Trade Ensberg now or wait until his stock goes up?

the way the astros seem to breakout the eggshells with ensberg has always left me feeling like he might be a bit of a headache in the locker room. they seem to indulge him far more than they would anyone else.

it's getting harder and harder to defend adam everett. the guy has a .253 OB%; .290 the past two full years. at least gloves like ozzie and vizquel could get on base. i'm wondering if we're nearing the end of everett being an everday SS...?

 

If he keeps playing like this, then that might be the case... However, if he plays like he did last year (0.240 or so average, mid 6's OPS - which was his worst ear), I think that's enough for him to keep his job if the rest of the offense does what it needs to do. It just becomes much more of a problem when Biggio, Ensberg, Berkman, and Scott/Lane are are all sucking.

 

If we do, put his ass out on the street. You won't even get a 12-pack from another franchise if such information comes out, and will have certainly proven that he's a moronic douchebag where injuries are concerned were to be currently concealing an injury *again*.

Completely agree. Everett's offensive shortcomings are magnified because the top and middle guys are slumping so badly (sans Lee and (hopefully) Pence). The best solution is for Berkman, Ensberg, et. al. to hit at their career averages, not to tweak Everett's position for a measly 10 more basehits.

 

Look at his splits. Ensberg has had about half his ABs this season hitting 2nd, and he's struggled in that spot (new to him). But hitting #5/#6, in the middle of the order as you say, he's done well. His average and OPS are good in those spots, and he's hitting well with men in scoring position. His poor #s in the 2 spot are dragging his overall stats down. Imo they should put him back 6th, after Berk/Lee/Pence.

 

They should put him at 6th in the lineup, and put a shock collar on him. That way, Garner can roast his ass when he leaves his bat on his shoulder.

 

i'm ok with AE ordinarily (i recently defended him, in fact); and yes, berkman (especially) et al should shoulder much more of the blame. but he's trending downward, and even as i try and maintain perspective... the guys is (iirc) 30. i'm just starting to wonder if he's a viable everyday option...

the guy makes between 200-210 put-outs a year; he logs 500+ ABs. i'm having a really hard time seeing the defensive justification - i'm trying, believe me.... yeah, ok, if he was .240/.650-ish, i might be ok... but, really, even that's horrorific. he averages 135-ish ABs a year with RiSP. while by no means significant, we can't just continue to assume he's breaking even or coming out ahead in the runs saved/runs cost department. i just don't see how he can, given the #s.

and speaking of - when do we officially ring the alarm on berkman? slumps are one thing; but we're going on a month and a half here... i'm in the parking lot of worried, looking for an open space...

 

If we had a productive right fielder (generally a prime offensive position), you could drop him to 7th. But, unfortunately, the Scott/Lane platoon is probably the least effective RF in the majors.

Like Major said, we have too many players right now who should be hitting 7th/8th based on this season's production. Ausmus and Everett wouldn't be so bad if Biggio/Ensberg/Scott weren't all right there with them. It's scary to think how horrible this offense would be if not for newcomers Lee, Pence, and Loretta. The holdovers in the lineup have collectively been garbage.

Speaking of which, why is Moehler still with the club? Does he have compromising pics of Drayton?

 

Good question - but I'm not sure what we could really do about that anyway. If Berkman sucks, I think we just accept that the offense is not going to turn out well. There are some other players out there w/ similar track records that are going through similar slumps right now (Konerko, Dye, Pujols, etc), so I'm hoping its just one of those things that a handful of random players go through every year but end up decent by the end of it all.

 

Yeah - I agree if he keeps trending downwards. If he hits like this going forward, he's going to lose his job at some point. I'm just hoping he's not *this* terrible a hitter because we'll really miss his defense.

 

The whole left side of the infield is like that.....I mean OUCH !

DD

 

i don't know, man... he's been carrying a sub-.300 OB% for 2+ years now; some 1400 ABs. that's atrocious, and i can't imagine a glove trumping that. i mean, what's the break even point? when do we concede his glove simply isn't that important? he is very literally one of the consistently worst offensive players in the entire game of baseball.

sure, if we had production from #1-7, we could carry him - but that doesn't mean he should get a free pass. i'm not by any means suggesting AE is the root of our problems. at the same time, i'm starting to wonder if his glove is in any way a piece of our foundation... especially with 3/5 of our current rotation being more prone to fly balls.

 

oh, i meant to also say - i checked on puljos the other day; his slugging is down significantly, but berkman's has fallen off a cliff. six - 6!! - extra base hits through nearly a third of the season....? yikes.

 

Wow, I didn't realize it was that bad...Pence already has 13 XBHs.

 

Uh...what?

 

Raise the flag and quit kidding the fans for attendace! I just can't see rings on most these guys. "Root for the good guys" obviously doesn't mean skill wise.

I really don't want to see us ending up like the Pirates and other teams were for so many years and still are. I really never thought the Brewers even tried to win. I always assumed they managed to turn a profit losing. And look how long it took them to finally turn the corner, even though they haven't really proven they can win yet. The Braves rebuilt extremely fast. Then again, Purpura had too much influence in our minors so we can't replicate that.

Hunsicker never really lost us many prospects that panned out in return for what we got in return. A couple moves by him now and we could still win the division.