Loney. Ellis. Gordon. Uribe. Just rolls right off the tongue, eh? In a few years we'll all be talking about the 2012 infield like those guys who played in the '70s and '80s. Garvey....and some others....
Yup. Just say it again: Loney, Ellis, Gordon, Uribe. It just sounds like championship baseball, doesn't it?
All kidding aside, the offensive potential here is actually quite good. (Sorry if I just made you spit out of your nose). Loney could hit .295 with 20 homers and 90 RBIs. Ellis could hit .285 with 15 homers and 65 RBIs. Gordon could slap .305 and steal 50 bases. And Uribe could hit .270 with 22 homers and 80 RBIs. Independently, each of these guys is capable of such numbers. Realistically, none of it will happen.
You don't need me to remind you about Loney's inconsistency, Ellis' recent injury woes and decline, Gordon's inexperience, and Uribe's uribeness. This infield has offensive disaster written all over it.
Note to Ned - just because the market for a particular position is downright thing, doesn't mean you have to jump in head first before they run out of stock. At this stage of his career, is Mark Ellis really that much of an upgrade over Aaron Miles that you had to commit to two years of his mediocreness? At triple the price?
I'm guessing Ned tried to hide the Ellis signing in the shadows of the Matt Kemp extension. (Nice work on that one, BTW.) But as much as I'd like to spend a column declaring praises about the Kemp contract, it was really a no-brainer. We expected Ned to figure that one out.
But the Mark Ellis signing rings of something else. Call it a non-brainer.