Who would love to add two impact bats? Me!
But then I consider this: between 2003 and 2012, average runs scored per game were 4.6. Last year that fell to 4.17. And now, almost concluded, 2014 is at 4.07. If that's not falling off a cliff, it's certainly rolling down a very steep hill.
So the most prized asset in baseball is hitting, particularly the kind that most predictably produces runs. So surely, with enough assets, there must be solutions. But then I look at the list of free agent hitters. Then I consider what ransom a team with an excess of hitting can extract--and it's depressing. There are no easy answers--except maybe one.
If I'm Jack, when the last pitch of the season is thrown on Sunday, I'm standing outside the visitors clubhouse at Chavez Ravine and waiting for a guy to come out, whose arm I immediately grab--Michael Cuddyer. Yes, I know his age...and I know his injury history...but I also know his wrc+ the last two years--138 last year, and 154 this year. Surely playing in Denver has boosted that--but not by so much that he wouldn't instantly be the best right handed hitter in my lineup...and an everyday solution to the DH issue.
The Colorado outfield is crowded...they've got no DH...and no NL team can risk running him out on the field regularly. In my mind, he's the stepping stone. Get that done, then you can spend the rest of the winter wondering how much extra you need to spend (dollars or players) to upgrade the outfield. What right-handed hitter out there is a likely upgrade over Ackley or Saunders? Or maybe it's just a RH platoon guy for one of them.
Either way, Cuddyer is the next step to the promised land. (And given his Clemente nomination for the Rockies, he is perfect for the ethos of our front office).
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