Hendry, see, has to produce a regular after all this blather about a farm system. Pie has gotten the most hype, although catcher Geovany Soto looks to be most ready and Ryan Theriot seems to earn Hendry no credit for some reason.
Um... because Ryan Theriot is bad at baseball.
You're welcome.
Nonsense. Ryan Theriot is a great baseball player. He's small, white and has a mustache. What more do you want for a ballplayer?
There are plenty of guys with Theriot's basic skillset - good defense, can't hit - wasting away in the minors. The "All glove, no bat" Dominican shortstop is something of a minor league cliche. Apparently Hendry's supposed to get credit because he found one that's white and "plays hard." What the hell ever.
To say Ryan Theriot is bad at base ball is an absolutely stupid comment. Is David Exstien a bad baseball player?? While he is not at Exstien's level yet and he may not be the most talented player (and he is beilng played out of position at short, he is a second baseman) he absolutely desrves a spot on this team. When given the chance he has proven (with the exception of a bad month) that he belongs in the bigs. He will get on base and hit near .285 - .300 and provides the speed to be very disruptive on the basepaths.
He is definitely not the all field not hit type of infielder.
Ryan Theriot is below average at getting on base, and below pretty much everything at slugging. Just search Ryan Theriot on the sidebar if you need to see documentation of this.
I'll bet Ryan Theriot is above average at picking up the ladies though.
David Eckstein is also bad at baseball. I don't even think this really needs to be discussed. It's been discussed over and over and the only thing people who like those kinds of players can say is that they do some intangible thing well. Most even admit, as you did, that he's not good at most things. If it acts like a duck and quacks like a duck...
David Eckstein is wildly overrated, but he's not bad at baseball. Comparing him to Theriot is simply not a valid use of truth. I'd rather have Eckstein than Theriot on my team any day of the week, twice when there's a double header.
Theriot is one of the worst full-time players in the majors currently. Period.
Hendry's farm system, after all these years, hasn't produced much of use. At least he's done a good job of shipping off his crappy minor leaguers for useful players. I still want to see him gone when new ownership comes to town.
I would disagree Theriot is respectable in BA and OBP when he is being asked to do it. Theroits splis when batting 1st or second last year were (when he was a rookie):
BA OBP SLG
1 .289 .329 .409
2 .284 .353 .386
Brian Roberts who is much coveted for his lead off ability splis were:
.290 .377 .432
Theriots were below but respectable. All Theriot did last year was bat in every spot in the order and do what he was asked to do without complaint and he performed well.
To sit here and say he is bad does not take into account of what he was asked to do, my geuss is that there are many teams who would be glad to have a guy with Theriots skills and attitude. don't just look at the stats (even though they are respectable) look at what he brings to a team in both ability and versitility
My friend's nanny did all that was asked of her. She'd stick around longer just to make sure things were running smoothly before she left. She'd come in early to help my friend and his wife get off to work early. She'd work on Saturdays or Sundays if asked. She did everything and then some to help out around the house.
It turned out, however, she was being abusive to the child she was supposed to protect.
The point of this is that "doing whatever is asked of you" doesn't change a damned thing. This lady was terrible at her job even though she was more than willing to do anything anyone asked of her. The same is true for Ryan Theriot.
You're thinking that there is some value in doing what Theriot did last season in terms of doing whatever is asked. Guess what? There are 1000 minor league players that would be happy to do whatever is asked of them if they could get a chance to sit on the bench with the big league club. Most of them would suck so that's why we don't see it. There's absolutely no value whatsoever in doing whatever is asked of you.
And I disagree about Eckstein, Colin. .713 career OPS. Puts him just between Jason Bartlett and Mark Loretta in 2007. He's not as bad as Theriot and you may be right that he shouldn't be compared to him, but he's a shitty baseball player. Always has been and always will be.
Apples and Oranges. First of all she was not doing everything she was asked to do as I am sure part of her job responsibilities was to take care of the child abuse does not fall into "taking care".
In baseball a team has to have roll players like Theriot are essential to a team in order for that team to be successful. When the Cubs needed a spark plug and a lead off hitter Theriot stepped up and quite frankly provided life to a dead team and helped in turning a season that was going away into a division winner.
While I will never say Theriot is an all star or an above average player to say he is bad and the Cubs cannot win with hime is something I don't understand.
Baseball is a team game and needs to be played that way Theriot supports a quality team and makes them better.