The 2008 bench was actually better than the 2009 bench is projecting -- your whining about the bench is probably not out of shape or place.
Here's the 2008 bench, which after Runs Created corrections was probably worth approximately 17.6% of the 2008 Crew's overall runs production:
| Counsell |
|
30 |
| Kapler |
|
39 |
| Branyan |
|
28 |
| Durham |
|
19 |
| Dillon |
|
9 |
| Rivera |
|
10 |
| Gross |
|
6 |
| Gwynn |
|
3 |
That's 144 RC individually, which corrects to approximately 132 R in the team context. 132 R of 750 R from the bench is pretty decent, considering that this main bench core accumulated roughly 17% of the team's PA.
Flash forward to 2009:
| Counsell |
12 |
| Duffy |
1 |
| Nelson |
0 |
| McGehee |
1 |
| Corporan |
1 |
| Rivera |
1 |
Yeah, I know. And that's with 149 PA, which is approximately 12% of the team's PA. So, Macha is using the bench less frequently than Yost, but the bench is also much less productive: even with a liberal correction, the bench produced approximately 14-15 runs to this point, which is worth approximately 9% of the team's total 164 R.
That's ugly.
But, the Crew does have a nice bench star in Counsell, who has already matched close to half of his 2008 production in only about 1/5 of the PA. He's our Gabe Kapler of 2008 -- average / slightly below average veteran with great baseball smarts who puts it all together when the team needs it in limited duty.
The Crew does not yet have a mid-season acquisition like Durham -- it's not yet mid-season -- but it is clear that otherwise, the bench is not featuring "mid-range" players thus far. The production is pretty extremely low.
This all might change, and probably will. But for now, the bench is not really pulling its roster spots.