Fouled-Off Bunts: Dog Days of Summer Edition
Did you see Brandon Phillips' "double" steal in yesterday's game? I love smart plays like that. That's the kind of instinctual play that gives teams just a tiny little extra margin, and shows that you've got a team of ballplayers, not athletes. How many players on our team do you think have those kinds of instincts? Three? Five?
Jason Simontacchi is visiting the Nats' good friend, Dr. Andrews as he continues to deal with arm troubles. I hope that Uncle Ted bought Andrews' Valu-Saver 6-pack before the year began. Spot the logical fallacy in this statement: "Simontacchi returned strong to the majors this season, going 6-7 despite a 6.37 ERA."
Hey, Cousin Mark is happy with how the team's doing. Who would've guessed? He says we'd be doing better if it weren't for injuries. Tell that to the Mets (Beltran, Pedro, Valentin, Endy), Phillies (Garcia, Lieber, Myers, Madson, Ultey, Bourne), Braves (Gonzalez, Chipper, Hampton) or Marlins (Boone, Johnson, Nolasco, De Aza). Point is that ALL teams have injuries. The trick is having depth (particularly in the upper minors) to deal with them, rather than thrashing about blaming bad luck.
Same article notes that Baseball America's recent poll named Chris Marrero the top hitting prospect in the Carolina and Sallie Leagues.
Marrero's progress this year has been incredible. He's hitting a combined .293/ .352/ .517 at every level with 20 homers. That he's doing this as a 19-year old is a sign of future greatness. Sure, you can quibble with the low walks and the Ks, but he's hitting for average, and he's hitting for power -- the latter, is typically something that doesn't develop til later. He's definitely something special, and is probably one of the top 10 hitting prospects in all of baseball now.
Jim Bowden praises John Schuerholz. Careful, Jim! We might start to think that Johnny was the cause of the Braves' success and not Stanley!
John Lannan got his first major-league win yesterday. Congrats to the pride of Sienna. He looked pretty good for a kid who was making his first home start. His fastball looked like it had a little movement to it, and he's got a passable curve that he seemed to control really well.
His rise has been pretty incredible too. I'm still a bit worried about his lack of Ks -- a strong indicator of future success for a pitcher -- but his overall style is one that can succeed when things are going well. As long as he keeps the ball on the ground, in the park, and maintains his decent control, he can get by without a strong K rate. But if one of those slips...
More injury news: Bergmann waits a few days to test his hamstring. Alex Escobar continues his throwing program in the minors. The key to that is that, according to the article, he's only eligible to be down for 5 more games. If that's the case, will he be activated then? There are limits to how long a team can keep a player down on rehab. Does he become a FA then? Would they have to pass him through waivers to keep him down?
Sports Illustrated says that the Mets/Nats/DBacks 3-way fell apart when the Mets wouldn't trade Aaron Heillman to Arizona. I wonder what that would've looked like.
Old friend Brian Lawrence (which was your favorite Lawrence game?) starts for the Mets tonight.
The Braves released Julio Franco yesterday. This post has some good Franco trivia. He faced almost 1,200 different pitchers. That includes 15 different dead pitchers. And 8 Hall of Famers. He had 45 ABs against Don Sutton and hit .333/ .348/ .422.
Your "I HATE JIM BOWDEN!!!" round-up:
1) At one point is the ownership there going to cut ties with general manager Jim Bowden?
2) And true to form, General Manager Jim Bowden is about to strike out on improving the ballclub.
3) Is Jim Bowden a monstorously huge idiot? Yes.
4) It’s time to accept that and commit to a complete rebuilding process, one that entails importing as much talent as possible into the minor-league system and targeting ’10 as a successful season.
5) Can anyone figure out what the heck they're doing?
HOT BLOGGER ACTION!!!
--OMG wonders why no streaks.
--JANF raves about Ronnie Belliard.
--NTP says that those upset with no deals should step back from the ledge. (good comments, too)
--N320 interviews Walter Johnson's grandson.
Marrero's progress this year has been incredible. He's hitting a combined .293/ .352/ .517 at every level with 20 homers. That he's doing this as a 19-year old is a sign of future greatness. Sure, you can quibble with the low walks and the Ks, but he's hitting for average, and he's hitting for power -- the latter, is typically something that doesn't develop til later. He's definitely something special, and is probably one of the top 10 hitting prospects in all of baseball now.
His rise has been pretty incredible too. I'm still a bit worried about his lack of Ks -- a strong indicator of future success for a pitcher -- but his overall style is one that can succeed when things are going well. As long as he keeps the ball on the ground, in the park, and maintains his decent control, he can get by without a strong K rate. But if one of those slips...
1) At one point is the ownership there going to cut ties with general manager Jim Bowden?
2) And true to form, General Manager Jim Bowden is about to strike out on improving the ballclub.
3) Is Jim Bowden a monstorously huge idiot? Yes.
4) It’s time to accept that and commit to a complete rebuilding process, one that entails importing as much talent as possible into the minor-league system and targeting ’10 as a successful season.
5) Can anyone figure out what the heck they're doing?
--OMG wonders why no streaks.
--JANF raves about Ronnie Belliard.
--NTP says that those upset with no deals should step back from the ledge. (good comments, too)
--N320 interviews Walter Johnson's grandson.
posted by Chris Needham at
10:48 AM
3 Comments:
To me bad luck is when you sign a guy like Albert Belle who has a history of playing in a boat load of games every year and then suffers an injury out of the blue which makes him sit out for a large number of games, or in Belle’s case, for his career. Predictable outcome is when you sign a guy like David Segui and find out he is constantly on the DL rather than playing. So when your starting pitching staff is filled with guys with no history of being able to stay healthy or were relievers suddenly thrust into the role of starters and expected to throw more innings than they’re used to, that falls under the predictable outcome category for me rather than bad luck. The starting pitching staff really hasn’t had any stability and/or quality since Aug/Sept 05 when they had to convert Carrasco to a starter for one spot and use a starter by committee or relievers for another spot in the rotation.
I’m amazed that Schuerholz gave up so much for Tex. It’s completely out of character. It leads me to think that maybe he’s thinking of retirement and has decided to jump through his small window of opportunity till the Jones’ and Smoltz are gone because Boras will usually make his players, especially a guy like Tex, test the FA market.
By
Anonymous, at 8/02/2007 11:41 AM
quick question/comment ...
1)Readexpress' guy states:
"Just a look at the team's lack of speed and power in the lineup shows how much improvement is needed in D.C."
True. But nobody was going to give up a power bat for Dmitri or Belliard. And right now, there is nobody in the Nats system with power that can come up and help out next year. So what's wrong with signing two decent veterans to help out for the next two seasons while the prospects in Potomac and Vermont get a little more seasoning in the minors?
By
Anonymous, at 8/02/2007 4:36 PM
Careful Eric, you're dangerously close to making reasonable sense. You'll never land a job in yellow journalism that way.
The Nats had no power or speed in the lineup at the beginning of the season either, (unless you count Nook, and I don't) so it's more than a little disingenuous for someone to come along on August 1st and bemoan the team's lack of speed and power.
As you say, we must have missed the proposed Hanley Raimirez for Ronnie Belliard trade.
By
Nate, at 8/02/2007 5:08 PM
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