Steps for Today's Bad News of Victor Martinez

Okay friends... The news on Vmart today was bad. Here are the steps for trying to make it better...

1.) Good news... He wasn't going to catch any more. Gerald Laird will take over for Alex Avila once a week this season to give him some rest. (We will pinch hit for him in the 9th every game... Right Jim?) So we need to focus on replacing the numbers of the DH in our order.

2.) These were his numbers last year.

540 AB  |  178 Hits  |  40 Doubles  |  12 HR  |  103 RBI  |  .330 BA  |  .380 OBP

3.) There is one number that stands out here. That is 103 RBI. The rest can almost be accomplished by a simple replacement. For instance, not saying that we should do this, but if we picked up Wilson Betemit once again, the numbers would almost be covered. (These are projected numbers for 540 AB for Wilson Betimit in 2012.)

540 AB  |  160 Hits  |  36 Doubles  |  14 HR  |  80 RBI  |  .290 BA  |  .350 OBP

The hits, doubles, HR, BA and OBP is almost the same and thus a fairly simple replacement. The 103 RBI is not a simple replacement. How do we make up for the 23 RBI that will be lost?

4.) There is probably not an easy answer for replacing those 23 RBI. The free agent market is now slim. Ryan Ludwick... Proly not. Wilson Betimit... He was just an example. Some guy named Magglio... Nope. Who then?

5.) The only answer is Yoennis Cespedes. The problem with this is that he will be expensive and he will want to play in the field. So... This is what we do.

6.) Take the risk and spend the money on Yoennis. We have some money (15 million) and he could be a great investment. (See blogs below.)

7.) Regarding people who will want to play in the field... We rotate Boesch, Yoennis, Young, and Raburn in the field and as DHs.

This is obviously just the beginning to the conversation, but I hope that it sets a foundation for a dialogue that will become increasingly important as we head into spring training.