Tigers shortstop and former Silver Slugger Javier Baez entered Wednesday's game against the Blue Jays 4-36 on the season. Then he went 0-4, with a strikeout and a ground ball double play, to drop his average to .100 through 11 games. This is not so much a slow start as a continuation of last season, when Baez, in the first year of a six-year, $140 million contract, was arguably the worst offensive shortstop in baseball, on one of the worst offensive teams in franchise history. (The former Gold Glover also led the majors in errors, but we digress.) Nevertheless, Baez was batting cleanup Wednesday night, just like he spent most of last season batting second or third. And the Tigers are once again last in runs scored.
Mike Valenti has had enough. He says drop Baez to ninth.
"I'm sorry, but at this point A.J. Hinch and the Tigers are trolling," Valenti said Wednesday. "In tonight's lineup, the utterly useless, and I mean by the numbers, useless, Javy Baez is beating cleanup. ... He's an atrocity. And he's doing the same garbage he did last year where to say there's plate discipline on some level would suggest the presence of discipline in the first place. It's nonsense. A.J. comes out (Tuesday) and says, I was going to bat him third or fifth and those were my two options. Let me give you a third option, a neat-o option. It's called batting him ninth.
"I want Javy Baez as disgusted as we are disgusted in him. I want Javy Baez as uncomfortable as he makes me watching him at the plate. Who the hell is Javy Baez? Is he going to Cooperstown? Has he brought rings here? Do we have his number retired? No, he's Juan Gonzalez, 2K-23. He's a guy we hate. If I'm AJ Hinch and I'm demanding that Javy Baez, as an alleged team leader, which is also a problem, has a better command of the strike zone, you know what you do to get Javy's brain right? You bat him ninth. Wake up. Wake up! Guy has no interest in professional at-bats. None."
Baez saw eight pitches out of the zone in the Tigers' 4-3 loss Wednesday and swung at four of them. Which is right on par with his chase rate this season and pretty much on par with his chase rate last season. For a team whose mantra and mission is to "control the strike zone," according to new president of baseball operations Scott Harris, Baez is the poster child for expanding it. He had the highest chase rate in the majors last season and is right back at the top this season.
"I'm not saying he's not trying," said Valenti. "What I'm saying is, when a player's confidence is broken and when his bad habits are exacerbated, you arrive at the point where you're Chris Davis in the late years, Adam Dunn in the late years. This is, you bench him or you drop him (in the order). And he ain't Derek Jeter. I don't want to hear about, 'I can't drop El Mago.' The hell I can't!"
Listen live to 97.1 The Ticket via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
