Posted without Comment
Posted by SBG on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 10:13 pm
From Baseball Think Factory:
Mike Restovich continues to pound the ball in Iowa - he’s now at .324/.397/.658. Meanwhile, Jacque Jones continues to face lefties. The double he hit off Clausen after the rain delay yesterday was on as grooved a pitch by a struggling pitcher as I’ve seen in a long time. Out of all the screw-ups this season by Cubs’ management, the handling of Restovich is about as criminal as it gets. What the hell is going on?
Loading ...
Glorious!
Restovich must feel like one of those Twilight Zone characters condemned by some ironic curse.
You know, Resto's been dumped on a lot lately, because no one seems willing to stick with him, but he really hasn't had much of a shot yet, and it doesn't seem to me like he's really done that poorly in his time as a major leaguer. In a mere 240 ABs, he's hit .250/.328/.400, which isn't going to light the world on fire, but for a slugger learning the ropes, it's not necessarily such a bad start. This is the sort of guy KC should have tried to acquire in the offseason rather than Reggie Sanders. Sanders wasn't going to help KC get anywhere, but if Restovich turned out to be something, he could be something cheap and useful for a few years to come.
Also, I think baseball as a whole has been worse off thanks to Jones playing for two of the few managers who would refuse to platoon him even though it is obvious to even the most casual observer that Jones can't hit lefties. Never has, never will.
I love how Jacque's coaches continue to preach that he's going to learn to hit lefties, and every time he delivers a hit against a southpaw they act like he's on the verge of turning the corner and transforming into a lefty-crushing machine. JJ is 31 and still hits left-handed pitchers as poorly as ever. It's not going to change. The moronic stubornness of some of the men being payed to make decisions at baseball's highest level really astounds me sometimes.
ubelmann, I also can't understand not only why the Royals haven't taken a flyer on Resto, but why the Rockies dumped him (when he did well and the manager said some nice things about him) so they could hang onto Dustan Mohr, or why the Rays cut him loose without giving him a real look. And Pittsburgh mainly gave him a try-out as a pinch-hitter for half a season. You'd think that one of those teams, as well as the Twins, could have given him a chance to platoon at least, when he has demonstrated an ability to hit LHP in the majors.
A Jones/Resto platoon last year would have been fun to watch.
And Resto's career line in the majors against LHP: .278/.329/.458 (787 OPS). If you can afford an extra roster spot for a platoon guy, he's probably worth it.
Unfortunately, if he doesn't start against LHP, he's pretty much worthless at the plate and relatively limited defensively. Of course, I've seen worse players stick on ML rosters for a lot longer than Resto...
Speaking of wasting a roster spot, see above.