Eric Chavez. Toast?
by since72 on Feb 29, 2008 11:42 AM PST
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PrintThe Hanahan Era begins...
"It's like deja vu all over again." Yogi Berra
Isn't this just a rewind of last season? We all love Eric, but it is time to admit that his best years are past, and needs to go the way of Kotsay. Let's stop sticking a 2x4 up his uni and propping him up at the plate.
Make room for the kids. Why are we doing this? We have done it for every other position this year? Nobody is going to take him....sit him and crown Jack the new 3rd baseman, since we seem so ready to do the same for almost every other position in the field.
Ok, so maybe this is just part of his recovery process, but geez, enough of the old backs.
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Ok
It's frigging February.
Get a grip.
This is why I hate spring training. There's so little news that people jump on anything that sounds even vaguely like news and blow it completely out of proportion.
Just to remind everyone, assuming the option year is declined, Chavez's contract will expire in approximately 32 MONTHS. He is not going to be benched or released, and he's certainly not going to be traded as long as his health is still lousy.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
but maybe he'll be buttered and marmaladed
Or would that be marmaladen? Marmaloaded?
Maybe the A's should try stretching out his back by dragging him behind a horse: Marmalarded.
Someone is wrong on the Internet. @('.')@
Besides
he's been "toast" for several seasons now. What else is new? We'll keep trottin' him out there though ... just like a tired, has-been horse loooooooong past his prime.
VacaAsFan
You must have an interesting definition of "toast"
since it apparently doesn't mean "average or worse".
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
How bout
a .240 average with 37 HR's and 118 RBI? That would be a very nice one-season total, but alas, that's two season's combined.
For all the hype? That, my friend, is definitely average .... or worse.
VacaAsFan
How about
using stats that actually don't suck?
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
But in only 1.4 seasons worth of PAs ...
He's posted a better than average OPS each of the last two years, while performing better than average in the field.
Eric Chavez, injuries and all, is a better than average player. Hate all you want, it doesn't make it any less true.
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
See? This is reality, but I don't have to like it!
PT, your info is correct, but that doesn't mean we have to like the fact that we are stuck with him. He is a warrior and he'll always be an A's hero, but you can't keep him.....except that we have to keep him. This way madness lies.
"It's a cookbook!"---The Twilight Zone
Hannahan, btw, is not a "kid".
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
isn't he like
27 or 28?
President of the Joey Devine fan club as of 1/15/08. Accepting applications for other positions. "He has no equivalent." -Paul DePodesta on Jeremy Brown
28
And Denorfia is 27. This is not a Marlins-esque lineup of shavelings.
I like Hannahan a lot and I think he has certain skills (LD hitting, strike zone judgment) which are somewhat underappreciated, but he's not projectable at all. What we saw last year was his performance ceiling.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
The Japan trip
Still, it might make sense to start thinking about leaving Chavez stateside and letting Hannahan start the two real games against the Red Sox in Japan in March. The chance that the difference between Chavez and Hannahan is going to cost us even one of those games is very, very small -- and I think the chance of a round-trip flight to Tokyo aggravating Chavez's back is much greater. And messing with his back is also of greater consequence to the A's than is fielding the best conceivable lineup for those 2 games.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
I'm not going to argue with you there
although, again, the plane doesn't leave for another three weeks or so.
Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.
Yeah, it's not an immediate decision
but I would hope that the medical team would begin thinking seriously about it now. In fact, I hope they started doing so a while ago and are now reevaluating based on Chavez's setback. That is, maybe they can treat the trip like a goal in his rehab -- make a decision ahead of time about how well he has to be doing, based on objective, measurable criteria, for them to approve the trip.
If they leave it to "we'll see how he's feeling" or "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" I think they're a lot more likely to make the decision based on non-medical considerations (really wanting to win, Hannahan hitting like crap in AZ, Chavez really, really wanting to go) and then rationalize the decision based on selectively looking at how his recovery is going.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Any evidence that flying affects Chavez' back?
I have a cranky back, but as long as I move around every couple of hours (which shouldn't be a problem in first class/chartered plane) I don't have any problem with very long flights. I've even flown to and from Japan, with no issues at all.
Mark Kotsay's back clearly was aggravated by flying -- but not all back injuries are created equal.
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
Not as far as I know, but who knows after surgery?
This isn't the back he's had for the last few years -- it's that back after surgery. Here's the problem. What if they find out halfway over the Pacific that flying messes up his back? What do they do, parachute him over Hawaii? Leave him in Japan? Tell him to hop a ride on a freighter?
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Figure that he has a job the requires he fly once or twice most weeks ...
and if he can't do that, he's worthless, anyway?
"It's for your own good. Big strong Devo knows whats best for Poppy" -- Mossback
I remember a year or two ago
when the A's were for some reason treated to a return trip from the east coast on some pro basketball team's private plane, and Kotsay and I think Duke came away from that flight with back troubles immidiately following. It caught my attention at the time because I had some conspiracy theory all worked up.
But it definitely affected another player other than Kots.
"I'm going to take a camera crew and march into Billy Beane's office and demand to know why instituting his newfangled cost-saving measures means that the run manufacturing plant had to get shut down." FJM
It's more than that even -
it's a "no brainer". If Chavez makes the trip to Japan, it will signify a new level of stupid.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Hannahan turns 28 on Tuesday
Which will make him two years younger than Chavez.
Make room for the kids?
formerly known as mdl
Chavez back is 227 years old
in dog years. That makes him older. Make room for the kids is an expression, as in make room for the new guys.
"Doesn't play well with the other children." Ms. Darias, principal, Broad Ave School
Some of us like salad.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Did someone say "salad"?
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
seriously
chavez isn't mexican enough to get a "salud"
President of the Joey Devine fan club as of 1/15/08. Accepting applications for other positions. "He has no equivalent." -Paul DePodesta on Jeremy Brown
Or American enough to be toast.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
that was pretty good
President of the Joey Devine fan club as of 1/15/08. Accepting applications for other positions. "He has no equivalent." -Paul DePodesta on Jeremy Brown
I guess that depends
on how serious you think his injuries are.
"Tomorrow it may rain." - Leo Durocher
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