Lookout Landing

Divish:

Infielder Josh Wilson claimed off waiver from San Diego.

...the claiming of Wilson seems interesting. Perhaps the Mariners are tiring of Ronny Cedeno and his anemic bat. Also with the call-up of Chris Woodward, there is a need for a shortstop at Triple A Tacoma.

One time a few years ago I was playing in an online sim league and added Josh Wilson as a utility guy. A few months into the season, I couldn't figure out why he wasn't hitting. Turns out it's because the sim engine was smarter than me. Wilson's had a couple decent years in AAA, showing a little pop and the slightest hint of an ability to get on base, but over 400 PAs he's been all kinds of lousy in the big leagues, and there's not much in there that portends a lot of future success. If the biggest keys for a batter are recognizing strikes, hitting for average, and hitting for power, then generally speaking, you usually want to be able to do at least one of the three. Wilson hasn't, and that's why he's joining his seventh organization in six years. Not even his meaninglessly small sample defensive numbers look good.

I think there might be something to what Divish suggested - yesterday only served to confirm to me that Ronny Cedeno is broken and not at all what this organization was expecting to get. But even if Cedeno's days are numbered, Wilson's no long-term substitute. He's just a different sort of bad, and while that might be good enough for Linkin Park, it's not good enough for me. We've gotten less value out of short than any other team in baseball. It's almost preposterous how bad those guys have been. We need help and we need it a year and a half ago.

Speaking of different kinds of bad, Rob Johnson is back. Guillermo Quiroz is going away to make room, which is interesting given that just four weeks ago Quiroz was promoted from AAA instead of Jamie Burke because the team wanted to go in a younger direction. I'd ask what changed everyone's mind on the matter but I'm pretty sure I'd rather not know.