Should JJ Hardy get his starting job back once he's healthy?

[Ruzious]

5 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

Keep in mind that TB has chosen to play a guy with .588 OPS and an  Rtot/yr of 1 over Beckham. That glove is not good and our IF is one of our strengths.

You have to consider the alternatives that Baltimore has.  All are considerably worse than Beckham.  Hardy is not a ML SS anymore.  Tejada is a borderline MLer, at best.  Flaherty is a nice defensive 2nd and 3rd baseman who has no business playing SS and can't hit.  Beckham will make mistakes, but he's simply a far better all-around SS than all of them.  There's no getting around that.  

[El Gordo]

Just now, Ruzious said:

You have to consider the alternatives that Baltimore has.  All are considerably worse than Beckham.  Hardy is not a ML SS anymore.  Tejada is a borderline MLer, at best.  Flaherty is a nice defensive 2nd and 3rd baseman who has no business playing SS and can't hit.  Beckham will make mistakes, but he's simply a far better all-around SS than all of them.  There's no getting around that.  

Hardy had a OPS of .556 and an Rtot/yr of 8. That's overall better than Hechaveria, whom TB liked better than Beckham at SS.

[Natty]

We wouldn't even pinch hit for Hardy when he came up very late in the games with runners in scoring position, and he was batting less than .220.

[Ruzious]

For all we know Rtot/yr will be discredited as a useful stat in a couple of years.  Hech is regarded as a very good defensive SS.  Hardy has no range and no arm left.  Put it this way - If TB had the choice of playing Hardy or Hech, which one would they choose?    

[El Gordo]

Just now, Ruzious said:

For all we know Rtot/yr will be discredited as a useful stat in a couple of years.  Hech is regarded as a very good defensive SS.  Hardy has no range and no arm left.  Put it this way - If TB had the choice of playing Hardy or Hech, which one would they choose?    

Probably Hardy.

[Frobby]

30 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

Keep in mind that TB has chosen to play a guy with .588 OPS and an  Rtot/yr of 1 over Beckham.

This is a very fair point.    It will be interesting to get a close look at Beckham over the next few weeks before Hardy returns.     I haven't watched him that closely while he's been on the Rays.   

[Lucky_13]

I think if Beckham is playing well and the Orioles are making a surge, Buck will sit down with Hardy and ask him to be the utility infielder. Earl Weaver said that the hardest part about being a manager is telling a veteran player that they're not good enough anymore. 

I think that's where Buck is but there's no way that he can justify playing Hardy over Beckham if Beckham is OPS'ing 735+ and playing good enough defense. 

[TommyPickles]

Beckham sure looked fast when he hit that double yesterday.

I know it's not really Buck/the O's style,  but I think it could spice up the offense a bit to have Beckham, Rickard, and Gentry attempting more steals.  Get them in scoring position more often for the bigger bats. Seems like all you gotta do is put a runner on 2nd and Schoop and Mancini will get a hit.

[Ruzious]

28 minutes ago, Frobby said:

This is a very fair point.    It will be interesting to get a close look at Beckham over the next few weeks before Hardy returns.     I haven't watched him that closely while he's been on the Rays.   

I'm guessing his home and away splits with Tampa was part of the problem.  His career OPS was .656 at home and .790 on the road - with a little over 1,000 lifetime plate appearances.  It probably can't hurt him to play those home games at Baltimore.    

[El Gordo]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

This is a very fair point.    It will be interesting to get a close look at Beckham over the next few weeks before Hardy returns.     I haven't watched him that closely while he's been on the Rays.   

Beckham looks to have the physical tools to be a good defensive SS. Speed quickness range. But those factors arent what made Cal one of the best defensive SS ever. Baseball smarts, field generalship, positioning, arm,and above all focus. All of which Hardy has and Beckcham is defecient.

[Frobby]

23 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

Beckham looks to have the physical tools to be a good defensive SS. Speed quickness range. But those factors arent what made Cal one of the best defensive SS ever. Baseball smarts, field generalship, positioning, arm,and abaove all focus. All of which Hardy has and Beckcham is defeicient.

I suspect I may agree with that after watching Beckham play for a while, but I'm going into this with an open mind about the guy.   

[El Gordo]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I suspect I may agree with that after watching Beckham play for a while, but I'm going into this with an open mind about the guy.   

I think if he posessed most of those Cal attributes he'd be playing SS for TB.

[Frobby]

31 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

I think if he posessed most of those Cal attributes he'd be playing SS for TB.

It's all a matter of degree.    There were two plays yesterday I noticed:

1.    He did a nice job getting to the hole on a potential difficult DP grounder, but his throw nearly pulled Schoop off the bag and didn't allow Schoop to make the pivot for a relay throw.

2.  He hustled to 2B on a liner in the gap and fairly easily reached the base, but when a hitter behind him hit a ground single to RCF, he visibly slowed rounding 3B before accelerating again and scoring.   His instinct should have been to run full out unless Dickerson gave him a stop sign.    He scored anyway, but his hesitation could have been problematic.    

[VeveJones007]

52 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I suspect I may agree with that after watching Beckham play for a while, but I'm going into this with an open mind about the guy.   

This is exactly why Beckham should get the majority of playing time: evaluation.

[El Gordo]

Just now, VeveJones007 said:

This is exactly why Beckham should get the majority of playing time: evaluation.

Yes until Hardy is back. But he has to show a lot with the glove IMO.