Craig Friggin' Counsell?

What is Melvin thinking:

LINK

2 years and a guaranteed 6 $ mil for a 37 year old backup infielder, who has had the following batting line over the last 3 seasons:

.251/.337/.348/.685

A post in a brewerfan.net thread about this trade sums up my thoughts perfectly. From JohnBriggs12:

"For those that say they needed a backup infielder and they got one, I say by the
end of spring training I could find 10 that are better than Counsell, all
costing less than $1 million per year, that could be had with waiver claims
or for a mid level or lower prospect."

It's not that Melvin chose Counsell to be the backup middle infielder next year, since they all generally stink. It's that he apparently thinks Counsell has more to offer than any other nameless, cheap, backup middle infielder. There's no other reason to guarantee the guy $6 mil. What this suggests is that Melvin must be value those wonderful "intangibles" that Yost is always talking about and that crappy old white guys like Counsell apparently have an abundance of.

In the end, spending $6 mil over 2 years for any player isn't a big deal. Having a GM that values the wrong things is, however. I'm starting to not be able to give Melvin the automatic benefit of the doubt.