
I'm still catching up from Spring Break, but bear with me...



Javy Lopez has proven, over 1400+ AB in the minor leagues, that he is
ready to play in the majors. He is *not* being rushed. Players who are
clearly too good for AA and play behind stiffs at the major league level
are wasting their time, and may actually have a court case against
major league management for keeping them, at AAA.


Unless Lopez is *me* defensively (I'm 5'7'', 165 and born to play
second base :-)), he belongs in the major leagues.


Valentine isn't saying he should back up. He's saying he should be put
in a position to *win* the job in the major leagues, which, IMHO, he
would if given the opportunity. (Val, if I'm misinterpreting, please
let me know.)



But the players who *are* ready are 1)the best and 2) the ones most
likely to benefit from being in the majors. Javy Lopez is not a middle-
of-the-road prospect. He's the real thing. NOW. 

Again, the most important thing a player can do is hit. Lopez does that
miles better than Olson or Berryhill. If his defense is good enough for
Greenville, or Richmond, it's good enough for Atlanta. If he really was
awful defensively, he would no longer be a catcher. See Sprague, Ed.


Oh, where to start... OK. First of all, solid != good. I want good players.
Solid is one of those words used to describe nice white guys who really
aren't very good at baseball. Think of it as "TWG" without the caps.
It's a losing strategy to say, "We have solid guys, we don't need to improve."
You used it four times in that paragraph, BTW.

Same for experienced. I might add, though, that Greg Olson and Damon
Berryhill aren't exactly Carter and Fisk. Olson has played three years,
Berryhill five, although 90 and 91 were a wash. The only difference,
IMHO, between Olson and Valle is the supporting cast.

"Two big bats." Hrm. I like Justice, but I find Mr. Gant's trend disturbing.
Call it one and a maybe. The Braves' platoon is OK, but neither player
has *any* value outside of the platoon. Bream vs. LH and Hunter vs. RH
are awful. I'll leave the thirdbase comment alone. Pendleton has wasted
too much bandwidth already. If the CF platoon hits .300, I'll retrace
Mr. Likhani's midnight run down Forbes, and I live in NY and LA.
(Got that, Mike?)

And doesn't Cox call pitches, anyway?


Nope. They're baseball management, possible the most short-sighted 
collection of people in the nation. Do you not believe this goes on,
Mark? Do you think Frank Thomas needed those three months in AAA in
1990? Or Cal Eldred wasn't *really* better than Ricky Bones last year?


You're mostly polite; make defensible, if flawed cases; have wit and
have, in the past, admitted being wrong. That does qualify you on r.s.b.
We'll make an SDCN out of you, yet :-)
