Quake Griffin wrote:What if we can't trade Crawford?
Why not just designate him for assignment and just prorate his contract over time?
I wanna see SVS or Guerrero in LF even if we can't deal him. They're just better and have power, SVS in particular. That kid is a solid OF who just doesn't have wheels. He'll be alright in left.
What'd you see with Adrian's bat speed?
Slower than last year?
there is a chance that regardless of what Carl can do on the field, and what we are willing to eat, he is still un-tradeable for the same reasons i mentioned, yes. I also believe that is the exact reason why we are more kin on trading Ethier, as he is probably slightly more likely to be wanted elsewhere.
the issue becomes then, is trading away two left handed outfielders while eating ALL of their money, at least in case of Carl, a better move than keeping him if the replacement is say, Buck Britton? because we can still tell Carl and Andre to sit down and play SVS or Alex over them, the issue becomes about their value versus the roster spot replacement, not lineup card replacement. I think if we can have the other team pay a half their contracts and get some low level prospects or a useful bench player such as a decent left handed pinch hitter who can handle being a professional pinch hitter, then yes Buck is good enough. but if Buck is the only replacement, I can't say Buck is better than either one of the guys made in full to go away... maybe it is... maybe it isn't.
but in the end, I fully trust Andrew and Farran knows what they are doing as they are the most proven commodities in baseball FO circles.
as for Adrian... I dunno which way it really is. there is a part of me that says "it's only a pre-season, and many vets simply tweak their mechanics/swing/pitching motion/etc during the spring training...
but there is that other part of me that saw what i saw.
the first game i saw him, was at the Camelback against the Giants. Adrian squared up and hit the fastball well at his first at bat. it was against a guy named Heston. it was obvious in my eyes and later checked to confirm that Heston is not close to being a fireballer, and a career minor leaguer. it seemed to be about 86-87 mhp and Adrian was waiting, sitting on it all the way. after that, I don't remember hitting another ball.
the last game, against the Rangers i saw him in, was again, against another scrub named Tepesch. he didn't impress me much but his fastball was just so slightly faster, looked to me at around 90. Adrian was sitting on the fastball again, and swung and missed 3 straight pitches. threee pitch strike out and to me, he looked like he was behind all three pitches with his bat. Tepesch is a right handed pitcher, and there was no real deception in his delivery from what i saw ( and for every game i was sitting pretty much at the very front row) and it worried me that Adrian's batspeed is failing his hand-eye coordination.
hopefully I am wrong and it's just a pre-season and he is starting slowly, as most vets do. it is just the way he missed that got me sick to my stomach but it was still only March.