The Giants Got It Half Right
I don’t want to say “I told you so” but, I told you so.
In all seriousness though it wasn’t like I was going out on a limb saying Buster Posey needed to be called up the big league club. Not at all. That limb was fully crowded and just waiting to break over Brian Sabean’s head at any minute.
But for the applause he gets, if he gets one at all, for bringing The Posey to the majors, he deserves a big “huh?” for playing him at first base.
Understandably first base is a decidedly easy position to play. As most would say, the fat kid plays first. So it isn’t a stretch to think an athlete like Posey – who played shortstop at Florida State before he was moved behind the plate – could handle the position with relative ease while waiting for the sink hole that is Bengie Molina to up-anchor and leave port. Unfortunately for Giants fans, that isn’t immediately.
Why? Why is it that a player with already “old-player skills” like Molina, that’s playing a premium defensive position in his age 36 season, is allowed to continue to rot his place on the diamond and payroll while an obviously more talented player is forced to play musical positions? Because Posey “hasn’t learned how to handle a pitching staff.”
Maybe that’s not the exact reason, but it’s certainly on the short list that the Giants organization will give. Others would include: “Molina calls a good game”, “Bengie is a leader out there”, and “we need Bengie’s veteran presence and power in the lineup”. All perfectly good explanations for the awarding of playing time, you know, if those certain traits even existed.
But they don’t.
We must first remember that Brian Sabean is the same general manager who decided it was a good idea to say AAA baseball “wasn’t very good” when we listen to his thoughts on roster construction. He’s also the same GM that handed out big money contracts to Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, and thought Randy Winn should be a starting right fielder AND gave him this freakishly horrific contract.*He and Dayton Moore should give a seminar on how to best waste money.
*To be fair, I suppose, Brian Cashman of the Yankees also thought it was a good idea to give Winn a contract. He didn’t think he would be a starter necessarily, but you just know when he gave him $1 million he thought “we got ourselves a great 4th outfielder” when anyone that can read statistics would have said “you’ve got yourself a well-groomed beard and little else.”
So when GMs, and other people around baseball, start using their ever-favorite buzzwords like “handles a pitching staff”, and “leader”, and “plays the game the right way”, and “pitch to contact” – oh sorry that’s a ridiculous phrase to be addressed at another time – we should all gather around and be skeptical of what exactly it is they think they’re seeing.
Baseball uses the ever-safe veterans because they know what they’re going to get, even if what they get is terrible. Somehow when a veteran fails, it tends to look better in the eyes of baseball because they can justify poor performance in these little things unseen to us common folk. They justify their place on the roster with nonsense traits that have little to do with winning, and more to do with covering the GMs backside.
Jason Kendall should bat second because he “really handles the bat well.”
Raul Ibanez should continue to play because he “plays the game the right way.”
Bengie Molina needs to catch because he really “handles a pitching staff.”
None of these “abilities” should in any way be the measuring stick by which playing time is awarded. Handling the bat well I’m sure would be a fine trait if it weren’t being used up in the position that will be getting the second most at-bats in the order. Instead of using that spot for someone that can, you know, hit, the Royals use it with someone who has a lower OPS than some pitchers.
After Ibanez had a terrific April and half of May to start the 2009 season, he has since shown that he is in fact 38-years-old, and is no longer deserving of everyday playing time in the majors. They would be better off with some sort of Ibanez/Ben Francisco* platoon or just calling up Double-A phenom Dominic Brown.
*Another interesting part about baseball is the label game. Once a player is given a label based on what someone sees – fourth outfielder, utility guy, long relief guy – it is nearly impossible for that label to be removed. Or, even though he may be out-producing an injured player or the player he sits behind in limited chances, he will never get the chance to fully unseat the current starter because of his label.
The label game will be in full effect in New York and Kansas City when Carlos Beltran and Rick Ankiel return to the lineup healthy. Angel Pagan is a fine player. So is Mitch Maier. But both will be replaced – though in Pagan’s case because the Mets won’t sit Jeff Francoeur – once each teams “starting outfielder” returns, even though they will both be better than the guy they’re sitting behind.
Molina may in fact have some redeemable traits that make him a quality defensive catcher. But does he have any of those traits, both offensively and defensively, to be considered a starting catcher? Most likely not and certainly not when the value of Posey’s bat almost assuredly outweighs the value of Molina’s glove.
Perhaps at this very moment in time Molina is ahead of Posey defensively. Fine. But it’s pretty clear there is nothing left for Posey to learn in the minor leagues, and if “handling a pitching staff” is really a measurable skill that Posey is lacking, there is nothing left for him to learn in Triple-A where the pitching he’ll be handling “isn’t very good” anyway
‘Til next time.