Matt Kata

Here's what I don't get.

The guy can't hit.  As I'm typing this, he's 1 for his last 37.

He's a lousy defensive third baseman.

Presumably, he's on the team because he's a backup shortstop or second baseman.

But today, when Michael Young isn't starting at shortstop, rather than put Kata at short, Ron Washington puts Ramon Vazquez at shortstop and puts Kata at third base.

Which presumably means that Kata, as awful as he his defensively at third base, is even worse defensively at shortstop.

Which means that he has zero value on the major league level.  He can't hit, he can't field, and he's not fast enough to have any value as a pinch runner.

And yet, it seems that our manager is bending over backwards to find ways to get him into the game.  Remember when Kata started at first base, and Washington refused to pinch hit for him?

Or just a couple of days ago, when Kata pinch hit for Vazquez as the go-ahead run in the 8th with a lefty on the mound, even though Victor Diaz is on the bench?

I've come to the conclusion that Kata needs to be taken off the roster ASAP, not because he's not useful -- he's not useful, but as a 25th man who never plays, it doesn't really matter -- but because our manager apparently can't be trusted to leave him on the bench.