June 1, 201412 yr If I remember right, Jay is less than average in CF. and the Cards have been protecting him from LHP's. Why not promote Danny Ortiz?
June 1, 201412 yr what is wrong with playing Danny Santana in CF? He's fast. He's hitting. He can learn to play center field faster than Hicks can learn to hit RH pitchers from the right side of the plate. This is a fun situation. I like Escobar at short and defense was always Santana's weakness as a shortstop. Unless we risk trying Dozier again at SS, we don't need more 2nd basemen. So lets enjoy watching Santana's progress. It's possible you might be right about the Santana-CF/Hicks-curveball comment. Time will tell. Santana is not a center fielder though. Not right now anyway. The only reason I can think that he is out there is that Gardy is given free rein to run the roster any way he chooses. Specifically, Santana has given up on shallow fly balls that could have been caught. Santana seems to lack the awareness to communicate with other fielders well. He cannot position himself under a fly ball in a sac-fly situation. His throws are off mark regularly. His speed bails him out on misjudged fly balls. Et cetera. He's doing the best he can, but that doesn't mean he should be out there. This is only based off comments I've read and a few short video clips at MLB. I've only been able to watch a few innings live. Someone else might be able to give you a more succinct answer.
June 1, 201412 yr The only reason I can think that he [santana] is out there is that Gardy is given free rein to run the roster any way he chooses. This has been the problem all season! This is why there is/was a Bartlett, Kubel, Guerrier, Pelfrey, etc. problem. The focus was about CYA, fantasy, and short-term goals instead of long-term goals of developing people to build a consistently winning team.
June 1, 201412 yr Why not promote Danny Ortiz? Because he cannot hit breaking stuff (he is making adjustments this season, let's see what happens, it is encouraging), his defense is iffy, and he is a corner OF type. He only played 11 games at CF the past 2 seasons. That's about as many as Santana these days. Santana is a Utility type player. Good for him to play as the backup CF until Fuld returns.
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