Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Steinberg: St. Louis baseball writer makes hilarious jokes about the Nats
(www.washingtonpost.com)
Woo-hoo…I haven’t laughed at a Strauss this hard since Stanislas “Animal” Kasava danced with Harry “Sugar Lips” Shapiro! #stalaugh17
Read More...Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss
District in meltdown. Mention Natitude and it’s as if someone shook the hive. #NotMyMarketingCampaign
Now, this is funny, because apparently a few Nats fans got angry at Strauss or something. And by writing “#NotMyMarketingCampaign,” Strauss here signifies that he did not, in fact, come up with Natitude. Meaning he’s zeroing in on ...
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1. JE (Jason Epstein)i'm still ~99% sure the phillies have no shot at getting into the playoffs, but with halladay and lee pitching like halladay and lee, and with utley and howard starting to produce, and with frandsen, brown, kratz, and mayberry playing like a solid supporting cast, and with the bullpen kind of finding its stride with papelbon, bastardo, horst, lindblom, and valdes, they really could be able to do some damage if they could get in.
that 1-10 stretch going into the allstar break was just a killer. if they'd have gone 5-6 instead, they'd be just 5.5 games out of the wildcard, and hitting their stride going into the stretch run.
However, between last year and later in last year, it was like night and a little bit later at night.
With the sudden increased popularity of the shift, it very well may be.
Why? People like David Eckstein had to learn as much as he could about hitting and the mechanics of it to make the majors with very little else going for him. I remember Barry Bonds talking about something that Eckstein either told him or that Bonds noticed Eckstein doing that really helped BB become a better hitter (Cue the roids jokes). Most hitting coaches were not offensive MLB stars.
I'd never heard about that, but it's in a fantastic Gammons column from 2003:
In case anyone doesn't know, this is the Eckstein who's the Nats hitting coach.
Do a little reading on teaching hitting and it won't seem that odd. Being able to do something, and teaching how to do it (or even understanding how you do it, in some cases) aren't necessarily related.
Derail time.
"Iconic manager, eh"
Question-If the Nats win it all this year, does Davey get in the hall. Or do they need to win two in a row.
Serious question.
He's managed 16 years, finished 2nd seven times, 1st five times, won a pennant a Series and has a lifetime winning % of .588%.
He's also had the joy of managing not only two of the best young pitchers of our time (Doc, Strauss), but also two of the most ballyhooed prospects(Straw and Harper)
What's it gonna take for Davey to get the nod?
I'd give it to him. He's a fun character, and that helps if you want to be elected as a manager. Plus he was a darn good player. He's also had success in Baltimore and elsewhere.
I'd say another series puts him a little past Lou Pinella and just barely in.
The reason why is because whenever his bosses start thinking that they're smarter than he is, instead of being a good yes man he has a tendency to come back at them with responses like "If you're so smart, YOU manage the ****ing team."
Googling, I see that Harris was replaced by Eckstein at the end of the 2008 season. Zimmerman was regressing under Harris, but since has hit a lot better since Eckstein has been coach.
A-Freaking-Men. And Lenny got the job because Mitchell Page (RIP!) drank himself out of it. Page's approach was the perfect philosophy... be patient until you see the first good pitch you see. Then whack the crap out of it. I don't know if it was coincidence or luck or whatever, but his work with Alfonso Soriano was incredible. I saw a lot of Soriano and New York, and for that one year, he really did have the discipline to lay off that slider away. He took that pitch, and either took the walk. (I think he had like 20-30 more walks that year than any other season in his carrer). Or he waited it out and smacked the bejesus out of the ball.
They want from that approach to that "happiness is a softly hit single to right". Ugh.
Well, it also helps that teams were pitching around him that year. He had 16 IBB that year and I think he had a bunch more unintentional intentional walks as well.
He did layoff the first pitch a bit that year compared to his career and other years surrounding that one. But part of that is because of the IBB and UIBB.
Jiminy Crickets-Davey even fooled God!
Seriously, I've never heard this. It would make sense, I guess, (Like drinking has ever hurt Ozzie from getting a job.)in explaining Davey's long hiatus
Money quote:
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