Cesar's completely beyond me
It's completely beyond me why Cesar Izturis, a Gold Glove shortstop I know, won't even consider moving to third base for at least a month or so, until (hopefully) Bill Mueller is back after his knee surgery. Since Little will play (and rightfully!) Rafael Furcal at SS and Jeff Kent at 2B, Izturis will only be used as defensive replacement and/or ocassional sub when the other two need a game off.That comes on the heels of not only Miller's injury but also Willy Aybar's youthful proneness to errors on difficult groundballs hit to third. In the meantime Little opened the door for Cesar at 3B, claiming that he'd rather keep two other players that could play 3B - Olmedo Saenz and Ramon Martinez, as key bench players...
Why would a player as young as Izturis rather ride the pine than learn a position similar to SS is a mystery to me. Can you offer any explanation?
posted by Harry | 12:22 PM
2 Comments:
You want an explanation for why Izturis won't go to third?
The throw from third is actually worse for him than the throw from short, and considering he just had Tommy John surgery, that's probably not something you want to do. That's why moving him to the outfield would have been an utter failure. Look, the guy has good range, great instincts and he's a gold glover at the postion. He was an all-star last year, and during that drive Tommy Lasorda called him the best defensive shortstop since Pee Wee Reese. He is not about to be told that he should learn a new position because Ned Colletti wasted money on a leadoff man that can't hits .226 with the bases empty. He's 26 years old and still has a career ahead of him, and it's important to maintain his standing as one of the best defensive shortstops in the game, a position where you absolutely need defense. My guess is that the communication is not so clear as we would think, and that Izturis figures that he can eventually win his spot back by being the better ballplayer.
Under management that is not afraid to admit they wasted $40 million, Furcal would not be said to be the "rightful" third baseman. Furcal should be a Chone Figgins-esque superutility man for his alleged leadoff abilities. It's just asinine to play him at short. He's the worst defensive player in the majors, save for Richie Weeks. He was prone to throwing errors in Atlanta, and the only reason he was a marquis player was that he played for a team who had half of their games on national television. Ned Colletti gave him a big contract to be a leadoff man and shortstop. Combine that with the fact that he's a Braves product, and Grady's not going to move him around. Izturis has gotten little respect from Dodger management. I expect for him to fight for playing time the same way Jason Repko did, and I can only hope that he doesn't have to play so hard that he gets injured to reclaim a position that is rightfully his.
The intelligent thing would be for Jeff Kent to move to second, and the only way that will happen is for Kent to step up, offer the move, and open 2nd for Izzy. Then after Furcal gets his 25th error before the all-star break, Grady tries switching the two, and he never goes back. Sadly, Mueller will be out a long time with that knee. I would think this would actually be a reasonably likely scenario, but we'll see.
Hmmm, thanks for sharing this, David. Very interesting :). Before I reply, let's hear what other people are thinking. Matt? Others?
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