As I have said a number of times on this blog, I am a Guardians fan for life by birthplace and choice. On the other hand I am a Cardinals fan by both marriage and residence for half my life.
So, my wife and I are watching the Cardinals the last couple of nights I happen to see Richie Palacios go deep THREE TIMES.
The nightmare PR scenario here is that Palacios, who is a left-handed slap hitter, has now hit 4 HRs in 45 ABs this season. In June, to clear a roster spot for Cody Morris coming off the 60-day DL, we 'traded' Palacios to St. Louis for cash after DFAing him. Seemingly minor transaction with little repercussions, right?
Well, Palacios, who the Cardinals have deployed at all three outfield positions and second base, a position the Guardians decided he could not play, has almost as many HRs (4) in 45 ABs as Will Brennan has in 400 (5). In addition, in the 2023 draft the Guardians drafted SIX college slap hitters, 5 of whom hit left-handed. That comes after a 2022 draft where the Guardians drafted 3 college, LH hitting slap hitters in the first 6 rounds of the draft, none of whom has had a good year this year and traded for a RH slap hitter in the Benson deal who hit .150 in A ball before he was shut down for the season.
So they gave Palacios away for nothing and brought in a bunch of draftees and made trades for guys with the same profile who are much less talented and keep guys like Brennan who don't perform well.
- Juan Brito, a guy who has one above average tool, his eye at the plate
- Justin Boyd, who hit .150 this year and Steven Hajjar, who is walking a guy an inning this year, both of them, as college players, failing in A+ ball, where, as college players, they should dominate.
- Zunino - nothing
- Bell - Khalil Watson, a failed Miami prospect and some cash savings IF Bell accepts his player option for 2024.
It will be proven to be a fluke, as will a number of the players you have wrung your hands over. Hell, a few of them you did not even care about losing until the suddenly did some hitting. Wish we would have gotten more for a few of them, but you make a federal case out of a few misdemeanors, plus a few were addition by subtraction. Hindsight is 20/20. Junior Caminero is the biggest mistake, followed by Nolan Jones and Will Benson.
ReplyDeleteHere were my comments at the time of Palacios' DFA, posted on June 11th: "Hopefully he clears waivers and stays in the organization. I think this is a case where they sent him back to AAA and asked him to become someone he is not. Part of me wishes he would get picked up by another team that would have a spot for who he IS, not who they think he could be. Seems like they said 'Kwan is the same type of player but is better and we only need one Kwan'....then they go out and draft in 2022 a bunch of Kwan clones and trade for one, Justin Boyd." Just to level set since my post was about Palacios. And this post was BEFORE they drafted a bunch of the same type of guys in the first 10 rounds of the 2023 draft. BTW, I imagine you are saying that Palacios' 4 HRs are a flash in the pan, which could be true...or maybe the Cardinals, a quality organization, just let him be himself and now they are reaping the benefits. On the other hand, Brennan's total lack of power is who he is. If he continues like this he will likely end up like Palacios as guys who aren't great defenders in the OF can't hit like Brennan does and even be a platoon player. As far as the other players you said I wrung my hands about, please provide their names.
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