The Post sent intern and rising star Andrew Astleford out to the yard last night and he walked into a fastball down the middle. I'm thinking of giving out my PayPal address and taking up a collection to pay the fine that I'm sure is headed Odalis Perez' way. If everyone who reads this blog sends in a buck, we may be able to defray 15 to 20 dollars for him. He may also get suspended. I haven't checked all the other outlets yet but I'm sure everyone had it. If they didn't, someone's head should roll. You can't ignore stuff like that.
I'm not a big umpire basher. They have a very hard job and almost all of them are excellent and professional (albeit with a mistake thrown in now and then). It is amazing how often they get it right.
Angel Hernandez is one of the exceptions. He's a bad umpire for two reasons - big ego and he holds grudges. He's been that way for years. A great way to get former Richmond Braves manager (and Atlanta Braves coach) Jim Beauchamp to go off was to ask him about Angel Hernandez. The words "whack off" usually came up within a minute or so. RIP Jim, you were a gem.
The fine/suspension of Perez won't change the fact that Hernandez shames an honorable profession. I'm glad Perez didn't hide behind the stupid rules that make officials in sports off limits for criticism. He may be my new favorite player.
Elsewhere:
*In their past two games, the Nats could well have beaten two all-star pitchers. Bases loaded last night **** sure would be nice if the cleanup hitter going up in that situation wasn't a .190 hitter.
*Can we agree that the Bernadina experiment needs to end? Let's send this hot prospect somewhere for more "seasoning" or whatever it is called. The obvious move then is to bring up Langerhans for defense or Daniel (is Maxwell still hurt?) or someone like that. Let me throw something in from left field, pardon the pun: Why not give this guy at least a look? Try something different. Stick him at third, put Casto in left, Harris in center and Belliard/FLop at second. Try it for a couple of weeks. If it bombs, well, what hasn't bombed? You've lost nothing. If it works, maybe you have a piece of trade bait that will fetch a bigger prize. The 40-man issues can be worked out.
*I'll write more about Wily Mo later but I'm about ready to give up there, too. He simply has no clue at the plate and his career body of work is big enough to reasonably conclude that what you see is what you are going to get. Seems like a hell of a guy. I love it when the PA guy says "Wily MOOOOOOOOOEEEEEE Pena." I wish with all my might he was good. He isn't and you need to be putting up Josh Hamilton numbers to get away with his defense. He did make one hell of a catch last night. Ol' Bobby said it was WMP's best defensive play of the season. How 'bout of his life?
All in all, just another grand day in Nats fan land. I think I heard on the postgame that the team is now more games below .500 than it has been in its brief history. Oh swell. I see no way 100 losses won't happen.
10 comments:
While Bernadina is likely not ready, I'm not sure pulling the plug after only one week is a good idea. Give him the full chance until Milledge is ready. If he turns it around in that time, great. If not, then at the very least the team has demonstrated that they'll give a younger guy a full opportunity to succeed or fail.
(Maxwell is still on the DL with a wrist injury)
Time to clean house. Give Wily Mo a Mackowiak style release, and bring up Escobar. He can hit and field and run.
I'd pull the plug on Bernadina too. Not hitting and making a dumb error last night did not put him on my "prospects to watch" list.
Anyone think maybe Juan Rivera would have been worth a look right now? Yeah, we got Jose Guillen in return, but Rivera would have been still under team control, and Guillen hasn't helped this team for 2 years.
I know people feel like this is old news, but I think it's important for people to understand that the seeds of our current suffering were sown long ago. Rome wasn't built in a day, but the Nats weren't run into the ground in a day either.
Before people jump on me about Rivera's .188 BA, keep in mind that most of that was done in spot duty and pinch hitting and that he's hitting .286-.333-.714 over the last 2 weeks since he started getting some regular PT.
While Bernadina is likely not ready, I'm not sure pulling the plug after only one week is a good idea.
Geez, has it only been a week? Seems like months!
Ugh. I lost my respect for Angel Hernandez when I was about 7 years old. If people want to talk about things that are bad for the game, he should be near the top of the list. What an idiot.
And Angel even threw out a 7th inning stretch guest conductor at Wrigley:
http://www.mikemooneyham.com/pages/viewfull.cfm?ObjectID=E4B24350-8F9F-11D5-83C90003470B033B
BOOOOOOO!
Anyone think maybe Juan Rivera would have been worth a look right now? Yeah, we got Jose Guillen in return, but Rivera would have been still under team control
But oddly enough Michael Burgess is a young player who is "under team control"
Bottom of the 4th, runner on first, no outs, good young pticher doing well for the Nats, 1 run lead - NO SCORE!
JESUS! Sean must be enjoying the game.
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