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Mark Kotsay did everything he could tonight to demonstrate something his previous managers have known about him for years: He's not a major league center fielder.
Kotsay has played in 278 regular season major league games since the start of the 2009 season, but has appeared as a center fielder in just 15 of them. Ten of those appearances (plus one more tonight) have come as a Brewer:
Season | Team(s) | Games as CF |
2009 | Red Sox/White Sox | 5 |
2010 | White Sox | 0 |
2011 | Brewers | 10* |
* - Eleven if you include the playoffs
Tonight was also his 19th game batting second or third in the Brewer lineup. Before this season he hadn't started a game as a #2 hitter since 2008, and had made just ten starts batting third since 2006.
Kotsay has been better the second half of this season, hitting .288/.338/.425 since the All Star break. But he's simply not capable of being the kind of player Ron Roenicke appears to think he is.