And that's all I'm going to say about the Oakland series.
I'm worried about LF. Matt Stairs was sexier than Candy Maldonado last year, but the dude is older and gimpier than John McCain, and he doesn't even have the excuse of being tortured for a decade by the Vietnamese. Between him and Stewart, there's limited upside from that outfield corner. I'm not mourning Reed Johnson (one scrapper is enough for this team, thank you), but I am starting to get the hots for Adam Lind again.
Obviously, last year was not good (a putrid .278 OBP, and that number doesn't even go up much when you take out Lind's sweet .194/.243/.299 line against lefties). But this is a guy who at the beginning of last season was in a lot of ML top-25 prospect lists. I find that prospect gurus tend to wildly overrate the impact young players can have when they break in, and also lose interest too quickly when that doesn't happen. No-one who doesn't follow the Jays ever talks about Lind any longer, but discounting a guy because he struggled at age 23 seems short-sighted. He's off to a ridiculous .448/.500/.759 start in AAA. I say give it a month, and -- if he's still hot -- install him as the starter for the big club.
In other news, future HOF Travis Snider is at .259/.333/.593 in the Florida State League. I'm excited for our future Lind / Rios / Snider OF, with a $150 million fourth outfielder.
4 comments:
The Lind thing is a tough call. I guess he's our first guy in oncee there's an inury to 1B,DH, or OF. Lost in the confusion is that we have a very very mediocre 1B. Overbay needs to play to his historical highs to make him a worthwhile start. When do we start thinking Stairs at 1B? Overbay out, Snider in for 2009.
2009 Roster
Hill
Rios
Wells
Lind
Snider
Rolen
Tulowitzki
DH/1B
C
I think it's assuming a lot to think that Stairs will be more like he was in '07 than '06 (when he hit a fairly shitty .247 / .328 / .420). Add to that Overbay's excellent glove at first (and Stairs's crappy defense), and I don't think you have much of a case.
Wouldn't you like to turn that 150 mil 4th outfielder into a 33 mil 4th outfielder? Vernon for Juan Pierre, right now.
I assume that's a joke. If we made that move, we'd be giving up on this season, and I'm feeling good about this season. Well done, boys, in Texas.
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