Time to Give Raul Benefit of the Doubt

Written by Mike Mariano | 30 March 2010

Raul Ibanez is struggling this spring, mightily.  His batting average is sub-.100.  He's only got four hits.  His OBP and SLG are both sub-.250.  He's got more strikeouts than hits.

Why do we care?

The man is a 14 year veteran who is a lifetime .285 hitter who struggled with some injuries in the second half of last season.  Can't we cut him some slack?  I'm reading all over that Raul will have to be traded because he's old and he's clogging Dom Brown's outfield space and he's clogging Jayson Werth money, etc., etc.  Yes, Raul is old and we knew that signing him, but you didn't hear about it when he carried the Phillies through the first half of last season.  His second half was without a doubt dreadful and mostly due to injury.  Is there reason for 2010 concern... not really.

Fourteen seasons as a consummate professional on and off the field should grant Ibanez a little leeway.  Do people freak out when Brett Favre misses training camp?  Nope.  If Raul didn't even play during training camp would we be complaining?  Most likely not.  So what's the big deal.  It's time to let Raul do his thing and we can assess his value on this team mid-season or postseason.  Let's not ship him away because he's swinging and missing in pointless exhibitions in the spring.

Eventually, I do think that Raul will be the odd man out and some part of me hopes he will be because that will mean that Jayson Werth is still around.  However, in the near future I couldn't care less if Raul didn't have any hits in Spring Training.  He's been around so long that's it's basically irrelevant information at this point.