2010 Bench: Needs More Amezaga

[Omar]

These projections need more Amezaga

[lou]

2010 Bench: Needs More Amezaga (WE WANT AMEZAGAAAAAAAAA!)

These projections need more Amezaga

Do you think it's a good idea to carry Amezaga and Bonifacio on the bench? And where Amezaga will make $1 million more than EB? With Paulino/Catcher, Helms, and it would have to be an outfielder as the last person?

I say 1 only. Unless you want to stick EB in AAA. Which I would personally find great amusement from. But still not sure how the money works out. I guess you can easily fit him in at $45.

[Metes]

Amezaga is a super-utility guy. Bonifacio is a super-starter-anywhere guy. Big difference.

[Swifty]

I think you mean super-duper-starter

[Omar]

Do you think it's a good idea to carry Amezaga and Bonifacio on the bench? And where Amezaga will make $1 million more than EB? With Paulino/Catcher, Helms, and it would have to be an outfielder as the last person?

I say 1 only. Unless you want to stick EB in AAA. Which I would personally find great amusement from. But still not sure how the money works out. I guess you can easily fit him in at $45.

My number one preference would be Amezaga in the majors and Bonifacio in AAA, certainly. Even at the higher cost, Amezaga plays GG or near GG defense at multiple positions and can play pretty much anywhere except C/P.

[Bobbob1313]

From all accounts, Boner is supposed to play damn near gold glove level defense in the middle infield, and probably is about the same as an outfielder as Amezaga, given that he's much faster.

[Omar]

I'll take the commodity I know over the one I don't pretty much any day in this regard

[Bobbob1313]

Except when you have limited resources and it's not that important of a role. In a perfect world, neither gets more than 1 PA and 2 innings in the field in a given game anyways. When you're talking about that limited of a time frame, the fact that Amezaga may be marginally better isn't worth an extra million dollar investment.

And, to be perfectly honest, I think Boner gives this team more in that role. Amezaga might be a slightly better defensive player, but Bonifacio is a better base runner (Amezaga ain't that fast, and worse than that, neither him nor the 3rd base coach ever seemed to realize it), and excelled when he was put in the "start once or twice a week and be a defensive replacement" role from August 1 on, putting up a .296/.387/.333 line in 66 PA in the final two months of the season.

It's such a relatively small role that Amezaga's strengths can't possibly be worth 1 mil. Amezaga is nice because of his versatility, but I'd bet people would like Boner a lot more if he was put into the Amezaga role rather than a starting role.

[Omar]

Not sure how you can say Bonifacio is a better baserunner when he was picked off with such frequency. Amezaga is pretty much the perfect NL player - extremely versatile, knows how to bunt very well, has above average speed, and has a good baseball mind. Amezaga isn't going to run you out of an inning or botch an easy defensive play. It really shouldn't be underestimated how excellent Amezaga's defense is at so many positions (which is something we know as opposed to the assumption that Bonifacio is great at certain positions).

It's also not $1M.....it's a net of $600,000. I have no issue paying an extra $600,000 to know that you have a GG caliber player at ~7 positions on your bench as opposed to the potential of someone who may be able to do all the same things at some point down the line.

[nny]

That's IF amezaga makes 1 mil. He made 1.3m last year, and arbitration = go up. If we can convince him to resign here for a discount instead of non-tendering him, cool.

[Swifty]

Bonifacio is inferior to Amezaga in just about every aspect of what makes a player "valuable."

That he can run 10 times faster than Amezaga means nothing since he is incapable of doing anything meaningful with it.

What I took out of the $45 million budget is, after shedding one of Cantu/Uggla, we're not hamstrung by our budget, we can bring back the other guys as part of a "baseball decision." Bonifacio over Amezaga is not a baseball decision, it's playing favorites, yet again.

[Bobbob1313]

I would say he's definitely GG caliber at SS and 2nd. He's probably above average at 3rd. He's pretty small, though I'm sure he's a fine 1B (can't tell much because he's played 6 innings there, but you have to assume he's fine). He's good at CF, though is probably overrated in my opinion, and I don't think calling him GG quality is right.

Amezaga.

[Metes]

What has he done to prove his Gold Gloviness up the middle? Just cause he's fast? I'd like to know.

Edit: I thought you were talking about Bone Zone. My b.

[Bobbob1313]

Bonifacio is inferior to Amezaga in just about every aspect of what makes a player "valuable."

That he can run 10 times faster than Amezaga means nothing since he is incapable of doing anything meaningful with it.

What I took out of the $45 million budget is, after shedding one of Cantu/Uggla, we're not hamstrung by our budget, we can bring back the other guys as part of a "baseball decision." Bonifacio over Amezaga is not a baseball decision, it's playing favorites, yet again.

I agree that Amezaga is better, but it's not like he's insanely good at anything (except defense, really), and if everything goes according to plan, neither of them would get more than 200-300 PAs in a season. If either of them is getting more than 300 PAs next year we're in serious trouble regardless.

At that point, there's no argument that can be made, in my opinion, that what little Amezaga brings to the table (with absolutely zero discernable upside and with considerable possibilities of him further slipping, as he's been trending down in almost every meaningful offensive way since 2006) over Bonifacio is worth 1 million.

Most projection systems had him at basically Amezaga's offensive output before last season. Yes, he was worse than that, but honestly, the difference between the two's offensive output in the role they would be filling is extremely minor. Do we really think it's worth spending a million for what probably amounts to a minor defensive upgrade and probably a wash offensively?

[Beef]

What has he done to prove his Gold Gloviness up the middle? Just cause he's fast? I'd like to know.

Edit: I thought you were talking about Bone Zone. My b.

I thought so too and then I reread it and realized he did not mean that one bit. But at first I was like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAT!?!?!?! And then I was like, oh, yeah, Alfredo is good at defense and Emilio aint never played 1B
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I'm not sure if the defensive upgrade from Bonifacio to Amezaga is really all that minor. From what I have seen, which isn't enough of Bonifacio in his middle infield "comfort zone", I feel scared out of my mind when a ball is hit in the general direction of Bonifacio.