After taking a deep breath...
Sundays game was a bad as it gets, and its difficult to find a turning point in a 15 run drubbing, but...
In the second inning, with one run in and the bases loaded, Harold allowed a shallow fly ball to drop in front of him that allowed a run to score. That play was routine for even an average CF. Quantrill then botched another routine play, which opened the flood gates.
In our next at bat, Bradley doubled in a run. At that point the score should have been 2-1, instead of 7-1.
Quantrill, while very shaky, would have been around for the third inning, and the game thread would have had posts talking about how he limited the damage by getting a pop up and ground ball to the mound to end the inning.
Yes, the pitching sucked and the lack of defensive fundamentals continued after the game became a route, but we can't win by continuing to put players in the field who are incapable of playing the position they are put in.
Harold is a left fielder, if there is a position he can play. Eddie is a left fielder. If Naylor is not at first, he is a left fielder.
First things first. We need solid defense that can provide support for our young pitchers. Without it, no amount of improved offense is gonna help much.
We need to bring back Gimenez and play him every day at short. Tell him, 'Kid, don't worry about the bat, just play D.' We need to put Amed in center every day. We need to put Naylor at first every day. We need to ride Bradley while he is hot at DH. We need to play some combination of Harold/Zimmer/Luplow (when he returns) in right.
If we want to platoon Bradley at DH, use Harold. Anybody not okay with Harold instead of Chang?
Maybe we can't have both offense and defense at the same time, but its time to make a choice...and with our young pitchers learning on the job, the choice every day should be defense.
