My Kingdom (or a pitching prospect) For A Hitter

A Hitter, A Hitter, My Kingdom (or a pitching prospect and more) for a hitter to bring right handed balance to the roster.

Channeling my inner Shakespeare because the cold snap today (we dropped to 93 and thunder boomers last night) has me in a poetic mood.

It seems the Braves watched the way the Rangers took their at bats and – while they were in town anyway – tried to emulate them. Then the Blue Jays arrived and Tim Hudson had to win his own game because the bats went back to their impotent selves.

In a chat with David O’Brien today GM Frank Wren said:

"“I think Chipper said it today in the paper, and I agree – most of our needs are in the clubhouse. We get guys healthy, and then you fine-tune. That’s the hope anyway.”"

The GM is incorrect as any outside observer would tell him. If Chipper said that today – I couldn’t find it but I haven’t been able to read every article out there – he’s speaking as the leader of the club, trying to pump up our under performing offense and not considering our left handed bench. He knows as well as better than anyone that this group while individually talented, hasn’t become the kind of consistently productive lineup that wins championships. We’re nearly halfway in and time is running out.

As I write this of course we are whipping on the Jays’ Tuesday starter Zach Stewart in his second major league start. Beating up on the rookie or the Astros pitching staff may temporarily mask our ineptitude at the plate against front line pitchers but it doesn’t fix it.

Prior to tonight there were the Braves numbers.

The rumor mill has been rife with choices available and fans saying what moves we should make. A lot of the fan chatter is media built of course; whoever is hot they want and I understand that, I’d love to have Reyes and Pence too; that isn’t happening.

So, my inner Shakespeare wants to know,  What’s in a name? Would hits from an unknown but capable bat not be as sweet?

How much does a name influence your wants? When the numbers are detached from the names, who would you choose from this list.

^{#Switch hitter *Hits Left}

I added offensive and defensive WAR for this season to help you decide and a couple who aren’t widely discussed but might be available as well just to mix things up. Some have stolen bases others have none. I didn’t add numbers but the bottom half has more than the top half if that helps.

The Poll’s below. I’ll publish the names to go with the numbers after we have some responses on  Thursday.