Fire In The Belly

The Front-Runner for this year's Churchie in honor of the player most likely to lead to drastically differing viewpoints is [drumroll] Felipe Lopez!

So now Felipe Lopez doesn't want to go to the bench.

"Being on the bench? No. [Heck] [ed: "Hell" is too strong for Nats.com!?] no," Lopez said. "I feel good out there. The numbers are not showing it, but I'm hitting the ball hard. I'm playing great defense. I feel good. I would like to stay here, but I would not be happy on the bench."

It wasn't more than three minutes that those stories got posted that I got an email from a friend kvetching about Mr. Lopez. And some of the blog/msg board comments show that my friend's opinion isn't unusual.

I'll admit. I'm in the bag for Lopez... as much as someone can be in the bag for someone who could suck a baseball through a straw. I won't excuse his performance. And I won't pretend that he's not a bit of a headstrong headcase. But there's a lot about him that we simply don't know and that we can't glean through the TV just because he's not smiling. He played lousy defense when he was hitting well, and he played lousy defense last year. He doesn't play lousy defense because of attitude problems; he plays lousy defense because he's a lousy defender.

One of the complaints about him is that he didn't show passion last year. Fair enough. Well, he's showing passion here, right?

"But he hasn't earned it," you chirp! You're right. He's hit just .200 this spring.

But fer crissakes! How many times have I told you to ignore spring training stats? They mean almost nothing! Even for bums coming off terrible seasons.

Willie Harris is batting .179. Nick Johnson is at .214. Wily Mo Pena was at 226. Kearns is at .236. And all of those guys are coming north.

Jason Dubois hit .545! Why isn't he coming north? Why wasn't he even in the conversation?

Because spring training stats don't matter!

I really wish this article weren't behind the pay wall. But you can get enough of a feel for what it is by just what you can see. With as few ABs as these players get in spring (against uneven competition, and while working on different things), you might as well throw a dart up there than use the numbers. (Or perhaps you thought that Brian Schneider was going to hit .357 all last year).

Anyway, by all accounts, he's worked hard this spring, even if the results haven't been there. I haven't seen one complaint about his attitude or how hard he's been working this spring. Of course none of the beat writers saw fit to let us know that he hadn't been playing second base at all, so who the hell [heck] knows?

I don't mind a little attitude in my players. I don't mind when my players want to play, to not settle for being on the bench. Sure, it makes him look spoiled and petty, especially compared to Ronnie Belliard, who'll do anything asked. But Ronnie Belliard is closer to the end of his career than Lopez is, and Belliard doesn't have to go too many springs back (read: 1) to remember when he was begging for a job, hat in hand, even though he was coming off a World Series win with the Cardinals.

Sure, it'd be nice if Lopez was hitting .400 like Belliard is, and I don't think that Manny Acta should hand him the job just because.

But Lopez has the higher upside. He's apparently played hard, and done what's asked of him. He just hasn't had results in a short stretch of time.

So why would starting him be an affront to all that's right with America?

If he's still hitting .200 after 100 ABs, then cut the bum. But there's a pretty good chance that he won't be. Just as there's a pretty good chance that Nick Johnson won't be hitting .214 when Memorial Day rolls around.