I seem to mention the position battle between Chris Shelton and Mike Sweeney in every other post, but in writing little blurbs here and there I’ve realized that I haven’t been real clear on how I see things.

So, let me clarify.

From a pure hitting standpoint, Shelton is the guy you pick right now.  Sweeney can still make contact and occasionally get behind one, but Shelton’s raw power is up there with the best of them and he’s shown the ability to get hot in the major leagues.

But the difference in production is likely very small, especially taking into account how few at bats the winner figures to wrangle away from Russell Branyan and Junior Griffey.  So, after taking account Sweeney’s supposed positive effect in the locker room and that in all likelihood Shelton is more likely than Sweeney to stay with the organization as a minor leaguer, adding Sweeney to the 25-man and demoting Shelton does seem like a fine idea.

Having Shelton at AAA as the fallback to Sweeney makes a low risk signing even less risky.  I’m cool with it.

Now, it is a little disappointing to see the team abandon their “take the best player no matter what” approach that they looked like they might be employing, but in the end it’s just not a big deal.

Hope that clears up my opinion a bit.  I’d like Shelton, but I see the reasoning and would never call this a bad move.