Comments on: Sliding scale

By: DaMannse

DaMannse — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:56:06 +0000

Yeah, I hear you. The age thing is always a possible issue in the decline of skills. I’m just hoping that he has this one more year both healthy and fully trained.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:56:09 +0000

For me, the combination of his age, he turns 39 in June, plus the weak numbers last year is enough to have me worried about Ibanez. I agree that the second half was very encouraging, but I think there’s cause for concern, too. Also, it doesn’t seem likely that he’s getting a lot better defensively as he gets older, and he wasn’t real good to start with.

By: DaMannse

DaMannse — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:29:38 +0000

On Ibanez: David Murphy in yesterday’s Daily News said that while Ibanez’s first half last year was terrible (.243/.724) due to recovering from injuries and abdominal surgery, after the All Star break Raul hit .309, with an .869 OPS and nine home runs. That seems to me to support the theory that Ibanez’s loss of off season training preceding the 2010 season was the big reason why he did not fare well before the break. After the break, he looked more like his old self, but he was still not what he had been the rest of his career. The theory continues that since he has just had a healthy off season in which he put himself through his usual rigorous preparations, that he will bounce back and be significantly better than he was even in the second half of last year.

Given Ibanez’s pride and history, I do think that he is not nearly the question mark that we have in other places we have talked about on this blog. Add to that the fact that this is a contract year for him, and that he has no plans to quit this game yet, I think he will be a serious force for this team in 2011. I am not worried about left field at all.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:48:14 +0000

I’d still guess Bastardo as the second lefty in the pen at this point. Not a lot of other choices. Dan Meyer? Zagurski?

Looks like you’re right about Maine to the Rockies.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6132008&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

I agree that having as much power as Ibanez or Utley when they aren’t hitting well isn’t a good goal for Francisco.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:30:17 +0000

I don’t think being “no worse than Ibanez” is a terribly positive goal or one that will let you keep a job for while. I would hope that applies to Ibanez as well.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Utley numbers.. if it’s true he was playing poorly through injuries, well, I’d just as soon let him not play at all. It’s better for his career numbers too.

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I thought I saw Maine was picked up by the Rockies?

Not looking good for Bastardo being a lefty out of the pen. We know Romero is going to walk the one batter he faces. Who else is left?