My timing was better today. I got to the car in time to hear another bases-clearing double, only this time it was hit by a National. On the flip side, we got beat pretty bad in soccer - a 4-1 loss to Seton Hall. There is no Strasburg Cup in soccer.
But that's not what I want to talk about tonight. I want to talk about this influx of middle infielders. I can't keep any of them straight. I know the Nationals got three non-descript middle infielders in exchange for three pitchers of various renown. I know all have had their good moments. Pardon me while I think aloud:
Emilio Bonifacio - that's who Jon Rauch became.
Alberto Gonzalez - that's who, hell, I'm drawing a blank again. Jhonny Nunez?
Anderson Hernandez - our return for Mr. Ayala (a future closer in the playoffs?)
I think that's right. I get 'em all confused, call one of them Emilio Hernandez and another Alberto Anderson and another one Fred Hernandez. I just lump them all together as EmilAlbertson BoniGonzaldez. They all seem like exactly the same player to me. I know one of them had a home run AND a two-run double today. I couldn't tell you for sure which one without looking it up. Which I just did. Gonzalez. Hernandez led off. Walked five times.
Wasn't Bonifacio supposed to lead off for the rest of the season.
I see no way all three are with the team next season. I'm not terribly sure two are needed but I'm going to bet two are there. You'd think Bonifacio would be one. Maybe not. The only thing I know is two will be a lot easier to keep straight than three.
13 comments:
Mets fans had nicknamed Gonzalez, "Ipor."
When you watch the MLB Gameday, every time he came out, the "In play, out recorded" screen would pop up.
Errr.. Hernandez.
Man, they all look the same to me!
"Nondescript," eh?
They are all perfectly descript, IMHO, and they will all be back.
My guess (depending on how they look in Sprring Training) Bonifacio will start at second, Gonzales will be the backup middle infielder and Hernandez will be stashed at AAA to await the inevitable Guzman injury.
They actually are not interchangable to me. Bonifacio is the one who seems to have the best chance to hold down a starting job. Also, he and Gonzales bring an element of blazing speed that just makes this team more fun to watch. In that spirit, I hope Bernandina proves capable of hitting major league pitching and can start in center field. With the additional speed of Miledge and Dukes in the corner OF positions, the Nats might start to resmble the mid-80s Cardinals.
Worse things can happen!
Ipor *** that's funny whether it was Gonzalez or Hernandez.
Maybe if Bonifacio ended in a z it would be easier to keep them straight. But Bonifacioz looks weird.
Hendo, do you know what 'non-descript' means? Inside joke!! Har har, I crack myself up.
Hendo, do you know what 'non-descript' means? . . .
Har, har. Hell, yes. I suffered through two seasons of Nook Logan, didn't I?
Seriously, all this reminds me of the anecdote about the late Dan Quisenberry in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, where Quiz and Denny Matthews would trade SAT words to be used on the air. Irrespective of how it goes over on MASN, seems to me that Charlie and Dave could add that kind of stuff to their repertoire (or even their plain old pertoire) with great success.
Something that makes them easy to distinguish from every other MI we've had since the Nationals got here is that they can all catch the ball. Say what you want about their offense, the gap between Vidro/Guzman/Belliard/Lopez/Clayton and these guys is enormous. And if we're going to successfully break in a rotation of youngsters over the next year or two, there's real value in that.
And just having some MI replacement-level depth is important, especially when you don't have it and see Belliard at SS.
Then again, we gave away Maicer Izturis and Brendan Harris for guys who aren't helping us at all now, so if we hadn't done that we could have used Rauch, Nunez, and Ayala to fill other holes rather than simply making up for past errors.
Sweet tapdancing Jebus, Steven, you can't wax rhapsodic about the glovework of Almilison Gonandacio and then go and mention Brendan Harris in the same breath. Unless you're going for teh funny. But you're not going for teh funny, are you?
Bonifacio is the one who, if allowed to play a full season, will probably strike out more often than Ryan Howard. Apparently the DBacks figured that once they had removed his K potential from their system it was safe to go after Adam Dunn.
Irrespective of how it goes over on MASN, seems to me that Charlie and Dave could add that kind of stuff to their repertoire (or even their plain old pertoire) with great success.
Personally, I'd prefer that they reset the game, particularly the score, much more often before they go expanding their repertoire. But maybe that's just me.
Hoping for some help on a completely personal problem -- my Nats season ticket group in Section 116 has officially disintegrated. I'm the only one of 4 interested in keeping the tickets. Any ideas on where I could find another group? I have purchased 20 games/season since the first season. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I may be interested - what's the price per share?
I'm with you, Mike. It seems they just added a sudden influx of youngish 20-something Hispanic middle-infielders.
I get confused too, but I think their arrival is a good thing. They all provide good glove work, and if just one of the three can break out offensively as an everyday player, even a .290 BA and .360 on-base, that would be a triumph.
I think of it as adding several young pitchers into the system, you need mass influx to improve the odds that one middling-prospect could get it together to make an impact.
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