Stop criticizing Jack Cust

that Cust has already more than earned his salary and more if you look at his WAR and compare it to similar players. I’m sure he would’ve been more than reasonable.

This isn’t to say that all of our guys suck, or that we can’t surprise people ‘2010 San Diego’ style. But to act shocked that a team with so little offense isn’t dominating and then use that as justification for rampant negativity is beyond hilarious.

His exact quote, as I remember it:
“This isn’t negative, this is honest! We’re 8 games out of first!”

Well duh. But wth were you expecting?

Jack Cust is a valuable member of this team in it’s present context. His OBP is over .400 so he’s doing his part. I don’t like all the K’s of late, especially the many of them that are looking. He had done such a good job of getting away from that but overall he is certainly doing his part.

I do take issue with the fact that Beane is a legitimate bright spot. Sorry but we have to disagree on that one and that’s been hashed over quite a bit of late so we won’t go there.

If you mean Billy’s seemingly excessive patience with Bob Geren as manager, I’ll give you that.

Otherwise, I don’t think you can blame him for the offensive struggles of the team. He tried signing Furcal, Beltre, and Scutaro the past 2 yrs, even made great offers, but they all declined – probably in large part because of our park and lack of aura.

Sure, he’s made some mistakes over the years. Chavez turned out to be a major bust on his contract, but that signing actually made a lot of sense at the time; there was no way to know Chavy would turn into a vegetable. Also I hated the Matt Holliday trades; I love Street and I thought Gonzalez was going to get better.

But Billy is still doing his darnedest to keep the team competitive on its small budget. I know we haven’t had a winning season since 2007, and that frustrates me too, but imagine if we had someone like Brian Sabean at the helm; 76-86 in a year would feel like a miracle!

It’s painful to watch that guy at the plate. You can throw all the statistics you want on this site, but the bottom line is that no one wanted Cust this year, and he has no trade value.

Is he of value on a team with the 25th lowest run production, 29th lowest home run production, and 26th lowest slugging percentage? Undoubtedly yes. I still can’t watch his at bats.

Don’t get me wrong. I like watching this team quite a bit, much more than last year that’s for sure. But Cust? I have to turn my head or pull out a newspaper whenever he comes to the plate (or whenever a fly ball comes his way on the rare occasions that he plays the outfield). He can drive the ball, yes. But most of the time, he looks just plain awful.

All this talk of a great power hitter, he has hit >30 homers only once. On a good team he is a bench player at best. On the Yankees, he’s an accounting error.

the Book of Barton Bunting. It’s not like our offense can afford to give away outs with one of our best hitters.

So many threads about my Favorite Baseball Player.

Jack, you are the best.

….he’d be even more valuable to this team. Sort of like Chavez was back in the day. When Chavy had the likes of Giambi and Tejada (even Jaha and Stairs!) around him, he was a much more productive hitter than when he was slotted into the fourth spot in the mid 2000’s and was being counted on to be “the guy”.

With that in mind, does Cust get signed next year? There have been endless posts about Carter and Taylor, but assuming both make the team next year and at least come close to their potential, an Outfield / DH / 1B rotation like this doesn’t sound too bad: Jackson, Davis (please stop criticizing him as well at this point), Taylor, Sweeney, Cust, Barton, Carter. Cust surrounded by Taylor and Carter would seemingly create an intriguing middle of the line up. On paper at least.

Oh, but for any of this to be even worth considering, Geren has got to go.

He’s possibly one of three A’s in the past four years to stay off the fracking DL!