Dojji

I know he played one last year.

I would love to pick up James Shields, but I'm not in favor of parting with minor league assets of any quality for him, and the Padres are in a position to ask for a return in talent.

Three paragraphs of reasonable obliterated by one accidental fat joke. Yep I guess this is Talksox.

I didn't want to prejudge Pablo, but that doesn't mean there was never going to be a time to judge his effort. Pablo Sandoval's offseason efforts culminated in him playing his way onto the bench. It's the sort of thing that can happen to anyone -- IF they don't take care in the offseason. The responsibility for not taking care is his. He needs to eat the blame for the condition he showed up to camp in and how it affected his ability to do his job. No one else would be able to evade that responsibility, Pablo shouldn't either. It's not about being fat. I actually seem to remember a couple players actually playing their way into the doghouse because they worked out too hard and came into camp so musclebound it affected their mechanics. It's about not showing up ready to do the job you are contracted to do. But either way, when it was time to get to work Pablo was clearly not ready, whether he planned to get back into shape as the season rolled on or whether he just didn't care at all doesn't matter. He was caught absolutely flatfootted by Travis Shaw's powerful challenge to his job this spring and had no ability to respond, and when he tried to respond by upping his game his poor offseason preparation exposed him to injury. That's the bottom line, that's not me casting aspersions on Pablo's character, that's the culmination of what we have seen and can directly observe. And for a professional ballplayer who makes millions and whose #1 offseason job is to be ready for the season, it's absolutely, totally unacceptable. No organization should be willing to tolerate that kind of sloppy work from a highly compensated professional, and any organization receiving that kind of sloppy effort would look elsewhere to get the work done to a standard they find acceptable.

Right, the problem here is not because Pablo is fat. The problem is that Pablo is clearly out of condition. If he was strong enough to carry his own weight on the field that'd be one thing, but his performance says he clearly isn't, and that's the real issue here.

Even a DH has to keep himself in some kind of shape. I'm sorry Kimmi but it's time to let the Pablo thing go. That back injury on an ordinary baseball play is tied directly to his weight and it just handed Travis Shaw the job whether he's ready or not. Like it or not, Pablo Sandoval just ate his way out of a starting job, all that remains to be seen is if he can work hard and get himself into some kind of shape and be able to retake the job when Shaw is at a low point. It's a done deal that Shaw is going to break camp as our opening day third baseman, and that is exactly Pablo's fault for being so badly out of condition. At this point, when Farrell announced that third base would be a competition it is clear that Pablo wasn't physically ready to compete for the job and when he tried to step it up, he got hurt, which is what happens when you're not ready for a physical competition and you compete anyway. Thank God Shaw has been playing well this spring and gave us a second option, still worried about his defense but he's the only option we have right now so it's time to get behind him and just hope this works.

The Craig trade sounds more Ben-like. He always did favor trying to find value rather than go over the top for a name.

I have to agree. None of the Porcello extension, the Hanley signing or the Sandoval signing meshed with how Ben had operated up to that point. Witness how each move completely caught not just us, but the beat writers too, completely by surprise. It seems to me that the 2014-2015 offseason was marked by extensive executive meddling due to overreaction to dismal results in 2014.

Interesting question. Let's explore it logically by comparing what Theo and Ben have in common. The big thing they have in common seems to be their employer. Hmm. I wonder what influence the employer has on the outcome their employees can produce.

I do love that people immediately determined that my caution on Shaw meant that I was somehow supporting sandoval.

I really want to believe that Vazquez makes the roster. I think that that arm will save a lot of runs.

Redundancy is never a bad thing

Well I don't know how I accomplished that but half of that post should have been in another thread. I need to start paying a little more attention :/ Anyway, I was trying to say in this post, before I mangled it, that Sam Travis is a fine backup option if Hanley doesn't hit.

For the record I kind of see myself as a balancing force. When the hype roars in one direction I'm probably the guy trying to pull everyone back to the center. if I feel a rookie with some ability has been overlooked for various reasons I'll call attention to them, like I did with Daniel Nava. if I feel a trope is being overplayed of the exuberance over a guy is becoming irrational, I'll pull back in the direction of moderation. If I feel the hate train is rolling too strong on a guy I'll try to push back against that as well. it's what I do.

I'm not "s***ing" on Shaw. I'm applying the brakes and asking people to assess Shaw on some other basis than not being Pablo Sandoval. Looking at him as he is, it's an open question how well he can play 3b every day. Acceptable defense over the short term does not fully answer that question. Anyone remember Brock Holt last year? He was the Brockstar in the first half, and in the second half he was... a really half decent supersub who belonged on the bench but still provided strong value from the bench. I'm not going to pretend I'm not a little worried that that's what'll happen to Travis Shaw just because I don't like Pablo either and would rather he had never been signed.

Yeah but I'm not that concerned about Shaw's ability to deal with a short term assignment to third base. Pablo's health issues are going to keep mounting up, back problems in a big guy are Really Bad News. My concern is about shaw playing every day at third base. Fortunately he's young so it may work out.

If not, Sam Travis looks like a very interesting prospect.

And the last time he played 3B every day was in college, more than 5 years ago. that's not a concern a700?

Hate to lose Hanigan, he's a very good veteran backup, and there's a large sense that we don't necessarily have to lose him since Swihart and Vazquez both have options.

It doesn't bother me to be alone in my opinion. that seems to happen to me a lot. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. I do think a lot of legitimate concerns about Shaw are being whitewashed over because Pablo's issues are worse. While that's true, that doesn't mean there aren't legitimate concerns about Shaw starting at third base every day as well. The fact is that as I've said before, if I'm DD, I look for a league average 3B that I can acquire quickly from another team, and start laying groundwork for that deal just in case. It's not time to pull the trigger on that kind of deal yet, and Shaw is young so there's a decent chance he can adjust anyway, but let's not pretend there's NO risk here.

I'd be good with an average third baseman. Shaw hype notwithstanding, we don't really have one right now, not until we know how Shaw will field.

Warped minds think alike I guess. I had a similar thought, although without sending Castillo down.

Which is why we're worried about him transitioning from mostly playing first base, where you can let yourself fill out, back to a more athletic position that he hasn't played full time in years. There's very real concerns about Shaw's ability to both play well and stay healthy as an every day third baseman. As you might remember, trying to transition to full time 3B after being a very successful 1b and part time 3B was a large part of what tipped Kevin Youkilis over the edge and into oblivion. Looked like it was working at first but Youk kept getting hurt, not that he wasn't pretty injury prone to begin with. So there's a concern with guys who've filled out a bit, trying to move back. The risk factor was big enough to eat a guy alive who was one of the better hitters in the big leagues at the time. The problem here is those problems aren't as severe as the problems a severely overweight player would have in the same situation, so Shaw's risk factors are being underestimated because they are smaller than Pablo's and the whole thing is being smothered under a layer of hope. I hope Shaw makes good too. I'm just concerned about a few things that could blow up in our faces -- and have in the past.

You know, that injury to Pablo may actually be good news for David Murphy. It depends on whether Pablo has to go on the DL. If he does, a spot opens on the 25 man and we can load up a bit of redundancy in the outfield as insurance against Rusney spitting the bit. It's only one possibility of something to do with that spot, and there may not even be a spot, but it's a thought.

I was wondering that myself. Pitchers have been failing to field their positions longer than most of us have been alive. Every other fielder has priority on a popup over the pitcher. Pitchers are on the field to pitch, full stop, especially in the American League. They don't get the reps at their position that position players get, none of them do, none of them can, so of course they'll be worse fielders on average than position players, just like they're worse hitters -- because they need to focus almost exclusively on practicing their pitching. if you can get a pitcher that's also a great fielder or a decent hitter, that will increase his value somewhat, and that will I believe show up in WAR and other sabermetric numbers, but a pitcher getting gold at fielding is nowhere near as valuable as as being a better pitcher would be.