Luis...........Ouch!!!!

[Mackus]

Mora has a far stronger arm than Cintron, probably similar range, and isn't particularly more prone to booting balls.

Mora has good quickness to his sides, but is terrible at charging the ball, which is the most important play for a SS to make. I think he'd be a train wreck.

I'd honestly rather keep Hernandez or Fahey at SS all season than see Mora there for anything other than emergency duty.

[RShack]

You can call it whatever you want. But when a team plays well for a while, then slips below .500 the players who aren't playing well will get gigged. It's been that way for 150 years. Hernandez isn't the only one not playing well, but he is one of the least likely to improve by much. When most folks thought he was a bad choice in January, their opinions won't be swayed much by a month of inconsistent play that hasn't surpassed expectations in any way.

Exactly right: he's playing closer to his ceiling than most guys in the lineup, yet he's somehow to blame? Sure...

And a lot of folks think that you're just angry that your guy isn't playing particularly well. Which he certainly isn't, in the context of the expected performance of a major league shortstop.

When you pick a player who's projected to be the worst hitter in major league baseball to live and die with you have to expect a fair amount of criticism. It seems that you didn't.

I expect him to play excellent D. He started out crappy, and he's gotten better. Has he gotten back to where he was before? Not yet. Will he get the chance? Beats me. However, I'm not angry about it, just saddened. Why anybody would think I'm angry about it is beyond me. The only thing I'm more disappointed about than that is when people form a lynch mob and start piling on. The only thing that angers me is when the bullies seem gleeful about the fact that they have a chance to be bullies.

[blueberryale77]

Mora has good quickness to his sides, but is terrible at charging the ball, which is the most important play for a SS to make. I think he'd be a train wreck.

I'd honestly rather keep Hernandez or Fahey at SS all season than see Mora there for anything other than emergency duty.

Hmm... interesting point you bring up. I don't recall Mora being particularly terrible at charging balls back when he played shortstop, but that was a long time ago. It does seem to me that charging balls at shortstop is a bit different from coming in to field a bunt attempt at third, which is the main area where Mora's charging deficiency seems to show up, but it's certainly possible that he could have the same problem coming in on slow grounders to short that he does on bunts if it's a matter of footwork or inability to keep his eye on the ball on the ground while running forward. Still, I think I have at least as much trepidation about Cintron as you do about Mora. I guess we should all just pray to the baseball gods to bless Bynum's slippery glove.

[Mackus]

Hmm... interesting point you bring up. I don't recall Mora being particularly terrible at charging balls back when he played shortstop, but that was a long time ago. It does seem to me that charging balls at shortstop is a bit different from coming in to field a bunt attempt at third, which is the main area where Mora's charging deficiency seems to show up, but it's certainly possible that he could have the same problem coming in on slow grounders to short that he does on bunts if it's a matter of footwork or inability to keep his eye on the ball on the ground while running forward. Still, I think I have at least as much trepidation about Cintron as you do about Mora. I guess we should all just pray to the baseball gods to bless Bynum's slippery glove.

Yeah I'm not stoked about Cintron either, but Bynum would have to be awfully bad, worse than I've seen from him previously, for me to want to endure the suspected horror that I think Mora would be at SS.

I expect the trade deadline will have passed and we will have acquired some sort of young potential answer at SS before we get to the point where Mora is our best option at SS.

[blueberryale77]

Yeah I'm not stoked about Cintron either, but Bynum would have to be awfully bad, worse than I've seen from him previously, for me to want to endure the suspected horror that I think Mora would be at SS.

I expect the trade deadline will have passed and we will have acquired some sort of young potential answer at SS before we get to the point where Mora is our best option at SS.

All I can say is hopefully we get a chance to see what Bynum can do at short on at least a part-time basis REAL SOON... unless he's been truly awful in his starts at Bowie.

Has anyone had a chance to see Bynum play SS for Bowie in the last few days?

[DrungoHazewood]

Exactly right: he's playing closer to his ceiling than most guys in the lineup, yet he's somehow to blame? Sure...

Yep, sure. Millar, Ramon, guys like that are sure to play better. Luis isn't.

I expect him to play excellent D. He started out crappy, and he's gotten better. Has he gotten back to where he was before? Not yet. Will he get the chance? Beats me. However, I'm not angry about it, just saddened. Why anybody would think I'm angry about it is beyond me. The only thing I'm more disappointed about than that is when people form a lynch mob and start piling on. The only thing that angers me is when the bullies seem gleeful about the fact that they have a chance to be bullies.

There's no glee, only sadness that the team settled on the first guy they came to who could play short, and it came back to bite them.

[El Gordo]

Mora has good quickness to his sides, but is terrible at charging the ball, which is the most important play for a SS to make. I think he'd be a train wreck.

I'd honestly rather keep Hernandez or Fahey at SS all season than see Mora there for anything other than emergency duty.

I agree. Mora amd Jeter both playes SS about 8 years ago. Jeter was much better then. Jeter still plays SS and Mora hasn't in 8 years. Mora is older than Jeter. I would assume Jeter is still better. Jeter lets 35 balls get through his positon as compared to the ave SS. How many hits would Mora give up. 50? And as bad as you want to make out LH to be, he still is at least, and most likely a few hits better than, ave. That's a lot of defense to sacrifice in my opinion.

[Dr. FLK]

I agree. Mora amd Jeter both playes SS about 8 years ago. Jeter was much better then. Jeter still plays SS and Mora hasn't in 8 years. Mora is older than Jeter. I would assume Jeter is still better. Jeter lets 35 balls get through his positon as compared to the ave SS. How many hits would Mora give up. 50? And as bad as you want to make out LH to be, he still is at least, and most likely a few hits better than, ave. That's a lot of defense to sacrifice in my opinion.

Agreed. As much as I want LH replaced, I don't think MelMo is the answer. Let's leave him at 3B.

[McNulty]

Yeah I know. I wasn't trying to claim credit. Three weeks ago, when we were winning, I wasn't ready for that radical of a measure yet. Now, I'm that desperate. We'd have to be prepared for the frustration of a TON of ground ball singles to the left side, but with Hernandez still not getting the job done offensively or defensively, I think the time has come to experiment with both Bynum and Mora at SS.

I wasn't trying to get credit either. Its probably a downright awful idea, but I'm not in the business of being rational 100% of the time.