I'll bet David Wright is in the lineup tonight. I'll bet David Wright, good health willing, will be in the lineup 158 times this year.
Would it kill Willie to sit him once in a while?
Boy is he pressing. I've never seen David look as lost as he does at present. Saturday, in particular, he seemed to be swinging at an idea of a pitch as opposed to anything he was actually thrown.
He'll pull out of it. The good ones do. When he does, lord help the pitchers who happen to be on the mound that week. Like anybody buying a five-dollar ice cream sandwich at Shea, they will pay through the nose.
But what's the harm of giving him a seat for a night? Or a day? I'm thinking Sunday. This isn't second-guessing (though I've never quite seen what's so bad about second-guessing since it might improve your next first guess). Watching David flail cluelessly on Saturday and seeing Damion Easley find his power stroke, I wondered aloud if maybe Willie should give David the day off tomorrow — now yesterday — and let Easley play third, partly to take advantage of the utilityman's momentum and keep him game-ready but mostly to take a load off David's shoulders for an afternoon.
I would have been shocked if it had happened. Willie doesn't readily rest guys, certainly not the ones under 30. And who'd want to not have David Wright in the lineup most of the time? But sometimes you're not helping yourself and you're not helping the team. So sit down, watch somebody else play, wave a towel like you're Lenny Harris. It's not as if you're going to lose your job to Damion Easley.
David won't volunteer for a day off and Willie won't initiate it. Both of them would say something to the effect of you can't sit your way out of a slump. Mr. Wright's neighbors in that fancy Flatiron co-op of his must be getting tired of hearing him take practice swings in the wee hours. I'm glad he wants to play baseball as much as he does. Once in a while he shouldn't. We don't need a Ripken per se. We need a whole club.
Though I'm highly pro-Randolph, it irked me a bit during the NLCS how the lineup remained so static even when it was clear the Mets were hitting with the donuts still attached to their bats. Granted, there wasn't much of a bench to deploy after Floyd went down and Endy went in, but a little juggling seemed in order. La Russa, of whom I'm no fan, kept finding spots for everybody and (grrr) it paid off. With Willie, it was the same eight night-in, night-out from Games Two through Seven, no shifting in the batting order, not even a hunch to play. The cumulative effect, save for the Game Four blowout, was lead weight on the offense.
This isn't October when you're going to roll your starters out there no matter what. This is April. This is a time to, if not experiment, then be flexible. To look at a 24-year-old superstar and see that he's struggling and take him aside and say “watch for a night,” and to look at a 37-year-old role player and take him aside and say “play for a night.” Easley and Newhan have had no chance and when we really need them, the rust may very well show. Same for the holdovers. Alou and Green have made themselves tough to rest, hoorah, but a little Endy here and there might make their long-term prospects (June, July, August) a lot brighter. As Delgado struggles, why not give Franco a start at first — for Franco's sake as much as Delgado's? And what's the harm of letting Lo Duca's finger and psyche heal an extra day? Castro couldn't be any hotter.
Keep 'em fresh, keep 'em sharp, keep 'em whatever you want to call it. Maybe you can't sit your way out of a slump, but you can certainly swing your way into a deeper one.