I would totally hire you based on that resume.

Delorean,

Consider him parked.

Chris: If you pinky-swear that McClain won’t take ABs away from Schiermeier, then you may park him at third.

Maybe I should put “Coming up with Nicknames for Eugenio Velez” on my resume.

I orignally thought of Captain Pickoff Von Ironglove of the MentalErrorShire Irongloves, but decided that it was excessive.

The sad part is that I like Velez. He has decent pop in that bat for a waterbug. But the mental and concentration aspects of baseball seem to elude him (to say the least).

I mean we’ve had Mark Sweeney play significant portions of time at first base. Sweeney! And not the good one.

Here’s a hypothetical: If McClain could play 3B (Which I believe he’s doing a little of in AAA) would you play him over Castillo? In the end, it doesn’t really matter between the two, but it’s an interesting question.

I’ll also admit that a big reason that I like McClain is that his story is kinda cool. I think if you translate him from AAA to the MLB, he’s OPS’ing just slightly over 800, which isn’t really starting material for a corner infield position.

Laser-bombs!

@OJ:

Speedy McFuckup is amazing. Didn’t someone else on McC call him Iron Glove von Pickoff or something? Also apt.

SMcFU is a great name for Velez. Love it. Welcome to the site.

Delorean,

You pretty much said what I was trying to say, but in less words and more concisely. I’ll +1 your hope for a Durham trade.

And don’t hate on McClain! Dude hits laser-bombs, what more do you want!?

And why now? There’s no pressing need for Velez. Why not wait until Ort is rehabbed or Schierholtz is ready to return? Hell, you could make a case that McClain would be a better fit for the big club, and I HATE the idea of calling him up!

The real news to me is the Brewers moves as reported in the Rosenthal story. If Rosenthal is right (not a given), the Brewers are going to go for broke this year with Sheets, Sabathia, and Fielder, and retool next year with comp picks. I love the strategy, and wish them the best. And if it’s true, then I could definitely see them picking up Taschner and Durham, which would be spectacular. Hinshaw kinda-sorta makes Taschner redundant, and we’ve got plenty of other arms waiting in the wings (howbout that metaphor, huh?). If Sabean and Co. moves those guys and get some salary relief and some prospects, that will tell me they’re serious about the whole rebuilding thing. I sincerely hope they are!