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It seems almost unfair to the Pirates that we run a couple of true #1's at them these last two games.
The Peach-meister? That's a new knickname I haven't heard.
BANG ZOOM!
I wonder how many wins the team lost out on by playing Guzman over Desmond, Kennedy and Espinosa?
wow. 6 out of 10 since Nyjer fired up the team by his hard nosed play starting in the St. L series!
Didn't Desmond, Guzman, and Kennedy have about the same OBP in the first half?
Really? I've under estimated Livo then. I thought he was in the 70's.
And that's the problem. A terrible batter, except when on the occasional hot streak, with no range, played over a solid vet and the top IF prospect that was MLB ready. Notice just how quickly Texas stashed him on the DL once they saw just how much he sucked.
Agreed, but we were talking about something else.
You were talking about if Guzman playing over Kennedy/Desmond hurt the team's win total. That's exactly what I referenced.
The win total in the first half would have been pretty much the same. That's what we were talking about. Kennedy hasn't been a "solid vet" this season and Desmond was pretty bad in the first half. Guzman didn't have a good first half, but he wasn't really worse than those two.
It wasn't limited to the first half, but to the time prior to Guzman's trade. Kennedy's struggles magically disappeared the moment Guzman was gone. Desmond's defense would have been helped by having a legitimate 2B to work with regularly from the start. WPA has them as a wash while WAR puts the Kennedy/Desmond combo about 3 total wins ahead of Guzman now. I think you could project out 4-5 with a full season's PAs for both thus meaning 2-3 prior to the time of the trade.
It's a guess either way. I just don't see it as something that would have made a huge difference before or after Guzman was traded. Guzman shouldn't have started 16 games at short for us, though.
Agreed it's not a huge difference, but it is one that kept the better 2B on the bench for too long and slowed the overall development of the SS. That's enough reason to be against it. And, at the team's current level, 2-3 wins in the first half looks pretty big right now. 61-62 just looks a lot better than 59.
Gonzalez should have gotten more PT this year at second. He's a damn good fielder and he's right there with Kennedy offensively.