Kevwin Millarnacion

Encarnacion's wrist injury is starting to worry me.  Not that I'm that worried about missing his bat in the bottom 3rd of the lineup.  I think the Jays would also get by just fine without him manning the hot corner either.

In fact, I'd be fine with combination of Bautista (3B), Lind (OF), Snider (OF), Ruiz (DH).  I think the defense you lose by putting Lind in the corner OF spot, you gain by replacing Bautista at 3B.  You also get a hot Ruiz into the every day lineup as DH.  He sure has earned that opportunity, hasn't he?  I also like the idea of allowing Lind to get more OF experience before passing final judgement on his defensive abilities.

I actually have no problem with Encarnacion.  When healthy, his bat has shown flashes of promise, and we all hope and pray for an improvement in his defensive skills under Butterfield.  The thing is, at it stands, his bat is the only justification for having him in the lineup, in lieu of the above combination.

Getting back to what worries me...  Cito Gaston worries me.  We've seen what wrist problems have allegedly done, offensively, to some of our "star" players in recent years.  Only now are we hoping that Wells and Overbay's power numbers return (although Overbay was OK last year I suppose).  Could the same fate be in store for Encarnacion?  Who knows?  Hopefully, they're just being extra cautious and he'll be perfectly OK as soon as he stands in the batter's box.  If not, I'm bracing for 500 AB's of Kevin Millar, and there's nothing we can do about, because The Manager says so!!