Well, this is almost as if it where on cue, isn't it? Not 24 hours after John Paul's timely post chronicling his performance in AAA Oklahoma, Chris Davis is apparently "expected" to rejoin the big league club on Tuesday for their 3 game set with the NY Yankees.
He's of course going to replace the increasingly lifeless Hank Blalock, who after an 0-4 Sunday is hitting .199/.213/.342 since the All-Star break and .238/.274/.473 on the season.
As noted by JP in the last entry, Davis has turned his game around at the AAA level since being sent down (after putting up a .202/.256/.415 line in his first 77 games of the year in the majors), hitting .327/.421/.540 with 35 strikeouts in 150 ABs. Perhaps most impressive though are the walk totals he's put up since going down: 28 in 178 total PA's, good for a 13.8% BB rate. That, along with the nearly halved strikeout % (23.3) gives Davis a 0.69 K/BB ratio, the best he's posted at any single stop in his career (sample size aside). The test of translating those improvements to the majors still awaits him, of course, but suffice it to say that Davis has done everything the Rangers could've possibly hoped for in his performance since being demoted. He's probably not going to be in any better position than he is right now to salvage something from the ashes of his disappointing 2009 MLB campaign.
A roster move to make room for him on the 25-man roster will be forthcoming - optioning Doug Mathis to AAA would seem the most logical choice, though that would leave the Rangers with a 6-man bullpen (rather than the 7 they've been accustomed to using most of the season) going into a series with the top team in the MLB in wOBA.
Should they not want to give up that extra pitcher however, it's not entirely inconceivable that the Rangers could either waive or DL Andruw Jones or even Blalock. Davis's presence probably forces those two back into some sort of platoon at DH, And while Blalock starting a game as the designated hitter seems by definition a slightly hilarious prospect at the current juncture, Jones has been pretty worthless himself since the all-star break. He's hitting .184/.326/.368 for the second half and though he's taken grounders there recently, he doesn't provide the security of being a long-term backup at first base in the event of an injury.
Personally, I'd be slightly surprised (though I might prefer it) if either one went anywhere - Blalock due to his contract, Jones because of Rudy Jaramillo's attachment to him - but it's worth pondering.
(A quick footnote to close out the entry here - I will be indeed back on a part-time basis to support JP and Thomas here at HWC, though my posts will likely be more just as infrequent as before.)
No comments:
Post a Comment