Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Lee to 1B starting to make sense

This Carlos Lee-to-1B thing is gaining some traction.

Alyson Footer has a blog post about it:

You also have to wonder if playing first base has helped Lee at the plate. Is playing a position where he is involved in nearly every play, which in turn requires non-stop concentration, helping him focus better at the plate? There seems to be long stretches of nothingness while standing in the outfield, and I can see where it would be easy to become distracted or let your mind wander. Maybe the concentration that's there when Carlos plays first base lingers when he is hitting. It could be the best explanation as to why his bat has come to life after hitting around .240 for the better part of four months.

At first my thought was, "Good God! Have you gone mad? The Astros might reward a guy who is receiving north of $18m (pre-taxes, of course) with a position change to keep him interested in playing the game responsible for paying him north of $18m?"

As ridiculous as it sounds, yes. The Constable just might have it wrong. I got an apoplectic text message from him just this afternoon. It read as such, "GAH! LEE? 1B?" I'm assuming that means he's not for it, and having read the earlier post, that seems to be a reasonable assumption.

So allow me to be the voice of reason. It's not the worst idea. Unfortunately for me, Alyson Footer kind of beat me to the reasoning. Wallace could - potentially - go back to Triple-A and wait for Carlos Lee to start losing concentration there, until they make him a player-manager to increase his concentration, until he starts to ride Jason Castro like a bull in the dugout between innings. Then they can make him the ranch hand-player-manager until he misses less important series to impregnate whatever female cows are called with a syringe. Then they can make him GM to regain his concentration. Yet, I digress.

Wallace does have options, and if he goes back to Triple-A, Alyson Footer kindly responded that Koby Clemens wouldn't take playing time away from Wallace.

So what do you think? Which way are you leaning?