Had no idea McGrath was adding half-crocked material to “WHAT A CROC! - The Crocodile Comedy Show”
“Running” is one way to describe Montero’s earnest ambition to generate movement from Point A to Point C, while seemingly visiting the oasis at Point B for free coffee and a 45-minute snooze.
Montero runs like a deer, albeit a deer paralyzed in the headlights. How slow is Jesus Montero? Let’s put it this way: When he opened an account with Sprint, he got hooked up with Saunter.
...Behind the plate, it’s pretty obvious the kid doesn’t have a Gold Glove-caliber arm. And yet he’s proving himself to be, well, a throwback, latest in a tradition of such slow-footed catchers as Smoky Burgess, Gus Triandos, Russ Nixon, Johnny Estrada, the Molina Brothers and Chris Snyder.
...Still, some perspective is in order. Montero is slow only in the context of his peers, the best baseball players on the planet. Remove Montero from the diamond and put him in a match race against a department-store Santa, he’d finish among the top two, easily.
...I’ve already seen occasional references to Montero as “Monty.” What a waste. We’re talking about a baseball player who runs as if he’s climbing a downward escalator, and the only moniker that’s pinned on him is a casual shortening of his last name?
Jesus Montero should be known as “The Tortoise” or “The Snail.” Or “Leadfoot.” Or “Rain Delay.” Or “Gridlock.”
Repoz
Posted: May 06, 2012 at 06:53 AM |
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1. Avoid running at all times.-S. Paige Posted: May 06, 2012 at 08:53 AM (#4124544)I could. But I'd pull a hammy.
enh, How bout "Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness...Montero took 40 days and 40 nights just to get there."
I like to think of myself as Daniel Cabrera at the plate, with the range of Edgar Martinez in the field, with a Juan Pierre cannon. That might be a little generous though.
And promote Billy Hamilton, quick.
I think I could probably beat 25% of major leaguers in a footrace, especially over a longer distance.
Hell, I could crush any Major League ballplayer in a race to nine. It wouldn't even be a contest.
The arm thing has always interested me though - I have no idea how fast Damon or Pierre throws the ball compared to a normal human being. I suspect they still might be pretty good, able to beat, say, 95% of primates. But I don't know.
Isn't one of the issues that most people do not throw correctly? These players might have extremely weak arms but they are generally getting the most out of them because they are practicing over and over on their form. Anecdotal evidence: I went to a baseball camp one summer when I was 13. There were very good coaches there, who really helped us think about our mechanics in every aspect of the game. Before I went to the camp, the fastest pitch I threw was around 58 mph. One month later, I was clocked regularly at 65 mph.
But Damon's form is atrocious!
I'm pretty sure I closely resemble Al Leiter at the plate, combined with the outfield instincts of Todd Hundley, and wrapped up in one scintillating package with Mo Vaughn's speed.
Isn't that racked wrong? I thought the 1, 2, 3, and 4 were supposed to be at the corners.
Running speed is the easiest skill to compare yourself to MLBers. Anybody with a stopwatch can time them home to first, and do the same for themselves. Throwing would be the next easiest, if you brought a radar gun to the game and recorded throwing speed for fielders.
Whether any of us could make better contact against real pitching than the worst hitting MLB pitchers, guys like Aaron Harang, is completely untestable.
I can throw about as far as Carl Crawford. I mean...Carl Crawford right now, this very second.
Jiminy Cricket, someone has no consonance!
The one game that I watched the other night he was like Swiss cheese behind the plate. You could have hung a net behind home plate with 1 foot holes in it and caught more balls. He didn't look much better batting.
I wound up thinking, "THIS is what all the excitement was about???"
Glacier Pique?
Worst play on words ever?
Before I went to the camp, the fastest pitch I threw was around 58 mph. One month later, I was clocked regularly at 65 mph.
I didn't know Jamie Moyer posted here. Cool.
As a kid I remember going through my dad's old Bill James books and delighting in some of the jokes, even though I didn't fully understand them until later. Jim Deshaies' position, for instance, was listed as "Hit Defan" in one of them.
Anyway, I think it was about Steve Balboni that he wrote something along the lines of "Hits like a Deer, runs like a file cabinet".
It would be funnier if it were "Hits like a deer, runs like a ton of bricks."
Swinging, bunting, or just running?
Yet a dear paralyzed in headlights isn't actually moving at all, so this makes no sense. Albeit like a deer that's been wounded by gunshot...now that would make sense. A deer with a lacerated kidney, a deer with a thorn in it's hoof, a deer with a broken leg... all these make sense. A paralyzed deer is not running at all. I know for sure Montero is actually moving when he is running...so there!
I haven't seen him play this year, but as he's on my Yahoo fantasy team I have been watching very closely to see how many times he was in the lineup as "C" (waiting for him to qualify at catcher). And I noticed that he hits better as a catcher than a DH.
For his brief MLB career (AVG/OBP/SLG):
As C (51 PA): .413/.451/.696
As DH (118 PA): .261/.297/.423
For 2012:
As C (38 PA): .444/.447/.778
As DH (63 PA): .197/.206/.246
Small-sample caveats abound, but there's a pretty clear distinction.
I wonder if sitting around on the bench makes him overly anxious? He doesn't seem like a very patient hitter in the best of times, but as a DH his walk rate and K/BB ratio are particularly dreadful.
Despite never having played any ball at all, I could always throw harder than my friends just because I had heard Tom Seaver yammer on about pitching and knew how to hold a four-seamer.
The DH ruins everything.
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