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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

Just my opinion, but "small ball" is one of the most over-used cliches, mainly employed by sports-radio talk-show hosts and managers who want fans and GMs to think their team "knows the fundamentals," "will do whatever it takes to win" and will "make the most of the talent we have."

Not to mention, they'll take it one game at a time.

It's great if you have a player who can flat-out hit and also can lay down a bunt or move a runner over from second to third with a ground ball to the right side with no one out. But given the choice of a "fundamentally sound" guy who hits .250 or a .300-hitting, extra-base machine who cares little about bunting, I'll take the masher.

In other words, you can have Eckstein, I'll take Pujols.

So yeah, it's great that Biggio gets hit with a lot of pitches and knows how to bunt. But the bottom line is the guy can hit. All that other stuff is complementary to his value, not defining.