it's not baffling at all. willingham plays over butler because he is better at hitting. hosmer plays over butler because he is better defensively. all the other players play over butler because butler can't play their positions (and also some of them are better at hitting). it's pretty basic math.
Its not just the Butler vs. Willingham thing. How many times will Dyson get picked off before Ned sees he has no baseball instinct? GO GET IN THERE AND RUN JARROD!
i mean, what are you going to do, not pr with one of the fastest guys in bball? and aren't you simultaneously hating aoki all the time? you can't hate everyone but gordon and butler. they have to put at least 9 guys out there.
it does suck that dyson is always getting picked off, just like it sucks that hosmer sucks and it sucks that they don't have a better dh and it sucks that infante isn't hitting like he did last year.
All I'm saying is its inconsistent how the team is handled. When Billy plays poorly, he sits. When anyone else plays poorly, they play. Billy sits to "rest mentally" while the golden boys play regardless of results. Is it crazy with the roster we have now to start platooning Cain, or sit Hosmer, or not PR with Dyson when he's made 5 outs on the basepaths the last 2 weeks? It took Moose have a monumentally bad start for him to sit.
Billy has sucked, and if he sits for it, fine. But play Nix for a game, use one of the 40 outfielders on the roster for Cain for a night, or even sit Salvy down for Kratz for a game. There's 2 standards, 1 for Billy, 1 for everyone else.