Back in the 19th century, lots of folks had a horrible fear of being buried alive. There were a few highly publicized cases of someone falling unconcious or dropping into a coma then, after being incorrectly pronounced dead by their friendly family doctor, finding themselves gasping for air six feet under.
Inventors saw an opportunity and sprang to the rescue. They came up with all sorts of devices that you could bury with your loved ones. Most of them centered around a bell (or other signaling device) situated above ground, and some kind of trigger placed in the hand of the possibly-departed. Thus, if the newly maybe-dead person twitched at all, someone would know.
Why do I mention this on a Brewers blog, of all places? Mostly because it's my Brewers blog and I think it's cool. Also because it's a shame someone hasn't put one of those triggering devices in Corey Hart's hand, because if they had, the bell would be ringing like crazy.
Any reasonable person could tell, as it became evident that we'd trade Carlos Lee, that whatever we needed in trade, it wasn't corner outfielders. (Of course, that was before we shipped off Nelson Cruz along with Caballo.) Even still, Corey Hart has proven all he ever will at Triple-A, and he's put up a respectable line this year in criminally limited playing time.
So, of course, we got a left fielder, one who Ned Yost promptly fell in love with. Since the trade, Corey Hart has gotten exactly one at-bat--in fact, he's gotten just that one pinch-hit appearance since July 28th. Let's look at how Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench are doing since then, shall we?
| AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| Jenkins | .167 | .259 | .333 |
| Mench | .200 | .192 | .320 |
| Hart | one friggin' at-bat | ||
Jenkins we've covered--it just gets uglier every day that he starts and Corey sits. Mench...well, go ahead and trot out the excuses: he's adjusting to all new pitchers; he didn't always play everyday in Texas; it's a small sample size; whatever. I don't particularly care why Mench isn't hitting well, and will probably never be as good a batsman as Corey Hart is. The point is, he isn't. Hart (and, occasionally, Gabe Gross) is rotting on the bench every single day--even being bumped out of some pinch-hitting situations by Tony Gwynn Jr.--because we all gotta love the veterans.
Um, let me rephrase that. We all gotta love the veterans who strike out a ton, play average or worse defense, almost never walk, and have virtually no upside. I promised that I wouldn't complain about THE TRADE anymore, and I'll keep that promise (after the next sentence). If, as reported, we had to throw in Nelson Cruz to get Kevin Mench, we not only did a serious disservice to our team's future, but we materially damaged the present.