Folks acting like it's some travesty that Arcia is the opening day SS over Grissom or Shewmake are severely overestimating how good those guy are likely to be. Arcia is likely to be an unspectacular SS, just like Grissom would have been. The choice at SS moves the needle very little. He’s a full 100 points higher than Arcia’s run. Arcia also hasn’t carried even that level to the MLB.
We should see if Grissom’s bat can play in the big leagues for more than 6 weeks. Arcia will not hit.
The moment Arcia was acquired it was blatantly obvious he was the stopgap after Swanson left, and I stated as much the day the trade occurred.
Folks acting like it's some travesty that Arcia is the opening day SS over Grissom or Shewmake are severely overestimating how good those guy are likely to be. Arcia is likely to be an unspectacular SS, just like Grissom would have been. The choice at SS moves the needle very little.
The moment Arcia was acquired it was blatantly obvious he was the stopgap after Swanson left, and I stated as much the day the trade occurred.
That's because only an idiot would go into the regular season with Arcia as their SS unless they've had about 4 injuries and a payroll like the Marlins.
Arcia isn’t bad.
The only thing that sucks as fans is not having advance stats that I am sure the front office has. Getting a bunch of soft hits doesn’t make a player better than a guy hitting .100 with rockets everywhere.
However, I wonder if twitner had a bigger role in this. Wanting to keep the 2 vertan scrubs over a rookie.
It's always amusing. If a good move is made, it's Anthopoulos' doing. If it's questionable, it just has to be Snitker. I have no way of knowing, but I'm pretty certain that when it comes to roster construction, it's 95% front office. In-game is obviously different.
Gammons: “Last week Braves coaches were concerned Vauhnn Grissom had an issue in the hernia area.Now he opens the season in AAA”
What is a hernia area?
Abdomen, chest, and around the peewee
Arcia as the starting SS shouldn't be shocking. Not because he has the highest ceiling, or the lowest floor, but because the other possibilities need more development time.
Grissom had 91 ABs in AA and none in AAA. He got rushed to MLB because we had no one that could legitimately fill in at 2b (and that includes Arcia) for an extended duration. His bat is his ticket. Still, that bat went very cold once the league got a book on him (think Riley his rookie season). There is every reason to let him work on beating the book in AAA instead of having him struggle through it like Riley and then head to AAA to get right. In addition, Grissom may not stick long term at SS, especially if Shewmake can get his bat to work. Thus, Grissom in AAA addressing the book and getting time at multiple positions is the best for the long term of both him and the organization. My guess is he is up as soon as they realize Arcia isn't an everyday MLB SS. I think he gets first dibs at SS because his potential bat at SS is a star. If he can't hack it defensively, his bat still plays but might not be star quality. My guess is Grissom gets a lot of time at SS in AAA to start and if his defense holds up like they hope he will be in Atlanta by May.
Shewmake has less than 300 ABs in AAA and can't be considered anything other than a defense only player at this point (Ronnie Belliard). Sure he could give you MLB caliber defense at SS and mendoza line production currently. But if you give him another 150 ABS in AAA, you might have essentially the same player Dansby was for the first 4 years he was in Atlanta (glove first with a streaky bat that when hot is really good and when cold is really bad). The Braves want/need a cheap SS for another 6 years. Shewmake may be the best bet to be that guy right now. Letting him spend time in AAA only improves their odds. Letting him play 2b and 3b while there increases his value.