Kroeger/Marquez Article

[Dick Allen]

wow, u werent kidding lol

corky's numbers

Between 2004-2006 he was 1 for 55.

[thedoctor]

Between 2004-2006 he was 1 for 55.

 

but it was a damn good hit.

[NorthSideSox72]

It will be interesting to see how all this changes in a couple of weeks when some of the guys really playing well struggle a little bit, and some of the guys who are struggling put it together. I really don't see how anyone can come to any conclusion based on what has happened so far. I'm sure nobody has been ruled out, but nobody with the positions in play, have been ruled in either. Corky Miller is on fire. The reality is, he hasn't hit better than a pitcher during the regular season in 6 years. Odds of him doing it in 2009 are slimmer than Jerry Owens hitting 20 homers.

I was just taking a wild ass guess. Clearly there are a number of other things that could happen.

 

[Dick Allen]

but it was a damn good hit.

The problem with having him as a back up is if he's going to hit that poorly, AJ is eventually going to have to enter a lot of games when he's getting the day off. I think its best AJ gets some rest in 2009. He's getting to the age a lot of catchers hit a wall, and has had a pretty heavy workload the last several years. I think Miller would be a mistake. Stewart would be perfect if he continued to hit lefties like he did last year, but I don't know if that's reasonable.

[NorthSideSox72]

The problem with having him as a back up is if he's going to hit that poorly, AJ is eventually going to have to enter a lot of games when he's getting the day off. I think its best AJ gets some rest in 2009. He's getting to the age a lot of catchers hit a wall, and has had a pretty heavy workload the last several years. I think Miller would be a mistake. Stewart would be perfect if he continued to hit lefties like he did last year, but I don't know if that's reasonable.

Stewart is my top choice as well. I would like to see Lucy get more time, since he is apparently healthy, since a healthy Lucy is ideal for the job IMO. Miller is on fire, but, history says it is highly unlikely (though not impossible) that he has actually improved that much.

 

Anyone actually watched Lucy this year at all yet? Does he look like the same athletic player out there?

 

[scenario]

why not? isnt he (Pierre) at least better than owens?

 

I've seen teenage girls with better throwing arms than Juan Pierre. Seriously.

 

Do you remember when we played them last year? I think Thome was on second and someone hit a sharp single to Pierre in left. Cox sent Thome and I though OMG... he's dead. Thome was literally still on 3rd when Pierre got the ball. But there wasn't even a play at the plate. Pierre's throw from left field bounced several times before it got to the shortstop and there wasn't even a chance for a relay. It was quite likely one of THE most pathetic throws I have EVER seen in my life.

 

So... you think people are making fun of Owen's defense??? Oyyy. They'd be riding Pierre's butt out of town on a rail before the All-Star break.

Edited March 6, 2009 by scenario

[RockRaines]

I like anyone at backup Catcher other than Cole Armstrong. There is something about his swing that I dislike.

[scenario]

Another shot at Juan Pierre... this one from Tom Tango who says:

 

"Juan Pierre would have to defer his contract for 50 years to be worth acquiring."

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

There's certainly a clusterf*ck of suck in the OF. BA could solve the problem by just hitting but noooooo at least not yet. I'd happily wave so long to Owens and Wise (don't let the door hit you in the *ss on the way out). Let's see Kroeger play some games in CF. An Anderson/ Kroeger platoon could work. Lillibridge has a gaping hole in his swing so our 2 fastest guys couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. You know Betamit and Stewart have backup spots almost assured. I seriously wish Beckham was ready . I'd push Alexei into CF and start Beckham at SS and we could actually see major league talent perform. Keep BA around just for defense and power off the bench. Alexei as the backup SS.

[ThunderBolt]

I hope they're not humoring Kroeger, and actually intend on giving him an honest chance. He deserves that much at least. I just remember what the Athletics did to Todd Linden last year, where he hit about .571 during the entire spring, and was promptly discarded. I hope we have no intentions of pulling a similar stunt.

[striker]

I've never heard of Kroeger but he had solid AAA numbers.

 

I'm really liking Marquez. Hopefully he can continue his success.

[Balta1701]

I've never heard of Kroeger but he had solid AAA numbers.

It's hard to know what to make of Kroeger's minor league numbers. He was a high school draftee who raced up through the D-Backs system, but then he hit the big leagues for a brief stint as a 21 year old and then completely fell apart in AAA the next 2 years before he wound up a free agent signing with the Cubs. So what the real version of him is, it's just hard to say.

[SouthsideDon48]

I'm really liking Kroeger, I hope he makes the team instead of Brian Anderson.

 

This is how I see the outfielders of significance:

 

Kroeger>Wise>Owens>Anderson

 

 

As for Marquez, I'm really liking his chances as a starting pitcher in the major leagues, but I think his time is in 2010. I'd love to have him as a spot-starter or to take over if/when someone gets hurt.

[bighurt4life]

Dye is one of the worst defensive RF'ers in the game.

 

That's a pretty bold statement. I'm not saying that he's going to win any gold gloves but you can see that he takes great routes to the ball and gets good jumps which makes up for his diminishing speed. He also still has a good arm. Just because he's old doesn't mean that he can't play defense. I think that he's head and shoulders above many other starting RF's in the game right now- Abreu, Vlad Guerrero, Magglio, Mark Tehean, Geoff Jenkins and Milton Bradley are the ones that come to mind who I think JD is better than overall defensively.

[daa84]

That's a pretty bold statement. I'm not saying that he's going to win any gold gloves but you can see that he takes great routes to the ball and gets good jumps which makes up for his diminishing speed. He also still has a good arm. Just because he's old doesn't mean that he can't play defense. I think that he's head and shoulders above many other starting RF's in the game right now- Abreu, Vlad Guerrero, Magglio, Mark Tehean, Geoff Jenkins and Milton Bradley are the ones that come to mind who I think JD is better than overall defensively.

it may be bold...but its also correct...dye, while at one point in his career was solid out there, is a bad RF now

[Kalapse]

That's a pretty bold statement. I'm not saying that he's going to win any gold gloves but you can see that he takes great routes to the ball and gets good jumps which makes up for his diminishing speed. He also still has a good arm. Just because he's old doesn't mean that he can't play defense. I think that he's head and shoulders above many other starting RF's in the game right now- Abreu, Vlad Guerrero, Magglio, Mark Tehean, Geoff Jenkins and Milton Bradley are the ones that come to mind who I think JD is better than overall defensively.

His jumps are mediocre and he doesn't utilize his strong arm one bit. There's no way you or I could possibly watch and retain enough of all the righfielders in baseball to put together an accurate ranking based on memory alone, you'd have to watch every inning of about 100 games a season for every team in baseball and I know for me personally, that's just not realistic. The numbers are very clear, over the last 3 years only 1 RF has had a worse arm than Dye (Brian Giles) and no rightfielder has covered less ground. Geoff Jenkins is considered to be one of the very best corner outfielders in the game so I do find it ironic that you mention him and Milton Bradley has played a grand total of 79 games in the outfield since 2004 so that's hardly apt.

 

The best rightfielders in the game over the past 3 years according to the numbers? Austin Kearns (definitely has the reputation for being a terrific defender), Alex Rios, Jeff Francouer, Nick Markakis and JD Drew (when he plays, he's good). Maggs is pretty close to average and the bottom 4 are Vlad, Abreu, Hawpe and Dye. This all sounds about right, the young, quick, athletic outfielders are at the top and the old, slow guys (sans Hawpe) bring up the rear.

 

Jeff Francouer is way out ahead in the arm department which definitely rings true since it's the one plus plus skill he does have.

 

Jermaine is just slow as s*** and even if he's somehow getting better reads than his younger counterparts (I highly doubt it) he just can't move quick enough. As for his arm, it blows. He catches EVERYTHING flat footed and as a result he's unable to get anything on the majority of his throws, his arm may be strong but it's not nearly strong enough to make up for some of the worst throwing mechanics I've ever seen in an outfielder.

[Friend of Nordhagen]

Jermaine is just slow as s*** and even if he's somehow getting better reads than his younger counterparts (I highly doubt it) he just can't move quick enough. As for his arm, it blows. He catches EVERYTHING flat footed and as a result he's unable to get anything on the majority of his throws, his arm may be strong but it's not nearly strong enough to make up for some of the worst throwing mechanics I've ever seen in an outfielder.

 

This is so true. I've never understood how a guy who was once such a good outfielder can catch every single ball leaning backwards, no matter how near to the ball he was when it came toward the outfield. I mean, they work on this stuff, right? Or is Jermaine just a veteran "who knows how to play," so they don't say anything to him or work with him?

[BearSox]

I wonder where Kroeger places in the competition for CF. From what I have seen, he's only played the Corner OF and 1B, so perhaps we aren't even including him in the mix for CF but rather maybe the 4th or 5th bench role.

[BearSox]

I wonder what we're gonna do with Dye after the season. Hell, even if we do go through the whole season with Dye. I think we're gonna be pretty mediocre and try and trade Dye at the deadline but then again, doesn't Dye have some sort of trade clause (limited perhaps?).

 

I'm really excited for the next 1-2 seasons though, with all our young talent coming up and all the contracts we have coming off the books (Contreras, Thome, Dye, Dotel, Konerko and Pierzynski in 2 years, etc.) We are gonna have a ton of money to sign a couple of impact players in the next couple of years.