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Offseason report card for 06 from the main site


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As far as I can see, there are only two dropoffs from last season: rotation and closer.

 

 

And defense? Particularly up the middle where it counts the most.

 

Our defense wasn't very good overall. Our outfield defense this year should be better (Aguila/Reed>JP, Hermida>Ency (only because Ency was a lazy mofo), and Willingham/Aguila>Miggy). There will be no drop off at third base. Second base should be only slightly worse with Reese. First base shouldn't really drop. Catcher should improve. And HanRam could end up being a better defender than Sea Bass. Overall, I think our defense could be better in 2006.

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There will be no drop off at third base.

 

 

hmmm didn't Lowell win the gold glove?

 

 

and weren't Castillo and Gonzo possibly a top 2-3 defensive combo up the middle for the past couple of years?

 

 

Encarnacion as lazy as he was didn't make an error for a full year ... and in JP as horrible as his arm was, he got to cover more ground than the other two OF's

 

 

lastly ... experience

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The 2005 team recorded the 4th worst percentage of outs to balls put in play (all balls that connected with a bat did not end up in the catcher's glove, safely in foul ground or in the seats). That was because Alex relapsed, Easley was playing in place of Luiy a third of the year, Lowell while steady has no range, Delgado was at first and Miggy and Pierre were at the two most important positions in the outfield. We can improve on that. We already have in my opinion.

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There will be no drop off at third base.

 

 

hmmm didn't Lowell win the gold glove?

 

 

and weren't Castillo and Gonzo possibly a top 2-3 defensive combo up the middle for the past couple of years?

 

 

Encarnacion as lazy as he was didn't make an error for a full year ... and in JP as horrible as his arm was, he got to cover more ground than the other two OF's

 

 

lastly ... experience

 

Miggy will be comparable to Lowell. He's got more range than Lowell and he'll make just a few more errors. Not to mention the fact that Miggy has a much stronger arm.

 

You're right about Castillo and Sea Bass, but the problem is they were both hurt quite a bit. Sea Bass's defense wasn't as good because of his injury (he threw away a lot of relatively easy and routine grounders) and Louie was still spectacular but he didn't play quite as much as he had in previous years.

 

Encarnacion is good defensively, but he's still lazy. Lazyness not only contributes to errors (which he didn't have many of) but also makes it harder for him to get to balls that he would ordinarily get to if he were trying hard. JP has a noodle arm. Aguila is fast (though not as fast), so he'll cover some good ground too. The difference is that Aguila has a damn good arm. I'll take Aguila's defense over JP's any day of the week.

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As far as I can see, there are only two dropoffs from last season: rotation and closer.

 

 

And defense? Particularly up the middle where it counts the most.

 

Luis is the only standout to leave, and if Reese plays every day, the dropoff shouldn't be cataclysmic. Lowell was steady but unspectacular (yeah, yeah, I know he won a gold-glove), and Gonzalez was simply living off reputation, he led all SS in errors last season, and most of them were throwing errors, so his range plays little into that equation.

 

Cabrera getting out of the outfield, and Delgado leaving completely will upgrade team defense ten-fold. Hermida should be more consistent (and hustle more) than Encarnacion, Pierre's speed will be tough to replace, but either Aguila, Reed or Gathright should be serviceable and Hanley Ramirez has always been regarded as a plus-plus defender.

 

Really, the more I think, the more I wonder why the F.O. didn't just pick Pierre or Castillo to keep around. Having one of those two would, at least in my mind, still give us a good shot at a winning record.

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I agree. Especially Castillo. He was our most solid defensive player and he would have taken care of our leadoff issues.

 

This isn't a bad lineup:

 

1. Louie

2. Willingham

3. Hermida

4. Miggy

5. Jacobs

6. Aguila/Reed

7. Hanley

8. Olivo

 

 

Our 1-5 guys would have had a lot of potential. High OBP from our 1-3, some major thunder at 4, and a guy with some potential for thunder at 5.

 

Too bad it didn't happen. :(

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I loved every trade we made except for Castillo. #1 At 5mill a season, he represents a great bang for the buck as a leadoff guy who plays a great 2B(proably declining somewhat but still top notch in my book)

and #2 we didn't seem to get very much for him....it seems like we got more for Pierre and LoDuca who are not good players. I hope Bowyer? blossoms into a legit bullpen arm, but how we didn't get more for Luis I'll never know.

 

Having Luis to leadoff with Miguel and Jeremy would have been a solid offensive core to build around.

 

What's done is done so oh well. But i do believe we have a chance to be a lot better than "the experts" predict. Our offensive and def. ouput shouldn't be that much less than last year's underachievers. And if we are pleasantly surprised by Willingham and Jacobs and get a decent OBP from our leadoff we could be better offensively.

 

I love the makeup of this team. And if we could trade for a legit, young CF our turnaround might come alot sooner than anyone outside of s. fla would ever believe.

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