Game 19 Open Thread: April 24, 2006

you're rodriguez point is well taken.  and i'm of the same opinion.

however, my thought (without ever having met the guy) is that tlr is a first-impression type guy.  especially with new guys to the club.  if you got some skills, he's going to give you a shot.  and you better damn well perform.  and i don't mean just at the plate.  you better hit it, throw it, catch it and run the bases and you better do them all well.  if you don't, you have a tough way to go to get to every-day status.  as much as i like rodriguez (i'm never going to call him j-rod, no matter how much he begs) at the plate, he is susceptible to lapses in the field and on the basepaths.  therein lies the rub with tlr.  he made some pretty bonehead baserunning mistakes last year along with some mis-plays/errors in the field.  my guess is that's what's keeping tlr from making rodriguez our every-day leftfielder.

but again..i agree with you.  let's see what the guy can do over a month.

I plead guilty. Fangraphs allows anyone to post the charts, as long you acknowledge them as the source.

Eventually, I'd like be doing my own so I don't have to wait until the next day to post them.

Dave Studeman has a nifty spreadsheet anyone can use, but I think it has a bug. I'm having trouble with it.

and i approve --- hope it takes

And Rodriguez verses righties. J-Rod OBP was .382 last year, and this year so far is .435. And he has some pop, seems like a perfect fit.

eckstein got robbed for a second time.

it has to really, really suck to be a pirates fan.

but when you have so many guys in the minor leagues, there's bound to be a few on hellfire through the first month of the season.  Call me in June.

Gall's only struck out 5 times this so far season while walking 7 times, so his plate discipline shouldn't be a concern. There's no point in him working counts against AAA pitchers right now when he's seeing the ball well enough to drive runners home. Working counts is what Spivey looks to be doing, when he should be swinging for extra-base hits like Gall is... That Gall's only got the one home run when his bat is so hot may be more of a concern than his relatively low walk total. His window of opportunity has pretty much closed though. Larry Bigbie's rehab assignment will be over in a little over a week and he'll have to join the 25-man roster. Would it benefit Gall's career or the Cardinals offense to call him up now only to send him back down again a week later?

Anderson and Rasmus are only 19 years old and playing in a full-season league for their first time this year. The Cards'll probably let them strengthen in Quad Cities for the full season. They're some exciting players, for sure.