Rocco Tonight?

Upton said it hit nothing. Leyland argued it did but accepted the umpires’ decision that as they could not be certain they would not overturn the initial decision.

I can’t find it, but I am sure I read somewhere that Upton lost the ball in the roof. He did hustle back to play the carom although Cabrera still made it to third. I had no idea where it was. Looking at both Upton and Crawford, they both seemed to have lost it. I certainly did. At first I thought it was simply a very high but otherwise routine popup and then figured it must be gone until I saw it bounce off the wall. Then I wasn’t sure whether Leyland was arguing that it went over the wall and bounced back (which I was pretty sure it didn’t) or whether it hit the catwalk.

Lineups are up. Gomes for another day.

once rocco and ruggs come up he will have better options than gomes and aybar

as a 23 year old in 2006 he got 243 ABs and hit 18 doubles ending with a line of .280/.364/.403 that included 28 BBs and just 36 Ks. That was after a brief introduction to the majors as a 22 year old when in 86 ABs he had 8 doubles and a .326/.448/.453 line. He may consider that evidence that Aybar is a useful hitter as more convincing than the 155 ABs he has had so far this year, and may even like that in those ABs he has managed 15 BBs and just 18 Ks as well as 9 doubles.

My guess is he also likes Aybar’s ability to play 3 infield positions without hurting the team.

I think it fair to say Aybar is not hitting well this year, but not correct to say he cannot hit. In fact, he started the year hitting pretty well. Before getting hurt, in admittedly just 7 games, his line was .292/.370/.500 and as late as July 6 his OBP was at .351. He has slumped since then, but that is hardly a reason to dismiss his value to the team.

I think we also have to remain aware that, with rare exceptions (Stokes became one late last year and Hammel earlier this year although his last few performances may bring him back into Maddon’s good graces) everyone gets playing time on Maddon’s team. It is one of his hallmarks, and I think his strengths as a manager.