Casey at the Bat

What do we do with Casey Blake?

I don't know what a guy would have to do to get the every day job if Trot Nixon doesn't move from platoon right fielder to every day guy. Nixon is hitting both lefties and righties so there's absolutely no argument to be made for replacing him.

So what do we do with Casey when Marte comes back?

Put him at 1st? Garko is hitting .275. Blake is hitting .210.

Leave him at 3rd? Sure, his .210 AVG is better than Marte's .179, but Marte has only had 39 AB as opposed to Casey's 101. Even worse, Marte has 8 RBI -- only 3 less than Casey!

Here's something else to think about: it's clear that we are winning in the most precarious ways possible. We only have three guys hitting around or above .300 and one of them is Trot Nixon, whose average went up .067 against the Orioles! This isn't an offense that's going to win the Central.

And in case anyone hasn't noticed, our rightfield platoon consists of a .247 hitter and a .241 hitter.

(Not to go off on a tangent, but last year Choo hit .280. In his brief stint this year, he hit .294 and I think we all remember his arm.)

At some point we're not going to be able to win games with the long ball. At some point the bottom half of the order won't step up when the top half begins to slump and vice versa.

I can't help but think that Trot Nixon's performance the last two days is an indication of how this team needs to go. We need nine guys, every day, who can gel together. Grady needs to know who's hitting behind him just as Victor needs to know who's hitting behind him.

Am I crazy in thinking we need a solid 1-9?