Why All this Worry About Alexander Guerrero?

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t understand the problem here. Everyone and their mother is worrying about Alexander Guerrero Yep the same Alexander Guerrero who was one of the most prolific shortstops in all of Cuba. And you know what? I get that, everyone thinks he can’t hit major league pitching, stats are

hard to convert from Cuba to here right? Yuniesky Betancourt was awful, Yuniesky Betancourt can’t hit, Yuniesky Betancourt is Cuban, therefore Guerrero, who is Cuban and mashed Cuban pitching like Yuni can’t hit, right?!?!?!?! Uh. Not so much, I haven’t heard anything at all that states Guerrero can’t hit, everyone seems to agree, he’ll be an average to above average offensive threat. Given the lack of offense at any position other than 1b in the infield around the MLB, if you can defend at all from an “up the middle position” and have an above average bat, you’ll get as many chances as it takes at that position to prove you’re an everyday big leaguer.

Alex Guerrero is going to be fine, Scott wrote some great analysis on it, and you can see that Guerrero put up some huge numbers in Cuba, guys who hit that well generally aren’t minor leaguers. My point here is he can hit, sure but everyone is crying out, saying “THE DODGERS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH 2B BECAUSE THIS CUBAN CAN’T DEFEND”.

I know more than to doubt the international scouts, they probably looked at Guerrero and said, objectively, that this was a man who started in 2011 and mashed the ball, he’s more than likely going to have a plus bat at the 2b position in the majors, they probably liked what his offensive game brings to the table at the major league level. He also was the starting SS on the Cuban national team in 2011. And it wasn’t until after that season when he, you know, tried to defect, was he kicked off of the national team. He beat out some pretty impressive names, maybe you know a couple, he beat out fellow Cubans Erisbel Arruebarruena (soon to be most recent Dodger), and Aledmys Diaz, the guy is no scrub.

So lets see, guy earns the right to play on the Cuban National team right up until he tries to leave the horrid situation he’s in beating out other incredible baseball players for that spot. Plays SS on one of the top teams in the world, and we’re supposed to think he can’t handle playing 2b on the major league level?

If you can play the hardest infield position at one of the highest levels in the world, i’m pretty sure you can play second base at the major league level.

Here, i’ll leave you with some Guerrero mashing, watch that pretty swing: