I don’t completely disagree with the idea of Willie not playing every day, but having the weekend plan, I certainly see holes in the game he is quite capable of filling – late innings defensively at second comes to mind. Jose Lopez, while much improves, still gives me a pause. And, until we get a real centerfielder, he’s still better than Jones.

And btw, for those of you who see a HR spike and immediately think “steroids”: you want to dig up Roger Maris and accuse him of juicing? Would you like to go grab Bob Cerv or Davey Johnson and ask them if they used the cream and the clear? Maybe you could pull Ted Williams’ head out of cold storage and try to get him to tell you what he took. Fact of the matter is (as Jerry Crasnick noted recently in BA), HR spikes and fluke seasons have been a part of the game back to the days when Babe Ruth’s idea of a training regimen was beer and hot dogs, when King Kelly was the best hitter in the majors — heck, probably all the way back to Alexander Cartwright.

All this idiotic steroid speculation reminds me of H. L. Mencken’s observation that “for every problem there is a solution that is simple, easy to understand, and wrong.” It’s an effort to impose simple order on a chaotic system, and as such matches Mencken’s statement perfectly.

. . . I’ll be happy when Billy B.’s gone. He’s done for us what he can, and it’s time to get somebody who can do what he can’t.

WFB: The fact that the team has NO other back-up plan in the outfield so that Billie Boomquist keeps getting ABs says everything about the present Ms FO that I dislike.

Doyle: It was said he had ‘a shoulder impingement’ in July, one of the unspecificed reason’s he wasn’t kept on the 25-man. Now, it may or may not be a relevant injury, but I tend to think that if he acquired yet another, entirely new physical problem this would, more than anything, affect his mental state and confidence in a baseball career. Don’t know if that’s it, but there’s nothing that would bring on major depression more than yet another significant injury, to me. And it sure sounds like depression even from the tatters of comments here. I doubt that being sent down has anything much to do with it. Might be non-baseball related, but _in season_? Unless he fell in love and she died, or Mumsy’s got the Big C it’s hard to see what else could hit him so hard as something which threaten’s his continued ability to play. . . . Sounds injury worry precipitated depression, to me. . . . Which sucks. There is life after, mate. But we’re still pulling for you.

ah, yes, I rememer those days. On the days Jamie pitched, you could see Karen Moyer sitting in her seat, twisted up like a pretzel with nerves– something that a decade of bouncing between the minors the majors and unemployment will do for you, I guess … she’s much calmer these days

An “extreme case of luck” is one way of putting it. I have another theory.

A new definition of “theory”: completely unsupported speculation. I think it’s seriously loathesome — really, I’m sorry, but while I can think of politer ways to say this, I can’t think of more accurate ways — that people feel free to make steroid implications (and sure, correct me if that’s not what you’re saying here) — based on zero evidence. Players have had one-season home run spikes for a lot longer than steroids have been on the scene. If all you’ve got is a libellous “theory” to explain it, you haven’t got shit.

This is like the squalid cousin of the “he only ever had one good season” crap, but at least that one can at least be refuted by pointing at the numbers, for anyone who’s paying attention. You can still guarantee that both “arguments” will be raised by one or two people in any extended discussion of Beltre.

So, we’re arguing about two different things and talking completely past each other. Typical blogosphere….

And we probably also agree on Jones…if you’re gonna bring him up, PLAY HIM.