Written by Greg Fertel
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03 June 2007
It looks like our favorite no hit 1st baseman is going to miss a lot of time, so we need to call someone up and replace him. Who comes up? Well, we have three options as far as I can tell:
Shelley Duncan - Duncan is slugging .630 right now. He plays 1b and can be slotted into a corner outfield spot. He's better than Josh Phelps at the bag, but not by much. I think he's worth a shot.
Andy Phillips - You know him, you love him, you saw him suck. He's hitting pretty well - albeit with reduced power - at Scranton right now. The batting line is .313/.383/.490. Andy's plus is that he has experience with the team and could replace Doug's glove at 1st.
Eric Duncan - He's not hitting well at AAA right now. He could probably hit right handed pitching in the majors, but I'm not sure if the MLB club wants to screw up his development. He's starting to turn things around right now.
What would I do? I'd probably cut Phelps and call up both Phillips and Duncan. It would be nice to have someone who knows how to catch a ball in the infield when Wang is on the mound. If we want to try Damon at 1st, that's fine, but then we still need someone to DH. Matsui could do it, but then that means Kevin Thompson getting a lot of at bats or someone like Shelley Duncan getting them.
Andy Phillips is not playing today in Scranton, so he's probably on his way to the majors. I don't see a lot of reason to have both Josh Phelps and Phillips on the roster, unless the emergency catcher means that much to Torre.
By the way, Kei Igawa is starting, so he's not coming up tomorrow.
