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Posted by me.
Why all the tears for Langerhans?
Last year I loved the two walkoff's he gave us, but I don't see the need for all this hand wringing over designating Langerhans to get us another arm in the pen. Colome's history hasn't been stellar by any means, but he put in a decent ST, and Adair sees something he likes in him. We should have started the year off this way. In no way can I say right now, that Langerhans is a better hitter than Sweeney, mainly because we haven't seen Sweeney yet, but he probably is a better hitter than Junior, and thats where we are hamstringed.
Comments
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Brett Boone hit a game winning homerun or two years ago. Maybe he should be on the team, too.
Didn't Betancourt actually catch a popup to end a game one time? Get him again!
I stretch the point a bit, of course, But what Langerhans brings is really a defensive replacement when Byrnes, the defensive replacement, is already in the game and Bradley needs to come out.
Even with the RH reliever on the mound last night...it should have been Sweeney or Tui swinging the bat.
I hope Sweeney gets the DH slot tonight...and Tui at 1B or LF.
Keith
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Dreyer is reporting that Tui is starting at first, and I believe Seeney is the DH.
Hope Tui has the game of his life today.
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Sweeney I would be meaning.
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I hope the line-up looks like this:
RF) Ichiro!
2B) Figgins
CF) Gutierrez
LF) Bradley
DH) Sweeney
2B) Lopez
1B) Tuiasosopo
C) Moore
SS) Wilson
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Yes I believe that is exactly the lineup Dreyer put out. Should be interesting to see Tui, and how he handles his first start ever at 1st.
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I can't even post on LL or USSM today because I don't want to catch their guff for stating how insignificant the loss of Langerhans is.
We get it, he's a plus defender and he's cheap. However, our management group saw him nothing more than an occasional pinch hitter or pinch runner. He was not going to serve a major role on this team, so losing him does not effect this team's chances of winning one iota. There is an argument to be made that if the roster was properly deployed that Langerhans would be somehwat valuable, but it was evident to me that managment really had no interest in giving him a bigger role than I outlined above.
To be honest, I hope Langerhans is claimed by somebody because Im tired of hearing about him and how valuable he is from the M's blog-o-sphere. I fully understand the concept of cheap talent and great defense, but the love Langerhans gets from a portion of our fanbase is too much to stomach at times.
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Langerhans isn't unique for his defense...we have lots of outfielders with glove love.
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Griffey looks just about done.. The bat is slower than last year.
I was never comfortable with him going in as a starter and his swing is looking like a 49 year olds.. We need turn him into a special coach and add a real LH platoon DH to the roster.
Does Delgado still have something left in the tank?
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Delgado had to have another surgery. Cust is available. He would be an upgrade, but no way we can carry three DHs on this team.
If they had any brains at this point they would cut Sweeney, sign Cust, and just plant Griffey somewhere at the end of the bench for an occasional cameo during home games.
We'd pretty much be in the same spot we are now with 2 pure DHs, in this case they would both be lefties though, which makes Griffey even more pointless, but whatever.
Against righties they could use Bradley in LF and Cust at DH. Against lefties, use some sort of rotation between Bradley, Tui, and Byrnes in the LF/DH spots.
It isn't ideal roster construction, but I'd rather have Cust than Griffey vs righties, and then you open up at-bats for Tui/Byrnes (moreso Tui) against lefties.
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Nice suggestion with Cust. He'd fit nicely as a platoon DH.
Vs RHPs you'd have Bradley in Left and Cust at DH. Vs lefties you'd have Byrnes in LF, Bradley at DH, and Tui at 1B.
I like it. ONE of Griffey or Sweeney is fine as our designated chemistry guy, but we need to cut one of them. We need a DH that can actually hit RHP.
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Sorry, Doc...that's usually the tone reserved for USSM or LL, but I'm getting really REALLY tired of reading the DFA Sweeney comments at MC and here...there is NO LOGICALLY CORRECT ARGUMENT for dropping our third best hitter. NONE.
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I actually hope that Langerhans passes through waivers and ends up in Tacoma, but USSM and LL need to DFA the torch that they continue to carry for him. I lost a ton of respect for USSMDave after his post today dissing Sweeney.
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There is no logically correct argument for Sweeney as our 3rd best hitter. I mean its possible he can still hit, but you're basing it completely off of a hot ST. He hasn't had an OPS over 800 since 2005.
If Sweeney can't play 1B, then hes either good enough to be the fulltime DH or he just doesn't make any sense.
I don't mind cutting Griffey either since I'm pretty sure hes done at this point, but ONE of them needs to go. One cheerleader is okay. Two roster spots to cheerleaders is too much.
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Our third best hitter? Cmon, you cannot be serious.
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And that's striking a match, Matt.
Please just select the same words that you would like to see people direct towards you, when they think that your analysis is 180 degrees off.
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Check his OPS from July on in 2009.
We have two guys that I currently have more faith in to outhit him...Ichiro and Figgins. Lopez might...Gutierrez if he has a breakout year might...Bradley if he removes his cramium from his rectum might. But cutting Sweeney is offensive SUICIDE.
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Another reason I don't want Sweeney on this roster is because it forces Bradley to play more LF, and that will eventually lead to leg issues, as it has his whole career.
I understand the enthusiasm regarding Sweeney following his second half of last season, his spring training, and the fact he's in good shape this year. That being said, if no Sweeney meant Jack Cust vs RHP, more DH time for Milton, and more ABs for Tui out in LF then I'm definately in favor of releasing Sweeney.
This is all pointless discussion though because the organization believes in Sweeney so he's not going anywhere anytime soon, and Griffey isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Hopefully, Wak doesn't push Milton too much in LF though because if we lose him, this offense will be hurt bigtime. And hopefully we see more of Tui whether it's at 1B or in LF
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That seems like an awfully small sample size when you have hundreds of ABs from the previous seasons indicating he's a mediocre bat at best.
Bradley is a far superior hitter to Sweeney. What do you mean remove his head from his (blank).. he's been fine. He's hit the ball very hard the last couple of days. If he's healthy he's much better than Sweeney. I'd also take Guiterrez and Lopez over Sweeney as well. I just don't buy into three months worth of ABs and ST stats.
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He's made better contact the last two days, but he's not working counts and he's not making consistent contact because he's still way overswinging.
I attribute the vast majority of Sweeney's hitting problems to BACK INJURY...which is not currently a relevant factor since his back is not hurt at the moment. The moment he comes up with back spasms again, THEN I'll be onboard with a DFA. Until then, he's a >.800 OPS bat on a team with precious few such bats.
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Odd as it seems to be interested in a guy who can't make the Royals, but I've seen Kila Ka'aihue play, and he seems to have a nice lefty stroke with pretty good power, and he's had over 100 walks in each of the last two seasons.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=kaaihu001mic
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100227&content_i...
He's stuck behind young slugger Billy Butler in KC. Reportedly he's also solid on defense, and he obviously doesn't whiff at the same level as Cust.
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But I think he's roughly the same player as Mike Carp...well...Carp plus some walks and a little bit of glove. So I doubt the Mariners are going to go aggressively after him when they've got something similar in AAA.