I truly do not know.
What was the major beef with Ryan Church?
I have nothing against Lastings Milledge (hell of a catch last night). I've already posted how much I like the Flores-Nieves catching combination.
But I would have been fine with Schneider-Flores for another year and I would have been fine with Pena-Church-Kearns across the outfield (this based on the Pena we saw last year).
I always felt Church would be more than fine if he didn't have to worry whether his next 0-4 was going to get him benched.
Maybe it's just me.
4 comments:
I don't think that there is any question that the Nats mishandled Church, but I still think it's too early to write this trade off. The teams are in different places right now, and the logic for picking up Milledge still seems sound to me. Some of the irrational Mets' fans/media made it out to be a heist at the time, but the more rational commentators saw it more as a trade that could work well for both teams. The Nats payoff will hopefully come down the road.
The primary beef with Church, as I understood it, had little to do with his liabilities. It was generally agreed that he could be a really solid player if he put it all together. Year after year, however, one thing or another kept him from doing that as a Nat, be it injuries, slow recoveries, slumps, benchings, etc. Frank and Bowden deserve as much blame as Church on this. His assets - that he was cheap and young - were why he was traded, since every year they diminished. He's due to be paid like a veteran soon as an unrestricted FA, and his performance wasn't worth that price. So, when the opportunity came to get a potential piece of a future playoff team (which LM still has plenty of opportunity to do), they took it. Still a good trade, in my book. Also, as Mike said, it's May, and we know what to do with May stats.
During the radio broadcast last night Charlie recounted a story about how Mets' hitting coach Howard Johnson worked with Church this Spring by lowering his hands and shortening his stance.
Would we ever hear a story about Lenny Harris helping a hitter like that?
I wonder if Chris Needham ever reserved www.firelennyharris.com?
Maybe Chris' giving up Capitol Punishment is something he had to do so he could work on that?
If he gets hurt or goes into a serious tailspin, I'll be watching to see how he reacts. But maybe knowing he has a job waiting will make a difference?
As for HoJo, I still have a dollar I won from a friend when I bet him HoJo would be a 30-30 guy.
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