Padres Editorial: The Padres Options at Shortstop

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

When I was in college, I had a moment of what can only be described as pure stupidity. I went to Old Country Buffet in an attempt to try all of their food. After five hours I had tried all the breakfast and lunch options and was eagerly awaiting the dinner steak. As soon as the chef brought out the steak I streaked (as fast as a person who has been eating all day can streak) towards the steak but was cut off by the manager. The steak was off limits, due to the fact that dinner cost more than lunch and breakfast, I was furious and left without eating the best thing on the menu. I learned many lessons that day including pacing myself, moderation and good things come with a price. However, the most important thing was that you can’t have everything at once and boy did my stomach pay for it the next day. I believe in 2015, Bud Black will have a similar dilemma at shortstop.

Let me explain further, in every position Black has a buffet of tools: average, power, speed, arm strength and fielding. Now unless you have a Mike Trout on the table, you have to pick and choose players with any number of these tools in order to set a lineup that gives you the best chance to win. In my mind currently, the San Diego Padres have three potential shortstops on their roster and all of them have a different skill set. Let’s take a look at Clint Barmes, Alexi Amarista and Cory Spangenberg to see if we can figure out which one has the set of tools that will help the Padres win.