First off, Happy Opening Day of Spring Training to you and yours!
There was a lot of talk last week and I had a couple thing going on so I didn't have a chance to get to it, but Yuniesky Betancourt stands to be at the center of a lot of controversy this season as the new Brewers starting shortstop. There was plenty written by the two man Brewers beat writers about him last week. Most of that downplayed his weaknesses with the team brass doing a bit of spinning the numbers and trying to sell the acquisition to the fans. Tom Haudricourt's piece in the Journal-Sentinel had a different take: He's no better than Alcides Escobar.
It was a bit different, but he's right. Clearly the two players are at opposite ends of their careers, so us fans looked at what Escobar did last year a bit differently than Betancourt's season, despite eerily similar numbers. Here they are, in case you were curious, courtesy of MLB.com. (Betancourt stats | Escobar stats)
That leads to a key question: How good does Betancourt have to be to satisfy Brewers fans?
To truly answer that question, it is clear he doesn't have to lead the team in home runs. The top five Brewers hitters can jockey for that honor with the likes of Rickie Weeks, Corey Hart, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee all capable of hitting the long ball. So, that responsibility is off the board.
He doesn't have to lead the team in RBIs. Again, last year four of those five guys had over 100 RBIs and that one that didn't many are expecting a career year as he nears toward free agency of the biggest payday of his life.
The answer is a tad complex, but straight forward. He just has to be a smart player. The team will win in spite of him if he has another season with a .299 on-base percentage and cannot live with his bevy of errors in the field. He will hit in the bottom-third of the batting order, but has been speculated already that he could he sixth. Still, odds are he will hit seventh or eighth and will need to take pitches in front of the pitcher and at least pretend like he has a clue. Expecting a drastic change from his erratic ways either in front of or behind another free-swinger in Carlos Gomez, may be too much to ask, but like Gomez, he must take the walks that are out there and not get himself out.
"Esky" as some fans in Kansas City called him, does have some pop and did lead the Royals in RBIs last season. They weren't staggering numbers by any means, but it's a start and he is capable of getting the big hit with runners on base. With manager Ron Roenicke thinking of hitting him sixth, he's looking for a way to give some pop behind McGehee and offer him some sort of protection. If he's hitting .238 that won't be much help at all, but he'll surely see pitches that will give him a chance to drive in runs. Roenicke may be onto something there. It wouldn't be uncalled for to try to give him a shot in the No. 6 slot.
Of course, it could go sour and the worst case scenario is that Betancourt has to slide down the order to No. 7 or No. 8. Or, as Roenicke hinted on the first day of camp, No. 9 was he's entertained the idea of hitting the pitcher eighth. He is a career .272 hitter and if he can have that average, the team will be overjoyed with him. It's the 3.4 percent walk rate everyone wants him to improve on. The guy could get it up to 10 percent, still not good, but better, and those same people would be overjoyed. It seems that simple.
What about in the field for Betancourt? He had exactly the number of errors as Escobar last season. As the Brewers brass has said, better pitching will put fewer balls in play and make guys look like better fielders. That's not a false statement and could help not only Betancourt, but everyone in the field for the Brewers are are marginal defenders. But for Betancourt in particular improving just slightly and not throwing the ball away, or throwing it at all for that matter, on close plays is what he needs to strive for.
Basically, no one is asking Betancourt to be great. Essentially, fans just don't want him to be "bad." Here's hoping he can at least pull that off.
Now to the Nussie Hunter portion of today's show and having had the Oscars on in the background while doing some prep work for a certain high school sports Web site that I have just signed on to do some work for, I couldn't help but notice Mila Kunis. While she didn't win any awards, she certainly caught eyes. Yes, there's a reason she's one of the Wilber's Way favorites.
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