Sunday, June 15, 2008

Earth to JP: We Need Tough Guys

I came across this quote in ESPN Magazine:

One AL East player on the Blue Jays: "They have the most talent in our division, but they don't know how to win. They have too many nice guys and no real tough guy."

On another note, welcome back to TO - Reed!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Wells Back Soon; Who Should We Drop?

Will Carroll reports that V-Dub should be back in about a week, well ahead of schedule. Who gets sent down or out? The candidates include Wilkerson, Mench, and Inglett, and I suppose a case could be made for getting rid of any of them.

But Wilkerson's made some nice defensive plays, including in the 8th inning of yesterday's heart-breaker, and his bat seems to be coming around (.400/.478/.550 over the last week). Mench has done nothing, but I'm not willing to write him off after 40 PAs. He's got a history of crushing lefties and we need a platoon partner for Stairs. Even Inglett has some value in terms of defensive versatility.

That leaves Shannon Stewart. He plays a single position, LF, and that very badly. Over almost 200 PAs he's batting .249/.335/.314. Those are brutal numbers from a corner spot. Looking back, he hasn't had a useful offensive season since 2004 (when he hit .304/.380/.447 in 92 games for the Twins). For some reason I supported the signing in the off-season, but I'm completely at a loss as to why at this point. Let's cut the weakest member of the roster and move on.