Miguel Montero vs. Jose Valverde in a War of Words

You might have caught this weekend’s verbal jabs that former battery mates Miguel Montero and Jose Valverde had for each other when the Arizona Diamondbacks visited Valverde’s current team, the Detroit Tigers, this past weekend.

Valverde called Montero a “rookie”.  He said he didn’t give a (bleep) about him.  Montero jabbed back saying Valverde shouldn’t count all his major-league “experience” in years because of how much time he has spent in his career going up and down between the minors and majors.  Montero said Valverde has only had “two good years in his career”.  Ouch.  Is he right?  I would tend to say yes.

I think the traded jabs certainly raised some eyebrows and I love it.  I do think I would rather have Jose Valverde as my closer right now, no doubt.  Valverde wasn’t nearly as bad as Chad Qualls and Brandon Lyon have been in their time in the closer’s role since Valverde left for Houston in 2008.

I love Montero though.  Even being out for two months this season, I still see him as the best hitter on this team.  He doesn’t have all the defensive tools Chris Snyder has yet, but it’s good enough for me at this point.  Montero is hitting .390 right now vs. Snyder’s .217.  I think Montero is more valuable as an offensive tool than Snyder is as a defensive tool at this point.

Valverde is out of line.  Montero is much better than he, or many others for that matter, give him credit for.  He plays with energy and acts like he cares.  I like the jawing back and forth.  I hope I see more of it.  Much more of it. I don’t care how good Valverde is pitching right now, I’d take 100 Montero’s before I’d take one Valverde and that’s saying a lot, given the Dbacks current bullpen situation.

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