Fangraph's "NotGraphs" section featured a photo of Edgar Renteria today, with the title "Veteran Presence Caught On Film." Yup, it's of his error. (Pretty good photo, I must say - speaking as someone who spends more time than I should photographing baseball games. The photographer really caught the moment.)
Renteria started last night, and that error opened the floodgates to a 4-run inning for the Brewers. But Paul Janish didn't exactly help his case, when he was double-switched in in the 7th. He went 0 for 2...and collected an error himself. And not one I can remember seeing before. He just stood there and let the ball go through his legs. Usually when that happens, the ball's moving so fast the fielder doesn't have time to react, and so doesn't get an error. But Janish could have gotten it, and so got an error. Bizarre.
I'm not sure what happened there. Daydreaming? ADHD, like Nick Green? Petite mal epilepsy seizure? Or just out too late celebrating his wife's birthday the night before? (Um...I'm not stalking them, I swear. I just happened to notice that Monday was Mrs. Janish's birthday when I linked to her player page yesterday. ...I sound like a stalker, don't I?)
Mike Leake, the Reds' groundball pitcher, is on the mound tonight. And Janish is not in the lineup. This is the first time he's been out of the starting lineup two days in a row when he wasn't injured. I fear his leash may be getting short. He's been kind of lucky; Renteria hasn't played well, and down in AAA, Zack Cozart was terrible at the beginning of the season. Cozart started hitting well, but then ended up on the DL with a sprained ankle. So there hasn't been any serious alternative to Janish. But some are already calling for him to be replaced.
Christina Kahrl thinks the Reds should call up Cozart and trade Janish to the Twins (with a boatload of other players) for Liriano. (I like Zack Cozart just fine, but it mystifies me why people think he'd be an improvement on Janish. His minor league OPS is almost identical to Janish's. Janish has more patience, Cozart a bit more power. Both play good defense; Cozart has a little more speed, Janish has a much stronger arm. Cozart does have a better pedigree, drafted in the second round, vs. the fifth for Janish. Maybe it's just "second string quarterback" syndrome. As in the second string quarterback is the most popular guy in town when the team is struggling. With baseball...the farther the guy is from the big leagues, the better he looks.
Rob Neyer has a more realistic view:
The Reds trail only the Cardinals in scoring, despite Paul Janish's terrible hitting stats. And Janish is a fine defensive shortstop, which makes it more difficult to justify a change there.
He and Kahrl agree that the Reds need a good starting pitcher. But they're not exactly thick on the ground, and sure won't be cheap. There's a reason why even Brian Cashman wanted to grow his own.
Labels: Paul Janish
