Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Overblown


Let's not climb all over ourselves in an mad dash to bury Lyle Overbay. Lyle Overbay is an amazing first baseman who made a difficult play look impossible. I'm a little uncomfortable with my apologist position here, but I think about it this way: isolated sucking is one thing, sustained sucking is another. Sustained sucking with no hope of improvement is where I draw the line and start casting aspersions. Like Jose Bautista! Remember when he walked all the time? That's kinda the only thing he offers, and even that is regressing. His on base is slowly making its way back to Earth, along with his bloated wOBA. The less said about Kevin Millar the better. Complaining about him is like complaining about Canadian winters or the GST.

Like Elliott Ness


Speaking of overblown, the most overused word this time of the year is "untouchable." Such and such a prospect is untouchable, he's on our untouchable list. This is the used car salesman coming out of every GM. He's only untouchable because it drives up his value. I recently acquired a list of "untouchable" prospects from baseball GMs, it looks like this:
  • Self doubt
  • Self awareness
  • Style
  • Humility
Those are the only things a baseball GM can't offer you for any price. Anything else that may save their job, improve their team, or make ownership money is fair game. Kyle Drabek is not untouchable, but labeling him so creates a lot of intrigue and perceived value. Stephen Strasburg, Matt Weiters, Tommy Hanson and David Price are the only guys that come close to being untouchable.

Overthrown


That said, if anyone came knocking for Brett Cecil, would you say yes? His future is as bright as his present is muddied by poor control. Playing with fire and generally pissing around against the god-awful Racist Nicknames is one thing, against a real time you'll be in trouble. But this too will pass and, as Mike Wilner said, he'll be a damn fine number 2 starter in this league.

8 comments:

  1. And so goes the summer of our discontent.

    I've come to realize that our (yes, our) bench really sucks piles of dogshit. Millar, Bow-tista, Handsome Chavez, Jean-Macc. Barf.

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  2. Yeah, it's totally unfair to give Overbay all sort of shit for messing up one throw. He's right when he says he made the right play, and that he just overthrew it. Plus, he's been a great defender all year and throughout his tenure with the Jays.

    But no one told me that I have to be all rational and stuff. I'd just like to spend a week in the mindset of a Jays Talk caller.

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  3. Hitters six through nine in this lineup are a fucking black hole.

    The less said about Kevin Millar the better. Complaining about him is like complaining about Canadian winters or the GST.

    Well said. I'll try not to do it again.

    In regards to Lyle, it was a tough play, and he's such a good defensive first baseman I can easily let that shit slide. It's his bat that has disappointed me the most. He's become a fucking platoon man, and that's the last thing I expected from him after 2006.

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  4. Also: Travis Snider is sooooooooooo untouchable.

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  5. it was a tough play, and I think it would have been tougher to go to scott downs covering first, but you have to remember that a first baseman does not throw as much as other fielders so a few errors here and there are to be expected.. this one came at just about the worst time.

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  6. I would hope even JP would see the light when it comes to Cecil. IMO he should have never been sent down after one poor start in Boston to begin with.

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  7. Overybay is forgiven. All is forgotten, I can't hate on him for only having 2 errors this year.

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