FanPost

Grant Green should be called up

I think now is the time to finally see what Grant Green can do. He is hitting .300 with 7 HRs and 16 doubles at Sacramento right now and everything I've ever read about him says the guy can hit. While we sit and try and figure out the best way to platoon Sogard and Rosales in the line up every day I think Grant Green would be an upgrade over both. He doesn't offer huge power but how many middle infielders actually do?

If either Sogard or Rosales were hitting .300 with some power they would have cemented themselves as a starter already. Now can Green hit that well at the highest level? That remains to be seen but throughout his minor league career every scouting report says his bat will. So what is the hold up? ....Oh yeah. His glove. Until I am able to see him play for myself I'm not convinced his glove is that bad. At least not for 2B. Any player that was able to stick at SS all the way to AAA has to have some skill set with the glove.

The problem with Green was that the A's tried to make him stick at shortstop all the way to AAA before they decided he wasn't an MLB shortstop. They did so because we had no shortstops anywhere in our pipeline, he probably should have been moved off of SS a year or two sooner. That doesn't make him a bad defender, just a bad MLB shortstop. There IS a BIG difference. There are a lot of good MLB defenders that couldn't stick at shortstop. When the A's took Green off of SS the most logical move would be 2B right? The A's instead moved him to 3B, then to CF.

Why you ask? Because when the A's gave up on Green at SS, Weeks was earning the tag "untouchable" at the major league level. Also, at the same time we had nobody, and I mean nobody to play 3B (Kouz, Hannahan anyone?) Ok 3B didn't work out for him apparently so 2B is next right?.....nope, CF. Why? Coco Crisp, our only CFer, was due to be a free agent after the 2011 season. Our other outfielders Josh Willingham and David Dejesus were free agents at seasons end. All we had left for a starting OFer was Ryan Sweeney.

Grant Green was shuffled from SS to 3B to CF not because they were best suited for him but because they were trying to fill organizational needs. Everyone thinks he is defensive liability because of his inability to stick anywhere. I think he didn't stick anywhere because he was forced into positions he shouldn't have been playing in the first place. I could be wrong, I've never seen him play. But I would like to see him play before I tag him as a poor defensive 2Bman. Everyone says the guy can hit, lets bring him up and see if he can field.