Kevin Towers

[padrefanforever]

It came from the elimination thread when I nominated KT for a minus...

I do disagree with CF not making a large difference though. We're not just getting no bat from CF, but we're getting horrid defense as well......shoring up that one position is a huge step in the right direction......

but never did I or anyone else suggest that it's the only move needed to be made, just the biggest hole and first thing to address

[love_that_reefer]

CF was all that is was being talked about. When you're dead last in BA and second in strikeouts, there really isn't much hope for turning this thing around. Jacque Jones and Jason Micheals were DFA'd today so Towers will give those guys a look. More than half the players quoted on page one were unavailable including Crisp. Crisp was insurance for Ellsbury and Drew.

[padrefanforever]

KT is in Portland today and it wouldn't shock me in the least if Gerut and maybe Headley are on their way back with him.....Hundley is another name that's been talked about since Morton is clearly outmatched at the ML level, though that scares me as I think it's rushing him......Gerut can play CF better than Edmonds and has a chance to actually hit the ball......or he can man LF while Hairston plays CF.......strangely enough Hairston play CF and hit when he plays there......whatever.....

and in my first post in this thread, since it was directed at me I addressed more than just CF

[HollywoodLeo]

It came from the elimination thread when I nominated KT for a minus...

I do disagree with CF not making a large difference though. We're not just getting no bat from CF, but we're getting horrid defense as well......shoring up that one position is a huge step in the right direction......

but never did I or anyone else suggest that it's the only move needed to be made, just the biggest hole and first thing to address

I never said it wouldn't be an improvement, nor did I ever say it wouldn't be a step in the right direction.

Both are obvious facts and are not even up for debate.

The question is, would it have been so much of an improvement (say had he made a move for a decent CFer in mid-April) that we wouldn't be sitting at, or near the bottom of the standings right now?

With the way the rest of the team is playing I'm willing to bet we'd still be in 4th place at best even if we had a decent CFer in place of Edmonds the past two weeks.

[HollywoodLeo]

KT is in Portland today and it wouldn't shock me in the least if Gerut and maybe Headley are on their way back with him.....Hundley is another name that's been talked about since Morton is clearly outmatched at the ML level, though that scares me as I think it's rushing him......Gerut can play CF better than Edmonds and has a chance to actually hit the ball......or he can man LF while Hairston plays CF.......strangely enough Hairston play CF and hit when he plays there......whatever.....

and in my first post in this thread, since it was directed at me I addressed more than just CF

I had no idea what the first post was addressing because all you said was that KT wasn't "doing his job" and I was asking you to further explain what you meant by that.

You then proceeded to direct the conversation to center around the CF woes.

[padrefanforever]

Wood the CF woes are due to KT not doing his job........hello

[HollywoodLeo]

Wood the CF woes are due to KT not doing his job........hello

If we're going to analyze his performance dating back to the offseason, then sure.

But the original claim was that he's not doing his job right now to fix it.

Because Kevin Towers does not own a time machine the fact that he created the CF woes to begin with is irrelevant to the analysis of whether or not he's currently "doing his job".

[padrefanforever]

This morning some of the things KT covered while on the radio in Portland and in typical KT fashion where he said, but didn't say......

-Edmonds is about to be released, since he has clearly lost steps on D, and can't hit a + fastball
-Gerut will get his shot in CF
-Germano is moving to the bullpen
-Ledezma or Estes or both will get a chance to start
-Headley looks good, hit bat is going, and he looks great in LF, and he'll be up soon
-He's waiting for the team to get back from ATL to let the people know in person that they are going or moving, or being demoted etc...
-Clay Hensley had a setback w/ his shoulder and is being shutdown for 5-6 days. He was flown back to SD but they didn't find anything wrong...knock on wood cause his velocity was back up to 90-91 and he was pounding the zone with his sinker....

[padrefanforever]

If we're going to analyze his performance dating back to the offseason, then sure.

But the original claim was that he's not doing his job right now to fix it.

Because Kevin Towers does not own a time machine the fact that he created the CF woes to begin with is irrelevant to the analysis of whether or not he's currently "doing his job".

I had no problem with the Edmonds experiment.......I had a problem with allowing it to continue, and not finding a suitable replacement when it became clear he was done......that's KT's job.......Jody Gerut has been killing the ball, and that's an inhouse fix that could have happened long ago.....again KT's job

[HollywoodLeo]

As much as he's disappointed me this season I think Jim Edmonds deserved more of an opportunity to work his way out of his slump than your average player because he's Jim Edmonds.

I don't think it would have been fair to him to jump to that conclusion after just a week or two when, for all you know, it could have just been a slow start much like Mike Cameron's slow start his first year with the Padres. (Who was recovering from similar injuries.)

As it turned out, he's not getting any better, so he needs to be let go (He should probably go out with a bit of dignity and just retire IMO)....and apparently from your post KT now agrees.

It's easy to put on your 20/20 hindsight goggles and say that these moves should have been made long ago now, but back then it could have been a rash decision for all we knew.

Major League players get in slumps and work out of them all the time.

[HollywoodLeo]

-Ledezma or Estes or both will get a chance to start

This makes me sad, but it's not like we have any real options with Prior still on the shelf.

[padrefanforever]

As much as he's disappointed me this season I think Jim Edmonds deserved more of an opportunity to work his way out of his slump than your average player because he's Jim Edmonds.

I guaranty that if Edmonds was playing stellar defense still......he would be given that chance to hit.....but he sucks on both sides of the ball and is done so there is nothing more to hope for from him

[HollywoodLeo]

I guaranty that if Edmonds was playing stellar defense still......he would be given that chance to hit.....but he sucks on both sides of the ball and is done so there is nothing more to hope for from him

I agree....now

I was speaking from the perspective of a week or two ago, the time frame in which you're saying Towers was failing to do his job by not having already made the move.

[padrefanforever]

Well Wood.......to me it was obvious then......and I would hope it was for those whose business it is to deal with these things.....and IMO KT wasn't getting his job done.......he said today that Edmonds was receiving a mulligan for the first 2 weeks due to missing some ST, but it became clear in weeks 3 & 4 that he'd lost steps and couldn't hit the + fastball.....

Well if you knew 2 weeks ago.......wtf

[HollywoodLeo]

It was obvious 2 weeks ago that he wasn't performing well.

What wasn't obvious was whether it was a slump or that he is clearly done.

Of course, that's fairly obvious now.

If this team made rash decisions because of 2-3 weeks of piss poor play Kevin Kouzmanoff would have spent most of last year in Portland.