Casey Blake, Backup Shortstop?
February 25, 2010 at 7:18 pm | Posted in Casey Blake, Jamey Carroll | 21 CommentsEarlier today, Tony Jackson of ESPN LA participated in a live chat (count how many times Eric Stephen’s name shows up!), and about halfway through he dropped an interesting nugget regarding his thoughts on the backup shortstop competition:
I think barring an injury, Green, Berroa and Hu are probably all headed to Triple-A to start the season (assuming Green and Berroa are willing to go). The backup SS will be Jamey Carroll is the backup SS, with Casey Blake able to fill in there on occasion. Joe says if DeWitt is the regular 2B, he’ll play ONLY 2B because Joe doesn’t want him moving around. If somebody gets hurt, they can always bring one of those guys up from the minors when the need arises.
Backup shortstop has been a surprisingly common topic of conversation around here this offseason, no doubt due to the fact that 7 of the 8 lineup spots are sewn up and we have to talk about something. Whether it’s been bemoaning the signing of the old and busted Nick Green or Angel Berroa, wishing that Felipe Lopez had been signed (it’s not too late!), trying to talk ourselves into Alfredo Amezaga because he’s a lefty, or outright requesting Chin-Lung Hu, we’ve had no shortage of thoughts on it.
With all those options, one route I never considered they might go with is to not carry a backup shortstop at all. If Jackson’s feeling is correct (and you’d have to assume that Blake DeWitt wins the 2B job in this scenario, since otherwise DeWitt would be in the minors and Carroll would be needed at the keystone) then Jamey Carroll would step in to give Rafael Furcal a rest, with Casey Blake (hilariously!) being the emergency option.
In some ways, it makes sense. Green, Berroa, and even Hu are all varying degrees of terrible. None will help you with the bat, Green won’t help you much with the leather, and Berroa is so bad that he might actually open a hole in the goddamn space-time continuum. If that’s the case, why bother? No need to add yet another righty to a righty-deep bench when that righty can’t hit and can only play shortstop in name only; much better to save that space for the lefty bat of someone like Doug Mientkiewicz, Xavier Paul, or even Brian Giles.
The only problem is, of course, that Carroll’s not much of a shortstop either. He hasn’t even played an inning there in either of the last two years, and considering that he was -6.7 on the UZR/150 scale before that, it’s hard to think he’s improved much headed into his age-36 season. Still, if he’s only starting once every ten games or so, you’d have to think he couldn’t kill you that much – and if anything happened to Furcal, well, Albuquerque’s not all that far away.
But man, Casey Blake at shortstop – imagine that? You’d have to think that would only happen in the sort of emergency situation that would require Blake’s left-side partner to be Russell Martin over at the hot corner. Fun fact, though: Blake has played two innings of shortstop in his career, back in 2008 for Cleveland (on the same day Eric Stults was shutting out the White Sox). Who was his middle infield partner for those two innings? Jamey Carroll. So you think it can’t happen? It’s already happened.
21 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply
How Many McCourt Sins?
MSTI on the web
MSTI Library
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
James Loney could be our emergency CF!
Comment by Joey E.— February 25, 2010 #
yes.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— February 25, 2010 #
can James Loney be our emergency CF?
Comment by Joey E.— February 25, 2010 #
no.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— February 25, 2010 #
Can Andre Ethier be our emergency 3B?
Comment by The Dude Abides— February 25, 2010 #
I WISH WE HAD JUAN PIERRE BACK!
HE’S A BALLPLAYERRR!!!
HE COULD BE OUR CENTERFIELDER AND PLAY SHORT!!!1
Comment by J— February 25, 2010 #
“Berroa is so bad that he might actually open a hole in the goddamn space-time continuum”…
Intriguing idea: put Berroa in, a wormhole appears, and out strolls Pee Wee Reese. Now we got a shortstop!
Comment by mk— February 25, 2010 #
Once again, Jamey Carroll is an after thought on your blog… In 495 Innings played at SS, Carroll has only 2 errors at SS and YES, he IS going to be the back-up SS in LA. Now, most likely, DeWitt is ALSO heading back to LA and by May 1st (or sooner) , Carroll will see 2B regularly. Belliard is a back-up and that has been documented by the team a number of times. Last 20 games last year was a fluke
Comment by Sam— February 26, 2010 #
Sam, I’m sorry to say that the amount of errors someone has doesn’t show whether they’re a good fielder or not. A SS won’t get an error if he’s too slow to get to the ball, and he won’t get an error if his weak arm allows a runner to beat out a base hit.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— February 26, 2010 #
Excuse me.. DeWitt is headed back to AAA, 80% chance
Comment by Sam— February 26, 2010 #
Mr. Colletti and Mr. Torre? Have you lost your everlovin’ minds? Casey Blake at shortstop? Please say you are kidding or April’s Fools? Please?
Comment by grabarkewitz— February 26, 2010 #
Well remember Torgy, the team hasn’t said this. It’s just Tony Jackson’s thought.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— February 26, 2010 #
Well, that helps. If it was Gurnick, I would be more frightened. We all know the smartest move would be to sign Felipe Lopez, but it appears that boat has sailed – thanks, Ned. I hope Hu has a spring where he hits everything like rockets and he makes it impossible for Torre and Ned to leave him at Albuquerque.
Comment by grabarkewitz— February 26, 2010 #
Angel Berroa is God-awful. I think we all know that.
I’ve got one better tho. Somehow Russ Ortiz got an invite to spring training. 6-8 years ago this would have been ok, but, as far as signings go, this guy makes Angel Berroa look like Derek Jeter.
Comment by gordon— February 26, 2010 #
Felipe Lopez is not the answer. Is he going to be the everyday 2B and back up Raffy? Well, why did Belliard even get a contract? It is too late to sign Lopez, he doesn’t fit anywhere on this team, oh, and he’s on the tail end of an unspectacular career.
Comment by Wes— February 26, 2010 #
Well, you’re asking the right question. Why DID Belliard get a contract. Lopez may not fit NOW, but he sure did before they got Carroll and Belliard. He’s a switch hitter who can play both 2B and SS.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— February 26, 2010 #
Lopez even makes sense after signing Carroll. Carroll would essentially be the backup for Lopez, Blake, and Furcal, by playing 2B when Lopez starts at SS for Rafael. I believe Lopez can even fill in for bit in the OF.
Comment by David Young— February 26, 2010 #
Although if Lopez was signed, we would all be howling about how he yet another Ned-Vet blocking a young player (DeWitt).
Comment by David Young— February 26, 2010 #
If Lopez, 30, is at the “tail end”, where are Carroll, 36, and Belliard, 35?
Comment by David Young— February 26, 2010 #
Hey, that was in response to my question, so you’re welcome!
Comment by David Young— February 26, 2010 #
[...] in spring training when we had to listen to rumors that he might actually be the club’s backup shortstop. That never happened, of course; unfortunately for Blake, what also never happened was his ability [...]
Pingback by MSTI’s 2010 in Review: Third Base « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— October 26, 2010 #