Rowland's Office

Keith Lockhart, affectionately dubbed the above by CB, has nothing to do with this post nor, of course, this year’s Bravos. But the team is, as it is today, a .500 club, average, mediocre, drab, win-some-lose-some. And it’s that good only because our top 3 starting pitchers keep us in it pretty much every time out.

Our hinge is broken

Remember how we all figured the offense hinged, in large part, on a Francoeur rebound? We were right. It ain’t happening, and this offense ain’t happening. No surprise when you scan the NL East rosters. Outside of our rotation, which is the division’s best, we have only one regular who is clearly among the East’s top 3 at his position, and that’s McCann.

He’s easily the best hitting catcher in the division, though certainly not the best defensively. Go to the outfield: Frenchy is the worst right fielder. Werth is easily the best. The rest are spare parts — Cody Ross, Church, Kearns — but they’re all better than Francoeur right now. Maybe he’s even with Kearns, but that’s faint priase.

In center, you have Beltran and Victorino, then a bag of crap, basically. Schafer is doing his part afield, to be sure, but overall you have to rank him fourth or fifth among the five. I’d definitely take him, at his age, over Willie Harris, and Whiffer and Maybin are on a similar track. In left, Anderson’s the worst in the division. Ibanez is easily No. 1, followed by Dunn, Hermida and Murphy.

Our infield is obviously much better. Yesco is a fine player, but he’s the fourth best shortstop in the NL East, unless Rollins hits .220 all year. Even Chipper you’d have to rank behind Wright and Zimmerman at this stage. At seocnd, Kelly’s 3rd behind Utley, the runaway No. 1, and Uggla. At the other corner, Kotchman is a decent player but you’d have to put him behind Howard, Delgado, Cantu and, I guess, Nick Johnson, who’s hitting .337.

So there you go. Can we upgrade this group? Yeah. But I don’t go out and trade, say, Hanson and Heyward, for a Berkman or Matt Holliday. I don’t trade those two for anybody. I’d think about moving second-tier prospects for someone like Dye. But one big bat for a season or two ain’t worth sacrificing multiple elite prospects. We’ve been that route.

–CD