You know what?

I'm seriously confused. Honestly. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I have to work this out in my head. How in the blue hell did Matt Joyce spend the last two months in Triple-A?

Now if you remember my post on December 11th of last year, you know exactly why I'm a fan of Matt Joyce. He threatens 60 extra base hits with a .500 slugging percentage if he gets 500 at bats. Not better than B.J. Upton or Carl Crawford by any stretch of the imagination. And Gabe Kapler has value as a lefty masher.

And we imagine that Ben Zobrist's ability to play six positions and generate a modicum of power and a soupcan's worth of patience means he has a spot in the bigs for as long as he's effective. So that's four spots. And we understand it.

But unless you need to run a two-minute drill, in what world does Gabe Gross deserve a job over Matt Joyce? I mean this very seriously. If it's because you feel comfortable with a guy? It's a stupid reason.

Especially because Gabe Gross is the definition of replacement player. I mean it. Look at his per/162 totals.

.243/.342/.411. That's a .750 OPS for your corner outfielder. That's something you want. At least it's what Joe Maddon seems to have wanted. Why does that annoy me? Because look at this total. .251/.339/.502.

That's Matt Joyce's Per/162. Yeah, he's not going to average two bases for every hit from here on out? But the dude can rake. In fact? Let's take out the batting average and isolate on-base and slugging percentage.

Joyce: .339
Gross: .257

You had a starter-level right fielder and you kept him in Durham. This was a big mistake Joe Maddon made. He rectified it now, but it may have been worth several wins to get there.

I mean, if you're going to trade a potential closer option like Edwin Jackson to get
this piece of the puzzle, why are you going to let him languish in Durham.