"I didn't do my job." - Mariano.
A fine, fine day.
Teams are allowed to request waivers on up to 7 players in a single day.
In that case, maybe Hinske is just low on the totem pole. I'll bet JP is just focusing on players that could actually fetch something in a trade.
Sure! The Twins and Angels thought so for about 15 years in the 1970s and 1980s after Rod Carew moved to his left from 2B. Yeah, yeah, exception, rule, blah blah. But the point is to have your best 1B play 1B, not your fourth-best power-hitter play 1B because he can't play anywhere else. That's what pinch-hitting was made for! Incidentally, I'm not a big Hillenbrand fan, but I think TO has been spoiled by years of Carlos Delgado.
When it's not a power position? Here is how AL left fielders have hit this year:
RK TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BA OBP SLG OPS 1 Boston 117 449 93 125 27 1 33 253 116 .278 .371 .563 .935 2 Texas 118 462 70 129 37 3 26 250 72 .279 .346 .541 .887 3 Detroit 118 458 61 142 21 3 21 232 84 .310 .351 .507 .857 4 LA Angels 119 478 68 142 23 3 16 219 79 .297 .339 .458 .797 5 Cleveland 119 478 69 141 32 3 11 212 49 .295 .353 .444 .797 6 Tampa Bay 120 508 78 150 23 12 13 236 66 .295 .323 .465 .788 7 Toronto 119 477 62 134 25 6 11 204 57 .281 .339 .428 .767 8 Baltimore 119 441 60 117 21 4 16 194 54 .265 .312 .440 .752 9 Seattle 118 453 56 123 28 1 9 180 54 .272 .337 .397 .734 10 Kansas City 118 438 57 120 20 3 11 179 54 .274 .316 .409 .725 11 Oakland 119 431 55 101 27 2 14 174 58 .234 .313 .404 .717 12 Minnesota 119 505 65 135 25 1 11 195 55 .267 .319 .386 .706 13 NY Yankees 118 474 74 123 19 2 12 182 58 .259 .319 .384 .703 14 Chicago Sox 117 465 75 126 23 0 2 155 31 .271 .334 .333 .667It;s true that people often think of LF as a power position, because that's where sluggers who can't play in the field get stashed - but it's also been the position of some of the greatest top-of-the-order hitters in history: Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Lou Brock leap to mind.
I didn't know you could only get power from a homerun. The Jays are 9th in isolated power (counting triples as doubles) and 8th in slugging average in terms of LF production. Not good, but not as bad as you say it is.
Which would be a problem if the LF was also the cleanup hitter. But the Jays LF bat 1st or 2nd, and getting on base is how they contribute to the offense.
I'm not sure I quite grasp the point of this argument. I think it's generally been conceded, even by his greatest champions, that Catalanotto is not going to form part of the next Blue Jays' championship team, at least as the everyday leftfielder. For the Jays to take the next step, they are going to need to add some power to the lineup, and given that three quarters of the infield positions are spoken for by Hill, Hudson and Adams, and amongst the outfielders, Wells at least isn't going anywhere, there simply aren't many other places in the lineup for a power bat to go.
But that's a much different proposition than saying the Jays are doomed to failure because their left fielders don't have a whole lot of pop. Frank Catalanotto isn't responsible for the fact that the team as a whole doesn't hit that many jacks.
Regardless, when a better left fielder comes along, either internally or by trade, that player will get Frank's at-bats. Until then, the Jays are in fact well-served by playing one of their best hitters.
The Jays' offence is average, and pretty close to flat 1-9. Cat and Reed together are average. I personally think that Gabe Gross would have done a little better than Cat this year taking into account offence, defence and baserunning, but that is probably a minority opinion.
Where the team has shined is in run prevention. The team has given up 1/2 a run less than league average despite playing in a hitter's park. It's been a team effort, led by Halladay, Hudson and Chacin. The team WARP leaders are Halladay, Hudson, Wells and Chacin in that order. WARP, unlike VORP, includes offensive and defensive contributions.
Here is the Hardball Times team report. Note the leaders in projected wins by run differential: Los Angeles 70, Toronto 69, Chicago 68, Oakland 68, Boston 67. How's that for an optimistic note?What's your preferred stat for measuring the overall contribution of a player, Malcolm? I'm having trouble thinking of a legitimate summing-up stat that would lead one to conclude "Yuck" on Hillenbrand's contributions this year. But perhaps you really did mean "Hildenbrand" and that's Ken Huckaby's middle name or something.
I'm still a little uncertain about the argument. On the one hand, you say he's a luxury the Jays can't afford, because he's a merely average player. In your view, he's an obstacle to the Jays becoming a contender. I don't agree that he's only an average player, and I don't agree that he's standing in the way of better days for the Jays, but owing to the current roster configuration, I do agree that he isn't likely to figure in a prominent, starting role on a World Series team in Toronto.
But on the other, you say that he has sufficient value to a current contender that Team X would be prepared to exchange something of real value to the Jays in order to obtain his services.
I don't know how you reconcile these positions. If he is a substandard leftfielder, and a team can't reasonably expect to compete with him getting everyday at-bats, where is his value to a team looking to win a championship? I concede that you may be thinking that he has some value to a contender as a pinch hitter, but I don't see the upside for Toronto in such a trade because the Jays sure aren't going to obtain a valuable part of their future from a team that doesn't want to use Catalanotto in an everyday capacity.
Way to boil the contradictory statements right down to a single sentence... If the Jays have a shot at the playoffs, how do they not have a shot at the crown?
But the odds of getting Scott Kazmir or Ryan Howard in exchange for Catalanotto are not excellent. You obviously won't get an equivalent major league talent, you're hoping for a prospect, who three years from now might be worth something.
Which might even be worth doing if Catalanotto was blocking someone who belongs in the major leagues right now. He's blocking Gabe Gross, who has his backers here, but who obviously hasn't proved anything.
So what's the point? Never never never NEVER make a trade because of what you want to move. Worst trading strategy ever. Only make a trade when there's something out there that you want.
In the meantime, the guy is helping you win games in the major leagues, and that is always worth doing even if you're not going to the post-season. The people who come to the ballpark like it, and are more likely to come back. It's also good for young players to develop winning habits.
