Off Day Debate: Vizquel's Return

Here's some news to get your mind off this weekend's downer of a series - word from the Fresno Bee is that Omar Vizquel is targeting this Friday to make his long awaited season debut.

The question becomes, then, is this a good thing? Brian Bocock never had a chance with the bat in the majors, and this could very well be his ML swan song unless he really picks it up.

Manny Burriss, on the other hand, has shown flashes. Besides being DC's great baseball hope, he has proven a fluid shortstop if not in Bocock's league defensively. The former sandwich round pick (in the same draft that produced The Franchise) has done about as well as could be expected with the bat, which is to say he hasn't done particularly well. Keep in mind, in 2006, the speedy 23 year old did very well after signing early in short-season A ball. However, after a disastrous start in high A San Jose to open 2007, it took a midseason demotion to low A Augusta for him to find his stroke again. What would have been best would be to keep the kid on a slow track. Instead, due to an ensuing institutional oversight (not disclosing whether or not it regarded having a viable backup to a 41 year old shortstop), Burriss started 2008 in AAA. Check out his pro numbers, with thanks to our friends at FirstInning:

In essentially reproducing his underwhelming numbers in AAA this year at the major league level, Manny has really already outperformed what we could reasonably expect. Bear in mind, this isn't an indictment of his future potential, but more an indicator that he needs some more time for seasoning. After all, we're talking small sample sizes across the board.

Here's the thing, though, Omar, God bless him, wasn't very good last year. His .621 OPS, although it outpaces Manny's numbers thus far, doesn't quite hack it. Hate to break it, but "off-years" by 40 year olds are more likely the beginning of the end. Especially when the player in question is recovering from knee surgery at one of the more physically demanding positions out there.

Then again, if he can even split the difference between 2007 and 2006, Vizquel will be a huge boon to this team, particularly if his glove stays solid.

Really, this is yet another situation with no really good alternative. So what do you think? Is Vizquel coming back a good thing? Should we just throw the kid out there and hope for the best?

- Also, if you haven't read this story about our new best hitter, it's something. Give FLew his due, the guy's earned it. (No really, he really has - story's plain f'ed up.) Good report by Killion.