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Padres Editorial: In Defense of Cameron Maybin, Will Venable, Abraham Almonte and a Poll

ByKeegan Tatum|
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Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Andrew Beccarelli: In Defense of Will Venable

When the San Diego Padres traded for Wil Myers in December, they were pretty open that he was who they envisioned starting in center field in the newly-improved Padres lineup. Myers’ defensive ability does have some question marks, but A.J. Preller and the owners don’t seem too worried about it. Why would that be? Probably because they already have a good backup center fielder on the team, Will Venable.

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Imagine it’s the bottom of the 9th and the Padres have a slim one-run lead, time to put out our best defensive players. Are you going to put out the inexperienced Abraham Almonte? The injury-prone Cameron Maybin? Or Will Venable?

Case in point:

Yeah, that’s what Venable can do. Game saver.

While Venable has never lived up to our expectations with his bat, now that Myers will be starting, I’m okay with that because what we really need from him is his defensive prowess and dependability.

Venable played in 146 games last season, 151 in 2013 and another 148 games in 2012. Compare that to Maybin’s 95 games last season and just 14 games in 2013. Just like Carlos Quentin, Maybin is just too injury-prone. Cameron has never even hit double-digit home runs in a single season while Venable hit 22 in 2013.

Almonte is still too inexperienced to be given the backup role. If he proves himself during Spring Training, great, that makes Venable a valuable trade option other teams might like to acquire. If you’re an opposing team, who would you rather trade for, Venable or Maybin?

That’s what I thought. #VoteVenable

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