The Third Base Job

First off the subject title should indirectly tell you I’m been back on my Leverage kick. And if it didn’t I told you directly. Second… well there isn’t really a second. I just thought I’d tell you what I’ve been watching (and b-t-w really enjoying). Now let’s go steal us an article about Kyle Seager…

Seriously. It’s been increadibly boring today and I’ve spent the majority of today fixing up something called “the hub”. You’ll see it soon on our starting pages. It’s a sweet little piece of multi-social-working stuff. It’s great. But between that pain and really the storm that is the Superbowl that is approaching there has been little news. So I started scouring.

Now, I’ve really disliked what Geoff Baker has written for most of the winter. So heading over there isn’t on the top of my list. That’s not to say I dislike Geoff, I just don’t care for all of his opinions associated with the Mariners the past few months. I think it’s important to state that people often confuse the difference between liking someone and not liking their opinion. The two are different. I’m sure Geoff is a stand up guy and a lot of fun to go to the Movies with and should he ever need a pal to go see the Avengers with this summer, I’d be more than happy go halvsies on a bag of pop corn.

He did put together a nice little post on Kyle Seager the other day and I while being all together bored today I kind of read it. In fairness, I skimmed it… how much I read of the article itself isn’t actually the point. Okay, maybe it would help legitimized my point a bit more. But, come on. Just give me this one. You continue to come back to this site and for what reason I can only guess its because you are a Mariner fan and obviously you have an extremely sick side of you that should seek the help of a mental professional or someone who deals with the criminally insane. Or maybe the Joker. He’s real.

Back on target.

This is not the first time the topic of Seager being left in Tacoma has been broached. Mr. David Samuel Cameron has mentioned it at various times through out the off-season and I’m sure other smart people that you’ve heard of have said pretty much the same thing. I’m lazy and I’m really done linking things and doing research for this post otherwise I’m sure I could easily find someone to back-up that last statement.

It makes sense on multiple levels. Seager has shown a propensity for struggling against lefties (this is the point I would should some sort of stat baking that up) and he flew through the AAA like one of Jeff Dunhams’ sissy dogs on those retractable leashes. It could make sense to take some time with him at the start of the year and have him work on a few specific things. Things that he can practice on and legitimately work on while not affecting the out come of a major league game or even a run at the division (it’s the start of the year, believe it or don’t bother getting out of bed).

You could leave the job to a platoon of either Figgins or Guillen. Hell, you could even give one of those guys the full time job and see which is the first to either fall apart or be stoned on the field. It might be a cool little side bet. But does that really make the team better? I’m not really sure.

I have to come clean though, I’m actually alright with giving Figgins the job and the top of the line-up spot and saying “Go screw it up so I can cut you and just be done with it all”. In the off chance he succeeds than cool we have an asset that we hadn’t counted on before and hopefully we can trade him before the wheels come back off. Either way we are finally done with the weird anomoly and saga that could be a 30 for 30 film and is Chone Figgins. 

I also look at Chone Figgins like this. If he was a free-agent, who had just been cut by some other franchise, and considering the present need at third base would I give him the job? It’s like that moment in Say Anything where

Lilly Tomlin

Lili Taylor asks all her girlfiends if you would date Lloyd Dobler and they all have that slow nod, like … Yeah, I’m desperate enough to try that. I’d be alright with giving him a shot at the every day role.

The problem is with us as fans. We were that last organization that saw him suck. We saw him suck for the last 2 years. Good Lord, we saw him make just some extremely ignorant mental lapses.  We’ve seen him just look like he wasn’t even ready to play that day. There were times that I know I thought ” Hey, maybe as a fun exercise Red could come down from his box seat on the first base side and try to reinact some Adrian Beltre plays because he really could not be any worse than what Figgins was at that moment.

It makes you think though. Didn’t the Blue Jays see video of Jose Bautista in Pittsburgh? He sucked there, he had sucked at … well he had sucked everywhere. And the Blue Jays gave him a shot because they didn’t have anyone else. He had talent. To make it to the major league level, you’ve got to be kidding yourself if you don’t think it takes talent. Now that talent hadn’t ever previously shown up or been displayed at the major league level. But, the thing about Figgins is it has and it’s not as if it was that long ago.

I’m not trying to play the “Bautista card” here. Because it’s so rare that things like that ever happen and if Brandon Wood ever does figure things out I’m going to owe some random homeless man an incredible meal. But the fact is that Figgins still has talent. He still has speed and despite the fact that he lost some of his ability to make “good” contact he can still put the ball in play. He can play respectable defense most of the time and honestly that’s more than what Seager is going to do. That’s not to say that Seager is awful, I think that Seager is mildly a below average fielder with a major league average bat.

I don’t like Chone Figgins any more than you do, really. I do generally get annoyed by all the Shrek references but whatever… people should be allowed to make all the easy jokes they need. Many of them that particpate are simple minded and everybody deserves a laugh. But, Figgins is right now one of the best options at third base going into this season regardless of if we like it or not. It’s certainly not because of his recent display on the field but purely because he still retains some of his very highly regarded skills.

Seager is a good guy and while I’m not entirely sure what I think of him, I’m sure it’s some what positive. He can hit right handed pitchers and the majority of those that pitcher ar right handed. He can play a pretty good second base and again every team needs that. So he’s going to make someone very happy. I just think all parties involved would be better suited if Seager starts in AAA and Figgins starts at third.

I do call dibs on retracting/deleting this post if Seager makes the team out of Spring Training and rakes the whole year and posts something crazy like 3 wins above replacement. If that’s the case, I’ll pretend this never occured and that all you that read it are drunkards.