The Toolbox Revolution

Rooting for intriguing cast-offs is one of the few perks of rooting for a terrible baseball team. Though your Mike Trouts or Clayton Kershaws are more entertaining, superstars lack the endearing "I played in the minors for 10 years because I love baseball" quality present in marginal talent. Moreover, lack of talent requires adaptation and this adaptation can inspire the imagination. Brooks Kieschnick, also know as "The Toolbox," is a good example of this.

The career stats of Kieschnick are about as pedestrian as you will ever see. He hit .248/.315/.444 with 16 homers in 336 career plate appearances and had a 4.59 ERA in 96.0 career innings pitched. In 2003 he played for the Milwaukee Brewers and had his finest season, posting a solid .300/.355/.614 slash line in 76 PA and an ugly 5.26 ERA in 53 IP. On the surface this resume is the epitome of forgettable, but a slightly deeper analysis reveals that it is somewhat remarkable.

In 2003 the Milwaukee Brewers were coming off a 56-106 campaign and entering a rebuilding phase. With nowhere to go but up the Brewers were able to take a flyer on Kieschnick. What he accomplished in two seasons with Milwaukee was sneaky impressive. Kieschnick became the only non-starting pitcher since 1946 to throw more than 20 innings while getting more than 50 at bats in a season, which happened in 2003 and 2004. This is a nice bit of trivia, but when you think about it, hybrid players like Kieschnick just might be more than roster filler for cellar dwellers.

The potential value of a dual-threat player is comes from the grueling length of an MLB season. Regular occurrences over a 162 game season include starting pitchers getting knocked out in the 2nd inning, outfielders tweaking their back and needing a day off, bullpens being burdened with bringing blowouts to their merciful conclusion, and so on. A hybrid player brings value by absorbing this fatigue, which is especially useful to playoff hopefuls who need all of the energy they can muster during the stretch run.

A good hybrid player would also make the lives of NL managers much easier. Instead of performing bench-gobbling double switches, a manager could use the hybrid to pinch hit and then throw an inning of relief. You can easily imagine how this might come in handy during extra-inning games at any point of the season.

Granted, it's also easy to think of reasons hybrid players do not exist. For starters, there is the logistical issue of where they are situated. How would they be able to warm up for an inning of relief and take practice cuts for a pinch hit appearance at the same time? Furthermore, it does not make sense for a power-hitting corner infielder on the cusp of making The Show to try to get a call-up by adding bite to their slider. Even so, when you see backup catchers pitching in blowouts and throwing 95 mph fastballs, it makes you wonder if their role is not unnecessarily limited to being a backstop.

Baseball is in a golden age of embracing unconventional ideas, so there is a faint glimmer of hope for the hybrid revolution. It's highly likely this revolution will never happen because GMs know it's an unfeasible idea, but it's more fun to believe it's simply because The Toolbox was truly one of a kind.