Aaron Miles is easily the worst SS in major league baseball when he plays the positions. I wish someone other than numerous fans would point this out. I’ve never seen any mention in any article or blog to the effect of………”Aaron Miles can play SS in a pinch, but his past tells us not to expect much”……..or something like that.

Why oh why does Tony LaRussa, HOFer, believe Aaron Miles is ANY kind of option at SS? He’s a below average 2b and a horrible SS. The eye test AND the numbers prove this.

Any comment on how Glaus has looked at third so far this spring? Potentially, the left side of the defense will set up with Duncan, Glaus, and Izturis. With the “pitch to contact” philosophy, I hope those three (and Ryan, Miles, and who platoons with Duncan), are up to the task.

Went to the games Friday and Saturday. Glaus made a nice backhanded play on Friday. Yesterday he ranged to his left on a slow grounder in the hole, gloved it, and threw on the run. He looked much more mobile than I was being led to believe. Has also been crushing the ball. Perez looked terrible yesterday, blew the save, and got hit pretty hard.

if ryan starts the season on the dl, i think i’d rather see joe mather get called up that jimenez, who hits ok but doesn’t provide that much of a step up from miles at short. neither is very good, so perhaps mather backing up at third would provide a much greater offensive threat off the bench. he could also give glauss a day off now and then without so much of an offensive loss. besides i think the team would have to shell out for a major league contract if jimenez makes it. save the bucks, get more offense and we don’t lose that much defense. makes sense to me.

Dave,

I have to agree with you. Watching Miles at SS last year was not good. Watching him at 3B today is even worse.

The thing I saw today (and I have been clamoring to ditch the guy) is that Izturis’ range is remarkably better than anything we’ve seen for a while. DG makes a good point in his article about Oquendo working with Izturis to get his feel back. This guy clearly has better defensive skills than Renteria did. I’d have to equate him to a guy like Royce Clayton when he first came up. He is going to be a slap-hitter, and I don’t see him hitting above .260 if everything goes right for him. That being said, I think he is going to steal some innings defensively over the course of the year. I think he is going to make up for some of the range lost with Glaus at 3B.