Pokey Reese coming to Seattle
In yet another strong move by Bavasi and crew, the M's will open the '05 season with Pokey Reese as their shortstop. As any long time M's fan will know, the M's have long coveted Reese from his Cincinnati days. When Bowden wouldn't include him in a trade for Griffey, the M's had to go in a different direction. However, they finally got their man and improved themselves in several areas.
First, they improved the defense considerably. There is simply no one else in the M's system that can play defense like Reese. Indeed, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in baseball who plays defense like Reese does today. Think Omar a few years ago.
Think about this too- Sexson, Boone, Reese, Beltre.
Best defensive infield in baseball? I believe so. If not, it is in the top three.
Second, this puts Lopez back in AAA to prepare for Boones departure in '06. We'll know next winter whether Lopez is really a guy who is ready to help the big club with another season of evaluation. It's nice to see Bavasi thinking ahead, something Gillick sorely lacked. Perhaps Boone will be re-signed, but at least the club will have spent time preparing for the possibility they won't have a starting second basemen next year. Seems simple, but it's something that has been missing in previous years.
Finally, I'm not a big fan of having a guy like Cabrera get too many at-bats during the year. I'm a big fan of resting players and using your bench, but I don't like giving one player too many at-bats that their numbers simply don't justify. The poster child for this was Mark McLemore during his later years. He was given WAY too many at-bats during the year. Then when his numbers were off, he had the audacity to say he needed more playing time to get his stroke back. I liked Mark as a player, but his last few years simply didn't justify his playing time.
Here was his line during his last year in Seattle-
.233/.318/.314/.632
This was in 309 at-bats! That's more than half a season of Willie like production. Lest you think this was due soley to injury or age, look at his first season-
.245/.353/.316/.669
He got 481 at-bats that year. Entirely way too many for a utility player.
Just for comparison, look at Willie's numbers last year-
.245/.283/.330/.613
Not that far off from Mark's. The point is you don't want to give a ton of at-bats during the year to a guy who simply doesn't justify them. While we have no idea what our new skipper would do with Cabrera, the point is past history indicates he might have played more than just giving a player a day off here or there.
So kudos to Bavasi yet again. He still needs a new starting pitcher. Odalis Perez doesn't seem interested in Seattle, so he will need to look in a different direction. Expect trade talks to heat up as Bavasi works the phones.
In yet another strong move by Bavasi and crew, the M's will open the '05 season with Pokey Reese as their shortstop. As any long time M's fan will know, the M's have long coveted Reese from his Cincinnati days. When Bowden wouldn't include him in a trade for Griffey, the M's had to go in a different direction. However, they finally got their man and improved themselves in several areas.
First, they improved the defense considerably. There is simply no one else in the M's system that can play defense like Reese. Indeed, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in baseball who plays defense like Reese does today. Think Omar a few years ago.
Think about this too- Sexson, Boone, Reese, Beltre.
Best defensive infield in baseball? I believe so. If not, it is in the top three.
Second, this puts Lopez back in AAA to prepare for Boones departure in '06. We'll know next winter whether Lopez is really a guy who is ready to help the big club with another season of evaluation. It's nice to see Bavasi thinking ahead, something Gillick sorely lacked. Perhaps Boone will be re-signed, but at least the club will have spent time preparing for the possibility they won't have a starting second basemen next year. Seems simple, but it's something that has been missing in previous years.
Finally, I'm not a big fan of having a guy like Cabrera get too many at-bats during the year. I'm a big fan of resting players and using your bench, but I don't like giving one player too many at-bats that their numbers simply don't justify. The poster child for this was Mark McLemore during his later years. He was given WAY too many at-bats during the year. Then when his numbers were off, he had the audacity to say he needed more playing time to get his stroke back. I liked Mark as a player, but his last few years simply didn't justify his playing time.
Here was his line during his last year in Seattle-
.233/.318/.314/.632
This was in 309 at-bats! That's more than half a season of Willie like production. Lest you think this was due soley to injury or age, look at his first season-
.245/.353/.316/.669
He got 481 at-bats that year. Entirely way too many for a utility player.
Just for comparison, look at Willie's numbers last year-
.245/.283/.330/.613
Not that far off from Mark's. The point is you don't want to give a ton of at-bats during the year to a guy who simply doesn't justify them. While we have no idea what our new skipper would do with Cabrera, the point is past history indicates he might have played more than just giving a player a day off here or there.
So kudos to Bavasi yet again. He still needs a new starting pitcher. Odalis Perez doesn't seem interested in Seattle, so he will need to look in a different direction. Expect trade talks to heat up as Bavasi works the phones.
posted by Tom at
10:29 AM
