By David Bobke
Here's a couple reasons I'm writing his article...
A) I want to hear more about certain players, and what
better way to drum up talk about them than to write an article about them. And
B) I want to play the game “Like 'em, Love 'em, Leave 'em.” (If anyone can come
up with a better name, please leave a comment, I'll consider changing it.) I
know of a few other names for the game, one of which is NOT family friendly (so
don't even suggest it!), but if you're not familiar with the game I'm talking
about, you'll catch on quickly.
I'm going to start with a couple Catcher editions of the
game. Here's the first...
Jesus Montero, Salvador Perez, Victor Martinez
If given a choice of these three with no other parameters,
I'll take V-Mart, or “Love 'em” as the name would suggest. He's coming off an
ACL injury and he's 34...but...he'll DH. He'll qualify at C, but play DH,
greatly reducing the chances he'll get hurt during the season...and you have to
love guys like that. In the mocks I've done so far, V-Mart is barely cracking
the top 10 at C, and again, love guys like that. Mike has him #3 on his list of
Catchers; I can't say I would draft V-Mart as the third Catcher in the draft,
but I love the value of a guy like this that will probably go no sooner than 7th
in my drafts. I love knowing that I can wait to draft my C for quite a while if
I'm certain Martinez will come back strong. This guy is averaging 10th
among Catchers in my early mock drafting, and barring injury, I can virtually
guarantee he'll average higher than that by the time draft season kicks into
high gear.
Now I'm supposed to pick my “Like 'em” pick, the guy I would
take next if I had to take 2 of these guys, but would pass on if I could only
select one. And this is difficult because I'm buying in heavily on 2nd
year guys this year. I like Montero, I like the fences in Seattle moving in,
but I also respect what Perez could do coming off his injury. I think Perez is
in a better (potentially) lineup with Escobar, Hosmer, and Moustakas
potentially being whatever they can be along with Butler and Gordon. I
guess...I feel like I know what I'm going to get more consistently with
Montero. He'll be DH-ing, so there's more chance he'll be starting every day
than Perez. That's the clincher for me. So, I'll “Like” Montero and “Leave”
Perez. (Update: M's acquired Mike Morse, further backing the idea of taking
Montero over Perez)
Let's stay at C and throw a few more names out that Mike
made specific comments on:
Geovany Soto, J.P. Arencibia, A.J. Pierzynski
I “Love” Pierzynski here. He's a big mouth and might be a
punk depending on which side of the fence you're on, but he had terrific value
last year. I should know, I owned him! He won't start every day, but he didn't
last year with the White Sox either, and he was still easily a Top 10 Catcher.
I'd like to see him get a DH appearance now and then, but I doubt they'll do
that, especially with Berkman around. Nonetheless, If I'm at this point of a
draft where I need one of these guys, I'm taking A.J. in a heartbeat.
I'm in “Like” with Arencibia. I don't like these “all power,
no average” guys AT ALL, but I'll take that over brutal play like what I expect
from Soto. I absolutely do not trust Soto. J.P. is in a very good lineup, and
he could come up with some really good games if you can take the shot in the
Batting Average category. I'm happy to take “all power, no average” over “no
power, or anything else for that matter.”
By David Bobke
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