Allow me to rant for a moment.
The Pirates just signed washed up infielder Brandon Inge to a minor league deal with a Spring Training Invite.
That brings the number of non-roster infielders the Pirates will invite to camp to six. In addition to those six NRI the Pirates will have nine infielders on the roster at camp.
There are actual battles here. There are actual guys that could use these Spring at bats to improve their stock and/or to get into game shape for the season.
I’m not talking about old guys either, I’m talking about young players with years of control.
Is there any realm in which Brandon Inge is more likely to be successful than Josh Harrison? Because if he makes the team over Harrison he will be more expensive and come with less control.
How does this impact a guy like Chase d’Arnaud who is getting awfully close to his last chance? Shouldn’t we see as much of him as we possibly can?
Now we are talking about platoons. Guess what… you can’t platoon every position. There is a reason why you need decent every day players, it creates lineup flexibility. If you platoon too many players you then limit the amount of pinch hitters and replacements you have due to which way they hit. It takes chips away from you as a manager and gives the other manager a chance to completely change your lineup with one pitcher. You in essence allow the opposing manager to make a few lineup changes for you. Once you do that, you’re locked into that player, regardless of who the next pitcher up is.
Platooning Inge and Pedro Alvarez? Pedro Alvarez wasn’t even that much worse against lefties than Inge last year. Is this seriously the type of moronic thing we are considering? Is this how we’re going to defend every single move the front office makes? Is this the way to justify just doing nothing but throwing shit against the wall and hoping it sticks?
Brandon Inge isn’t low risk/high reward. He is low risk/low reward. And to take out a 30 homer guy for Brandon Inge is laughable.
To think that Brandon Inge or Brad Hawpe might make this team over any younger player is laughable, and it’s more of the same washed up veteran garbage fans and bloggers are supposedly tired of.
A small number of low risk/high reward NRI is one thing. A wink and a nod reliever is one thing. Bringing in any trash from the dump is quite another. It takes at bats away from young guys who should be part of the future and gives them to guys that won’t be here, or possibly in baseball, next season. A waste of time and resources, since these guys aren’t playing for free.
