What will Bavasi do about CF?
I was pretty happy to hear Bavasi's comments a few weeks ago when he talked about the need to improve the M's defense up the middle. He specifically mentioned lack of range and arm strength, and pretty clearly seemed to be calling out SS and CF. Good news for M's fans.
The M's seem to have options at SS, with the club giving Lopez a shot near term. But for CF, I'm not sure I understand Bavasi's current thinking.
If you asked me a few weeks ago, I might have wondered if he continued to run Winn out there to possibly showcase him for a trade. After all, Winn has been swinging the bat well lately and he might have found a taker. But instead Winn is still on the team.
The other option would be to switch Ichiro into Center. It seems like every fan and All Star Manager sees this an an option, but not the M's FO. I certainly wouldn't want to go into next season assuming Ichiro was my CF without playing him there to see how he does. But, I haven't seen any talk about the M's doing this any time soon.
Finally, they could assume Jeremy Reed is the CF of the future.
This is probably the most likely candidate, but what do you do with Randy Winn? Platoon him with Ibanez? Move Ibanez to first? What about Spiezio? Where does Leone play?
The point here is that the M's seem to realize they need to add an outfielder (either from within the organization or as a FA) but they have more players than positions.
And I don't see them paying Winn to be a bench player.
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It was nice to see John Olerud talking about the excitement of playing in New York. Given the number of teams the Times claimed called, I'm a little surprised he picked the Yankees.
After all, he is essentially a replacement until Giambi comes back. Worst case scenario, he's cut in three weeks.
With the other teams, he at least could have been assured to play out the rest of the year. I can only assume he feels confident Giambi won't return, or he feels he will play his way into the job and perhaps Tony Clark is the one to go.
Either way, it is a curious signing on John's part.
___________
It was nice to see Olerud is looking for a house for his family in NY. What a novel idea- you want to be close to your family, so you bring the family with you.
If only Ken Griffery Jr. hadn't realized this obvious fact. Was there anything worse than hearing a guy complain about how far is family is when you realize he's the one who decided to move them 3,000 miles away from the town he plays for?
Olerud will be close to his family, the Yanks get a classy player and the M's get to give a shot to the kids.
Looks like everybody wins here.
I was pretty happy to hear Bavasi's comments a few weeks ago when he talked about the need to improve the M's defense up the middle. He specifically mentioned lack of range and arm strength, and pretty clearly seemed to be calling out SS and CF. Good news for M's fans.
The M's seem to have options at SS, with the club giving Lopez a shot near term. But for CF, I'm not sure I understand Bavasi's current thinking.
If you asked me a few weeks ago, I might have wondered if he continued to run Winn out there to possibly showcase him for a trade. After all, Winn has been swinging the bat well lately and he might have found a taker. But instead Winn is still on the team.
The other option would be to switch Ichiro into Center. It seems like every fan and All Star Manager sees this an an option, but not the M's FO. I certainly wouldn't want to go into next season assuming Ichiro was my CF without playing him there to see how he does. But, I haven't seen any talk about the M's doing this any time soon.
Finally, they could assume Jeremy Reed is the CF of the future.
This is probably the most likely candidate, but what do you do with Randy Winn? Platoon him with Ibanez? Move Ibanez to first? What about Spiezio? Where does Leone play?
The point here is that the M's seem to realize they need to add an outfielder (either from within the organization or as a FA) but they have more players than positions.
And I don't see them paying Winn to be a bench player.
______________
It was nice to see John Olerud talking about the excitement of playing in New York. Given the number of teams the Times claimed called, I'm a little surprised he picked the Yankees.
After all, he is essentially a replacement until Giambi comes back. Worst case scenario, he's cut in three weeks.
With the other teams, he at least could have been assured to play out the rest of the year. I can only assume he feels confident Giambi won't return, or he feels he will play his way into the job and perhaps Tony Clark is the one to go.
Either way, it is a curious signing on John's part.
___________
It was nice to see Olerud is looking for a house for his family in NY. What a novel idea- you want to be close to your family, so you bring the family with you.
If only Ken Griffery Jr. hadn't realized this obvious fact. Was there anything worse than hearing a guy complain about how far is family is when you realize he's the one who decided to move them 3,000 miles away from the town he plays for?
Olerud will be close to his family, the Yanks get a classy player and the M's get to give a shot to the kids.
Looks like everybody wins here.
posted by Tom at
2:28 PM
