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I Don't Believe It

By Jeff Sackmann

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Actually, I do believe it, but I still find myself very surprised that things are working out the way they should. Ned Yost has made his preliminary announcement about the outfield, and we can all stop cringing now:

"I'm going to put Billy in center," confirmed Yost, who arrived in Phoenix on Tuesday to begin final preparations for the opening of the Brewers' camp this weekend. "When we start out, we're going to send Billy to center field and probably put Corey Hart in right."

With Hart taking over in right, Yost plans to return Geoff Jenkins to left field, his original position before moving in 2005 to accommodate Carlos Lee. Yost said left field is shaping up to be a platoon situation with Jenkins, a left-handed hitter, and Kevin Mench, who bats from the right side.

"My thought right now is not to platoon with Corey," said Yost, who wants to give the 24-year-old outfielder a shot to prove he should play every day.

Perfect. We'll see whether he actually does this, but this is about as much as we could hope from from Ned at this stage of the process. What worries me a little is this:
"But with the team we've got this year, we've never had such depth, up and down our lineup, at every position. Everybody's got to play."
That's true, as far as it goes. But I hope Yost doesn't think that means he has to sit Billy twice a week in favor of Brady Clark, or that, the first time Jenkins gets hot, he needs to bench Corey just so he can get Geoff's bat in the lineup against a lefty.

(Sounds ridiculous, I know, but tell me, honestly, you don't see that happening. That's what I thought.)

If Yost is more or less committed to this outfield arrangement, that leaves third base (along with the inevitable bullpen decisions) as the big question mark going into the season. I think we're all but resigned to a Graffasell platoon, while perhaps some of us hope Ryan Braun will hit about .650 in spring training and seize the job. The best result, of course, would be a full and fast recovery from Corey Koskie, but it sounds like that ship has sailed.

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