I'm not sure of his issues staying on the field are bad luck or the beginning of something chronic but looking ahead to next season: a starting outfield of Ackley, Jackson, and Saunders would probably project out as something like league average. And there'd be some upside there if Ackley really is a better than average hitter, if Jackson can get back to his form from a couple of years ago, and if Saunders can put it all together and do it for 140 games or so that could pretty easily be a 9 win outfield.
It seems to me that the big holes in next year's team start with 1b/DH where the team has been relying on hopes (LoMo/Smoak), reclamation projects (Kotchman, Branyan, Morse) or both (Hart) for way too long. I don't know what the budget will be next year, if it'll finally go up after years of holding steady, but it seems like the team needs to put some actual resources into filling one of those spots with somebody who can actually be expected to go out and give us something like league average production. We can save one spot for LoMo/DJ/Lara/Whoever but it's been deadly carrying two black holes for so long this year.
We should also make a concerted effort to find a backup catcher who we'll actually be comfortable starting a couple of times a week. Zunino is great and all but he's carried a heavy load (too heavy) this year and I'm worried that his approach has deteriorated to the point where he gets hard to play no matter how good the defense is. When he's swinging through grooved 91 mph fastballs in the zone I'm worried he's turning into J.P, Arenicibia with a better glove.
Those would be my priories I think. Closely followed by bolstering rotation a bit (you can never have enough pitching blah blah blah) and finding a fourth outfielder who can spell everybody else (and cover the inevitable Saunders injury).
Add new comment
1