McEwing: Odd Man Out

You've got to feel for Joe McEwing. He plays hard. He plays anywhere he's told—unlike a guy who plays for the Washington Nationals. And he's a guy who you can feel confident in when a starter goes down.

He hit .436 (17 for 39) in 21 games this spring and he still didn't make the team. The addition of Tony Graffanino to the roster did him in. The battle for the 25th spot came down to McEwing vs. Esteban German. And while we know what we are getting with McEwing, he's 33. German, full of promise and the dreaded "potential" word, is only 28. But it's hard to ignore what German has done this spring.

German is hitting .317, but he's also walked 12 times and stolen 8 bases while only striking out twice. That tells me that the guy has incredible patience at the plate, he knows where the strike zone is, and he forces pitchers to throw strikes—which he apparently has little trouble hitting. Once he's on base, he can obviously run. Eight stolen bases in just 22 games is impressive.

Imagine Bell looking down the bench to see who's available to pinch run at the end of a tight game—who would he rather see, McEwing or German? And if we need a guy to pinch hit in that same scenario, who would Bell rather see? McEwing's career OBP is just .303. German's OBP this spring is .473. McEwing has a great OBP this spring as well, but over the long haul, it hasn't been good enough. Maybe German's won't be good enough either, but it looks like he's going to nail down the final spot on the roster.

McEwing does have the option of being assigned to Omaha, which I hope that he accepts. I know that he wants to play at the major league level, and who can blame the guy? But he's one injury away from playing in KC and by the end of April he'd probably be back on the roster. Whatever he decides to do, I wish him well. I wish more guys played the game as hard as he does.