Thank you for making this post. I have fought the urge everyday for about the past week to make a post asking why the hell we are still playing Omar Vizquel.

There is legitimately no logical reasoning to be playing him right now. We have a player behind him in Emmanuel Burris who (a) has more upside for the future and (b) is a better player right now! I truly can’t understand why we continue to trot Vizquel out there when it is obvious that he isn’t doing us any good in the present, and we all know that he will not do us any good in the future.

Thanks for the past few years Omar, now grab some pine. Sheesh.

D

I am all for handing Omar a little respect. Let Manny play against southpaw pitchers and ease him in a little against the righties.

Those who want to dump Omar are overlooking two important things IMO:

First, why dump a class act in a season in which wins don’t matter and in fact, the fewer wins, the higher the much-needed draft pick.

Second, Manny Burriss isn’t ready to play every day. Yes, I realize he has a pretty good average—but that is because the Giants have shielded him from right-handed pitchers and let him feast on southpaws, whom he seems to hit much better.

Has everyone forgotten that it was just over a year ago that Manny was DEMOTED from San Jose because he was hitting only .165. Over the winter I posted an odd theory that unless there was psychological damage, I thought Manny would have gotten more or less well had he stayed in San Jose. His line drive rate when he batted .165 for San Jose was actually higher than after he was demoted to Augusta and batted over .300. The big difference in his batting average between the two stops was that he had only one infield hit in San Jose but a TON of them in Augusta.

As ironic as it would be, it may be that Manny hit “better” for Augusta than for San Jose because he didn’t hit the ball as hard.

Still, when a guy hits a combined .250 or whatever it was between High A and Low A, isn’t it a bit much to expect him to play everyday in the majors the next year? And while the Giants probably should have started the season with Ivan Ochoa instead of Brian Bocock to begin with and could bring Ivan up to back up or even split time with Manny, if Omar goes, the Giants have no one to even back Manny up who is presently on the major league roster. I guess Rich Aurilia could do it, but he now seems to be more of a corner infielder range-wise.

So to be perfectly honest, I think those who want to jettisone Omar are both unappreciative and short-sighted. And believe it or not, Omar is actually starting to hit the ball a little.

I wouldn’t vote for Omar for the Hall of Fame. Yes, he compares reasonably well with fellow countryman Luis Aparacio and Ozzie Smith. But the shortstop position has changed since those guys played, and while they were at the top of their position, that really hasn’t been the case with Omar.

So I don’t think I’m being slanted toward Omar. I just think the guy deserves a little respect. No, I didn’t want the Giants to re-sign him. But once they did so, they took on the possible responsibility for being the team with whom he would end his proud career. If you bring the girl to the dance, you treat her right and make sure she gets home safely.

For making this fan post. I have been extremely frustrated by the same exact issue.

Let’s look at the facts:

1.) Omar can’t hit. He is also 41 and coming back from a rather serious knee injury. He never hit that well in the first place, and the chances are he will not “resume” hitting any time in the future.

2.) Omar has taken all of the heat OFF management (as any self respecting veteran should) by publicly stating he will not have his feelings hurt if he sits – he understands that he is not performing well enough to start on a ML team.

3.) There is a kid sitting on the bench who plays short stop, is definitely young enough to be the SS for this team for 15 years to come, and in limited ML playing time is batting .277/.339/.337. No, he’s not a power hitter – but he certainly makes contact and as far as we can tell thus far can hit at least a little.

So why on earth is Buriss backing up Omar instead of the other way around? Even all of the reasons previously stated that center around “respect” are invalid because Omar himself came out and essentially said “Don’t play me, I’m not carrying my own weight”.

So I am truly baffled. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, let’s look at this season position by position.

1st base. We were supposed to be starting a “young” Dan Ortmeier at the position. Well, after a lackluster spring training he got so buried in the bench that he has seen a total of 4 games at the position and 64 at bats the entire season. As a reference, he has exactly twice as many at bats as Matt Cain. Replacing him for the most part has been a platoon of Rich Aurilia and John Bowker. So, in the end, at first base we have a “young” player getting approximately 50% of the playing time.

2nd base. We started the season with a combination of Velez and Durham. Buriss came up a while later and so did Denker. That means we’ve had 3 young players that can play that position avaliable. What we’ve received however is 54 games of Ray Durham, 20 games with Velez, and diddly-squat with the other two. Let’s not forget that Velez only got those 20 games because Durham was injured. Since Durham has been healthy, it’s been the all Ray every day show at 2b.

SS. Bochy’s hand was forced into Bocock by injury. As soon as Vizquel came back, we have seen essentially 100% Vizquel despite his putrid performance. (Hell, even Bocock was arguably better @ the plate w/ a .143/.258/.156 and essentially the same in the field)

3rd. Well, Castillo -nuff said. Not really Bochy’s fault I guess (Altho I would have liked to see Velez start a few games there personally – maybe Denker too. If you’re going to hand the position to a converted 2b, then why not split that time with some other available 2b’s.)

LF – Lewis. The only freaking reason that Lewis has gotten 62 starts in LF is because Roberts is hurt. The ONLY reason.

CF – Rowand. No complaints here, He is part of the present and future and should be starting every game he can. Bochy hasn’t really had any input on this however so it’s a non factor in our judgement.

RF – Winn. 74 starts in RF – Horowitz, Bowker, and even Ort could take AB’s here – but just about every single game has gone to Winn..

C – Okay, I guess not really Bochy’s fault – no real “young” options here. Molina is also only 33 and could reasonably be around with this team for another 2-3 years (backing up Posey) so time “invested” in him is not as complete a waste as it is with, say, Durham.

So, essentially we have 1.5 positions out of 9 where a veteran is not playing everyday. LF and 1B. LF is due to injury to a veteran (IE no veteran options) and 1B is due to a lack of 1B veteran options as well (Also, let us not discredit Bowker’s Power which I think has impressed.)

So, in all of this rambling I guess my underlying point is that the only positions where a young player is getting the bulk (or even a significant percentage) of playing time are those where Bochy does not have a veteran option.

Bochy just won’t play the kids – he absolutely wont unless he has no other option. He is far and away the wrong manager for a rebuilding team.