Trade options to get an infielder?

[pyrotigers]

.852 OPS mostly in the high minors vs .670 OPS mostly in the low minors is about as far from 'similar' as you can get

[TigersSlappy]

If that is the best post in the thread then might as well delete the whole thing. There's nothing of value. I think I'd trust Microline's evaluation over TigersSlappy's any day of the week. One guy talks to scouts, the other looks up stats on BR and gets excited about small samples.

lol. "gets excited" you have no clue. I realize I'm just one of those dumb as a box of rocks everyday fans that's been rooting for the Tigers for 45 years and can't even approach the amount of wisdom others here possess.

I'm not so much "excited" as I am frustrated as hell at the lineups we're running out there everyday offensively and defensively and would rather give someone/anyone else a shot rather than continue to watch this collection of jokers botch things on a daily basis.

I've yet to see anyone argue that Raburn, Boesch, Young, Worth or Kelly deserve to be playing MLB right now on the basis of their performances thus far this year. All I've seen is how much of a drop off Romero or <insert name here> would be, I find that nearly impossible to believe based on how bad those players have been so far.

I will try to step up my statistical research before I presume to post here amongst the gods again so I don't lower the quality of the messages you find here to read. FYI I didn't say the list I posted was comprehensive, just some players I found that blossomed late and I clearly stated there that I WAS not comparing Romero to anyone on that list except Carroll which you conveniently didn't read, ignored or deliberately omitted in your response here.

[TigersSlappy]

.852 OPS mostly in the high minors vs .670 OPS mostly in the low minors is about as far from 'similar' as you can get

Did you even read what I posted? "Similar although obviously Raburn had more pop in his bat"


Let's see 9 PAs, 15 ABs, 39 hits, 13 points in BA - and not a small sample size.
There's a pretty good degree of similarity there OTHER than the power numbers which I POINTED out.

Relying on distorting what I posted to discredit anything I say is BS, but have at it.

[pyrotigers]

Did you even read what I posted? "Similar although obviously Raburn had more pop in his bat"


Let's see 9 PAs, 15 ABs, 39 hits, 13 points in BA - and not a small sample size.
There's a pretty good degree of similarity there OTHER than the power numbers which I POINTED out.

Relying on distorting what I posted to discredit anything I say is BS, but have at it.

How is it distorting anything? Raburn gets on base more and hits for dramatically more power at higher levels of baseball. That makes him a VASTLY superior hitter. Saying he has 'a little more pop in his bat' is like saying Barry Bonds 'took a few more walks' than Delmon Young.

[tigers84roar06]

Tigers pound out 9 runs and 17 hits and lose. Ugly but after scoring 8, 5, and 9 runs in the 3-game series against the ALs 4th best pitching staff, the debbie-downers who always rely on pegging our offense as being listless are scrambling for some new ones ;)

Jokes aside, the offense was definitely a nice sight in an otherwise disappointing series. Lets hope we can school TB at the trop like we did last year (and Chicago is at Yankee stadium).

Edit oops though this was the game thread.

[sagnam]

Similar? What? 851 OPS. vs .670 OPS. Raburn hit for higher average, more power, and got on base more.

Of course fielding matters, but that's no reason to ignore everything else. Why not just play Danny Worth every day? He's slightly less terrible and already on the 40 man roster.

[TigersSlappy]

Similar? What? 851 OPS. vs .670 OPS. Raburn hit for higher average, more power, and got on base more.

Of course fielding matters, but that's no reason to ignore everything else. Why not just play Danny Worth every day? He's slightly less terrible and already on the 40 man roster.

As I explained earlier many of the stats and the all important sample size are similar. And yes Raburn did do that in the minors, he's not doing it now.

Probably the best answer is to play Santiago at 2B and look for OF help, it's probably easier to find.

This all started because I threw out Romero's name based on the fact he was having a nice season at Erie. I wasn't pushing him as the answer to it all then, nor am I now just that he might deserve a look.

[TigersSlappy]

How is it distorting anything? Raburn gets on base more and hits for dramatically more power at higher levels of baseball. That makes him a VASTLY superior hitter. Saying he has 'a little more pop in his bat' is like saying Barry Bonds 'took a few more walks' than Delmon Young.

And how much of that vast superiority is negated by the fact that he's a hack in the field?

I'll try to get a little more excited in my prose next time so I can better convey the difference in "pop" in their bats to those that can't read the stats for themselves.

[STLTiger69]

Does anyone know what Raburn is now hitting for the last 30 days?

Lets check,......

.320 Avg .346 OBP .480 SLG .826 OPS

Even Santiago is doing better the last 30 days with;

.258 Avg. .343 OBP .371 SLG .714 OPS

[pyrotigers]

And how much of that vast superiority is negated by the fact that he's a hack in the field?

I'll try to get a little more excited in my prose next time so I can better convey the difference in "pop" in their bats to those that can't read the stats for themselves.

I agree Raburn should not be playing second base, he probably shouldn't even be in the majors. The point is merely that Romero is ridiculously old for a guy in AA and has been awful his entire career, he's not comparable to anyone in the major leagues who's had any success.

[sagnam]

I've yet to see anyone argue that Raburn, Boesch, Young, Worth or Kelly deserve to be playing MLB right now on the basis of their performances thus far this year. All I've seen is how much of a drop off Romero or <insert name here> would be, I find that nearly impossible to believe based on how bad those players have been so far.

Nobody thinks those guys deserve to play based off their performance so far this year. That's because people don't usually decide who should play based solely on what said player has done so far in the current year.

You think it's nearly impossible for Romero to be worse than Raburn or Worth (guys who play the same position)? Think of it this way. As bad as Raburn and Worth have been this year they are all far superior to Romero. If he were to struggle even half as much as those guys have he would still be worse at the plate. It's not that difficult.

Why would you post a list of players that is not relevant to Romero? Davis Ortiz blossomed late? He hit .288 with a .810 OPS in the MLB at 24. He played in 86 games as a 22 year old and hit .277 with an .817 OPS. Jayson Werth hit .262 with a .825 OPS in 89 games as a 25 year old. Scott Brosius was OK minor leaguer and an OK pro. Kevin Millar and Nelson Cruz killed minor league pitching at every level. Bautista is unique. Late bloomer is not the same as non-prospect becoming good MLB player.

[TigersSlappy]

Does anyone know what Raburn is now hitting for the last 30 days?
Lets check,.......320 Avg .346 OBP .480 SLG .826 OPS

lol, it helps that the 5/28 0-4 dropped off to be replaced by 2/5 tonight. also isn't 25ABs one of those dreaded "small sample sizes"?

[TigersSlappy]

Nobody thinks those guys deserve to play based off their performance so far this year. That's because people don't usually decide who should play based solely on what said player has done so far in the current year.

You think it's nearly impossible for Romero to be worse than Raburn or Worth (guys who play the same position)? Think of it this way. As bad as Raburn and Worth have been this year they are all far superior to Romero. If he were to struggle even half as much as those guys have he would still be worse at the plate. It's not that difficult.

Why would you post a list of players that is not relevant to Romero? Davis Ortiz blossomed late? He hit .288 with a .810 OPS in the MLB at 24. He played in 86 games as a 22 year old and hit .277 with an .817 OPS. Jayson Werth hit .262 with a .825 OPS in 89 games as a 25 year old. Scott Brosius was OK minor leaguer and an OK pro. Kevin Millar and Nelson Cruz killed minor league pitching at every level. Bautista is unique. Late bloomer is not the same as non-prospect becoming good MLB player.

I'm really doing my best to not come off as an *** here, I truly regret including those people in my post I was trying to quickly come up with a list of late bloomers and most of them didn't stick in MLB until they were older. Ortiz for example after the age 22 year you mention spent age 23 in AAA getting only 20 MLB ABs and really didn't "blossom" until he was 27.

The player I was comparing Romero to was Carroll, who just happens to be the one player you don't mention in your rebuttal.

[STLTiger69]

I agree Raburn should not be playing second base, he probably shouldn't even be in the majors. The point is merely that Romero is ridiculously old for a guy in AA and has been awful his entire career, he's not comparable to anyone in the major leagues who's had any success.

Well, also if it was said the fact that for every home run Romero hit in the minors, Raburn would have hit more than 5 home runs with only 15 AB's difference between the two of them in their minor league careers helps make the argument a little more informative wouldn't you think?

Raburn also drove in 60% more runs during that same minor league career but hey, Romero and Raburn are so similar right?

[TigersSlappy]

Raburn also drove in 60% more runs during that same minor league career but hey, Romero and Raburn are so similar right?

You have fun defending Raburn, someone needs to do it.

[STLTiger69]

lol, it helps that the 5/28 0-4 dropped off to be replaced by 2/5 tonight. also isn't 25ABs one of those dreaded "small sample sizes"?

Wow, and unlike Romero, Raburn did it off of major league pitching, you know, two levels above what Romero is doing it against.

First: Yes, but you of all forum posters seem to like small sample sizes a lot so I thought I'd help you out with this.

Secondly: You'll notice Raburn has actually hit better the last 30 days than Berry (amazing right? That Raburn's an underdog you know!)

Third: This is why teams don't panic and call up some hack from AA with 11 games of MLB inexperience (spread over 25 innings by the way) in a eight year career to replace a major league veteran who has proven he can perform at a high level even if he is struggling currently.

Fourth: Your entitled to your opinion and I do appreciate hearing your views and sharing your enthusiasm on these things. But frankly pinch yourself every once in a while and realize that the Tigers ownership is willing to go with Raburn/Santiago/Worth to cover 2B and if they want an upgrade, trust me, Romero isn't going to be getting the job no matter how many teeth you put under your pillow.

Romero is an organizational filler. His job in AA is to both play SS/2B and to mentor the kids in the minors and rat on them if any of break curfew on road trips. Romero is important to the Tigers in the sense that if Inge was to be released, Raburn breaks an ankle, Santiago gets a flesh eating bacterial infection, Worth gets a concussion and Kelly cannot play 2B because he is catching for an injured Avila, Laird and Holaday instead- Then yes, Romero would get the call to the major leagues for the Tigers. Romero might even get to start if Dave Dombrowski's jet couldn't get either Alex Cora, Bill Hall, Felipe Lopez or Julio Lugo into the airport in time for that nights game.

There is nothing wrong with being a fan and wishing the best for a player- I can respect that. It's just when happy thoughts and wishful thinking goes against virtually all wisdom and logic, it just looks really,..really... bad...to a lot of people.

[sagnam]

I'm really doing my best to not come off as an *** here, I truly regret including those people in my post I was trying to quickly come up with a list of late bloomers and most of them didn't stick in MLB until they were older. Ortiz for example after the age 22 year you mention spent age 23 in AAA getting only 20 MLB ABs and really didn't "blossom" until he was 27.

The player I was comparing Romero to was Carroll, who just happens to be the one player you don't mention in your rebuttal.

In another post he put together a very short list of "comparable" players who weren't very comparable that had success at the MLB level. Carroll is truly the closest but he seemed to have shown signs of life for a couple years before getting called up. Romero was terrible last year.

Just to expand, Carroll was consistently better than Romero.

If "blossom" means 5th in MVP voting, then you got me,. But by that definition Carroll never actually blossomed. Otherwise, an OPS over 800 for a guy in his early 20's is pretty good.

[TigersSlappy]

Secondly: You'll notice Raburn has actually hit better the last 30 days than Berry (amazing right? That Raburn's an underdog you know!)

Fourth: Your entitled to your opinion and I do appreciate hearing your views and sharing your enthusiasm on these things. But frankly pinch yourself every once in a while and realize that the Tigers ownership is willing to go with Raburn/Santiago/Worth to
There is nothing wrong with being a fan and wishing the best for a player- I can respect that. It's just when happy thoughts and wishful thinking goes against virtually all wisdom and logic, it just looks really,..really... bad...to a lot of people.

Raburn has hit 10 points higher in 1/3 the # of ABs. His OPS is 20pts+ lower, but I guess since this is your point and not mine then more advanced stats don't count so Raburn is hitting "better". I guess that's true in the narrowest of senses and since we weren't discussing Romero's superior glove earlier we won't take Berry's far superior speed and superior fielding into consideration either.

And thanks for the reassurance that there's nothing wrong with being a fan, without that approval I don't know how I could have gone on. I'll do my best to curb my wishful thinking in the future so I don't look bad to you, without your positive affirmation my life just wouldn't be worth living.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

And no, I'm not comparing Romero to Bautista or Ortiz, just making the statement that for some people/players it just takes longer for the "light" to come on.

Something I don't think anyone argues. I think everyone realizes a subset players play better later in their career than expected.

That written, the point being made (I think) is that it isn't likely at all that Romero will improve enough at an older age to be a useful MLB player.

I find your evidence of those that failed to be a straw man argument, anyone that follows baseball knows many more fail than succeed I could name you 1000 more that failed that doesn't erase the fact that some succeeded when given a shot.

OK, so you won the semantic argument that nobody can definitively state he won't succeed, but concede the pragmatic argument that he almost certainly won't.

Personally, and this coming from a guy who is a semantic nut, I think the 'won't succeed / won't work' rhetoric is akin to saying hitting on 18 or higher in blackjack or chasing inside straights in poker 'won't work'. When people say that, what I think they are really saying is it isn't a successful long-term strategy. I don't think they are actually claiming you can not ever win doing those things.

[TigersSlappy]

OK, so you won the semantic argument that nobody can definitively state he won't succeed, but concede the pragmatic argument that he almost certainly won't.

I did and still do concede that, the odds are heavily stacked against him.

If you're talking a winning betting strategy on baseball players the obvious winning bet is betting on them to fail since the vast majority do no matter how highly touted, a look back at 1st rounders over the years easily confirms that.

I wasn't touting Mr Romero as anywhere near a sure thing, just that given how we'd crapped out so far this year at 2B maybe he deserved a shot, if nothing else we might not see as many botched plays in the field.

I know I've sounded somewhat more strident than that here but I was irritated over what I felt were distortions/mockery of what I was saying. I know the odds here and am not delusional, as I said in a prior post it's more frustration with the lineups we're running out there daily.

[sabretooth]

I've yet to see anyone argue that Raburn, Boesch, Young, Worth or Kelly deserve to be playing MLB right now on the basis of their performances thus far this year. All I've seen is how much of a drop off Romero or <insert name here> would be, I find that nearly impossible to believe based on how bad those players have been so far.

I surely understand moving bad players out of the lineup...but replacing folks who have had at least marginal success against ML pitching (with the exception of Worth) with players who can barely hit AA pitching in thier mid/late 20's is not a strategy for improvement, IMHO.

Berry is a good roster add because he has two things that are not prone to slumps - speed and defense off the bench. If he happens to be hot at the plate, so much the better...but expecting Romero to be part of the solution at 2B seems unsupported to me. Worth and Santiago are capable enough with the glove, and Santiago is capable enough with the bat, to avoid tinkering with Romero.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I did and still do concede that, the odds are heavily stacked against him.

If you're talking a winning betting strategy on baseball players the obvious winning bet is betting on them to fail since the vast majority do no matter how highly touted, a look back at 1st rounders over the years easily confirms that.

Yes, but...you have to play somebody, and that somebody has to be identified and developed.

I wouldn't argue it is a bad strategy to draft and develop players because so few succeed, nor do I think it hypocritical / intellectually dishonest of me to be OK with the long odds of the draft and not be OK with the long odds of placing someone like Romero on the 25-man roster. From my point of view drafting and developing players is the cost of doing business in MLB, so to say, as the players have to come from somewhere.

Conversely, it isn't necessary to promote organizational filler when your 25-man roster isn't doing the job, especially if the organization isn't convinced he would be better on balance.

So I'm not sure the two are analogous.

I wasn't touting Mr Romero as anywhere near a sure thing, just that given how we'd crapped out so far this year at 2B maybe he deserved a shot, if nothing else we might not see as many botched plays in the field.

I look at it in a different way / light.

I don't know what was going through the front office's collective head when this team was put to field. Pretty much everyone knew they were going to be bad defensively. My best guess is they figured their hitting would be good enough to overcome the bad D, and as part of that, they figured, 'how bad could we really be at getting outs, especially with our pitching?'

Well, it turns out there isn't a floor to how bad an MLB defense can be. And as bad as the Tigers D is, it could get worse yet.

So while I appreciate the logic that argues, 'how much worse could Romero be than Raburn', because Raburn has been horrible, I think it is quite possible that Romero could hit poorly enough moving forward relative to Raburn to be a bad move.

Personally I would just play Santiago with Worth as the glove man at 2B and limit Raburn to OF/DH.

[TigersSlappy]

Personally I would just play Santiago with Worth as the glove man at 2B and limit Raburn to OF/DH.

Given the options on the current roster I think Santiago is the best option at 2B, Berry at one corner OF spot and Raburn/Boesch at the other corner OF/DH until Dirks gets back.

I've seen Francouer mentioned at some sites at a possible OF addition but this year at least he's nearly as putrid offensively as what we're running out now.

[Tim Mitchell]

I surely understand moving bad players out of the lineup...but replacing folks who have had at least marginal success against ML pitching (with the exception of Worth) with players who can barely hit AA pitching in thier mid/late 20's is not a strategy for improvement, IMHO.

Berry is a good roster add because he has two things that are not prone to slumps - speed and defense off the bench. If he happens to be hot at the plate, so much the better...but expecting Romero to be part of the solution at 2B seems unsupported to me. Worth and Santiago are capable enough with the glove, and Santiago is capable enough with the bat, to avoid tinkering with Romero.

Berry was a good roster add because he has somehow started hitting on a consistent basis.
If he were giving us great speed and defense but batting a buck seventy six, he'd be a mud hen.
Raburn cost is a big reason we are where we are.
Why it takes Raburn 10 weeks to start hitting the ball is really weird.
Boesch and Peralta have stunk it up, and Stump shouldve already been gone.

[RobSk]

We are on the same side here, put the guns away. My point was that even if someone like Romero is called up and turns out to be garbage, we really aren't any worse off.

Gotcha, I did misinterpret your post, my apologies.

Rob

[KleShreen]

Concerning Lowrie...I saw that Carlos Lee just told the Astros he would not waive his no-trade clause on a trade to the Dodgers. With that said, do you think if the Tigers are interested in Lowrie, they might also try and land Lee to take the DH spot/occasional OF start? I would gladly welcome him to the team if they want to try and get him as well. Just thought I'd throw it out there. If Lee turned down a trade to the Dodgers, I doubt he'd be fine with one to the Tigers, but eh.

[1776]

Niuman Romero hit his 6th HR tonight for Erie in Harrisburg. He's hitting .318 after driving in 3 RBI.

[TigersSlappy]

Niuman Romero hit his 6th HR tonight for Erie in Harrisburg. He's hitting .318 after driving in 3 RBI.

In the spirit of beating dead horses and all....NR was 2-4 today with a double. Batting .368 .988OPS wRISP

[Dawgs]

I dont see the harm in giving this guy a shot. Worth hardly plays at all and when he does hes been less than good. Bring him up for a couple weeks see if he can stay hot. If not what have you really lost?

[STLTiger69]

[QUOTE=Dawgs;2754450]I dont see the harm in giving this guy a shot. Worth hardly plays at all and when he does hes been less than good. Bring him up for a couple weeks see if he can stay hot. If not what have you really lost?[/QUOTE]

Dawgs;

I'll try and answer this for you as best I can...

First, Danny Worth was hitting .941 OPS when he was brought up this year from AAA level. You see how Worth has simply mastered Major League pitching right now(.470 OPS). So no, sucess at AA doesn't mean he's going to hit at AAA level, let alone at the major leagues.

Secondly; the Tigers already have plenty of players for 2B on the roster now, Raburn, Worth, Santiago and frankly all three need playing time (Worth has played in only 13 games in June and of those games, three of those 13 games he didn't even have an at bat.) Adding Romero to take Worth's place doesn't really help Santiago and Raburn to get more playing time.

Thirdly; as of late the Tigers production from 2B is looking a bit better, in the last 30 days, Raburn has the highest BA of every starting player with a .323 BA .364 OBP .452 SLG .815 OPS and even Santiago is showing signs of life in the last 30 days with a .261 BA .338 OBP .348 SLG .685 OPS. I'll agree that Romero is "hot" in AA right now, but giving Romero a shot for a few weeks now is not in the cards. Raburn's hot now and Santiago is respectable and Worth is available off the bench. The Tigers are not going to remove Raburn and Santiago from the lineup for a few weeks just to see if Romero can duplicate Raburns offensive production or Santiago's defense.

Fourth; Let's talk the dreaded 40 man roster problem that the "let's just give Romero a shot for a few weeks" crowd simply ignores. The Tigers cannot call him up because he's not even on the 40 man roster! SO the Tigers would have to remove a player from the 40 man roster to add Romero so the Tigers can call Romero up. While it's true that there is a bit of chum on the 40 man roster right now (I'm thinking Matt Young for sure, maybe Jose Ortega, Matt Hoffman, Kelvin De La Cruz perhaps too) there is not much room to go with. ALSO keep in mind that whemn Andy Dirks Victor Martinez and Al Alburquerque come back, then the Tigers need to take another three names off of the 40 man roster to add Dirks, V-Mart or Al-AL.

Here's the thing with a 40 man roster, once you designated for assignment a player to take him off of the 40 man roster, (say, Matt Young for example) then that player has to go through waivers to stay with the Tigers organization.

"By placing a player on waivers, a team effectively says they no longer want the player and are giving all 29 other teams a chance to pick him (and his current contract) up for $1. If a team successfully claims the player, he is added to that team's 40-man roster. However, if the player goes unclaimed, he is said to have cleared waivers, giving his team a few different options: he can be released, sent to the minors, or traded to another team even if the July 31 trading deadline has passed.

The 40-Man Roster: How Does It Work? - Brew Crew Ball

So pick your 40th man to take off the roster that the Tigers may well lose for $1 to another team via a waiver claim so Romero can get a "shot". Easy right? Now, let me ask you another question, if Avila, Laird get injured the Tigers will call up Holday (who is on the 40 man roster) and then who will the Tigers be using for a 3rd catcher for depth(HINT: The Tigers will have to DL the injured catcher and add another catcher from the minor leagues to the 40 man roster to help at the major league level if needed). Also if Phil Coke gets hurt, the Tigers will want to call up a LHP to help in the pen, that's why Matt Hoffman or Tyler Stohr are on the 40 man roster. And if a Tigers outfielder gets injured (or demoted like Boesch could be) the Tigers 40 man options right now include Matt Young or Avisail Garcia AND- if Andy Dirks comes back in the next few weeks, the Tigers will have to find room on the 40 man roster to add Dirks (so, goodbye Matt Young).

So again, for every player the Tigers add to the 40 man roster, they run the risk of losing one via waivers when they have to take another player off of the 40 man roster. If the Tigers plan on adding V-Mart, Dirks and Alburquerque this year to the 40 man roster, than the Tigers are already going to have to be removing three names from the current roster and putting them through waivers. While there always is a possiblity that a player will clear waivers and not get claimed, just think about Clete Thomas getting claimed by the Twins this year and other teams are doing just about anything to add talent. Just recently the Padres claimed Mark Hamburger from the Texas Rangers who was not that great with a 6.55 ERA at AAA.

Lastly, the Tigers do not suck bad enough to give a AA player a "few weeks" to show he's better then three other players currently playing on the major league team when frankly, the Tigers don't need him and the Tigers cannot can't run the risk of losing some other minor league player via waivers that they may actually might need later this season (Holaday or Garcia for instance). In fairness Romero might actually get a "shot" if Worth, Santiago or Raburn get injured and may miss a lot of time. Then yes, it makes sense then to call him up and see what he can do. If Romero then proves he can't handle it, once the injured player is back from the DL, the Tigers then just risk losing Romero to waivers to get him off the 40 man roster and back to the minor leagues. Short of an injury, the Tigers will NOT bother to add Romero and give him significant playing time just to "give him a shot"- I'm sorry to say....

[Brian]

Not sure who I'd move for who just yet. One trade I'd like to see is sending Boesch to SD for Quentin. Yes he has been injured. But, when healthy he's a better player.

[sagnam]

Not sure who I'd move for who just yet. One trade I'd like to see is sending Boesch to SD for Quentin. Yes he has been injured. But, when healthy he's a better player.

Are you sending Boesch on a vacation? Do you want him to drive Quentin to the airport? What would San Diego want with Boesch?

[TigersSlappy]

Thirdly; as of late the Tigers production from 2B is looking a bit better, in the last 30 days, Raburn has the highest BA of every starting player with a .323 BA .364 OBP .452 SLG .815 OPS and even Santiago is showing signs of life in the last 30 days with a .261 BA .338 OBP .348 SLG .685 OPS.

I'd agree with this, right now our black hole is worse at corner OF/DH with Elmon/Boesch, Elmon has shown some signs of life the last week but he still stinks. I'd be more inclined to try and patch something in there ahead of 2B as it stands right now.

That said, I hope Romero keeps tearing it up and gets a shot somewhere.

[Turnbuckle]

Boesch needs to do some heavy batting practice in MLB the Show. He's swinging at balls in the dirt about as frequently as I used to in the game. He should follow my strategy of having food or my cell-phone/laptop in front of me while my opponent throws a couple of pitches. Look at the pitch coming, but hands off the bat/controller. Over time this taught me to be more patient at the plate, and since that game is so real it's unreal™ I am fairly certain this would work for Brennan as well. This is all in jest, but the swings he's taking at the pitches he's taking looks just like the type many a scrub in the video game take.

Defense? Well, can't help there. This guy really is a mystery to me. So much so that I am hesitant to trade him because he's probably a few days away from OPSing 1.000 for a 30 game stretch.

[KleShreen]

Boesch needs to do some heavy batting practice in MLB the Show. He's swinging at balls in the dirt about as frequently as I used to in the game. He should follow my strategy of having food or my cell-phone/laptop in front of me while my opponent throws a couple of pitches. Look at the pitch coming, but hands off the bat/controller. Over time this taught me to be more patient at the plate, and since that game is so real it's unreal™ I am fairly certain this would work for Brennan as well. This is all in jest, but the swings he's taking at the pitches he's taking looks just like the type many a scrub in the video game take.

Defense? Well, can't help there. This guy really is a mystery to me. So much so that I am hesitant to trade him because he's probably a few days away from OPSing 1.000 for a 30 game stretch.

Meanwhile, I play the game more like Delmon and just swing at every pitch because I'm an idiot. However, unlike Delmon, my team usually hits about .310.

[Gehringer_2]

[QUOTE=STLTiger69;2754581]

...
Thirdly; as of late the Tigers production from 2B is looking a bit better, in the last 30 days, Raburn has the highest BA of every starting player with a .323 BA .364 OBP .452 SLG .815 OPS and even Santiago is showing signs of life in the last 30 days with a .261 BA .338 OBP .348 SLG .685 OPS....

Yes - noticed this also - law of averages looks like it will eventually hold even for Raburn. I don't like his D at 2b, but use him mostly heavy RH hitting teams with Santiago on the balance to keep him from wearing down and it's probably workable the rest of the season - as long as RR doesn't go back in the tank again. I'd rather see them find a replacement for Boesch/Delmon 1st.

[sagnam]

[QUOTE=Gehringer_2;2754746]

Yes - noticed this also - law of averages looks like it will eventually hold even for Raburn. I don't like his D at 2b, but use him mostly heavy RH hitting teams with Santiago on the balance to keep him from wearing down and it's probably workable the rest of the season - as long as RR doesn't go back in the tank again. I'd rather see them find a replacement for Boesch/Delmon 1st.

I think Raburn should be the replacement for Boesch.

[Hart]

Keep in mind that Raburn only had 28 ab's in June, no home runs, and one RBI. Still not a whole lot there to warrant playing time.

[sagnam]

Keep in mind that Raburn only had 28 ab's in June, no home runs, and one RBI. Still not a whole lot there to warrant playing time.

Not even over Boesch?

[Hart]

Not even over Boesch?

I'll give you that. By default, Raburn warrants playing time. I was more or less just trying to make the point that Raburn's .800+ OPS over the last month or so is really just a result of a high average on very few at bats. Not really anything special about that.

Raburn does generally heat up this time of year so I would rather have him in the lineup than Delmon or Boesch, just on the chance he catches fire.