"blah, blah, blah, BEST HITTER ON THE BENCH, blah, blah, blah..."
Or...
"blah, blah, blah, CAN'T EXPECT TO WIN WITH YOUR PHENOM NOT PLAYING, blah, blah, blah..."
At the risk of sounding like...well, like an asshole, I offer this -- Hosmer isn't the best hitter on the team, and saying so is really silly. He's not hitting poorly so far, having a hot start that has been tempered by a slump, but he's played about 25% of a season, and he's 21 years old.
We don't know what he'll be, but I think it's not too bold of a statement to say he'll eventually be the Royals best hitter. Right now, though? It's not even close, and it should be semi-truck-bearing-down-on-you obvious that Billy Butler is still easily the best Royals hitter. He's the best statistically on the team right now, and here's the capper: he's been the best Royals hitter since 2009.
I'm not sure why this type of talk riles me up -- as fans, we're impatient by nature, so I have no problem understanding why someone, wrapped up in hope of what Hosmer could become, would want to label him the Next Big Thing and foist the weight of the franchise on his shoulders immediately.
But...just make some sense before doing so. None of the wonderful things he's done in the minors are guaranteed to happen in the majors, and definitely not right away. Hosmer's been struggling lately, and his manager, in a move done 1,000's of times throughout a major league season, gave him a day off Thursday to rest and clear his head a bit.
Also, the Royals lost to the Oakland A's by 4 runs, so unless you were penciling Hosmer in for a 4-RBI day -- which, last I checked, doesn't happen often -- then the Royals still would have lost.
The flipside to this is Butler. This is an odd year for him -- he's the established guy, and he's been around. People have...well, sort of ignored him this season for the most part. When they've paid attention, it's been, "Why isn't Billy 'breaking out'? Why isn't he hitting more home runs?" All sorts of other players have grabbed attention: Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur with their torrid start, the starting rotation with their troubles, Joakim Soria's struggles, all the prospects debuting...
Meanwhile, Butler is quietly walking more than he's struck out (43 to 33), running the highest on-base percentage of his career (.405), and generally being productive. Sure, he isn't hitting for as much power as you might want, but Billy is 25 years old -- many out there are still waiting for Chris Getz and Francoeur to magically "get it" while being one or two years older than Billy and with no statistical indication that they'll ever "get it", yet are ready to trade Billy because he hasn't become Edgar Martinez yet.
You're entitled to your opinions, but let's look at something really quickly:
Billy Butler 2011 (age 25): 301./.405/.442
Edgar Martinez 1991 (age 28): .307/.405/.452
Gee, whaddya know? Fun fact: Martinez didn't even have a 20+ home run season until he was thirty-two years old.
So, the essence of this post is...simmer down with the Billy Butler trade murmuring. I find it kind of stupid, really. Whenever Eric Hosmer does become the Royals best hitter, whether that's later this year, next year, or perhaps the year after, anybody with their head attached to their shoulders would want Butler hitting somewhere around him in the Royals lineup.
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