Platooning Left Field ???
by South Side Rob
With everyone worrying about catching and who will close for the Brewers in 2008, we have not spoke in depth about who should be playing left field next season. We already seen Dave's idea which would be:
- Moving Bill Hall to left and signing free-agent Aaron Rowand.
Doug Melvin was heard on the Gary and Cliff show (WSSP on Milwaukee Radio) saying:
- Right now, it appears that Gabe Gross and Joe Dillon will platoon out in left.
Yikes. Both thoughts are scary to say the least. We really need to look at this. Who can play left for the Brewers with the understanding that Matt LaPorta is the future in left field. I'm hearing by sometime in 2009, the position will be there for LaPorta. This last season, LaPorta hit .259, .318, and .241 for the Helena Brewers of the Pioneer League, the West Virginia Power of the South Atlantic League, and the Mesa Solar Sox of the Winter Arizona Fall League. In his 3 stops, he hit a total of 18 home runs and 53 runs batted in with just 227 at bats. With all of that, I still think LaPorta is a long shot to start the season with the parent club. My guess is that he'll start in AA.
Feeling LaPorta is about a year+ away appears to be correct. That said, I would think we need to ask ourselves a few questions before filling that spot over in left-field.
- Is Bill Hall the long-term solution in center field?
- Is Tony Gwynn Jr. no better than a 4th outfielder for the Brewers?
If Hall or Gwynn or perhaps both players are dealt away before next season begins, all of this argument is mute but I don't think the Brewers will bring in a big-name to play left field this season.
I'm still holding out hope that Bill Hall may get dealt to the Dodgers for one of their bullpen arms (maybe Jonathan Broxton?). Then, we either give Gwynn Jr. a shot at center field or we go after Carl Crawford.
Thoughts of the Brewer Nation...
Two words: Jason Bay
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It may have been a down year for Jason Bay, but this team is looking for guys with OBP and lower SOs. One of the biggest problems this team faced last year was failing to get runners from 3rd base with less than 2 outs. Bay is a 150 SO a year guy with a what is expected to be a .380 OBP this year and reasonable power numbers. A lot of people would bid for him, but I think he doesn't fit this squad.
I think Rob makes an excellent point though. While we'll lose a lot of power by trading off Bill Hall, a guy like Broxton in the back end of the bullpen would be unbelievably helpful. I think the tradeoff may be worth it, but it's a big risk, and with the payoff of losing two top tier free agents 4 or 5 years away, it may be sacrificing to much too quickly.
Platooning Gabe Gross and Joe Dillon in left isn't exactly what I want to hear when thinking about the Crew, especially while we pay Mench some $5M. I like Gross and Dillon, but not so much that I would like to see one of them every game of the year. Gross brings a power bat and a good eye, Dillon contact and saavy. They're great team guys, but this team needs that one extra step.
Crawford? Somewhat low OBP, but brings a lot of speed and defense to this squad. I like the idea of putting Braun in left, Hall at third and Crawford in center. I think it presents a threat at every spot in the lineup for power (Fielder, Braun and Hart), contact (Kendall and Hardy) and speed (Hart, Weeks and Crawford). I trust Melvin will do something to either get this team more runs or clean up the back end of the bullpen.
What would I do? Give Gwynn his shot. Gwynn in center, Hall at third, Braun in left. Dillon, Gross and Rottino relieve them based on pitching matchups to get their days off. If you can get Broxton for 3 years, make the deal. We've got 3-5 years to make a move. Let's make it.
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I agree give Gwynn a shot. Melvin has been quoted as saying he feels they have enough run producers and would like to fill that last outfield spot with somebody good defensively and has a good .obs. He keeps descibing Gwynn in my eyes and I feel he would be the perfect 8th hitter. Plus he gives you some speed on the bases. No brainer in my opinion. We need to take some of this money and try to get a couple extra years on our younger players, we don't need to pay millions of dollars to a free agent that doesn't give you much more than we already have.
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