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Omar or not Omar? Vizquel is a Giant problem
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Omar Vizquel can get a bunt down
photo umpbump.com
As manager of the Giants, Bruce Bochy’s job is difficult enough. And Omar Vizquel is not making it any easier.
Has the 41 year old shortstop finally become a liability, his defensive skills no longer enough to offset a batting average below .200?
Or can the Hall of Fame bound Venezuelan, who earlier this year broke the record for most games played at his position, do enough with his defense and other skills to compensate for his inability to hit?
After Tuesday’s 3-2 victory in Cleveland, the answer to both questions is probably yes. This game is a perfect manifestation of what Bochy must consider every day when he makes out his lineup card. Should it be Vizquel or Emmanuel Burris, who filled in so capably earlier in the year while Vizquel was recovering from knee surgery? With the Giants just on the fringes of the NL West race, it would seem playing Burris should be an easy call. The Giants have to find out if he is capable of assuming the position full time when Vizquel leaves, and younger legs, arms and eyes are probably better at this point anyway. And yet…
Actually playing Vizquel Tuesday night, the Giants’ first game in Cleveland since the 1954 World Series, was automatic. Not starting him would not only have been cruel, it probably would have earned Bochy a mugging at the hands of Cleveland fans anxious to pay tribute to a player who was once the toast of this Great Lake city. Vizquel spent his prime years, from 1994 through 2004 as a member of the Indians. The team, after decades of empty seats and second division finishes, were in the playoffs six times, the LCS three and the World Series twice during Vizquel’s tenure. He is a monument to their rebirth.
He was given a hearty welcome and an elaborate pregame ceremony. Then for most of the game he showed that he earned all that adulation in prior years. Nothing he was doing Tuesday night was worth cheering about. He was hitless in his first three at bats, and left a total of five runners on base with his inning ending outs. With his .167 average Vizquel is one of the reasons the Giants are 14th in the 16 team National League in runs scored.
Yet with the team leading just 2-1 in the eighth inning and Rich Aurilia on third base and Vizquel at the plate, Bochy called for a suicide squeeze. Maybe he thought that was the only way Vizquel, whose outs had all been soft, could get the run in. But just maybe he knew that Vizquel can still handle the bat and is one of the few Giants he can trust to get a bunt down. Vizquel did and Aurilia, who had broken for home as the pitch was delivered, scored easily.
The Giants needed that run because the Indians scored once in their half of the ninth. Speaking of that inning, Cleveland might have been able to tie the game or even go ahead had Vizquel not made a terrific play in the field, gloving David DeLucci’s ground ball in the hole and, despite moving the other direction, managed a strong throw to force Jhonny Peralta at second. Burris probably does not make that play.
Vizquel might well have made the difference between winning and losing this night, yet he’s hitting a buck sixty seven.
What’s a Bochy to do?
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