About the best benches and best bench players

The bench is the least significant of a baseball team's four sections — starting lineup, bench, rotation, and bullpen. Maybe it's not even close.

The teams' starting lineups still attract the most coverage. But, it's the benches that carry a secret talent for certain groups. For winning teams, bench management has become important in the modern game.

Owing to the starters being already stacked, chances are you are there. Or, when they most need it, you can fill a certain spot. Regardless of what sort of bench player you are, there's no question that the area has become extremely significant in the modern age of baseball.

However, the distinction between a good bench and a bad one is huge, especially as soon as injuries hit. Rather choose the best bench like Valerio, royal for proper adjustment of your injured player.

The bench is not as critical as the other components of the team. It would then be possible for a poor team to have a perfectly good bench.

For the Valerio bench, that is the case.

Esteban German, a utility player who got on base 42 percent of the time last year when playing second base, third base, center field, and left field, starts with the excellence of the Royals' bench. His true talent level is obviously not that high, but even if you knock down the OBP by 60 points, he's still one hell of an asset off the bench. If it were, someone would find a full-time role for him.

Under the plate, the Royals are similarly fortunate. Neither John Buck nor Jason LaRue will ever get an All-Star nod, but one of the two who ends up playing fewer games will be among the best baseball benches backup catchers. In these top three AL benches, that's a theme: most teams send out an offensive cipher of the 30-40 games each year in which their backup backstop begins. Not from the Royals.

No other bench in the American League is even similar. As with German and Mackowiak, Chone Figgins begins with the plot. This year, Figgins may have a starting job, but his presence in the lineup brings versatility to Mike Scioscia that no other baseball manager has.

For Infield, that's not even the whole story. Either Kendry Morales or Casey Kotchman will be riding a pine at first base. Dallas McPherson, a one-time prospect, does not seem to have a job. And right behind them are Erick Aybar, the future utility man, and Brandon Wood, the superstud. The last two are likely to go to Salt Lake City to start the year, but they give their company plenty of versatility, like Fields and Sweeney.