Guzman To Play 3B
But which one?
The Brooklyn Robins have been active as of late. A pair of recent trades bolstered the BBA roster with utter disregard towards the future. Gerardo Guzman, Ricardo Guzman, Jorge Vargas, and Dillon Young were all brought in to give the team some much needed depth.
Dillon Young was a bit of an overkill acquisition. The Robins have arguably the best pitching staff that does not have a picture of the state of California on their jerseys. They are second in the Johnson in team ERA, first in hits allowed/opponents BA, and according to recent data revealed in a league feature.... have astoundingly better stuff then most of the BBA. Young adds another hard throwing bullpen arm to the mix to collect more stuffed animals at the state fair and hopefully win a couple of more games in the process.
As we all know, Brooklyn uses the "Cyclone" pitching scheme. 3/5th of the Robins starting rotation is limited to 50 pitches per start. It's a concept started by Stephen Lane of Long Beach and taken to the extreme by the Robins. Limiting the use of expensive and injury prone starting pitchers and maximizing the use of cheaper and easier to acquire relievers. By adding Young to the mix, Brooklyn has it's self another stellar end game reliever with closing and playoff experience.
Jorge Vargas may have the biggest impact of the bunch. As with all 4 of these players, Vargas has been a long time favorite of GM Alan Ehlers way back to his days in Carolina. Vargas immediately slots into RF to cover for the injured Mario Balderas. He's missed all but 8 games this season but is set to come off the DL in 2-3 weeks. At which time Vargas will slide over to CF.
Vargas had already started rejuvenating his career in the Hawaii sun and is expected to thrive in Brooklyn. His high contact, high avoid K seems to be a solid game plan for Red Robin Park. He'll platoon in CF with defensive guru Michael MacCrain. MacCrain, along with William Belcham, will also be used as a late game caddies for the older fragile Balderas and Alfredo Martinez. Part of the Robins recent wave of the offense/defense platoon.
Current Centerfielder Jose Campos will get displaced by Vargas but will not lose his roster spot. The 21 year old is struggling to find his stride offensively but he hasn't been horrible and the team is committed to him. Campos will likely see some time at 2B platooning with Arief Alatas.
This leaves us with Ricardo and Gerardo. Gerardo was brought in because the Robins middle infield can't hit water if they fell out of a boat. Brooklyn is in love with the defensive doubleplay duo of Alatas and Jose Lopez almost to a fault. If the offensive is clicking, they can get away with it. They save a lot of runs. But when the offense is in a funk, like it is now, they are glaringly inadequate with the bat. So the plan was for Gerardo to platoon with Chris Workman at 3B and when more offense is needed, he'd slot over to 2B or SS.
Of course not everything works according to plan. The original deal fell apart duo to money and salary cap implications. So Workman actually had to be included in the deal. Leaving Brooklyn without a 3B. Gerardo seemed most likely to fill that void. But....
If you remember correctly Ricardo Guzman was the Robins 3B(and LF) when they lost 4 one run games(and won two 10 run games) in the 2035 Cartwright Cup. They damn near won it all with a 1/1/1/1 playing 3B. Well, let's not get too crazy. He actually only played 5 games at 3B. I think he played a few in the playoffs but we're lacking funds and enthusiasm to look it up right now.
So as the Robins enter a critical part of the season, it's not truly known who will play 3B. Or was it who's on first? Well, we do know it will be Guzman at 3B.... but which one?
