Barney at 2B?

[Sammy Sofa]

He's not a sorcerer. Barney can get regular starts and coaching in the minors if anyone thinks he has a real chance of not being horrible with the bat (SPOILER ALERT: he doesn't).

 

Look, I'm no big fan of the DeWitt/Baker option, but it's not the end of the world since we're talking about the 8th hitter and it'll likely be the area the Cubs address come the deadline if they're in it. I'm all for making room for young players who have a good chance of being a big part of this team's future...but Barney isn't one of those guys.

[dew1679666265]

Maybe the Cubs ought to play Barney (with Baker) just in case Jaramillo worked some magic on him. The worst that can happen is going back to the DeWitt/Baker platoon that everyone expected anyhow.

 

That'd be some amazing magic because Barney was never even a decent hitter in the minors. Barney has a career .708 minor league OPS and it was never higher than .758 (his first pro season, he's been worse than that every year since). His slugging was over .400 one time during a full season and his OBP was better than .340 once. DeWitt posted a .709 OPS last year in the majors - and both Barney and DeWitt are the same age (25).

 

Even if Rudy worked some great magic on Barney, I don't see much of a chance Darwin is even mediocre offensively.

[CubColtPacer]

He's not a sorcerer. Barney can get regular starts and coaching in the minors if anyone thinks he has a real chance of not being horrible with the bat (SPOILER ALERT: he doesn't).

 

Look, I'm no big fan of the DeWitt/Baker option, but it's not the end of the world since we're talking about the 8th hitter and it'll likely be the area the Cubs address come the deadline if they're in it. I'm all for making room for young players who have a good chance of being a big part of this team's future...but Barney isn't one of those guys.

 

If Barney adds just a little bit of power because of his weight gain at Camp Colvin he can become a .650-.700 OPS guy in the majors (or maybe even .725 depending on how much he can keep his average up) That plus his defense will make Barney/Baker a better option than DeWitt/Baker although still one that should be replaced when the Cubs get a chance.

[davearm2]

Not sure why you'd want to give Barney a shot if you're such a non-fan of DeWitt and Hill considering that both are/were better than him.

 

The only positive I see to starting Barney is that he's a plus defender (from everything I've heard). At the same time, there is no plus part of DeWitt's game. He's better offensively overall than Barney, but isn't particularly good either. Thus, since you're going with a young guy anyway, the reasoning would be to go with the guy that already features a plus skill and hope the other side comes around enough. Barney, it sounds like, is Theriot with much better defense and a slightly worse bat.

 

That said, I'd prefer to go with DeWitt. Both are young but DeWitt has shown more offensive potential. With Aramis, Starlin and Pena around the infield, we have good to very good defense at 3 of 4 positions and can afford to put up with poor 2B defense with the hopes that DeWitt's bat comes around.

There are plenty of good reasons to prefer DeWitt to Barney, but the makeup of the rest of the infield defense isn't one of them.

 

If over the course of a season Barney's superior defense turns X additional balls in play into outs, then the run-value of that improvement is whatever it is, regardless of what anyone else on the field is doing.

[CubColtPacer]

Not sure why you'd want to give Barney a shot if you're such a non-fan of DeWitt and Hill considering that both are/were better than him.

 

The only positive I see to starting Barney is that he's a plus defender (from everything I've heard). At the same time, there is no plus part of DeWitt's game. He's better offensively overall than Barney, but isn't particularly good either. Thus, since you're going with a young guy anyway, the reasoning would be to go with the guy that already features a plus skill and hope the other side comes around enough. Barney, it sounds like, is Theriot with much better defense and a slightly worse bat.

 

That said, I'd prefer to go with DeWitt. Both are young but DeWitt has shown more offensive potential. With Aramis, Starlin and Pena around the infield, we have good to very good defense at 3 of 4 positions and can afford to put up with poor 2B defense with the hopes that DeWitt's bat comes around.

There are plenty of good reasons to prefer DeWitt to Barney, but the makeup of the rest of the infield defense isn't one of them.

 

If over the course of a season Barney's superior defense turns X additional balls in play into outs, then the run-value of that improvement is whatever it is, regardless of what anyone else on the field is doing.

 

Well, the rest of the defense can fractionally help. If Ramirez, Casto, and Pena all had excellent range and Dewitt's main problem was a lack of range they could make that up with positioning. If Castro and Pena were both excellent at catching throws and DeWitt had issues with that then they could help in that regard. But I don't think either of those is particularly true so I don't think the rest of the Cubs defense would help DeWitt much.

[dew1679666265]

There are plenty of good reasons to prefer DeWitt to Barney, but the makeup of the rest of the infield defense isn't one of them.

 

If over the course of a season Barney's superior defense turns X additional balls in play into outs, then the run-value of that improvement is whatever it is, regardless of what anyone else on the field is doing.

 

My point was that the defense isn't poor, so we don't need a "defensive specialist," so to speak, in there to help sure up our defense. In fact, because the defense around the infield is so good and the offense so questionable (could be really good, could be mediocre), we should favor the better bat (DeWitt) over the better glove (Barney) even if it's just a marginal difference or based on potential.

 

Now, if the bats are similar enough that Barney's defense makes him more valuable than DeWitt, then I agree play Barney. Considering I believe DeWitt has a better bat now and has much more room for improvement than Barney, I don't think Barney will be the overall more valuable player - especially if DeWitt can improve his defense by playing exclusively at second.

[9YRPLAN]

good things happen...hits one up the shaft, and no one catches it

[Sammy Sofa]

Oh my God.

[Backtobanks]

Maybe the Cubs ought to play Barney (with Baker) just in case Jaramillo worked some magic on him. The worst that can happen is going back to the DeWitt/Baker platoon that everyone expected anyhow.

 

That'd be some amazing magic because Barney was never even a decent hitter in the minors. Barney has a career .708 minor league OPS and it was never higher than .758 (his first pro season, he's been worse than that every year since). His slugging was over .400 one time during a full season and his OBP was better than .340 once. DeWitt posted a .709 OPS last year in the majors - and both Barney and DeWitt are the same age (25).

 

Even if Rudy worked some great magic on Barney, I don't see much of a chance Darwin is even mediocre offensively.

 

My point is that Barney had a good spring while DeWitt sucked. Give Barney a week or two to "stay hot" or show anything offensively, if not pull back the short leash and go with DeWitt. I'm sure there won't be much difference in the Cub's record if you go with Barney/Baker instead of DeWitt/Baker for a week or two.

[MWV]

good things happen...hits one up the shaft, and no one catches it

Chuck_Cubs? Is that you? Please say yes!

[dew1679666265]

My point is that Barney had a good spring while DeWitt sucked. Give Barney a week or two to "stay hot" or show anything offensively, if not pull back the short leash and go with DeWitt. I'm sure there won't be much difference in the Cub's record if you go with Barney/Baker instead of DeWitt/Baker for a week or two.

 

I can see that reasoning a little bit more - hoping for lightning in a bottle for a couple weeks - but long term this season DeWitt should be the platoon half opposite Baker. He's got the much higher offensive ceiling.

[Rob]

There are plenty of good reasons to prefer DeWitt to Barney, but the makeup of the rest of the infield defense isn't one of them.

 

If over the course of a season Barney's superior defense turns X additional balls in play into outs, then the run-value of that improvement is whatever it is, regardless of what anyone else on the field is doing.

 

Well, the rest of the defense can fractionally help. If Ramirez, Casto, and Pena all had excellent range and Dewitt's main problem was a lack of range they could make that up with positioning. If Castro and Pena were both excellent at catching throws and DeWitt had issues with that then they could help in that regard. But I don't think either of those is particularly true so I don't think the rest of the Cubs defense would help DeWitt much.

 

Yeah, defense can be impacted by the other guys on the team. It's one of the reasons I like the Carlos Pena signing... a tall 1B that can pick em out pretty well stands to benefit the left side of our infield quite a bit, as they are both facing some accuracy issues. One moreso than the other.

Edited April 2, 2011 by Rob

[Magnetic Curses]

erm pena

[Rob]

erm pena

 

Good catch. I've had a long day.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Darwin Barney is going to become the new Ryan Theriot, not because of what he is, but because management will treat him as more than that. Darwin Barneys probably as good as any utility infielder/backup SS in the league, offessively and defensively, and I can see him having a solid 8-12 year big league career, likely spread amnogst 4-6 teams. Theres really no need to send him back to the minors. He is what he is and what he will be.

[RammyFanny]

So, we spotted a girl at the game yesterday that looked like Barney and it turned out to be his sister. My drunk friend then asked to take a picture with her, and she gave the WTF look and said "with me??!!?" and kindly obliged. Very awkward for her, considering my friend thought we made up the name Darwin Barney the entire time (he's a Sox fan...but he got the hook up on some behind home plate seats).

[Wilson A2000]

So, we spotted a girl at the game yesterday that looked like Barney

 

Never a good thing.

[Guest]

Maybe Rudy Jaramillo's magic beans made him good.

 

 

Yep. Yea they did.

[imb]

barney should change him name to not ryan theriot, because even if he goes 0-for-5, who cares. he's not ryan theriot.

[TruffleShuffle]

for one thing, he's part japanese

[TruffleShuffle]

also, he thinks that guys who wear affliction t-shirts are douchebags.

[Tyrant]

So, we spotted a girl at the game yesterday that looked like Barney and it turned out to be his sister. My drunk friend then asked to take a picture with her, and she gave the WTF look and said "with me??!!?" and kindly obliged. Very awkward for her, considering my friend thought we made up the name Darwin Barney the entire time (he's a Sox fan...but he got the hook up on some behind home plate seats).

 

Can we see the picture?

[9YRPLAN]

So, we spotted a girl at the game yesterday that looked like Barney and it turned out to be his sister. My drunk friend then asked to take a picture with her, and she gave the WTF look and said "with me??!!?" and kindly obliged. Very awkward for her, considering my friend thought we made up the name Darwin Barney the entire time (he's a Sox fan...but he got the hook up on some behind home plate seats).

 

Can we see the picture?

 

this

[UMFan83]

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/2378/wowv.png