re young catchers mss netcom com mark singer said we know that very very few players at this age make much of an impact in the bigs especially when they haven t even played aaa ball yes but this is irrelevant you re talking about averages when we have lots of information about this player in particular to base our decisions on i might as well say we know that very very few people are more than feet tall so chances are that manute bol is really only foot no maybe i need to improve my writing skills lopez who is very ordinary defensively is not likely to hit so well at age having not played at aaa level that it is probably not a good idea to rush him into the braves lineup in why isn t lopez likely to hit that well he hit that well last year after adjusting his stats for park and league and such he hit better on an absolute scale than olson or berryhill did by a lot as for rushing if there really is a qualitative difference between the minors and the majors that requires a period of adjustment and i don t believe there is then wouldn t you rather waste lopez s year old good season than his year old very good season or his year old excellent season the sooner you get him acclimated the more of his prime you get to use lopez was hitting over ab when he was cut from spring training what does he have to do to earn a chance maybe not a full time job but at least a couple starts and a few ab for him to prove his worth gee i don t know abs sounds pretty good to me about as good as your reasoning that the kid should play a back up role rather than start every day at aaa talk about me as a gm the point was not that ab is a significant sample but rather that he hadn t done anything in spring training to cause even a blockhead manager to question whether his minor league numbers were for real or to send him down until he gets warmed up ok most players are not ready for the bigs at age most players are never ready for the bigs what does this have to do with javy lopez most players benefit rather than being stagnant or hurt by playing at aaa see above most catchers need to be solid defensively players to help their clubs in the bigs those are the arguments against lopez for the braves for this year but i could apply the same reasoning to frank thomas or barry bonds most players aren t that good so they probably won t be that good this year either now the braves have two catchers who have demonstrated solid abilities to call games to work with the pitchers to throw out runners and demonstrated inabilities to hit their way out of a soap bubble not superstars mind you but solid experienced veterans not superstars not stars not even good players maybe average if we re being charitable the braves have a very solid lineup with two big bats in the outfield an excellent platoon at first a solid mvp candidate at third and one of the better hitting shortstops ummm justice is a very fine hitter pendleton might have another big year in his bat but he might also spend the season in hamstring hell gant is a big question mark the bream hunter platoon is decent not excellent and has rotten obp or slg depending on who s in blauser is a very valuable bat for a shortstop the center field platoon will probably hit however good lopez bat might be given the above it won t be so much better than what they have to offset the differential in experience and defensive ability wanna bet the difference between lopez s bat and olson berryhill could be or runs over the course of the season given a choice between a player with experience and a player who can play i ll take the latter every time the kid will improve playing at aaa just like keith mitchell did i am just so surprised i have to spell all of this out my goodness do you believe the other poster who thinks lopez is being held down because of his future earning potential that was me and you so far your only counter proposal is that they really don t understand how good lopez is or overvalue experience or some combination of the two i think my interpretation was more flattering to the organization are they idiots who have built this ballclub well argued but inflammatory reply deleted david m tate i do not know what it is about you that closes posing as and opens only something in me understands e e can the pocket of your glove is deeper than pete rose s dy cummings nobody not even tim raines has such soft hands
