The worst part of the Pablo Sandoval injury is that Pablo Sandoval is injured. It’s especially disappointing consider how forward he was looking to this season, and how fulfilling it was turning out to be. It was fun watching him hit, field, and even run. Sandoval is a hyper-ironic kind of guy who embraced the best-shape-of-his-life thing with the regular folk in order to be reverse-ironic hip while the garden-variety cool kids were laughing at players claiming to be in the best shape of his life. He’s ahead of his time, and he’s already missed.
The second worst part of the Pablo Sandoval injury is that Miguel Tejada has a value to the team that he didn’t before. That value, standing in the vicinity of third base and transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide, isn’t much, but it’s enough to secure his spot on the roster when everyone -- and I mean everyone -- was starting to realize that he’s something less than a capable starter at shortstop for a contending team.
Now he’s not just a shortstop. He’s a corner infielder, one of the people in the lineup who is supposed to provide the power.
Yeah. This starting to sound familiar.
To Whom It May Concern;
Edgar RenteriaMiguel Tejada might be the worst starting position player in baseball. He’s at least in the discussion. Don’t take this as an attack on the idea behind his signing – I thought it was a good idea at the time. I regret that thought, and I wish there enough Lava Soap of the Mind to scrub it from my psyche, but I can’t complain about havingRenteriaon the team. I liked the length of the contract, and I was only a little put off by the money. (The threat of )Watching a year ofBrian Bocock and an expired Omar VizquelEhire Adrianza and Brandon Crawford flailing at the plate will do that to a man
The last time I was this put off by an aging Giants shortstop, the dude up and won a World Series for us. So is Tejada going to win a World Series for us? I think that science very clearly tells us "yes," but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried in the meantime.
I’ll give him May. It’s not like Bruce Bochy will give Ryan Rohlinger a chance to win more playing time, so I’ll begrudgingly give Tejada the month of May. He’ll have a month to find his swing and prove that his .222 BABIP is just one of those fluke things. He’ll have a month to be a no-field, some-hit shortstop for a premium price, which is all we ever wanted.
If he does this for another month? Done. Bring up Adrianza after he’s healed. Start a Rohlinger/Fontenot platoon at short. Put Posey back at short. Aubrey Huff throws right-handed, right? Put him at short. Schierholtz at short. These are ideas that are preferable to watching another inning of Tejada in the lineup and at short. But as a constant bellower of the small-sample horn, I’ll give him a month. It’s beyond generous for a player who is obviously done, but maybe my biases are getting in the way. It’s easy for that to happen, which is why we have statz! to help us figure out what’s real and what’s a mirage. Maybe that .222 BABIP is indicative of a guy who isn’t getting a lot of breaks. Maybe.
But I have a good feeling that Tejada is the newest punching bag on a .500 team that’s searching for them. He doesn’t seem to be what the French call, "good." He seems like a husk of a player. It’d be sad if I didn’t have to watch every game of his this season.