GDT 8/26/19 Pittsburgh Pirates (Musgrove) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Vargas)

[julio]

For whatever it's worth:

By my count, the 2019 Phils (prior to tonight's game) had 918 plate appearances by non-pitchers who weren't in the Opening Day starting lineup (McCutchen, Segura, Harper, Hoskins, Realmuto, Herrera, Hernandez, Franco) plus Kingery. The 2008 club had 911 plate appearances by non-starters.

However, the 2008 club had only two players (Bruntlett and Cairo) who would be considered reserve middle infielders - on the roster largely for defense. They had, together, 165 plate appearances.

The 2019 club - through last night - had 221 plate appearances by three players in this category - Gosselin, Miller, Rodriguez... and the season's not over.

The 2008 club had an additional utility player - Greg Dobbs - who had 169 plate appearances. Dobbs was a 3b/1b/corner OF whose role was backup and pinch hitter. He wasn't good defensively. He got more PA than anybody else on the 2008 bench. They had a reserve OF/PH (Matt Stairs), who had 129 PA. Again, not there in any sense for defense.

There really are no 2019 equivalents. Yeah, there are a bunch of OF who have sat the bench, or started in place of the injured McCutchen (Bruce, Dickerson, Haseley, Quinn, Williams), any one of whom, in ideal circumstances, could have been characterized as a Stairs equivalent. But there's nobody, and has been nobody all season, in the Greg Dobbs role. Instead, we have an extra, lousy, relief pitcher.

[zambonir]

You mean 2009 (which is what I went with as well) not 2008. Because Matt Stairs only had 19 PAs in 2008 and So Taguchi was on that team, not Cairo.

But this year the Opening Day bench was:

Kingery (IF)
Williams (OF)
Altherr (OF)
Knapp (C)

So yeah in that scenario Kingery is your Greg Dobbs and your utility IF (though on Opening Day we didn't even know if he could hit). And both of those OF were supposed to be able to hit. They have since been replaced by Quinn and Bruce, who can also hit (in theory).

History, to me, says, that a lot of managers might still go with two glove guys even if there was a five-man bench. Go look at the 2016 team if you really want to have a laugh. But this year the 5th guy would have been Quinn, at least at the start.

We're only carrying both Miller and Rodriguez because of all the injuries, and because we managed to avoid having to waive one of them before 9/1.

But, four-man or five-man, once Kingery became a starter someone on the bench was gonna have to have SS ability, which means Miller or Rodriguez (I see no difference between them except what side they hit from. Miller used to be a better hitter. Rodriguez used to be a better defender).

The four-man bench now should and would be Bruce, Quinn, Knapp and either Miller or Rodriguez, IMO. Not Morrison (who would be your Dobbs or Stairs in that scenario except he can't play 3B or RF, and we have other LH bats), Not Franco or Williams, because none of them can play SS (and Quinn can't either). Not Gosselin because who cares (again, same guy as Miller or Rodriguez except he has less SS experience. The IF who is about to come up on Sunday, Pirela - also the same guy).

We could use a good RH bat off the bench. Maybe Franco will be one next month but I don't think he should have been here these last few weeks.

On another note will Williams even get called up?

[julio]

You mean 2009 (which is what I went with as well) not 2008. Because Matt Stairs only had 19 PAs in 2008 and So Taguchi was on that team, not Cairo.

You're correct - I evidently failed to cllck the "last year" button at baseball-reference enough times!