There are only so many roster spots here to consider. You figure Gomes is probably gone and Hinske may be cost-prohibitive. Perez has earned a shot. What do you do with RF? You have to have a stable situation there, don’t you? Do you try to upgrade Gross or just stay with that?

What I am saying is that there are only so many spots. You want someone who is flexible and doesn’t in theory have restrictions. Maybe it will work, I don’t know. My thing is the roster spots. If Floyd retires, then this is probably an easier decision, and you can find more AB’s with him.

can he play DH everyday or at least most of the time?

Everyone seems to think that there is no chance that he can DH every, or most every day. He played 80% of the games in Montgomery and was healthy enough to be promoted. Montgomery was a combination of RF and DH. The reason that he was not in the lineup more often this past year was because of Cliff Floyd. For $8 million they were not going to play Rocco exclusively over Floyd. The compromise was a platoon at the DH position with some flexibility in RF, but it still worked out to Rocco playing mostly against left handed starters. If Floyd’s career is indeed over the candidates for DH seem to be between Rocco and Aybar. It could still be a platoon with, again, Rocco getting some RF shifts. This would allow Aybar’s switch hitting bat to be used more often. Please do not assume that based on his usage this year that he cannot play more often than he did. There were certainly games where he was willing and able, but not utilized. There is hope that a restful offseason will produce even more physical opportunities for him to play. I would hate to lose him to a team that needs a 4th outfielder (i.e.-the Red Sox).

I did a quick HR per AB analysis of the team for the regular season and the playoffs and came up with these numers: 1) Baldelli 1 HR/15.3 AB, 2) Pena 1 HR/15.7 AB, 3) Longoria 1 HR/16.0 AB, 4) Zobrist 1 HR/17.4 AB, 5) Hinske 1 HR/18.2 AB, 6) Gomes 1 HR/19.3 AB 7) Floyd 1 HR/21.6 AB, 8) Perez 1 HR/21.7 AB, 9) Riggins 1 HR/22.5 AB, 10) Gross 1 HR/24.2 AB, 11) Aybar 1 HR/28.9 AB, 12) Ruggiano 1 HR/38.0 AB, 13) Upton 1 HR/44.5 AB, 14) Crawford 1 HR/49.1 AB, 15) Navarro 1 HR/67.1 AB, 16) Iwamura 1 HR/112.5 AB & 17) Bartlett 1 HR/245.5 AB. Not listed Johnson 1 HR/13 AB with only 26 at bats for the season.
What this translates to is that if each of the players had 600 AB (which wouldn’t happen in many of the cases) the following would hit 20 or more home runs: 1) Baldelli 39, 2) Pena & Longoria – 38, 4) Zobrist 34, 5) Hinske 33, 6) Gomes 31, 7) Floyd & Perez 28, 9) Riggins 27, 10) Gross 25 & 11) Aybar 21

This is the guy that came back when we were in need of some shinning light once Carl went down for (what we thought) the entire season. Rocco helped fill some voids but you can’t expect a man who hasn’t played consistently in 3 seasons to just assume the roll as the power hitter on the team.