Mastersball Fantasy Forum

Good title for a thread. Probably add to it as time progresses. Now, of course, all of these observations are point in time based and could change with subsequent events. But for now ...

Arizona Diamondbacks - just signed Jason Kubel for two years at $15 mil - an excellent cheap deal for a good hitter IMHO - especially if Goldschmidt pulls a Kila. Shows to me they are serious about making a big push in 2012, right? So, if that's the case, why are they signing their AARP style bench to major league contracts? Blanco - 41. Overbay - 35. Blum - 38. Mc Donald - 38 (TWO years, no less). Bloomquist the pup - 34. It pushes Parra to the bench (which is necessary) but it almost commits them to an 11 man pitching staff for 2012. You'd think you'd want your bench to have as good a chance of being healthy should one of your regs goes down.

How many of the 26-week season do you think all 14 hitters will be healthy?

I think this is all about Stephen Drew and his uncertainty heading into the spring.

And agreed about Kubel/Parra, though it makes my yet to be posted prescient note about the D-Backs in the Platinum Hitting Notes moot

None ...which is why I wonder why you would stock your bench with guys who can order off the seniors menu at Friendly's given some of the uncertainty about a few of the regulars. Makes it almost impossible for anyone else to make the final 25 man roster.

I guess I see it as the opposite, if I expect injuries, I want the first line of replacements to be more than a AAA callup. Some teams may have these guys on split contracts perhaps.

Just seems to me we bitch when teams spend money and we bitch when they don't.

Maybe the second year to McDonald can be questioned, but to me that speaks towards Drew and the need to secure a quality backup, maybe it took 2 years to seal the deal.

While Kubel is not a geriatric at age 29, his talents lend themselves better to a non-regular role. When is the last time this guy was healthy enough to play full-time uninterrupted? And then his batting splits leave to be desired, not exactly very effective against LH pitching.

And how does that Kubel-Parra partnership work -- both are LH hitters.

Only plus for Kubel is whatever performance boost he gets from leaving Target Field. That performance is likely to be stifled by a few DL stints as the rigors of a season wear down upon him. They should name a porcelain line after him.

I'm not exactly sure where you are drawing that conclusion on Kubel from. He has been dinged up, true - but last year was the first time he failed to appear in at least 140 games since 2007. He's not Ripken, but he's not a china doll either. I think he gets the benefit from going from extreme pitcher's park to good hitting park and he's excellent insurance for Goldschmidt in case he falters. But if Goldschmidt produces, Parra's the odd man out and he's first off the bench - no platoon in his future as of this writing. Which may be a good thing for the D-Backs in that it gives them a little youth off the bench.

My concern with the DBacks is not experience off the bench - it's that it's the ONLY team in MLB who has 4 bench players on the wrong side of 34. And all four of them already have major league contracts. Regardless of experience and talent, I'd be just as concerned about the health of my bench players as I would about my subs.

To me, the cause for concern with Kubel is no DH -- part of the reason he played 140+ games from '08-'10 is many were as DH.

Well, one thing we know is the D'Backs have traded defense for Power from the left side here. Parra is vastly superior defensively to Kubel. In fact, the case could be made that Kubel needed to try hard to stay in the AL to maximize his AB's by claiming some DH ab's somewhere. I am actually sad to see Parra lose the everyday gig (and he has lost it for now at least), cause I think there was a decent chance that a slight power/speed boost was on the horizon.

Good point. 37 games at DH last year, none at 1B. 42 games at DH in 2010. He will be exposed.

There is much wisdom to that statement.