I have been a member of this DRB community for four seasons. I have never found a player to be more polarizing than Casey Kotchman. And i'm not sure why. Here are some thoughts.

From the day of his signing, many of our local analysts wrote about it in a very negative way. Their reason was the three year metric. Although i tried in vain to show them that in two of those years, '08 and '09 he was traded, once to a new league and once where his role became that of a defensive replacement, pinch hitter and both times his numbers suffered greatly.

As for the three year metric, there are exceptions. Along with Kotchman, look at Jeff Francoeur 280/329/464 with 17 HR for the Royals, Ryan Vogelson 10-5 2.63 ERA with the Giants. Jack Hannahan of the Indians is another and even Sean Burroughs is back playing for the D-Backs.

One of our local analysts went so far in an article when it appeared the Rays needed to make a roster move that Kotchman should be the one we DFA. The other candidates were Dan Johnson, Elliot Johnson and Felipe Lopez. Honest, i can't make this stuff up.That same Casey Kotchman on August 8 had a .340 BA and was 2nd in the AL. The other three? Do we really need to ask?

Another thing i find odd, Kotchman is among AL first base leaders in almost all the categories this community embraces, WAR, wRC+, wOBA, OBP. Beeaking news, he isn't a HR hitter and doesn't run the bases well.

To sum up why not embrace his quest for a batting title instead of diminish it? Can you imagine if Ben Zobrist, Matt Joyce or Evan Longoria were in the same position as Kotchman, would the references made about them be the same made in the post game today?