Great game last night - BIG BALL WAS BACK! Now to my article.
Robbie Cano has been a tremendous major leaguer.
Check out his numbers sometime...career .303, lots of dingers, and well over 1,000 runs and RBIs.
He was acquired in the off season of 2018, and I won;t rehash that trade.
He tore it up in spring training 2019.
He homered off Max Scherzer on opening day 2019.
He shortly thereafter injured his hands a few times, which badly hurt his hitting ability for a few months.
In August and September of 2019, he hit well - when he wasn't hurt.
This year, he started slow, was scorching hot for a week (13 for 22 and 4 walks), then got hurt.
Older guys tend to get older guy injuries. Ask Keith Hernandez - injuries cut his abilities after 35 which likely made him less attractive as a HOF candidate.
But since August last year, Cano is 39 for 114 (.342) with 11 doubles, 5 HRs and 13 walks. He also only fanned 17 times (much to high-fanning Pete Alonso's amazement).
But Cano gets hurt.
He may have to DH a lot when he gets back. Which will stink, but you adjust. Best and highest use.
With his contract, he is pretty much untradable. He's ours, short of a salary dump.
Andres Gimenez, though, has seized the opportunity and is playing great and needs to play - at least that is what most people would conclude.
SS Amed Rosario finished 2019 like a ball of fire, and hopes were high - but so far, he is hitting a regressed .207 with, remarkably, a .207 OBP. This man is the anti-Nimmo when it comes to bases on balls.guys
Luis Guillorme, vying for playing time when he is not pitching 9 pitch perfect innings, is 3 for 10 through Tuesday's game, and 15 for 53 with 2 walks and just 5 Ks since last July in sporadic playing time.
If you asked me to order these guys going into opening day 2020, it would have been Rosario, Cano, Guillorme, Gimenez.
Now my order is:
Gimenez (if he doesn't falter); Cano (when healthy); Guillorme; Rosario.
Maybe Rosario needs to sit - or even take a walk.
Quite a conundrum, starting with Cano's latest boo-boo.
What would you do if you were manager?
Tom - these daily posts are great. I would go defense up the middle. Gimenez would be my SS. Cano DH, Guillorme 2B. I would also not put Nimmo in CF anymore - and JD is my 3 baseman for the future. Where does that leave McNeil? Rojas will need to mix and match all these pieces to keep them all fresh and put them where they can perform the best.
ReplyDeleteNimmo pulled back a HR last night, to his credit. And otherwise excelled. If not CF, where?
ReplyDeleteAnd Jeff's gotta play every day. I love him without crowds screaming a lot - he does not settle for failure.
JDD almost poked a HR his first time up. He's a goodie.
What happened to the breakfast briefings? I miss them. I think John from Albany wrote them. Is John planning on redoing his prospects soon?
ReplyDeleteRaw -
ReplyDeleteJohn is on vacation with his family at the Jersey shore. I gave him the week off and he will be back Monday morning.
I will mention to him your thoughts on his prospect list too.
I also miss the breakfast links.
ReplyDeleteBut, in this scenario, why can’t McNeil be the second baseman over Guillorme? Also, I’m worried about lauding Gimenez after 40 plate appearances. The guy didn’t hit .350 in the minors, you know? Lastly, either Rosario needs to try to track fly balls in CF, or auction him off if there isn’t a defined role. Problem is, he has talent and we have learned that other organizations are more patient with talent; we see our players go elsewhere and excel, and I’m tired of seeing that.
I can't wait for John from Albany's posts again next week.
ReplyDeleteQuite the infield logjam to sort out.
I will say this about Rosario - I find it highly disturbing that he has been up 58 times this year without a walk. In terms of patience, yes, he is young still - but minors and majors, he has had about 3,500 plate appearances, so the lack of walks is utterly bewildering to me.
In his entire MLB career, he has walked or been HBP just once every 21 PAs. That is extremely low. A teammate of his (who I have an article out tomorrow AM in place of John one last time) has a rate 4 times better.