he's just a banjo hitter trying to survive Safeco Field. You don't hold up Jeff Clement for five minutes because of Endy Chavez.
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Ken Griffey Jr., as expected, has been totally healthy at DH. Just like Edgar was. Suppose that Junior hurt himself playing LF? Well, then, the logjam's solved. I know, that's cold, even for Dr. D. :- )
The point is, everybody's saying you can't get Jeff Clement into the lineup. Sure you can. You just chuck your paradigms and absolutes and think outside the box a little bit.
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Supposing Griffey's knee won't ALLOW him to play the outfield, then you gear Clement up to catch, and you give him some of Junior's AB's at DH, and maybe you play Branyan/Clement/whoever a few games in LF, as the Yankees did with Berra and Howard.
Clement can play 50% of the time in Seattle and still learn how to hit John Lackey, a whale of a lot better than he can learn to hit Lackey from the batter's box at Cheney. We've been over this. You play a game or two, and then you rest and consolidate and watch video, and then you play another game or two. That's much better than staying in AAA.
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Jeff Clement is the FUTURE of this ballclub. He HAS to come through -- or the Mariners need to die trying to make him come through. He could hit 400 homers in Safeco, and that's the equivalent of 3,800 homers in Texas. Clement's not a guy you blow off because you didn't like his first run at it. You're married to him.
When he is ready, you push other guys out of his way to get him in there.
.
.
Q. How about David Aardsma's blown save?
A. It's not very fair to bust the guy's chops considering that (1) we gratefully accepted his first 7 saves, (2) his peripherals are getting a little better, and (3) he'd have won that game if Vlad's bloop had found leather.
But a picture's worth 1,000 words. If Aardsma ever got the real anointing to The Hot Seat, you'd see a bunch of games like Sunday's. He starts throwing balls and he can't self-correct.
You've battled for three hours, and you are up by TWO runs, even THREE runs, and the closer fires 19 balls in 25 pitches -- and will keep doing so. Name me a big-league team that lives with that? Uh-huh.
It's fine to blow saves. It's not fine to fill a garden sprinkle can with kerosene, hold it over your head on the mound, and then strike a safety match against your zipper.
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I'm not saying I'd remove Aardsma tomorrow. He'd still close, for a while, on my team. But I'm quietly, and hectically, seeking a real closer.
My $0.02,
Dr D