I've been traveling a lot the last few weeks, so haven't been reading this board or watching many games. So, apologies if this has already been discussed.
I've noticed a few times where Delay is brought in to replace Hedges at C, and Palacios is brought in to replace Davis in RF. I especially noticed this Wednesday night. It wasn't a blowout, but at 7-1 in the 8th inning, you kind of feel like the game is well enough in hand. I'm pretty sure that was when Shelton made this switch.
I would have rather seen Davis behind the plate for two innings, for two obvious reasons. First, it gives him a chance to get his feet wet behind the dish in the majors. And again, even if his defense at catcher isn't what they need it to be right now, he's not so horrible that he's going to cost you in a 7-1 game. The only way to improve is with reps. But the second reason is that by subbing out both Hedges and Davis, your only available catcher is Delay. What if he gets injured and has to come out of the game? Who goes back there? 37 year old Carlos Santana? Connor Joe? Both came up as catchers, so I'm sure both could catch in an emergency.
But, if you trust Connor Joe, who hasn't caught professionally in like ten years, to catch for two innings, surely you'd trust your 1-1 pick from two years ago who was playing catcher as recently as two weeks ago in AAA.
If it were more of a blowout, they'd trust someone like Castro to come in and pitch for an inning or two. Surely, they can let Davis catch for an inning or two.
A Thought
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