-Andrew McCutchen has continued to be much better than advertised. According to this article, he is already a very similar player to Carl Crawford and has been the best CF in the league since his callup...He is extremely fun to watch. However, McCutchen has inexplicably been moved to third in the order and constantly comes up with no one on base. So, a lot of his hits and on base skills are being wasted. Partly because.....
-John Russell's lineup construction has been unbelievably bad. Why is Iwamura still batting leadoff? Why is McCutchen not batting first or second? Why is Delwyn Young and Bobby Crosby and their low OBPs batting second? Why is Ryan Church playing almost every day? Why is Ryan Doumit batting 7th? Its almost as if Russell is going out of his way to create worst possible lineup for actually scoring runs.
-Speaking of the "leadoff hitter," Aki Iwamura has been awful. He just finished a historic hitless streak and might have 5 or 6 total hits in the month of May. And his defense has fallen off a cliff. Anthony has already declared the trade for Iwamura the worst in baseball history.
-Ryan Doumit's has been great at the plate. He is second in the majors among qualifying (ie. have played enough games to be eligible for the batting title) catchers in OPS, behind only future hall of famer Joe Mauer. On the other hand, his defense has been atrocious. Players that have no other stolen bases are routinely stealing second off him. There is absolutely no fear from opposing baserunners.
-Guys like Lastings Milledge, Jeff Clement, and even Garrett Jones to an extent have underachieved so far.
-The backend of the bullpen has been almost perfect when given a chance to win/keep the team in the game. The team has lost one game they have had a lead after the 5th inning. Evan Meek especially has gone from a guy who couldn't throw strikes at all in 2008 to being almost unhittable. He is now throwing a 97 mph fastball and 81 mph curveball.
-The starting pitching was expected to be better. Charlie Morton's struggles/bad luck have been well documented by Anthony and I. Zach Duke and Paul Maholm have been average overall. Ross Ohlendorf missed almost a month and has pitched just ok otherwise. Daniel McCutchen might as well have been throwing batting practice out there. Brian Burres and Jeff Karstens have had their moments but have basically done what you expect them to to: sprinkle a good start or two in with a whole bunch of bad ones.
I could go on and on. For every positive, there is at least one negative.
Times may FINALLY be changing for the Bucs though. Neil Walker was called up today after continuing to dominate AAA like I wanted. And he is probably just the start of a domino effect of callups/promotions. Brad Lincoln will be called up soon to replace Burres. Alvarez and Tabata could be here not long after that. Guys like Bryan Morris and Diego Moreno are being promoted in the minors with others like Nathan Adcock and Jeff Locke ready to move on as well.
Here is just one potential starting lineup by the end of June:
LF Jose Tabata
CF Andrew McCutchen
3B Pedro Alvarez
1B Garrett Jones
C Ryan Doumit
RF Neil Walker
2B Andy Laroche
SS Ronny Cedeno
That is much more impressive than what is being run out there tonight. The guys that have struggled or underachieved in the majors are finally being pushed from below......
Are we sure LaRoche can play 2B?
ReplyDeleteI've been reading about stuff that at practices he has been trying it out. I dont understand why they dont start him there once he comes back from the back injury. I mean with no offense to Delwyn Young recent play we gave him about half a season last year at 2B after Freddy and Jack were traded.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Freddy and Jack, be glad we didnt keep those 2 guys because based on current news from the Mariners orginization Jack Wilson is going to probably retire because of the constant injuries. Freddy Sanchez just played in his 5th game this season. all the yinzers who said we should of kept them I wanna know what you can say now because imagine still having them and both their below average stats,inconsistent bats and continuous injuries.
Jim...why not? He can't be any worse than Young as Justin said. I could also see Walker at 2nd and Laroche the utilty guy with Milledge still in the OF. There are plenty of options.
ReplyDeleteAs for the BFFs Freddy and Jack, you can't assume the same thing would have happened if they stayed here. However, they have both been pretty injury prone in recent years. So, this shouldn't be surprising. The "lowball" contract offers (as painted by the media) by Huntington are looking awfully fair at this point.....
I'm not exactly trembling when I see Bird's end of June lineup.
ReplyDeleteNeil Walker will be a below average RF at the plate, Jose Tabata has about as much power as Lastings Milledge on steroids, Pedro still can't hit lefties yet, Andy LaRoche and his .250 avg isn't exactly Charles Manson-esque, and Garrett Jones has seemingly lost his home-run ability.
Actually, come to think of it, our future lineup is so bad it IS scary...
Obviously running the Delwyn Young, Aki Iwamura, and Ryan Church lineups of recently is a better choice. You can keep that team.
ReplyDeleteOf course there will be growing pains. I can deal with them as opposed to pains from guys that are not going to grow (Church, Crosby, Iwamura etc...). Disagree on Tabata's power potential too.
I think you meant to say that Tabatta on roids has as much power as Millege. I know wut you meant tho. Good point Tabatta has shown no homer power his whole life.
ReplyDelete