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On Wood v. Morales
July 17th, 2009, 6:50 am · 17 Comments · posted by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
OAKLAND
Brandon Wood got a start at first base against a left-handed pitcher last weekend (Yankees hefty left CC Sabathia). But that didn’t necessarily signal a trend.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia started switch-hitting Kendry Morales against A’s lefty Dallas Braden on Thursday with Wood on the bench. Morales responded with his first right-handed home run of the season.
Napoli (left) and Morales (right)
“Kendry’s been swinging the bat much better from the right side his last 10 or 15 at bats,” Scioscia said.
“We have some bats that we’ve talked about getting in there against left-handed pitching (Wood and Robb Quinlan). But when it’s all said and done, I think Kendry’s going to be just as dangerous from the right side as he is from the left side. Tonight was an indication the type of power he has from the right side.”
Morales has hit .301 (72 for 239) with those first 15 home runs and 44 RBI from the left side this season. From the right side, he is a .219 hitter (14 for 64) with four doubles, Thursday’s home run and seven RBI.
”Woody’s going to get his at-bats, Q’s going to get his at-bats,” Scioscia said. “But it’s not always going to be at Kendry’s expense.”
Stay tuned — the A’s will start another lefty, Brett Anderson, in the series finale on Sunday.
17 Comments
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Their best offensive lineup might be BOTH in the game at one time.
Obviously, the offense is steamrolling right now, so I doubt they’ll try this. But they could move Chone Figgins to left field, slide Wood into third and either use Juan Rivera in center (he did it a few years ago, to less-than-disastrous results) or at DH.
Maybe for one game….You gotta remember, infield errors can ruin innings. Outfield errors ruin games. If Figgins is in left I’d like to see an experienced CF with him at least for a few games. I think Mike will go with a lineup du jour depending on the pitcher, and shuffle all the parts. It might make for a fairly fresh ballclub in September.
Which would you rather see: Figgy at 3rd and Quinlan in left or Figgy in left and Wood at 3rd. I’ll take the latter everytime.
Why not Figgy in CF???
Or teach Wood how to play left field … I could do it in a few days.
A true coach…
Scott, I have done it with HS guys with 1/100th of Wood’s ability… I am sure Roenicke is much, much better at it than I … probably as much better as the athletes are …
Scioscia is not gonna move Figgy back to the OF, not while he is playing so well at 3B.
The Rangers played Mark Teixeira, a great college 3B, in LF more than a bit because they had Blalock at 3B and 1B was also blocked for awhile.
Why bother with it though? Wood is a good 3rd baseman. Figgy is a good leftfielder. I’d like to see it happen a few times this year and hope to see that alignment next year. Outfield of Figgy, Torii and Rivera with DH a decision between Abreu and Vlad depending on how Vlad finishes.
But I just can’t see giving Quinlan at bats instead of Wood.
I’m still struggling w/ 7-8 year olds. Catching a fly ball comes long before the nuances of playing the position.
Though I may be shooting you tons of emails in coming years.
The 7 and 8 year olds listen better, if that helps.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Quinlan’s days are numbered, even though it’s not entirely his fault. He’s only had 68 at-bats. It was a dubious decision to bring him back at $1.1 million.
Mark, I’ve been saying the same thing for months, every at bat that Quinlan gets is an at bat taken away from Wood. It makes no sense why Quinlan is in the line-up.
you are my new best friend! none of these people know what their talking about. obviously wood is the better player over quinlan. i agree 100% with you (:
He’s the emergency catcher, and he can be placed in all of the corner positions — a useful commodity and a good-to-have. But not so useful that he should block Wood’s development.
At any rate, the Angels’ hands are going to be forced on this issue — doesn’t Wood run out of options after this season?
I think what needs to happen is that the Angels square up with reality and accept that GMJr is grossly overpaid and is the ultimate blocking drag on the 40-man roster. Eat the dollars and package him up for a fringe minor league prospect. That will at least free space on the roster for keeping Wood up permanently.
If they can’t do that, then they need to trade Wood.
Sure Matthews is overpaid but he’s still better than any other 4th outfielder we have. So why eat the contract and dump him? Having a deep bench is a valuable thing. Unless you think Willits on the roster is better. GMJ isn’t a block to Wood.
The original question was Wood vs Morales. Kendry should be in there everyday. But getting Wood at bats should be more a priority than getting them for Quinlan.
i actually think GMJ is our 2nd best outfielder…….to me i think that Wood should be playing over Q i mean Rivera is set to go back in the outfield in a day or two soo why not place Rivera in the OF and have Wood play SS and then have Mighty Maicier/Aybar DH or when Mike wants to play Mathis let Napoli DH……..to me Nap. gotta be in their everyday at catcher or DH
When Wood is traded or placed through waivers when out of options, a’la Bobby Jenks, we had better pray he goes to a National League team.