Comments on: Weekly Wroundtable: Were Indians Right to Give Up on Luis Valbuena? http://wahoosonfirst.com/2011/12/02/weekly-wroundtable-were-indians-right-to-give-up-on-luis-valbuena/ A Cleveland Indians Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:22:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: gnor http://wahoosonfirst.com/2011/12/02/weekly-wroundtable-were-indians-right-to-give-up-on-luis-valbuena/#comment-1083 gnor Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:39:48 +0000 http://wahoosonfirst.com/?p=2742#comment-1083 My impression is that as a youngster, this guy was jerked all over the field, and never given a chance to settle in anywhere. That may be OK for someone with a few years experience, but not knowing where and when your next at bat is coming can be deadly for a rookie. He has played over 1400 innings at second base in his career, with only 10 errors at that position, better than the league average. It's also pretty hard to field the ball properly when you are looking over your shoulder. Toronto has a guy right now called Jose Bautista that had a similar experience. Escobar, Rasmus, and Lawrie are other players that were undervalued by their former teams, so Luis should have a few soul-mates in TO. Duane Murphy is pretty good at fixing holes in people's swings, and Brian Butterfield is one of the best infield coaches in the business, so perhaps he landed in the right place. With Toronto, he will come to Spring Training with a chance to win a job, and if he does, he will clearly understand what his role will be with the team, and be given all the help in the world to succeed. If he doesn't make it, oh, well. Anyway, I would like to thank the Cleveland organization for giving Toronto a free look. My impression is that as a youngster, this guy was jerked all over the field, and never given a chance to settle in anywhere. That may be OK for someone with a few years experience, but not knowing where and when your next at bat is coming can be deadly for a rookie. He has played over 1400 innings at second base in his career, with only 10 errors at that position, better than the league average. It’s also pretty hard to field the ball properly when you are looking over your shoulder. Toronto has a guy right now called Jose Bautista that had a similar experience. Escobar, Rasmus, and Lawrie are other players that were undervalued by their former teams, so Luis should have a few soul-mates in TO.

Duane Murphy is pretty good at fixing holes in people’s swings, and Brian Butterfield is one of the best infield coaches in the business, so perhaps he landed in the right place. With Toronto, he will come to Spring Training with a chance to win a job, and if he does, he will clearly understand what his role will be with the team, and be given all the help in the world to succeed. If he doesn’t make it, oh, well. Anyway, I would like to thank the Cleveland organization for giving Toronto a free look.

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