Back to the drawing board in finding a true first baseman

Wednesday’s signing of Adam LaRoche with a team not named the Baltimore Orioles gave Dan Duquette one more chance to say he’s content with the team as presently constituted. Despite the inevitable fan frustrations, and despite still needing a first baseman with pop, there’s no reason not to trust it will still somehow work out. Check out the possibilities in Domenic Vedala’s BirdsWatcher column.

If you are one to trust the theory that a full season of playing first base will bulk up Chris Davis‘ power numbers, that’s fine. Extrapolating a partial season of stats over a full season usually doesn’t work the way you think it will, though, because a full season has slumps, as last season did for Davis. In fairness, if Davis has about the same season he did last year, that will involve nine or 10 more homers than Mark Reynolds hit, and an average about 40 or 50 points higher.

If you are one to trust the theory that Buck Showalter can stick one or two other candidates at first and have their bats roar to life, that’s fine. You may remember how adamant Dave Trembley was that Nolan Reimold should never play first. But if Nate McLouthdoesn’t give up the left field job, Davis does slump, and Reimold starts hitting, which is his track record when he gets playing time, I sense a new, Davis-Reimold platoon at first. Necessity is the mother of more than just invention. How do you think Reynolds moved over to first and Manny Machado got the third base job last season, after all?

All of this is, of course, just tossing ideas around, at a time like this. It is a month until Spring Training, one of the more refreshing thoughts I’ve had lately. And FanFest is a week from Saturday at the Convention Center, yet another refreshing thought. The anticipated finalizing of Showalter’s new contract next week should be an ideal lead-in to FanFest.

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