Marco Scutaro MVP?

by Tom Dakers on Sep 22, 2008 2:36 PM EDT in Toronto Blue Jays News

In the 'I wish I had said this' department The Southpaw mentioned that Marco Scutaro has set a new personal high in games played in a season this year. Scoot has produced almost exactly at his career averages batting .260/.340/.355 this year compared to .260/.325/.377 career. I hope that he won't be playing as much playing as much next year. If he plays more than 100 games next year, I think we'll be on the outside looking in again at playoff time. And if he hits at the top of the order more than a few times next year, well then you'll know we haven't learned anything from this season.

JP said Scoot was our team MVP. This should be added to our reasons to fire JP. I mean if you have such little understanding of what goes into winning baseball that you think a guy who's OP+ is 86 is your MVP then you have no business running a team. Frig....putting aside that Doc is the team MVP, offensively who comes in front of him? Hmmmm Wells, Rios, Overbay, Inglett, Rolen, Lind, Barajas.

For that matter are we better off having him on the team? Without him Eckstein and Mac would have played more. Mac is clearly much much better defensively. Eck is better offensively. Honestly I think we'd have been better off with a combination of Inglett, Eckstein and Mac. Heck I'm sure that Scott Campbell wouldn't have been that much worse. And without him we might have someone at the top of the order that would get on base more and slug at a little better than a .355 clip.

Yeah, without him McDonald plays a lot more and he isn't as good a hitter but that is blunted by having him bat 9th. I'm not sure that by having someone that hits better (Overbay?) hitting near the top of the order in Scoot's place and having Mac at the bottom of the lineup doesn't improve the offense as well as the defense. So MVP....I don't think so.

Before next season we will have to make some decisions with our middle infielders. With Hill back we'll have him, Scoot, Inglett, Bautista and whoever we . It will be interesting to see how things all shake out, but if they shake out with Scoot batting more than 500 plate appearances again, we are in trouble.

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sounds like

Mac and Scoot will be splitting time next season at SS, unless a move is made. I would be a lot happier about this if Scoot didn’t always bat at the top of the lineup

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 22, 2008 8:13 PM EDT reply actions

So are we assuming the plan for the offseason

is to resign AJ and maybe bring in another starter to fill out the rotation?

Assuming Hill comes back, wouldn’t we still have a huge hole at the top of the order? Hill gets on at approximately the same clip as Scooter (though his SLG tops out much higher), and with Hill starting, Inglett wouldn’t be playing so he couldn’t lead off.

That leaves us with a lineup resembling:
Hill
Overbay
Rios
Wells
Snider/whoever we get to DH
Lind
Rolen
Big Rod
Scooter/Sir John A

while that looks like a decent lineup on paper (just like our lineups have for the past X years), I worry about the lack of a true leadoff hitter. We’ve been saying how bad Scooter is to have leading off, but with Hill we are getting the same OBP.

Assuming no move for a SS/leadoff, I think I’d like to see Overbay bat first (high OBP and reduced GIDP chances) like the Sox used to do with Yook, but I can’t see Cito batting his 1B leadoff. Then we could have Rios second followed by Lind, Wells, and Snider/DH (nice looking 2-5), and drop Hill down to 6 or 7.

by SuckaMD on Sep 22, 2008 9:56 PM EDT reply actions

that might work

another option would be Rios – he hasn’t done a great job of getting on this season, but he was over .350 last season. If we could get him into the leadoff spot and have him focus on getting on base, it might take some of the pressure to hit for power off (that seemed to be getting to him earlier this season, although who knows) and he could still develop similar to Sizemore, who took a huge lead forward in getting on a couple of years ago when placed in the leadoff spot and asked to focus on getting on base. And his speed might make him more appealing in a traditional sense – but of course it would be dependent on his having a better season in that regard

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 22, 2008 10:22 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd like them to consider

Hill at SS and then Inglett can play second and lead off. Hill wouldn’t be worse at short then scoot.

by Tom Dakers on Sep 23, 2008 2:43 AM EDT up reply actions

yeah

supposedly Hill is only now able to jog without symptoms. it’d be great if he continued to feel better and was ready for full baseball activities in the spring.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 23, 2008 6:21 AM EDT up reply actions