I’m pretty sure I could beat Sean Casey in an arm restle and absolutely sure I could beat him in a straight-on foot race. Yes, his slugging numbers sucked — but that number is slightly skewed by the fact that so many of his singles could have been stretched into doubles, and so many of his doubles could have been stretched into triples — with just a modicum of speed. I’m not even talking Granderson-like speed, just average speed. The result: Good hitter who hits high for average, but whose slugging average sucks. (It also didn’t help that he couldn’t put a few more over the fence).

But…. he was a consistant hitter, as I recall, and came thru with the one-bagger alot last year, just like we saw in Boston. Sometimes when you have a 1-9 lineup chock-full of bonifide sluggers, it doesn’t hurt to throw in a consistant hitter in the lineup who bats high for average to keep a rally alive every now and then. I would argue it helps the team chemistry. Sluggers tend to be much more streaky that hitters like Casey — if the whole lineup is on and slugging, well then, nobody is gonna beat them and you’d take anyone of those hitters over a powerless-bat like Casey, but we also see what happens when the whole lineup is off. All it would have taken to win 3 or 4 of the games we’ve already lost this year would have been a few timely singles up the middle — or a few hits to extend an inning for the next guy. We don’t always need the the long ball from every hitter to get the job done.

But it’s clear that Leyland has some irrational affection for the guy and there’s probably nothing he can do to get cut.

WOW

Grilli gains early confidence
Leyland impressed by reliever’s recent outing

“Hopefully that’ll get him going,” Leyland said, “because he’s got too good stuff not to pitch good. Jason Grilli’s got good stuff, no question about it. He’s got too good stuff to not pitch well, and I’m not talking about every single time out. Nobody pitches great every time out, but he gave us a big lift, and he should’ve given himself a big lift.

“That should be a big plus for him and a nice little step forward to keep the confidence going a little bit. That’s what you’re hoping for. It’s kind of a wait and see.”

Nobody pitches poorly every time out, that was Grillis one non-poor outing

And are you contesting the assertion that Casey wasn’t very good, or are you just belittling someone else’s comment for kicks. If it’s the former, why don’t you include something more illuminating in your post than a thinly veiled suggestion that another person is ignorant.