This guy just kills me with the things he says. From McCoy:
How’s he going to handle the second base logjam?
“First of all, I don’t like to see jobs handed to kids, they have to earn them,” Narron said.
“It will be awesome to see Encarnacion come back, but it’s also awesome to see Richie (Aurilia) come back because he can play third, short and second,” Narron said.
– So he doesn’t like handing jobs to kids (who played pretty well at the major league level at age 22), but he’s fine with handing jobs to no-power guys with a .316 OBP (Womack).
Of Freel, Narron said, “He is a special guy who is comfortable playing anywhere. We need to manufacture runs, so having him in the lineup somewhere is important to us, and I’d like to have him in the lineup at all times.”
They need to manufacture runs!?! This team scored the most runs in the league last year. THE MOST!! I don’t dispute that Freel is a nice weapon, particularly since he has a .374 OBP over the last two years. They don’t have any “need” to fart around with bunts and the like.
“I’ll try my best to get ’em all (Freel, Aurilia, Womack) on the field whenever I can,” Narron said. “It is outstanding to have three guys of that caliber. I know that if they all stay healthy, it is going to be tough and somebody is going to be mad. And that’s fine with me, I can take it. You want guys who want to be on the field every inning.”
Those three guys are not of the same caliber. They’re just not, and it’s insulting for him to pretend they are. In the last two years, Freel’s OBP is above .370, his SLG is about .369, and he’s stolen 73 bases, while being caught only 20 times (a very good, worthwhile percentage). In the same time, Aurilia has about a .324 OBP, and a SLG just below .400. He has no speed. Womack, for his entire career (thus counting his peak, and presumably giving him an advantage), is at .319 OBP and .356 SLG. His speed is still pretty good (53 of 63 over the past two years).
Freel is the same player as Womack, plus 120 points of OPS — the difference between Andruw Jones and Bill Hall. Freel’s got 80 points of OPS on Aurilia, plus all the speed. Aurilia holds the slight edge in power.
I still think its a mixed message with the intent of making EE come to camp motivated. It seems like he always says Aurilia can play 2B, 3B, or SS whenever he talks about him.
As far as manufacturing runs goes, the only way that the Reds should be manufacturing runs in the traditional sense is either at the top of the order when Lopez is at the plate and Freel is on first. An occasional hit and run in that situation would be nice. Womack can pinch run or pinch hit (provided he actually gets on base) for the 9 spot, and Freel and Lopez could hit and run or possibly bunt in rare circumstances. Pretty much a late-inning-need-a-run-to-tie-or-win scenario is the only time this team should be trying to manufacture runs, and the only starters that should be involved are Freel and Lopez.
I read the whole article, and I have to say that it is amazing how Narron seems to “get it” and not “get it” at the same time. He talks about RA as a utility player and talks about him as a starting 3B. He talks about manufacturing runs but also talks about how the team was the NL’s number 1 offense last year because of homerun production. However, the team was a .500 club after he took over, so maybe he knows what he is doing, regardless of how poorly he communicates it?