Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Lawrie to start opening day with Toronto. I think it would be harmful to his development, as a fielder, and as a hitter. He’s making it awfully hard not to consider him though. There’s a bunch of factors that play into it, and I’m going to try to see if him starting the year here is really a bad idea.
A) A) The conditions at AAA Las Vegas.
-The field conditions in Las Vegas are hard, rough and not the environment you want to put a guy learning a brand new position. And while I know Rogers Centre wouldn’t necessarily be any better, at least he would have consistent access to Brian Butterfield, and I don’t think sending him back to AA is a great idea because…
B) B) He’s too good to go back to New Hampshire
-He put up a .361 wOBA at Huntsville last year. He had a respectable BB% of 7.7, and his K% was 21.3, which is really quite good for a 21 year old with just over 1000 pro at-bats. And some of those triples and doubles are going to start turning into tater tots. I don’t think it would be good for his development, or psyche, to go back to New Hampshire and hit .300/.380/.500. He seems like the kind of guy who would let that go to his head.
C) C) Speaking of his personality…
-Do you really want Brett ‘Doctored Eminem Tattoos’ Lawrie going to sin city? I’ll let you answer this one.
D) D) Our line-up would improve
Without Lawrie:
C Arencibia
1B Lind
2B Hill
3B Bautista
SS Escobar
LF Snider
CF Davis
RF Thames/Podsednik/Patterson*
DH Encarnacion
With Lawrie:
C Arencibia
1B Lind
2B Hill
3B Lawrie
SS Escobar
LF Snider
CF Davis
RF Bautista
DH Encarnacion
…Uh, yeah, Podsednik or J-Bau…your call.
E) E) He had a double and a homerun today, and Ashby liked his D
-This is a completely reactionary post. I listened to the Jays game today on the ol’ Fan 960 here in Calgary, and when I heard Ashby gushing about Lawrie pickup on the one double play…well, got me thinking about his defensive readiness, I mean, he has been playing second for a year or two now, hasn’t he? Weren’t we all asking for Hill to go play third earlier this year? Can’t be too hard of a transition. And then ‘The Law’ hit his homer and…well, this post was spawned.
You completely left out Rivera...and Bautista plays either way. Lawrie's making a case but I don't think many of these factors will play into it. If there's a major injury, or if he continues to absolutely tear it up - and, more importantly than either, if AA is willing to sacrifice the service time - then he'll break camp. End of story.
ReplyDeleteI'm holding out hope that AA pulls off a deal with Rivera... but yeah, you're probably right. And his OPS at AA was below eight hundred, so a few reps at AAA wouldn't hurt. I kinda just wanted to talk about Lawrie a bit.
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