.306 average, 14 home runs, 37 RBI's, he's just not getting it done at leadoff He's been the only consistent hitter the astros have had. Playing Left Field at Minute Maid park doesn't make him a liability. Last time i checked he had a short amount of ground to cover and at that position you rarely have to worry about throwing someone out at the plate You can complain about Bagwell, Berkman, Kent, Ensberg, etc... but Biggio has been the one bright spot; other than Clemens
when have i viewed the TEAM through rose-colored glasses, DD? at the beginning of the season i was in line with everyone else who thought this team had a legit shot. not just people here, but the experts as well. and yes...i don't understand how a noodle arm has anything to do with batting in the leadoff spot. you make zero sense. again...you're asking for a player that doesn't exist in today's game. or if he does, there are few of them. and there are few that bat in biggio's spot in the lineup on any team that have been as offensively productive as biggio has been. you can try to refute that, but you'll fail. agreed that the astros are waiting for players to break out of a slump..but biggio isn't one of those guys. it's guys with names like bagwell, berkman and kent who can't seem to drive in runs. there's the problem, offensively. when the meat of your order can't drive in runs, you've got a problem.
Biggio has played center for most part of the season. And yes, when you miss routine plays anywhere in the field, it becomes costly. ...and to add; it's not all about missed plays, sometimes it's about making plays, something of which Biggio is immune to.
Dude, Did you see him bungle that fly ball to the wall against the Padres, and then they score 5 runs? The guy is a good hitter, not saying he isn't, just that with his diminished speed he would be better at an RBI producing spot rather than Leadoff. Me, I would bat Beltran at the Leadoff spot. DD
the problem is, we've seen berkman miss those same plays. in all fairness, gunn...we've asked the guy to switch positions two times in about 1.5 years now. and he's not a young guy. you're asking a guy who's played up the middle his entire career to go give you above-average defense at a corner spot?? i can think of a handful of guys who could pull that off, and they're mostly young guys. again....admitted he's a liability in the field. but i don't think we are where we are because of craig biggio's defense in the outfield. and when i read people post that here, it makes me wonder if people are even watching these games. i think you're getting enough production at the plate to more than offset for his liabilities in the field. and i think he's being judged more harshly as a defensive outfielder...on a standard higher than other OF's are judged by.
The funny thing is gunn, DaDakota was attributing Biggio's defense to Biggio not being a good leadoff hitter, which doesn't fly. No one argues that Biggio's a stellar outfielder, but when one argues that he's not one of the top leadoff HITTERS in the game this year, it reeks of crap. No GM in his right mind wouldn't extend Biggio's contract if the season ended today. Maybe that's why you and bigboymumu are posting on an internet site instead of working at MMP. BTW, I asked bigboymumu nearly three weeks ago to name me the teams that Biggio wouldn't be starting for. I'm still waiting.
yeah...they scored 5 runs because he "bungled" the ball. it had nothing to do with the fact they were knocking oswalt all over the place. you'd be wasting Beltran, then. you want to move a lesser run producer in biggio to the 3 spot?? the 5 spot?? to take away the only guy who is really driving in runs and put him at the leadoff spot?? not a good idea. this just in...no one is running bases anymore. how often do you see stolen bases, period? i don't see the yanks running the bases..or the sox...or the cubs...or the cards...i just don't see it. the game has changed a ton, in that regard.
Biggio has had a good year offensively no doubt, but he can not stop the guy going from first to third, and he has trouble judging the balls that slice away from him in left field. Biggio is not a big problem, it is clearly the lackadasical play of everyone else. I would rather see some young guys like Lane getting some real playing time, to see where the team needs to go for next season. However, the first thing I would do is bench Bagwell.....move Berkman to first and insert Lane. DD
Beltran played a ball in one of the Padres games that was much worse than anything Biggio's done this year because Beltran didn't even try to get to the ball. Biggio's made sacrifice after sacrifice for this team and the best he gets from some of you "fans" is that he sucks and shouldn't be brought back next year. Not to mention, ever since that Chicago series at Wrigley, Beltran's been pretty horrendous at the plate.
No more excuses. HE HASN"T PULLED ANYTHING OFF. HE IS TERRIBLE! Biggio is a liability anywhere he plays. I do not think his offense is good enough to cover up his liabilities on defense. At this point, our defense IS as bad as our offense. (maybe worse) I don't want to waste another year with this core. Either bring up the young guys or go out there and address the liabilities!
I think it can go in any direction in any given game. The bottom line is that he is a liability anywhere in the field and as each day the sun sets he gets one day older and one day slower. It seems to me that you and JPM and RM95 are looking solely at his offensive production and disregard the whole picture by saying that, "his offensive numbers outweigh everything else". It's not all about numbers. Nevermind the routine plays in which he outright blows, how about his limited range that doesn't allow him to get to balls that others get to or how about his speed on the basepaths that may not allow him to stretch that double into a triple or single into a double or go from first to third on a single or second to home. In saying this I'm not saying that he is dreadful on the paths but he's not drinking from the fountain of youth, you know. How about the shadow of losing and lack of production of late that some of these characters cast on the younger players and clubhouse as a whole. There comes a time when organizations have to know when to hold'em and when to fold'em (which it seems as if this organization doesn't seem to know when to let go). It might be reasonable to consider Biggio for a one year deal, but anything other than that would be ridiculous.
gunn -- i don't disagree with anything you just posted, except the idea i'm only looking at him offensively. i'm not saying he's an MVP. i'm acknowledging his defensive liability while also asserting that he may be the most consistent offensive component we have this season. i'm not saying you ink biggio to a long term deal at all after this season. but juxtapose that against some of the other comments here ....he sucks?? he shouldn't be starting on any MLB team?? those are ridiculous comments. if i'm biased for biggio...these guys have weightier biases against him, completely unwilling to consider the offensive half of his game right now. btw...the basepaths stuff....i think it's overrated in today's game. so few players are running the basepaths, period.
