Enough of Zach Cozart?

[Trajinous]

Moving Hamilton to SS is a real bad move. Also if Cozart's hitting is your problem with him, is Hamilton's hitting any better? Can we please just watch a month before we start calling for anyone's head?

[dougdirt]

Explain to me how you can do worse than a .150 hitting shortstop?

By having a .225 hitting shortstop with crappy on base skills, absolutely no power and 20-25 more errors at shortstop. Which is what Billy Hamilton may very well be.

And really, Zack Cozart, for as much as he can't hit, isn't a .150 hitter.

[Red Raindog]

By having a .225 hitting shortstop with crappy on base skills, absolutely no power and 20-25 more errors at shortstop. Which is what Billy Hamilton may very well be.

And really, Zack Cozart, for as much as he can't hit, isn't a .150 hitter.

You are right -- currently he is a .111 hitter --- but I'm still with you --- that said - I'd dump him in a heartbeat if there was a better option but someone needs to give me a name to ponder besides BH

[Cant Touch This]

Simple - Mike Leake plays short and bats 7th when he's not pitching.

[kbrake]

I think people lose track of the fact there just are not that many great SS out there right now and I mean throughout all of baseball. Cozart is more than solid defensively and he'll get the bat going at some point. If there was an absolute upgrade out there of course I'd love to upgrade SS but when I look around the league I think we could be doing much worse than Cozart.

[NCCardfan]

Explain to me how you can do worse than a .150 hitting shortstop?

A .150 hitting SS with a hole on his glove is easy to say. He is a (small sample size warning) career .250 hitting SS:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ozarza01.shtml

Cozart ranked 10th in MLB for SS in batting and 11th in MLB for fielding in 2013:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting...13/position/ss
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fieldin.../ss/order/true

You want to dump him after less than 10% of the season has been played? Too early IMO

Do you think Jay Bruce should be on the trade block as well? A .157 hitting RF is a LOT worse MLB average wise than a .120 hitting SS:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ruceja01.shtml

Would you want to bet that Mesoraco is going to stay above .400 (.480 right now) for the rest of the season. All I'm saying is that it's too early to think any of these guys are dropping their BA by 100+ points this year. I feel the frustration but just think it's too early. Not wanting to argue or sound know it allish, just want you to know that while the grass always looks greener on the other side - it still will have to be mowed.

Top 1/3rd for 2 seasons = give him more than 15 games.

[RedlegJake]

We are going to have to agree to disagree on Cozart being a major league SS.

From Eddie Grant to Eddie Brinkman to Zack, a host of ML shortstops say hi! Appling, Larkin, Jeter, ARod - those guys are huge exceptions. Concepcion was a terrible hitter, so was Ozzie. Both became reasonable hitters for the position in their late 20s early 30s but not much before. That said I do get the frustration. Thing is it will be much easier to upgrade any of the other weak hitting spots than SS. With Mes hitting the Reds should have room for an all glove SS. CF, LF, 3B - none of those spots produce enough right now. It just magnifies the fact that Zack isn't hitting, but I'll bet anything you'd like he isn't a .150 hitter by season's end either.

[757690]

Pete Kozma is available, I heard

[_Sir_Charles_]

Bullseye...just for arguments sake, you pull Cozart off the field and who's your shortstop. I think many here have made it abundantly clear that Hamilton isn't an option anymore. So, outside of Billy...who's your shortstop? Would you like to know your options? You have 2 of them.

1. Ramon Santiago
2. Kris Negron

The only other option is a trade or FA signing.

Zack is clearly struggling at the plate. Nobody is arguing that. But does anybody with half a brain think he'll STAY with this low a BA? And secondly, does ANYBODY have any complaints about his defense? So again...who would YOU have playing SS?

[bullseye]

Bullseye...just for arguments sake, you pull Cozart off the field and who's your shortstop. I think many here have made it abundantly clear that Hamilton isn't an option anymore. So, outside of Billy...who's your shortstop? Would you like to know your options? You have 2 of them.

1. Ramon Santiago
2. Kris Negron
There is an option called a trade! Seems we used that to get rid of another black hole called Drew Stubbs.

The only other option is a trade or FA signing.

Zack is clearly struggling at the plate. Nobody is arguing that. But does anybody with half a brain think he'll STAY with this low a BA? And secondly, does ANYBODY have any complaints about his defense? So again...who would YOU have playing SS?

There is an option called a trade. Seems we used that option last season to get rid of another black hole called Drew Stubbs.

[_Sir_Charles_]

There is an option called a trade. Seems we used that option last season to get rid of another black hole called Drew Stubbs.

I said that already. But making a trade is much easier said than done. Especially this early in the season. Show me a MLB caliber SS who's substantially better than Cozart and I'll show you a MLB caliber SS who's NOT AVAILABLE.

[CrackerJack]

It's sad when Cozart is in the "cream of the crop" of today's SS's.

[_Sir_Charles_]

I wonder if we'd be seeing all these complaints about Cozart if he was hitting his usual .250'ish.

[villain612]

SS is about the last position (aside from Catcher obviously) that I would just arbitrarily try to move a guy into. There's a reason why defensive specialist/bad hitters are routine at SS.

[dougdirt]

I wonder if we'd be seeing all these complaints about Cozart if he was hitting his usual .250'ish.

Probably not as many, but still some because he still isn't very good. The crop of shortstops currently in the game is a joke and you are always going to want to get a .285 OBP out of your lineup.