Giambi: DH vs. 1B. My friend's interpretation

Love him or hate him Our starting first baseman is Jason Giambi. I'm going to post a rant from my friend Jen who brought this to my attention. So it would really be unfair for me to take credit for this rant. Here you go

Mr. michael,

if you agree with me, you should write a blog my darling & if you disagree, you can stick it in your keester...

i am watching the yanks wallop the rays right now and i have often thought over the last few weeks about the only good thing i like about joe girardi thus far...his willingness to play giambi at first (more often than torre did) and more importantly his faith in giambi's defensive abilities. He stated early on that he plans to play giambi at first 4-5 games per week and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that. contrary to ALL reports over the years on giambi's so-called "lack of defensive skills", i have always thought him to be at the VERY least an adequate first baseman. his offensive numbers are so much higher when he is NOT a DH (the stats definitely support this: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060223&content_id=1320606&vkey=spt2006news&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy)

Tell all those anti-Giambi fans to face this too: he can dig a ball out of the dirt with the BEST of them. I just watched him, yet again, save one of the infielders (this time it was a-rod) an error by digging out a poor throw. He also has great reflexes...i saw a line drive rocketed at him last week sometime that he made a great pick up on; yes that should be pretty fundamental, but to hear people talk about his poor defensive skills sometimes you would think he can't even catch a line drive hit right at him. The absolute ONLY lack I see in giambi's game at first is that his range is definitely a little less than some of the other first basemen around the league. The question is then I suppose, are we willing to give up an occasional hit up the first base line to his left (less likely on the line b/c he covers this pretty well) or between first and second to his right? Don’t forget, we have a second baseman who can and does have a hell of a range to maybe pick up a tiny bit of the slack in the hole. Ahh, but back to the question....give up an occasional hit due to giambi's slightly limited range in exchange for what, you ask? For a batting average out of him that is consistently markedly higher (anywhere from 60-100+ points higher) as a position player vs a DH. The answer is crystal clear for me. I hate to say it, I love joe girardi for this decision.

Man, did I HATE giambi when they first got him. I never thought I’d end up being his champion. Boy oh boy. Maybe one day I’ll write something like this about A-Hole. Haha. That’ll be the day.

Interesting article:

http://www.observer.com/2008/giambi-tries-reverse-irreversible