From this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"Right fielder Franklin Gutierrez, sitting for his fifth straight start, was not.
What happened to Gutierrez?
'Ben Francisco happened to him,' Wedge said. 'Benny has come up and swung the bat well and taken some time away from him.'
Francisco is one of the few Indians hitters who looks like he has a clue at the plate, and is hitting .340. He's taken over right field, while Gutierrez appears to be David Dellucci's latest platoon partner in left."
Gutierrez was a sexy sleeper coming off his 2007 season where he hit 13 HRs and stole 8 bases in 271 ABs. Given the RF job this Spring, there was no reason to believe otherwise.
Now that he has struggled for the 1st quarter of 2008, along with the rest of the Indians' offense, he has been supplanted by rookie Ben Francisco. I do not see Francisco as too much of a different player so do not be surprised to see Gutierrez regain those ABs if Francisco struggles as most rookies do.
Both players should be owned in all but the most shallow of AL-Only formats.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment