OK, I'm easing my way into the beat reporting after taking the weekend off to listen to Ray Charles and feel warm and fuzzy when the man sings about going down to the river to drown himself.
Brian O'Neill served up his best SG article to date today. It goes over the defense with the Zone Rating stat and makes a hell of a lot of sense if you've been following the team.
Not discussed is the possibility that moving all the players around so much contributes to the shoddy defense. Brian can't write about the sun and the moon in every article so that's not said as if I'm finding a fault with the essay. Still, I have this image in my mind of Craig Wilson and Rob Mackowiak looking at each other as a fly ball falls between them for a big hit. That kind of thing starts to happen less often as players get comfortable not just with one position but also with the irritating but predictable shortcomings of the dudes who play the neighboring positions. Is it harder on Craig Wilson when it's Bay, Redman, and Mackowiak taking turns in center? Maybe. Will he get over there and catch the ball after this happens two or three more times? For the love of God, I hope so.
Anyway, that's my case for expecting the defense to improve as the season wears on. One of these days, the Pirates will make some moves with the position players. There will be less giving a guy two more starts just to see if he can't get his OPS up over 600, and there will be more playing the same people in the same positions.
I don't know why I expect this to happen--I just do--we can't play the whole season like an exhibition for 2005. Or can we? Does Chris Truby get a long look once the Pirates discard Chris Stynes? I dunno.
...P.S. Truby is doing his part to look like he deserves a chance. After tearing it up in March, I wrote that the Bucs should send him to AAA to prove his improvement was for real. So far so good for Truby at Nashville.
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