AAAA

Hey Mom, look what I found.....

I heard whisperings that Randy Ruiz had been playing a little outfield in the winter leagues.  I had already looked into his hitting and was pleasantly surprised.  He should arrive at camp next month in mid season form.  But the thought of him playing defense got my mind racing.  I had to see it for myself and was able to track down this boxscore.

Mayaguez
Player	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
Torres CF	4	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.269
DeJesus CF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.083
Molina, F 2B	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	.194
Limonta RF	5	1	2	1	0	0	2	0	2	.288
Hernandez, J RF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.244
Ruiz, R LF	5	2	3	0	0	2	6	0	1	.346
Hernandez, M LF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
Leon, D DH	5	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.307
Valencia 3B	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	.207
Sanchez, An SS	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.331
Guzman 1B	5	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	.239
Maldonado, M C	3	4	3	0	0	2	5	1	0	.192
Byrd P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Cepeda P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Merritt P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Garcia, A P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Rivera, M P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

BATTING
2B: Limonta (8, Matos, J), Leon, D (14, Matos, J), Valencia (2, Matos, J).
HR: Maldonado, M 2 (3, 3rd inning off Padilla, Ju, 2 on, 1 out; 5th inning off Flores, A, 1 on, 2 out), Ruiz, R 2 (6, 3rd inning off Padilla, Ju, 2 on, 2 out; 5th inning off Matos, J, 2 on, 1 out).
TB: Torres 2; Limonta 3; Ruiz, R 9; Leon, D 2; Valencia 2; Sanchez, An; Guzman; Maldonado, M 9.
RBI: Limonta 2 (25), Maldonado, M 5 (8), Ruiz, R 6 (26), Valencia (7), Guzman (20).
2-out RBI: Ruiz, R 3; Guzman; Maldonado, M 2.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Sanchez, An 2; Leon, D 2.
Team RISP: 8-for-19.
Team LOB: 8.

FIELDING
E: Ruiz, R (7, fielding), Hernandez, M (1, fielding).
DP: 2 (Molina, F-Sanchez, An-Guzman 2).

	Ponce
	Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
	Padilla, Ju (L, 5-3)	3.0	7	8	3	4	5	2	3.08
	Matos, J	1.1	5	6	6	1	1	1	12.08
	Flores, A	1.2	2	2	2	0	2	1	7.16
	Feliciano	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3.52
	Charry	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.59

From it I can make a few observations:

• Randy Ruiz started in left field and hit clean up.  
• Huge day at the plate and was no doubt seeing the ball well.  
• Clutched up with a big three run shot with two out.  
• Charged with an error in the field, his SEVENTH in the 26 game season.  There is no way to tell how many of those games he was the DH.
  
• Was replaced defensively most likely in last inning.  
• Guy who replaced him also made an error in left so there is hope that maybe the lights were low or something.  ;) 
• The pitchers for the other team did not have a very good day.
  

Now I'm not going to sit here, blow smoke up your ass and say that he should play the field for us at the Major League level.  I have never seen him play in the outfield but based on his body type (6'1 / 240ish) and after seeing his graceful pictures above (his eyes are actually closed) and below, I have to assume it doesn't look pretty.  According to The Baseball Cube: In his ten years of professional ball he has played 435 games at 1st and 62 in the outfield.  He had only one start at the one bag for us last season.  Officially he is listed on the 40 man roster as a DH.

We all know what he can do with the stick:

Courtesy of The Mockingbird

From a truly amazing, must see website Hit Tracker.  Video of his 435 foot no doubter off Pettitte can be found here.  If he just got the elevation angle of the ball up a couple of degrees, this bomb easily would have been 450 feet plus.  He had a total of 10 home runs and 7 doubles in 115 at bats as well as a .385 on base percentage with the big club in 2009.

Analysis:

The Cito said late last season that he doesn't want Lind in LF when Snyder is in RF.  When asked this off season who his lead off guy would be, he said Bautista.  Unfortunately for The Human Rain Delay, Overbay is still employed and will play a lot (read not platoon) if we are trying to showcase him for a trade and/or beef up his Elias free agent ranking.

We have only 4 bench spots and you have to know that Johnny Mac and the back up catcher get two of them.  For the third spot we would need a 4th outfielder.  That only leaves one spot available.  I guess what I'm trying to say is if the season started tomorrow, Randy would be hard pressed to crack the 25 man active roster and would basically be auditioning for that final spot.  But if he can market himself as anything other than just a DH this spring, his chances go up substantially.

Jesus.....

Personally, I would like him get around 500 at bats only to see what he can really do.  The problem is I don't know who you take those at bats away from in order to give him the opportunity.