Series Thread: Battle for the bottom.....Houston 8/8-10

[donaldson79]

Can you guys see Beltre taking some balls at 1st? For me, I can, and it might be a way to kill several birds with one semi minor move.

First, AB wants to play the field everyday. Understand. If he can play 1st some, then maybe we can give him 30+ games there. Depending on Prince's health, maybe more. Second, it gets the future, i.e. Profar, in the game immediately.

This make any sense to anyone besides me?

 

[jta4437]

Can you guys see Beltre taking some balls at 1st? For me, I can, and it might be a way to kill several birds with one semi minor move.

First, AB wants to play the field everyday. Understand. If he can play 1st some, then maybe we can give him 30+ games there. Depending on Prince's health, maybe more. Second, it gets the future, i.e. Profar, in the game immediately.

This make any sense to anyone besides me?

I see no problem with it, but while I don't see him struggling at 1st, its not guaranteed he's good either, but its hard to see him being worse than Fielder defensively

A tag 1B/DH tag team of Beltre/Fielder would be ideal, with Beltre occasionally spelling Profar at 3B seems ok to me.... in the end, it depends on Beltre

 

[DT LUNA]

Can you guys see Beltre taking some balls at 1st? For me, I can, and it might be a way to kill several birds with one semi minor move.

First, AB wants to play the field everyday. Understand. If he can play 1st some, then maybe we can give him 30+ games there. Depending on Prince's health, maybe more. Second, it gets the future, i.e. Profar, in the game immediately.

This make any sense to anyone besides me?

Another option that's worth looking at. We are in very good shape in this regard.

 

[donaldson79]

I think Sardinas is the guy, I'm not as high on him as others are, I just don't see him as a full time starter

That's not to say I don't like him, I just think his bat limits him to a part time role, he makes Andrus look like a slugger

I'd really a little torn about Sardinas vs Rosales, as absurd as this may sound.

Sardinas is strictly a middle INF whereas Adam can play all 4 positions. Granted, Sardinas plays both SS/2nd better than Rosales, and these are more important positions defensively than 1st or 3rd.

But Sardinas' bat is strictly for singles. Rosales does have a "little" pop.

It may come down to money for 2015.

 

[donaldson79]

I see no problem with it, but while I don't see him struggling at 1st, its not guaranteed he's good either, but its hard to see him being worse than Fielder defensively

A tag 1B/DH tag team of Beltre/Fielder would be ideal, with Beltre occasionally spelling Profar at 3B seems ok to me.... in the end, it depends on Beltre

jta......come on now......You're damn near as good as Fielder at 1st.

I am totally convinced I've seen JPA make 3 plays which I'm positive Prince wouldn't have made. Not kidding at all. Now that's saying something.

 

[jta4437]

I'd really a little torn about Sardinas vs Rosales, as absurd as this may sound.

Sardinas is strictly a middle INF whereas Adam can play all 4 positions. Granted, Sardinas plays both SS/2nd better than Rosales, and these are more important positions defensively than 1st or 3rd.

But Sardinas' bat is strictly for singles. Rosales does have a "little" pop.

It may come down to money for 2015.

Technically if Beltre and Profar are on the roster, there would be no need for a UTIL guy at the ML level,

Hardest defensively to cover is SS, and Profar could cover that if something happened to Andrus, with Beltre covering 3B and calling up Sardinas to be the UTIL guy

 

[jta4437]

jta......come on now......You're damn near as good as Fielder at 1st.

I am totally convinced I've seen JPA make 3 plays which I'm positive Prince wouldn't have made. Not kidding at all. Now that's saying something.

exactly hence the "hard to see him being worse than Fielder" comment, but there are lots of mundane details to playing 1B that we've already seen JPA struggle with, that's mostly what I'm talking about

Don't see Beltre being bad but mostly just "awkward" or uncomfortable

 

[jta4437]

If the offseason was only Shields and Cabrera then I wouldn't be disappointed, though I could do without Cabrera if I knew (no one of knowing however) that Choice would be ready to bust out next year

 

[DT LUNA]

If the offseason was only Shields and Cabrera then I wouldn't be disappointed, though I could do without Cabrera if I knew (no one of knowing however) that Choice would be ready to bust out next year

Hopefully Terps can bend an ear and provide info on pitching. Perhaps Shields will be in the mix.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

If the offseason was only Shields and Cabrera then I wouldn't be disappointed, though I could do without Cabrera if I knew (no one of knowing however) that Choice would be ready to bust out next year

I think if we got those two it would be miraculous. Takes care of some big needs.

 

[jta4437]

If the offseason was only Shields and Cabrera then I wouldn't be disappointed, though I could do without Cabrera if I knew (no way of knowing however) that Choice would be ready to bust out next year

Fixed it... brain fart

 

[jta4437]

I think if we got those two it would be miraculous. Takes care of some big needs.

Yeah, probably, if all of the money for Rios went to Shields and a bit more, then I could settle for Shields alone

 

[Bmurph]

I think if we got those two it would be miraculous. Takes care of some big needs.

I have been hoping for one or both of these 2, problem is there may be 28 or so other teams in on them as well. Oakland, Tampa, and Pittsburgh likely not in but probably most others would love to land them

 

[jta4437]

I have been hoping for one or both of these 2, problem is there may be 28 or so other teams in on them as well. Oakland, Tampa, and Pittsburgh likely not in but probably most others would love to land them

Yeah there will be some interested parties, but Shields is about as much of a must have as they've had in a while

Truthfully I don't care much what they pay Shields as long as they don't get crazy with the years, or make the commitment past 4 years contingent on easily reachable incentives, 180+ innings and the such

 

[saddles]

Who was the manager when he played so well in his first 4 years the FO decided to invest $118 mil in him?

He needs a manager who doesn't use him for his personal bunting machine.

Whether Elvis had the same manager 4 years ago or not has no bearing on if he can hit better under new leadership. He still could improve under a new manager.

I know last year after he worked with Pudge he started hitting better so that makes me wonder what he could do under a better hitting coach.

 

[saddles]

All this scenario is predicated on are health, improvement, signing Lester (or facsimile, ex: Shields), trading Kemp for Andrus, and signing Butler, all those are well in the realm of possibility

It's far from a pipe dream

Just signing a pitcher like Lester has become a pipe dream for this organization. Expecting Fielder to be his old self is a pipe dream. Butler has no power anymore. Hoping for none of those mentioned to get injured is a pipedream and in fact you probably lose 2 of them in most years under average injury situations. For all of those things together to work out is indeed a pipedream. It is one thing to be optimistic, but what Evan is hoping for is way beyond optimism.

 

[donaldson79]

He needs a manager who doesn't use him for his personal bunting machine.

Whether Elvis had the same manager 4 years ago or not has no bearing on if he can hit better under new leadership. He still could improve under a new manager.

I know last year after he worked with Pudge he started hitting better so that makes me wonder what he could do under a better hitting coach.

Did you consider he can also get worse? Yes he might, but maybe he won't.

I don't know how you can possible say it has no bearing on who his mgr was 4 years, and for those 4 seasons he got better. But now he's struggling and it's on Wash. When in doubt, must be RW's fault I guess. That logic works for some here.

Now, as far as the hitting coach is concerned, I'm with ya. It's been 2 years and I see no one who's on the upswing.

 

[saddles]

Did you consider he can also get worse? Yes he might, but maybe he won't.

I don't know how you can possible say it has no bearing on who his mgr was 4 years, and for those 4 seasons he got better. But now he's struggling and it's on Wash. When in doubt, must be RW's fault I guess. That logic works for some here.

Now, as far as the hitting coach is concerned, I'm with ya. It's been 2 years and I see no one who's on the upswing.

Isn't it possible that even though he got better that he could have gotten even better without Wash. For instance we had a good run in 2011, but it could have been better if we had had a better manager.

I do agree that the main difference would come from having a different hitting coach.

 

[donaldson79]

Isn't it possible that even though he got better that he could have gotten even better without Wash. For instance we had a good run in 2011, but it could have been better if we had had a better manager.

I do agree that the main difference would come from having a different hitting coach.

Yes. But this could be said for so many players not named Trout, Pujols, etc.

My thinking is, he got much better for 4 consecutive seasons playing between two established professionals - AB and Kinsler - then went backwards last year. Think maybe he got a little "too big for his britches."

But most of the blame for this season falls on EA's shoes and no one else IMO. He knew he was coming off a poor season, and he also knew he'd be playing with a youngster at 2nd - regardless if it was Odor or Profar - and yet he shows up outta shape. Very, very disappointing.

In the off season 2 guys gotta go: hitting instructor/3rd base coach.

And for God's sake can we please get Buzz outta the fucking booth?

 

[scotsman1948]

I don't think its much of a pipe dream thats all,

Only thing on that list I would do would be sign a FA starting pitcher of the 2/3 variety, preferably Shields IMO

No interest in Butler, like you said, plenty of DH types going forward as is

I'd rather keep Andrus, and eventually move Profar to 3B, possibly starting next year for stretches, like I said Beltre's range is shot, there's your DH

don't see Beltre buying off on that. they have trouble getting him to even take a day off. and if they tried he would probably request a trade