You Mean To Tell Me That We Can't Do Better Than Flaherty?

[CA-ORIOLE]

I don't want Nate in CF.

Who cares if he's playing 10 or so games there.

[tntoriole]

It is still a head scratcher as to why not at least try somebody like Casilla for a month or two and see if you get any better production? .292 at Norfolk, switch-hitter, can play second, back up short. And give Ryan some regular at bats at Norfolk to see if he can get straightened out at the plate. But, gosh, I certainly hope and pray nothing happens to Adam Jones, because Wieters can be out, Davis can be out, Hardy can be out but if Adam Jones goes, we have nothing, and I mean, nothing to do at that point that is not a disaster. Same with Lough- switch him with Peguero for a while and get him some regular at bats at Norfolk and see if you can get some contribution from Peguero.

[FutureGM]

It is still a head scratcher as to why not at least try somebody like Casilla for a month or two and see if you get any better production? .292 at Norfolk, switch-hitter, can play second, back up short. And give Ryan some regular at bats at Norfolk to see if he can get straightened out at the plate. But, gosh, I certainly hope and pray nothing happens to Adam Jones, because Wieters can be out, Davis can be out, Hardy can be out but if Adam Jones goes, we have nothing, and I mean, nothing to do at that point that is not a disaster. Same with Lough- switch him with Peguero for a while and get him some regular at bats at Norfolk and see if you can get some contribution from Peguero.

Lough is out of options, and Pegeuro doesn't solve the lefty need. If anyone should be up, it's Casilla for Flaherty. He brings speed, backup ss material and switch hits.

[DrungoHazewood]

I don't feel like scouring 25 man rosters but my first impression is that backup center fielders don't tend to carry much of a bat. Teams do carry guys with decent bats that can fill in at the corners.

If someone wants to prove me incorrect then I will be happy to admit my first impression was wrong.

I generally think of backup Catchers/SS/CF as having subpar bats.

The Yanks are carrying a backup outfielder who really can't hit (Ichiro), a backup infielder who can't hit at all (Ryan), a pair of old DHs who can't/aren't hitting (Beltran, Soriano), not to mention a 40-year-old shortstop who's a negative glove with an OPS about equal to Flaherty's career mark.

[MrOrange82]

The Yanks are carrying a backup outfielder who really can't hit (Ichiro), a backup infielder who can't hit at all (Ryan), a pair of old DHs who can't/aren't hitting (Beltran, Soriano), not to mention a 40-year-old shortstop who's a negative glove with an OPS about equal to Flaherty's career mark.

Ichiro's playing regularly and having a good year so far.

[weams]

Who cares if he's playing 10 or so games there.

I don't want Nate anywhere.

[El Gordo]

The current MLB average for batting is .251 .316 .391 .707, down from a .715 OPS last year. Hit much better than that and play solid defense and you are starting for a lot of teams. Hard to find that kind of production for your bench. TB has S. Roderiguez and Logan Forsyth to cover Flaherty's job. MFY, K. Johnson and Brendon Ryan, TOR has Steve Tolleson, and BOS has the guy we want, Brock Holt, 810 OPS plays CF, RF, 3B, 2B, and 1B. But I'm guessing he'll be starting somewhere soon. We need a LH bat to be able to PH for Hundley/CayJo. Who else? Jones? Cruz? Manny? Hardy? Pearce? So send down a guy who can step in and play fundamentally sound defense at 4 IF positions so we can have a PH bat fore the catcher? Seems like strange priorities and use of assets to me. The obvious solution is to bring up Clevenger as the back up C. Alexi Casilla has a career .634 OPs and doesn't play as good SS/2B/3B as Flaherty. If he did he would be here. Weeks can only play 2B barely, Lombo can't play SS and is a poor 3B/2B. Just because a guy is hitting at Norfolk doesn't mean he will hit in BAL especially when his ML track record says he won't. The glaring problem with the O's offense isn't the batting average of the UTIF who gets maybe 10 PA per week it's the production at C, 2B and 3B where the starters are seeing 20+ PA per week.

[weams]

The Yanks are carrying a backup outfielder who really can't hit (Ichiro), a backup infielder who can't hit at all (Ryan), a pair of old DHs who can't/aren't hitting (Beltran, Soriano), not to mention a 40-year-old shortstop who's a negative glove with an OPS about equal to Flaherty's career mark.

And look at that pitching staff!

[DrungoHazewood]

Who cares if he's playing 10 or so games there.

I don't see how McLouth is an upgrade over Lough. Lough is faster, plays better defense, has a higher 2014 OPS (admittely they're both awful), within 20 points or so of OPS over the past three years, and Lough is almost five years younger and cheaper.

[DrungoHazewood]

Ichiro's playing regularly and having a good year so far.

His 156 plate appearances are 11th on the team, and his OPS+ is 36th among corner outfielders (min 30 games). Nick Markakis has more plate appearances since May 20th than Ichiro has all year.

Ichiro has been a part-time outfielder with an average bat and average glove. He hasn't had a 2-win season or an average bat since 2010.

[CA-ORIOLE]

I don't see how McLouth is an upgrade over Lough. Lough is faster, plays better defense, has a higher 2014 OPS (admittely they're both awful), within 20 points or so of OPS over the past three years, and Lough is almost five years younger and cheaper.

I really was responding to Mclouth playing maybe 10 games in CF (as a bench platoon role player) and not wanting to get into a debate about Lough versus Mclouth. That said, if i had my choice (disregarding salary issues) I'd take MClouth's track record over Lough's in a platoon/bench LF role. Mclouth has shown he can hit when healthy (particularly RHP). Lough had a babip hiccup. Defense considered.

[El Gordo]

It is still a head scratcher as to why not at least try somebody like Casilla for a month or two and see if you get any better production? .292 at Norfolk, switch-hitter, can play second, back up short. And give Ryan some regular at bats at Norfolk to see if he can get straightened out at the plate. But, gosh, I certainly hope and pray nothing happens to Adam Jones, because Wieters can be out, Davis can be out, Hardy can be out but if Adam Jones goes, we have nothing, and I mean, nothing to do at that point that is not a disaster. Same with Lough- switch him with Peguero for a while and get him some regular at bats at Norfolk and see if you can get some contribution from Peguero.

You really think Casilla batting for CayJo last night would be an upgrade over Flaherty? Maybe he'd have a better chance to beat out the DP relay, but Flash had a much better chance to hit one out. Neither would be the option IMO. To bad we don't v=have Clevenger up.

[Aglets]

His 156 plate appearances are 11th on the team, and his OPS+ is 36th among corner outfielders (min 30 games). Nick Markakis has more plate appearances since May 20th than Ichiro has all year.

Ichiro has been a part-time outfielder with an average bat and average glove. He hasn't had a 2-win season or an average bat since 2010.

Drungo, I love you man, and you're usually spot on with your statistical analysis, but I think you're wrong here. Or at least extremely clouded about Ichiro.

His current line .315/.365/.343/.708 is almost exactly 'average' from an OPS standpoint, and his OBP is certainly considerably 'above average.'

He is on pace for a little less than 2 WAR season, which is certainly not spectacular, but not that bad either.

[MrOrange82]

His 156 plate appearances are 11th on the team, and his OPS+ is 36th among corner outfielders (min 30 games). Nick Markakis has more plate appearances since May 20th than Ichiro has all year.

Ichiro has been a part-time outfielder with an average bat and average glove. He hasn't had a 2-win season or an average bat since 2010.

If he's a part-time player, who cares when his last 2-win season was? And did I mention his glove at some point? Regardless, Aglets basically beat me to the response. Ichiro's totalled 0.7 rWAR and 0.4 fWAR already this season. He's having a good year, and he's been playing regularly (and since this qualifier evidently wasn't read into my last post, which I assumed it would have been) for a backup OFer.

But all that notwithstanding, the statement to which I originally responded said...

The Yanks are carrying a backup outfielder who really can't hit (Ichiro)

Well, if he's average, in your estimation, I assume that means Ichiro actually can hit in some form or fashion.

[DrungoHazewood]

Drungo, I love you man, and you're usually spot on with your statistical analysis, but I think you're wrong here. Or at least extremely clouded about Ichiro.

His current line .315/.365/.343/.708 is almost exactly 'average' from an OPS standpoint, and his OBP is certainly considerably 'above average.'

He is on pace for a little less than 2 WAR season, which is certainly not spectacular, but not that bad either.

He said two things:

1) Ichiro has been playing regularly. But he has 156 PAs all year, so he hasn't, at least not for much of the year.

2) He's been having a good year so far. Ok, maybe. In part-time play, with 33 PAs against lefties, he's been an average hitter at a position where above-average production is expected.

I wouldn't use year-to-date numbers to show pace. Ichiro has a 99 OPS+ in 156 platoon at bats, but over the previous three years he had a .661 OPS, 86 OPS+. His ZIPs and Steamer rest-of-season forecasts are for less than half a win, and under one win for the season.