Saturday 20 September 2008

Congrats, I Guess...

Yesterday's game marked a milestone of sorts for Señor Marco Scutaro, the team MVP front-runner in certain segments of the milkshake community. Scutaro, aka "Scoots", aka "Cooter", aka "Uncle Cooter", saw action in his 138th game this year to best his previous single-season high in 2004 back when he was an Oakland Athletic. Whatever you want to say about the guy, he came as advertised and did a yeoman's effort this year.

I didn't hear mention of this personal achievement during the radio broadcast and read nothing in print, so let us be the first to offer our hearty congratulations. Now that that's out of the way, here's hoping Aaron Hill, Scott Rolen and Lyle Overbay all stay healthy enough that I don't have to do this again next year.

-- Johnny Was

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scutaro is the team's starting SS next year.

Anonymous said...

I'll throw up on myself if that is the case.

The Southpaw said...

If he's a starter next year, my expectations are no higher than they were back in the Jim Fregosi era.

Ah well... that was better than the late Cito period, but slightly worse than the Tim Johnson interregnum.

JW

The Southpaw said...

Actually, I figure it's at least 50/50 he will be and IF - and this is a gigantic "if" - IF he produced next year at this years level and lead off, he won't be the reason if the team comes up short.

If we are to the point where we need a golly-gee-whiz SS to compete, then the rest of the team is in a world of trouble.

Next year depends entirely on what happens with the SP, IMO, and more so on what kind of work we get out of Listch, Purcey, Janssen and (eventually) McGowan than on who we end up signing.

~Will

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

i miss aaron hill. if scoot's the startin SS next year, i don't think that's the end of the world. a .270 average, 60 RsBI? come on, we're talkin about shortstop on the blue jays here. i think we'll take that kind of production. he's no johnny mac with the glove, but who is?

Anonymous said...

If we are to the point where we need a golly-gee-whiz SS to compete, then the rest of the team is in a world of trouble.

Agreed. Which is why I would hope the rest of the lineup produces like they ought to next year and we can put Johnny Mac in the 9 spot. He hit .251 last year with consistent time, which isn't close to great, but at least with his defence we get something extraordinary.

Scutaro is a big "meh" in every aspect of the game. He functions but does little more.

The Southpaw said...

Dave I disagree in one respect:

He (at least this year, it could be a fluke) get's on base well enough to lead off on a team with no natural lead-off hitter. You will never get that you of Johnny Mac.

If McDonald is your SS, who is your leadoff hitter?

~W

Anonymous said...

Well, that does become a bit of a problem especially with Cito now coaching. I'd say Hill or Rios...? Both have around the same OBP as Scutaro and both have better speed, I believe.

Sure it would be perferable to have their pop a little lower in the order but I'm fine with it.

Also, I'm more open to the possibility of having Hill shift over to SS then I was a few months ago which would then allow a Scutaro/Inglett platoon over second.