True. Pence earned a lot of leeway with his 2007 season, whereas Bourn wasn't on the team yet. So Bourn's gotta prove himself.
Going all out into the wall in CF like this afternoon goes a long way towards doing that.
Much like with Willy T, I am loving Bourn more for the defense than the offense right now, but with his 17/17 in steals, and with his getting on base at least SOMEtimes... everything is good. I think he'd have to remain in the .190-.200 sub-Mendoza area all season long for me to start picking at his play at all, so... we'll just wait and see.
Right now, Ausmus is really turning it on in his few chances (you were just ragging on him, and he comes through with 2 RBI tonight! Plus I think he had an RBI or two earlier in the week, didn't he?), so I really want to see JRR Towleskein (sorry, that's how my gf and I refer to JR... the Tolkein-name-similarity is hard to overcome!) bring back some of his September magic.
And maybe by the time Ty's played as long since he came off the DL... as he was out.... he'll be back to normal. That'd be sweet, and complete the 1-8 lineup revitalization.
Who should I rag on next? It seems to motivate them.
But yea, Bourn can pull his weight batting .200 just by sheer virtue of speed and defense. But I'd like to see him start making contact more and putting the ball on the ground. He's got the speed to beat out infield singles. Especially when there's a runner on first. He's so tough to double up, that a fielder's choice is as good as a sac bunt for him since he'll steal second. Plus we'll be pretty much guaranteed to score on a single with him on second.
I've been thinking though... I figured we'd be doomed once Tejada's contract is up, but if you look at our offense, we're generating nearly all of it just from Kaz, Tejada, Berkman, Lee, and Pence. That means that we don't have to replace Tejada's bat with a short-stop per say, but rather, we just need to find a 3rd baseman who can hit. And that happens to be one of the easiest positions to fill in the league. There are certainly a lot of great-hitting third-basemen in the league right now. Who knows who may wind up on the market or trading block within the next few years?
The other position we'll need to fill soon is left field, which is also notoriously easy defensively. Besides, Berkman can play either 1st or LF, so we basically have a vacancy at the three easiest positions to fill in baseball.
I'd much rather build from within and bring up a stud hitter, but that's easier said than done. And it's good to know that we'll have $30 million free once somebody like Prince Fielder hits the FA market.
I dunno if you ever ragged on Cruz, but if so... it finally worked! 2 for 3, with both a run AND a RBI.
I'd say.... you should go after Wigginton next, just so long as he is our regular 3rd baseman. With the revolving door ever since Ensberg's inconsistency/injury issues.... with Lamb, Huff, and Wigginton all seemingly unable to lock the post down, it's definitely the position I'd be least surprised to see a change made at this season or in the offseason. With the way the GM worked last offseason, of course, I would be surprised if we didn't see MORE changes than just that, but that's the only one I'd be fine with seeing right now, so.... 3B and SP moves and deals are about all I wanna see come midseason trade and FA time.
But yeah, looking down the road... if we lost Carlos Lee and Tejada due to $$$ reasons but kept Pence, Berkman, and Matsui.... all we need is for just a few other pieces to mesh in with those three, and you've still got a good club. Bourn, I would hope, would become a longterm part of that, but we'll see. I'd also hope that given his true age is out, that Tejada wouldn't be TOO expensive at the end of his current contract. If he stays happy his whole time in Houston... he may value his spot here more than he values one last big contract (hopefully he'll think back to his 4 unhappy years in Baltimore while his agent is whispering sweet nothings in his ear), so.... wishful thinking, perhaps, but I hope he's no Beltran is all I'm saying.
Well, I'm not sure we'll lose Tejada for money reasons, but just how much will he be capable of producing in two years? I never set absolutes in terms of age and how it effects production, but 36 isn't young. And I think that we're going to milk the last two great years out of him.
A lot can change in two years though. Hopefully Wade is planning ahead and trying to find us a future short-stop in this year's draft. It's a position that we just won't be able to fill via free agency. Although Jimmy Rollins may be available in 2011.. Just thinking out loud there.
36 may not be young in baseball, but I'd argue these days it doesn't have to be old, either.
This isn't the NFL, first of all.
And Tejada would be far from the first major leaguer to perform at least until 40... if he could make it till just 38, in fact, that'd be 5 good years out of him for the Astros, which certainly wouldn't match his years in Oakland, but would erase his "baseball middle ages" in Baltimore from the minds of most baseball fans.
Yep, a lot can change. If we get a hot young shortstop in AA or AAA and don't need Tejada as bad as we did after enduring so many years of great defense but not much else from Everett at the end of 2007.... then I wouldn't mind him moving on as much as I think I would know, of course.
