Putting J.J. Davis to work

Just because J.J. Davis has few hits in his few appearances, that doesn't mean that he's on par with Abe Nunez and Chris Stynes. The guy mashed it up at Nashville last year. If I could change one thing about the way stats are recorded and reported, I'd have players with fewer than 50 or 100 plate appearances listed as having no BA. There should be a minimum number of plate appearances before rate statistics are calculated.

A lot of people shriek, whine, and argue shrilly that a player can't learn if he's on the bench. That's bullshit. I guarantee that if you or I got to sit on the bench and watch the game for a week, we'd learn all kinds of things we never knew. I don't know what the Bucs have J.J. Davis doing in his spare time while he rides the pine, but if I was Professor McClendon, I'd assign homework. He's not allowed to sit and chew sunflower seeds or play his gameboy. Make him keep a notebook describing what he sees of the opposing pitchers and so forth. Review it with him after every game. There's plenty to learn on the bench. If the Bucs play J.J. Davis every other day, and make him work while he rides the pine, he'll be fine and his hitting rate stats won't be quoted in the same breath as those of Abe Nunez and Chris Stynes.