Happy Monday, so let's get optimistic

Good stuff.

I believe that part of Gathright's OPS issue is related to what he's asked to do. DeJesus goes up there swinging and Gathright goes up there bunting.

If you're not very good at bunting your On-Base Percentage won't be that great. If all you're trying to do is bunt then your slugging percentage will suck.

Therefore: Crappy Bunter + Trying To Bunt = Low OPS. :)

With all due respect...How do you say that he's a terrible bunter?? He's bunted for base hits on multiple occasions...in fact just a couple of games ago he had 2...
JT

I actually wasn't the one that said he's a bad bunter but I'll respond the only way I know how; statistically.

Gathright's bunting 2007:
The Historical Context

Before we navigate the deeper waters, let's take a quick look at the leaders in terms of bunt hit attempts for 2007:
Name Bunts Hits Pct
Willy Taveras 36 27 .750
Juan Pierre 28 8 .286
Corey Patterson 14 6 .429
Gerald Laird 14 7 .500
Coco Crisp 12 4 .333
Jose Reyes 12 7 .583
Joey Gathright 11 6 .545
Carlos Gomez 11 6 .545
Alfredo Amezaga 10 6 .600
Tony Gwynn 10 4 .400
Reggie Willits 10 4 .400

*Baseball Prospectus site source

.545 is actually pretty solid from last year and I can't find his success rate in 2008. What I can tell you is that his OBP is .277 and his SLUG .281. To complicate matters he has only drawn 2 walks. If you run like Gathright and you don't have a lot of power you better be stepping into some pitches and drawing a lot of walks or you are a nightmare at the plate for your team.

Right now he is not justifying his existence at the plate. He needs to swing away more to add some bloop doubles and gap triples to that stat line to make his existence on the roster useful for more than a defensive sub or pinch runner. I like Gathright but right now he is simply not very good.

I know what VORP, WARP, PERA mean. If you don't pick up a Baseball Prospectus.

Banny, Gordon and Billy are the locks, I agree.

I'm frankly done with the Buck experiment, and isn't Mark Teahen at that age where he's supposed to be hitting .300/30/100? Maybe Teahen is just an average baseball player after all. Same goes for David Dejesus. It's starting to become apparent that these are just nice, average major leaguers.

It is absolutely imperative that Butler and Gordon develop into actual hitting stars in this league, not just .280/15/75 guys. You can't get it done in today's American league without at least ONE legitimate hitting star.

How is he not on either of your list? He might be our best arm, period. I like Banny, Greinke, Gordon, Hochevar, Soria as locks with Teahen, DeJesus, Callaspo, Grud, Ramirez, and Nunez as probables. Everybody else is questionable. I do think our best trade bait to improve the team is DeJesus though. Young enough, cheap enough, and established enough to warrant a quality deal this trade deadline while you give Gathright all of August and September as an experiment to decide how to fill CF for next year when I expect the Royals to make a serious run. Still think its realistic to think we can win the division this year though. As long as everybody else keeps playing down we have a decent shot.

Don't get me wrong, I want Soria to stick around. I just feel that he will continue to improve, and someone will throw a good deal our direction for him. Just a gut feeling. Dayton will keep him around as long as he can, but if the right deal comes along why say no.

How can you want to be done with the "John Buck experiement." His numbers have gotten better each of the past three years and he was 11th of the 30 regular catchers last year in OPS. His plate discipline is excellent and he has better career numbers than Miguel Olivo across the board. He also knows our pitching staff well and does a good job with them. He needs to get his average up a little bit and his arm has looked a little weak so far this year....but you're not gonna just fine some guy to replace Buck easily. Buck isn't a great player by any means, but he's at least an average, if not above-average, catcher in this league right now....Olivo or Matt Tupman couldn't replace him..Olivo's numbers aren't good at all outside of the HR category..and even there Buck is pretty decent. 18 HRs in not even 400 ABs isn't too bad from the catcher spot.

Also, as for the rest of the "average" players...I'd take "average" players in most of our positions every year. It's a HUGE improvement over previous years. Sure, we need a few guys like Gordon, Butler, Greinke, and maybe a couple others to become above average if we want to be a true contender (and they are progressing just fine in that regard), but not every player is gonna be an elite player...DDJ and Teahen and others being average is just fine. Beats the extremely below average players like Terrence Long and Chuck Knoblauch that we've fielded in the past.

...until the part about Olivo not replacing him...I think Olivo will soon become the full-time catcher...I see a trade that involves John Buck, even though I would hate to see him go...But I'd take Teahen, DDJ, and every other average player over some of the players we've had in the past...
JT

I've not been big on Buck since he got here, but I've been willing to give him time. I'm not ready to give up on him myself.

You both bring up good points - We seem to be a team laden with average; and 'average' is better than what we've been.

I see Buck as a guy you can carry on an above-average roster. Same with Teahan and DeJesus. Say you had Manny in left...then suddenly any one of those three guys are not going to hurt you. But I don't think they can carry a team. Pippen without Jordan wasn't the same. If we find a Jordan for our team then they'll be better.

I do know one thing - I've been to 8 games this year and all I've seen Olivo do is crush the ball. Right now -while he's hot - he needs at-bats.

You are exactly right, Otis. Our sights are set so low here, that we are OK with a roster of average players. Hey, i'm guilty of that too. A .500 season would be a successful season this year.

But if we ever want to be a true contender, you simply cannot have a roster full of "average". You can't have a catcher who hits .230 and a SS who hits .210 and a left fielder who can't hit home runs and drive in runs and a CF who hits .280 and can't steal a base and....

I think these players are fine, for now. But if we reach .500 this year, and if we really want to be a contender in the coming years, it is IMPERATIVE that Gordon and Butler develop into true super stars.