BTW, I don't get the dislike for Pena. He is a good back-up for short. If Simmons is hurt for long we are in trouble no matter who's our back-up at short. So I don't even want to consider that happening. But I must say Pena backing up short sure beats Janish and others who couldn't hit a lick.
weso1 (04-30-2014)
I agree the bench sucks, should probably have JoeyT up sometime, at least he can hit somewhat.
That's a good point. Although Conrad was in our system for several years. And our best bench player in recent memory--Martin Prado--was homegrown. Of course he eventually became a regular. But I think the Braves have an institutional preference for veteran bench players, to the point that it occasionally comes back to bite us in the form of a young player being traded or let go and then achieving success elsewhere. An example would be Gregor Blanco. Betemit is another example of a player was better than a lot of the older players who rode the bench for us. Of course we got something in return for trading those players, but I think we sold them short. We have an interesting group of potentially good bench players right now who have come up through our system--Pastornicky, Terdoslavich, Cunningham, Bethancourt, Salcedo, Reyes. Not all of them are ready right now. But if we can use them as bench players we can save a bit of money rather than getting someone like Hinske or Doumit.
jpx7 (04-30-2014)