There's a poster here who backed him to the hilt...when I was on the Desmond bandwagon a couple of years ago.
I wonder if it's me. I'm not a prolific poster but I've always been an Espinosa fan. Mainly because I think his defensive value over Desmond has been strongly underrated. I also thought his bat at short stop(if he could get somewhere back to career norms) plays well batting 8th and spending Desmond's money ensuring great bats at 2nd and 3rd.
Desmond always struck me as not really sustainable offense wise. He had a huge spike in power numbers one year that was suspicious (not necessarily implying foul play but maybe an approach that generated short term power at the cost of average). But just watching Desmond, he has always struck me as a guy pitchers would figure out and was more surprised it lasted as long as it did than I am at his struggles this year.
Espinosa ops ing in the .700s is absolutely a great thing for this team. His defense and speed is world class. A full year at ss with those numbers at bat and an every day ss, he's one of our 2 or 3 most valuable position players or better.
