Modern_epic wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
You seem to be missing the point here: teams aren't stupid. If he could do that, one of them would have done it at some point. You don't think, at some point, one manager forced with starting Ken Huckabee would have looked into Phillips past and realized he used to be a catcher and tried him out there for a bit in practice? I really doubt that. And since no one has used Phillips, it probably means he can't play the position at a major league level. The fact that he played it in the minors doesn't mean he can in the majors.
I would debate your first point, rather vehemently at that. I've seen many moves across many different sports that are variously ignorant, uninformed or blatantly (Please Use More Appropriate Word).
I give you the example of Kevin McHale in basketball (not relating to the Boston deal) as one.
Or Doc Rivers, if you're looking for a coaching example.
Or Hell, look at OUR team...
John Gibbons is an idiot; you think if it was left up to him, he'd find the best way to take advantage of the resources on his team?
Granted, Phelps has played for some teams that don't have brick-dumb coaches. But most of those teams haven't desperately needed an extra bat. His stop in Cleveland wasn't marked by the need for a bat, nor were his stops in New York or Tampa; well, Tampa, maybe but they had more pitching problems than hitting problems when he was there.
whosthebosh? wrote:tsherkin - we are trying to say: dont you think of all the teams he has been on, some coaches, agents, scouts, etc have tried to see if he could do that? They all know more than we do. I am sure that if he was at all able, SOMEONE out of all the teams he has been on, would have given it a shot.
No. He hasn't been on THAT many teams and most of them haven't had the kind of needs that would make a manager make such a roster move.
Michael Bradley wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
No you're not.
You're suggesting Phelps is a catching option, and refuse to trust the judgment of numerous teams who wanted no part of Phelps in a catching role. Just because Phelps was a catcher six years ago, and hasn't played there since, you seem to have the strange idea that it's because he hasn't been given a chance to. That's false.
And you keep implying that I'm saying Phelps should be a regular catcher when I'm talking about using him on some off-days and as a pinch hitter...
The judgement of teams who didn't use him in a catching role is irrelevant; Phelps has played for the following teams:
Toronto, Cleveland, Tampa, Yankees and Pittsburgh.
Of those teams, we didn't have a desperate need for a catcher. We SHOULD have kept him for his bat, especially since we got nothing in return.
My Delgado example was to illustrate how asinine your point is about Phelps being able to catch just because he did so in the past. Delgado was catcher in the past as well. He stunk, but he caught. Do you want to acquire Catalanotto to play 2B, by chance?
Hyperbole is useless in this context; Delgado was a useful bat and we found a spot for him. Delgado wasn't a particularly good first baseman but he was a phenomenal hitter and we had Zaun to catch for us when we moved Phelps.
And in Delgado's case, since he wasn't particularly good at either position, if it came down to choosing between retaining his bat and trading him because he wasn't a great catcher, I'd keep him behind the plate and work him as the DH.
We didn't have a DH when we traded him, so that would have been a simple move. He did, in fact, DH for us, as we're all aware, and he wasn't awful at it. Frank's obviously way better but again, he wasn't around.
We're talking about a bat off the bench; that's something that, especially Toronto, could use. Our offense has been slumping and inconsistent all year and he's a decent hitter.