That being said, last night was the last straw for me. I've had enough of Mike Cameron and for the time being Dick Weeks.
Weeks is the only player in baseball who makes it routine to go down on strikes after jumping ahead in the count 3-0 (yeah, he did it again last night). Did we rush Weeks up? I don't know. I hope thats the answer, because it would explain a lot. He just looks lost. The Brewers will never do this, but they'd be best served to send Weeks down to AAA and let him build up confidence and get reps there. Would it be a shot to his confidence to get demoted again? Initially, yes, but are you telling me hitting .210 isn't a shot to your confidence?Think about that, your leadoff hitter is batting just over .200 and it's not because he's hit a slump. He's been this bad all season and most of last. They can't keep tossing him. The time has come for Weeks to go back to AAA to work on some things (ideally his swing) and in the meantime platoon Joe Dillon and Craig Counsell at 2nd.
Only five leadoff hitters in the game have comparative numbers to those of Weeks.
Weeks: .216 BA, .321 OBP
Hunter Pence: .260 BA, .299 OBP
Chris Young: .228 BA, .297 OBP
Felipe Lopez: .232 BA, .307 OBP
Willy Taveras: .247 BA, .297 OBP
Carlos Gomez: .257 BA, .291
It's no surprise that of those five, only one plays for a team with a winning record (Minnesota's Gomez).
When will Melvin and Yost stop trying to make us believe all is fine and Weeks will come around? He's shown no sings of it. Do you honestly think this team can go deep in the playoffs with a .216 hitter setting the table? The most frustrating fact in all of this is that Weeks has scored 58 runs. Only nine leadoff hitters have scored more than he is, which tells you when he gets on base he scores. But he doesn't get on base nearly enough.
The other side of the coin is his defense. While I wouldn't say he's a defensive liability, he hasn't been stellar either. Fellow BTB'er Todd put it best when he said Weeks has very limited range considering his athletic ability. More than that, he seems to make a habit of booting routine plays while making the spectacular play look easy.
One way or another, the leadoff position needs to be addressed before the deadline. Whether it's putting my suggested platoon of Dillon and Counsell into effect, or the unlikely but much welcomed trade for Brian Roberts.
Another area that needs to be addressed is center field. Mike Cameron is worthless to this team in my mind. His defense has been nowhere near the Gold Glove level we were promised we were getting. Take last night and the game on the road in Houston for example, where he booted two extremely routine plays.
More than that, his offensive value to us is minimal. Cameron is most likely striking out, and when he doesn't do that it's a homer or double. Great on the at-bats when it's the homer or double, but maddenly frustrating every other time. Why does this team insist on building a team that only scores by socking dingers? We can't be too shocked either, this is how Melvin did it in Texas too.
On days when the lineup features Weeks, Hall, Cameron and the pitchers spot, that is way too many outs you're giving up. Thanks for the two and a half months Mike, but I've seen enough. This team is screaming for Tony Gwynn Jr. They need someone who can take pitches, draw walks, hit for contact, etc. I'm done with Mike Cameron, I'd much rather see a Gwynn/Kapler platoon.
Platoons shouldn't ever really be the answer, especially with pitching rotations, but why not? It worked well in the Hall/Branyan case. We don't need Mike Cameron to be hitting homers and acting as a run producer. We have enough of those in Braun, Fielder, Hart and to an extent Hardy. We need our second baseman and center fielder to be getting on base and setting the table for our run producers.
