I was going to take a posting holiday today and come back tomorrow with some thoughts on Potomac, etc.
But after watching Dmitri Young make a mockery of what could have been an inning-ending groundball, I just have to say: I CANNOT TAKE THIS. He cost Lannan an error the other night because he can't catch a ball that doesn't require him to jump. He's as nimble as I am over there. You simply can't butcher a play like that.
UPDATE IN EIGHTH: OK, mostly forgiven. Timely shot, great replays, good on the umps for talking and making the right call. You STILL have to make that play on defense.
9 comments:
DY shouldn't be forgiven after the homer. He had a career year at the plate last year, and factoring his defense he still was in the bottom 1/2 of starting 1Bs in baseball in terms of win value to the team. He's not someone you can win with, certainly not if he's one of your better guys.
OK, I will stick my neck out and defend Da Meat Hook: The Nationals are NOT going to be contenders. They are almost assuredly going to finish under .500 and they will probably finish last in the division.
Its one sin to be bad, its another to be boring.
One theory is to play a bunch of youngsters and hope they develop. Trouble is, the 1B of the future, Marrero is not ready for prime time.
So why not play someone who has personality and makes the game interesting to watch?
He definitely makes it interesting, I will grant you that.
I'll write more about Marrero later, saw him play on Sunday. It will be 2010 at the earliest and that may be optimistic.
If the team starts calling up some of their younger pitchers like Balester, I'm not sure it's such a good thing to have someone at first who is going to give away outs like yesterday.
I didn't mean to imply either that there was a good time to give away outs, I was more just trying to provide another way of looking at Young being interesting. Even if the team isn't going to contend, I don't think it's good to give them away, but even more so if they end up using some of the younger guys in the second half.
OK, Steinberg in his Post Sports Bog said it best:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2008/05/dmitri_young_and_the_running_b.html
My point is that baseball is entertainment. If the Nats are not going to be contenders, I want them to be interesting. Its interesting to see if Dukes, Flores or Milledge can develop into real major leaguers -- these guys COULD be part of "The Plan."
Neither Dimitri Young nor Aaron Boone are, however. And neither is Mr. Methodical, Nick Johson, even when he is healthy.
This is the same argument I've made in favor of Escobar over Langerhans. Neither one is a long term answer, but Escobar is much more likely to get me to stand up and cheer and give me something to talk about.
Of course, with a boring lineup, I'm more likely to notice that my toddler is trying to pull my beer out of the cupholder. So maybe this is not so bad after all.
Plus, with Escobar we could start a "gets hurt" poll.
I've been rethinking my PLAN and, instead of some of the stuff I proposed writing in the infancy of this here blog, I may go around the roster and see who is and who isn't the right fit for whatever the Nationals are planning.
I have no issue with the team trying to find out if Dukes, Milledge, Flores, etc. can be part of the future even if it means a lot of painful baseball in the process.
But if the choice is between Young and Nick Johnson, I'd much rather the team try to win and for me there's little doubt that Johnson offers the team the best chance to win when he's healthy.
I heard that Young play on the radio and even audio only it was brutal.
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