A's Keystone Woes

[Crash Course]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/8291569.htm

Problem, as the feature states, or should not really be a big deal?

[sweaver]

German, Scutaro, and Crosby can all play ball. They will not be asked to carry the team, just provide some defense and a little hitting for a while. I think they will do fine.

[KCBOOMER]

I think this could be a big deal. With the loss of Tejada's offense and now a hit at two important defensive position could end up really hurting a team that is not offensively strong.

[Crash Course]

Lotta new AL faces on the A's D - Karros, Miller behind the plate, Kotsay in CF. They knew Crosby would be at SS. You would think that the A's would have had someone (a coach?) pegged for defensive positioning from the get go for this season?

[RichG]

Is there any reason you think the A's don't have a coach assist positioning the defense during the game or helping between the games?

[Crash Course]

Is there any reason you think the A's don't have a coach assist positioning the defense during the game or helping between the games?
From the article:

Manager Ken Macha sounded wary in the face of the likelihood that the A's will begin the season with a rookie double-play combination of second baseman Esteban German and shortstop Bobby Crosby.

``When you have two guys who aren't totally familiar with the league out there at the same time, that could make things really difficult,'' Macha said Friday, noting that Crosby and German probably would need ``a lot more direction'' from coaches during games.


"A lot more" sounds like there were not intending on having a coach play a role in this at first.

[RichG]

I read the link and just took the quote at its face value, that more time would be needed to be guide less-seasoned players than if Ellis was healthy.

[Crash Course]

Gets worse: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1771123

Ellis is out for the year.

[gyb13]

i'm sure they'll be picking up for the MIF from the spring training cuts

[SmedIndy]

Scutaro can play. And I think you misread the quote.

[PianoMonkey]

I wouldn't be *too* worried if I was an A's fan. No one knows for sure what a rookie can do until he makes it to the bigs. Of course, I'd be more worried than the Tigers were in '78. After all, Trammel and Whittaker were *supposed* to be starting that season. They were expected to be ready for their jobs. While the A's duo can no doubt play some decent ball, the management clearly had planned for more conditioning time for both of them.

[wijamie]

It was mentioned before that if Crosby failed or got hurt at short, they'd move Ellis over and play German at second. Now what happens if Crosby sucks?

[Crash Course]

They active Ron Washington, I guess?

[gyb13]

now there's a rumor that they may be interested in signing Rey Ordoņez

[wijamie]

That would qualify as Sports Illustrated's 'signs of the apocolypse' or something