rocketfat, i know that you and burzmali are making statements and arguments towards each other but i have to chime in on here even though i don't know ya'lls history.... if everett is the best defensive shortstop in baseball, then there are 29 other teams that have a worse shortstop defensively, 1 out of 30, those aren't pretty good odds on making a WS appearance, so like you say of the 100 WS winners there are pretty good odds none of those teams will have a great defensive shortstop. There is more to winning a WS then a poor offensive shortstop, now when you combine him with a poor offensive catcher then yes the combination looks like a hinderance, however you cannot continue to point out his lack of offense for the reason the astros will not win a WS, because we came within 7 runs of winning the WS with everett! Winning is a team effort and yes at this point we haven't gotten a team effort from our players yet. IMO, taveras should not be starting unless garner will set him free on the basepaths...lamb and burke need to be starting as a few people have mentioned their displeasure of the garner switch hitting tactics that always seem to fail.
you're absolutely right. it was vizcaino. good point. i don't think it was in spite of adam everett. defense was a strongpoint of this team last year, and everett, as the SS, was the anchor. we didn't lose the world series because of hitting, silly goose. we averaged nearly 5 runs a game. we lost the world series because the key factor all season, pitching, failed us. clemens gave up 3 runs in 2 IP in game 1...oswalt gave up 5 runs in 6 IP in game 3. lidge failed to be lidge throughout.
Preston Wilson has been the worst defensive LF in the majors this year. His range is abysmal. Putting Preston in center would be an absolute disaster. It was his natural position at one time... before multiple knee injuries and surgeries. Now it's a stretch to even have him in a corner OF spot... center would never happen. I think it speaks volumes that the organization trusts Lane as the emergency CF (well, when he was on the team) more than Wilson. That's not a role he can play at this point in his career.
I wouldn't like to see Ensberg traded. We know he can hit...and the times he has suffered slumps it has been due to injury (2nd half of last season, and now this one). Trading him away would seem like they're pushing the panic button already.
we're halfway through the season and we are a few games under .500... its about time to push that panic button
So what? Does that mean that Mike Gallo played an instrumental part in the playoffs too? He's now in AAA. Hell, even Jason Lane was a productive hitter last year and now he's playing AAA ball in Round Rock.
IIRC, everett turned the double play to finish off game 4 which propelled us to a 3-1 lead and ultimate series victory! The tying run would have scored had that double play not been made....
We knew everetts lack of offense.... we didn't expect lane's...he can't contribute anything else if he can't hit
With all due respect to AE's defensive ability, it was Bruntlett that really made that double play special.
and bruntlett was playing 2nd! better sit biggio down and put him in there full time! and while we're at it, why is taveras no longer our every day CF? and why put ensberg on the DL? don't they know he was on our world series roster last year which means he automatically gives us the best chance of going back there no matter how poorly he's playing and no matter what's wrong with him?
Good catch. I can't believe anyone would actually forget that play...it was only the 2nd most amazing play of the NLCS (2nd to Albie's crusher).
with respect to bruntletts defense, everett actually turned it when he avoided the slide and had to release the throw to berkman in time
bruntlett was a defensive replacement at the time, he didn't start....biggio did taveras isn't hitting .300 and stealing 30 bases this year.... ensberg is plain hurt, what can you do about that? lane isn't hitting like last year everett is pretty much right on track as to where we expected him
Look back at Vizquel's stats when he was younger, he was every bit the offensive player AE is now. Look at Ozzie Smith, Dave Concepcion & many others who took awhile to develop an offensive game, or never did (Belanger). Why were they starting shortstops?
