Fielding, yes, he has been pretty great. To say that he would bring “[g]ood hitting”, well, that’s fairly preposterous. Kennedy hasn’t posted an OBP better than the league since 2005. SLG? 2002. Batting average? 2005 as well. Even if you grant that offense is hard to come by at 2B, Kennedy has been simply dreadful at the plate in partial seasons last season and this.

If you want to say he brings a good glove, yes, he does. If you think he brings “character”, okay, I don’t personally think that’s anything to put on your resume, but whatever. If you say he brings good hitting, well, he doesn’t. He doesn’t even bring adequate hitting. At this point in his career, Adam Kennedy is a terrible, terrible hitter. Terrible. Hitter.

Make Dan Murphy our full-ish-time second baseman, sign some righty mashing left fielder to platoon with Evans, sign Fuentes, and use the rest of the money to get a front-line starter. Disregarding the budget, CC Sabathia would look pretty damn nice next to Johan Santana as our #2 starter. He’s also a better hitter than Argenis Reyes. He also has twice as many homers this season as Adam Kennedy. In nearly 300 less PA’s.

Also, character is, eh, a curse word. If you gave me a lineup with 9 Barry Bondses, a pitching rotation with 5 Roger Clemenses, and a bullpen full of John Rockers(es), we would win the World Series, every year. You know why? Clutchiness. We would bat .471/.700/1.294 in the World Series, our starters would have a 2.37 ERA, and our bullpen, well, let’s just say they would never allow a run, period.
(A side note, did John Rocker really make 0 regular season PA’s, but two in the playoffs with two walks and one run scored? Is that some kind of typo? I’m kind of wondering if his postseason record is entirely a typo.)

This team doesn’t need more character, it needs better players. More reliable pitchers, better arms in the pen, and not AAA signees who have a surprising season. Real stuff, not a “lets see if we can get anything out of him” deal. This team isn’t too far away. Main issue is adding a few strong arms in the pen. That’s why the Cubbies and Angels are looking mighty fine. Anyways, grit is not the way to go, unless we can find Scott Brosius.

Not to beat a dead horse, but doesn’t Beltran’s resurgence of late suggest that “clutch” is really just a matter of luck, as I and others here have been arguing all along?

Beltran has been on fire lately, and he’s pretty much right where I expected he’d be at the beginning of the season: .370 OBP, .500 SLG, an outside shot at 30 HRs, and tremendous defense. He’s very quietly had another excellent season.

Luis Castillo has 11 HR over the past four seasons