Boz Has Seen The Light
Amen to Boz today, for the first column he's written in months that I don't feel like nitpicking. I agree with it!
He rightly believes that the Nationals should use the final 18 games as a way of gathering information about these players before the off-season begins.
Can Church and Byrd be productive outfielders? (Signs point to yes -- hell, they pointed to yes before Bodes traded away Zach Day too...)
Is Rick Short a potential bat off the bench? While I'm not convinced that he's truly a .383 hitter, he's shown that he has power (which seems to have completely disappeared from Carlos Baerga's slider-speed bat.)
Church and Byrd could provide an above-average platoon in the outfield, alongside Brad Wilkerson and Jose Guillen -- the outfield would be a strength.
Short could easily be a bat off the bench, and fill in the role that Wil Cordero was originally signed for (which was a big role, actually.)
Before that can happen, though, the Manager needs to come to grips with the fact that this team probably isn't making the playoffs. (That Hector Carrasco !? is starting tonight in place of John Patterson and his traveling bag of mystery ailments will probably help hasten that decision.)
And it'll also require having a GM who can identify and evaluate the talent actually on his roster (even if it was signed by the prior regime) instead of lusting at the hot toolsy outfielder playing in the next town over.
All three could've been useful to this team this season. All three had parts of their season squandered. While they probably wouldn't have made the difference between making or missing the playoffs, Buck Says they'd be a few games better.
do you owe it to yourself, and to the other contenders in the race, to put your best team on the field every night until you are eliminated?
Luckily for the Nats, they are in position to do both. Right now, the players about whom the Nats most desperately want answers -- Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Church, Marlon Byrd and (cue the "Bull Durham" theme) Rick Short -- are also the players who give them the best chance to score runs for a change and maybe make some noise down the stretch.
He rightly believes that the Nationals should use the final 18 games as a way of gathering information about these players before the off-season begins.
Can Church and Byrd be productive outfielders? (Signs point to yes -- hell, they pointed to yes before Bodes traded away Zach Day too...)
Is Rick Short a potential bat off the bench? While I'm not convinced that he's truly a .383 hitter, he's shown that he has power (which seems to have completely disappeared from Carlos Baerga's slider-speed bat.)
Church and Byrd could provide an above-average platoon in the outfield, alongside Brad Wilkerson and Jose Guillen -- the outfield would be a strength.
Short could easily be a bat off the bench, and fill in the role that Wil Cordero was originally signed for (which was a big role, actually.)
Before that can happen, though, the Manager needs to come to grips with the fact that this team probably isn't making the playoffs. (That Hector Carrasco !? is starting tonight in place of John Patterson and his traveling bag of mystery ailments will probably help hasten that decision.)
And it'll also require having a GM who can identify and evaluate the talent actually on his roster (even if it was signed by the prior regime) instead of lusting at the hot toolsy outfielder playing in the next town over.
All three could've been useful to this team this season. All three had parts of their season squandered. While they probably wouldn't have made the difference between making or missing the playoffs, Buck Says they'd be a few games better.
posted by Chris Needham at
9:26 AM
1 Comments:
Other columns from Boz this week
"Maybe baseball should look into this steroid problem"
"Watch out. A WS winner could come from the Wild Card"
and
"I wouldn't trust that Booth character if I were you, Mr. Lincoln"
By
Harper, at 9/13/2005 10:22 AM
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