Mr. Belvidere wrote:
Can he hit and play 2nd?
wait what? 2nd base is far from "the problem" for the whitesox, insomuchas offensively you could do much much worse than beckham...
Gordon Beckham (2012): 89g 326ab 42r 76h 16h2b 0h3b 9hr 38rbi 23bb 57k 3sb 2cs .233avg .290obp .365slg .655ops
well, ok, he's kind of stuck on 9HR and his average has sunk down from the high .240s (and rising) to .233
you see, i think in the big picture this youkilis trade is a setback for him. he responded positively to being put back in the two hole, and at the time i thought it was a great move by robin ventura to "reward" gordon for hitting his weight and that spark of confidence in gordon beget more confidence in gordon and he was looking like he could be a darkhorse ~.260/20/80 guy.
now he's stalled down there in the no-man's-land that is the bottom of the whitesox lineup. obviously putting youk in the two-hole is the move to make, and the results that youk has produced validate that thought.... not to mention that the white sox are in the business of winning today's ballgame and not in the business of developing gordon beckham first and foremost, but still, for his longterm mental health i wish he was able to stay in that two hole because i think he needs to get on a bonafide tear and end up having a .265/20/80 type season to get his swag back and then be a perennial ~.260-.300/15-25/70-90 RBI bat, which when combined with his defense makes him a fine second baseman for the foreseeable future.
his defense is so damn good tho that you've gotta weather these storms of offensive nothingness and hope that he can get out of the funk and become at least .275/15/75 year in and year out for the next half-decade. c'est la vie
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Curious Hair wrote:
Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?