Anyone ever notice how the B-side of Zeppelin IV is so much better than the A-side?

Alcides Escobar makes me grind my teeth. Why do fans of the Brewers seem so content to move J.J. Hardy, a seemingly inevitable strategy, for a player that has never played a day outside of AA?

J.J. Hardy has the third best OPS of all regular NL shortstops, behind Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes. That's damn good company. If you move him to third, he's only the eighth best regular in the NL, behind everyone from David Wright and Aramis Ramirez to Jorge Cantu and Troy Glaus. The fact of the matter is, an .800 OPS gets you a lot further in terms of value at short than at the hot corner.

Meanwhile, down on the farm, can we get one thing straight? Alcides Esocbar is not a contact hitter! He is striking out in approximately 13% of his PA in 2008, and strikes out in approximately 15% of his PA in his minor league career....that's not terribly far off from the strike out seasons some of our favorite strike out goats are having -- and it's equally as far from the brilliant contact hitting of someone like Albert Pujols. Hell, even Vlad Guerrero is a better contact hitter and has a career K% rate around 11%

What irks me to the core is that fans equate a hitter with a high batting average and low power with a contact hitter. Given the surprising disdain for our current true outcomes line up (no, of course they're not as powerful as Harvey's Wallbangers), it has become apparent that what this team needs is a high AVG hitter without power.

I disagree, vehemently. What this team needs is plate discipline, and that's in K/BB ratio, among other things. Escobar's BB rate? At or around 5% of his PA this season and for most of his minor league career.

Alcides Escobar is only intriguing to Brewers fans as something this offense "needs" because he has an AVG above .340 and plays good defense (even that's a myth, the Brewers' team defensive efficiency is 6th in the entire MLB). I have a sneaking suspicion that when Brewers fans rush Alcides up to the majors, they'll find out that he's more of the same in our line up.

Low discipline? At least he wears a pretty mask over an ugly trait.