Tracy on Sanchez: this one is familiar too

From this morning's Post-Gazette:

Tracy was asked again yesterday about perhaps getting infielder Freddy Sanchez and his .341 batting average into the lineup more often.

"Obviously, that's the hot topic these days," Tracy said. "I've done everything I possibly can to keep Freddy involved, and he has responded big-time. You have to get Freddy at-bats, but you also have to give those other guys a chance to jump-start themselves."

Tracy paused.

"And," he said, "you also have to consider that maybe Freddy is thriving the way he's thriving because of the niche he has."

This is exactly what McClendon used to say to justify using Craig Wilson as a part-time player before his breakout season in 2004. McClendon's argument was that, by using Wilson judiciously, he was enabling him to succeed. The argument is unproveable, of course, but it works well as a response to the question, "Why don't you put [$fan_favorite] in the lineup and stop playing [$bum] every day?"

I'm imagining that the Pirates have a library that its spokespersons can just pull off the shelf to use with reporters.

"The talk shows are heating up with talk about playing Freddy Sanchez instead of Randa, Jim."

"OK. Before the post-game interviews, I'll go into the library and pull out #38."

UPDATE: Because, as Charlie at Bucs Dugout points out, there is no evidence that Tracy is using Sanchez in any particular way other to use him infrequently, Tracy's comment here amounts to an assertion that Sanchez does better taking one at-bat a game, usually against a good relief pitcher, and playing full games a few times a week, than he would do playing regularly. I can't think of too many guys for whom that would be true. Maybe John Vander Wal. If anything, you'd think that being used in this way would make it harder to perform rather than easier.