Chavez in CF
BTW, with Endy Chavez swinging the bat so well by his standards ... I DO like Endy in CENTER field.
If and when Franklin Gutierrez finds his level as a lousy hitter, at least for 2009, a Chavez/Gutierrez jobshare would IMHO be a worthy tactic for chasing the pennant.
You could have Chavez and F-Goot split the 600 PA's in center, and then give them another 200 in the corners at times, and they'd have 800 PA's between them. That would be about right, if they're going to turn out to be light-hitting glove specialists.
I wonder when the time comes when Wok begins thinking about giving Chavez some of F-Goot's AB's, especially against real tough RHP's.
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Franklin Gutierrez is hitting .220/.304/.366 as we write this. That would be unacceptable for Willie Bloomquist -- off the bench.
Granted, Adrian Beltre is hitting even worse than that, since the season is only 10% done. But Adrian Beltre did not also hit .248/.307/.383 last year, as Franklin Gutierrez did in 400 AB's.
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You could do this in the OF:
RF - Ichiro for 162 (I know, I know)
CF - Chavez & F-Goot for 162
LF - Wlad, Griffey, maybe Tuiasosopo, with 150-200 AB's for Chavez and Cedeno
That way you still get your stacked defense for quite a few games, but you don't landlock yourself into an illogical, dead-end, let-the-benchies-play paradigm into the future.
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=== Landlock Dept. ===
There is a school of thought that proposes, well, RIGHT NOW you don't have a good hitter for DH, so you might as well take F-Goot's and Chavez' defense together until you do. In other words, you don't pull an 80 OPS+ glove man out of the outfield until your DH is hitting 110+ or better.
This paradigm counts up the runs that Chavez saves, and compares it to (say) Mike Sweeney's offense at DH. Until Sweeney's hitting goes to about .280/.360/.470, goes the argument, you're better off with the defensive runs saved.
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This argument misses the big picture.
Would it be okay to give the season to Greg Dobbs at 1B, if he's a great fielder, unless-and-until the day arrives 1B suddenly starts hitting .320 for you at Safeco? Of course not. You want a MOTO at 1B, and if you don't have one yet, you invest time in the future 1B that you believe in.
The M's shouldn't play an OF full of backup center fielders unless-and-until somebody starts hitting. They need a few MOTO bats, and if they don't have it at the moment, they should invest time in a developmental hitter that they believe in. Wlad Balentien or Matt Tuiasosopo or Mike Carp or, shortly, Jeff Clement should be taking the AB's.
NOT because THAT FRIDAY, the developmental hitter can outperform a veteran backup outfielder's overall game -- but because in the long term, you're not satisified to landlock yourself into veteran backups as your starting position players.
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=== Dee-Lish, Dept. ===
I don't know *how* to counter the impression that Dr. D thinks defense has zero value. It has value. A lot of value. Just not as much value as twenty wins or forty homers, so to speak.
But, I've got to admit, Dr. D has always enjoyed the situation in which it is him against the world. :- )
The Mariners' team OPS+ was 77 going into Tuesday night's game. It's fine to play glove specialists, but somebody has to drive in some runs.
Love and kisses,
Jeff