No, it's not a prog rock band from the 70's. It's Boston's low risk, high reward gamble on the former Angel's Cy Young winner. He looked solid last night, inducing ground balls and not laboring too much. The more arms, the better, I say. Even if he only ends up pitching around 100 innings this season, as long as his starts are decent, I think he will be well worth the investment. Who cares if he resembles a manatee and has his sideburns shaved off a la Don Mattingly on The Simpsons.
Jacoby Ellsbury had a monster game going 3-for-4. He led off the first with a home run and scored three runs. He is well on his way to becoming the premiere lead off hitter in the majors. Manny on the other hand has been ice cold after his torrid start. So much for MVP and triple crown talk. After going 0-for-3 last night, his average has fallen to .287. There is nothing wrong with that if that's where he ends up for the year, but his average has dropped about 70 points in the past month. Could the pressure of trying to reach 500 home runs be getting to Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky? Manny's game is predicated on being the most relaxed guy on the field. He looks really stiff in the batter's box at the moment.
I finally have cable and internet in the house and can rejoin the civilized world. I can at last make posts during my off hours and not on company time. But what fun would that be?
3 comments:
Premiere leadoff hitter in the majors?! Don't get me wrong, he is a nice player, but slow down. There is this guy in Seattle called Ichiro. Not to mention Granderson, Sizemore, Jimmy Rollins (who has an MVP), Furcal, and other youngsters such as Reyes, or Young from Arizona
Ok ok. It's too early to give Ellsbury that title. Perhaps I should have said, "one of the best" or something. I'll concede. But if I don't say outlandish things that make people mad, I wouldn't be a good blogger.
In response to a couple of folks you mentioned... Granderson strikes out too much, and Sizemore might be slightly overrated. I love Jose Reyes, but I don't know what's wrong with him. His OBP has plummeted recently. He just hasn't looked the same since the first half of last season.
Granderson does strike out a lot, but I don't think it is a big concern. When nobody is on base, as is often the case for a leadoff hitter, it really doesn't matter if you strike out or fly out. He is probably not a true leadoff hitter, and will move down in the order once some of the older middle of the order bats move on.
As for Sizemore, he is still only 25, just one year older than Ellsbury, and is entering his fourth full season the majors, and has a career .370 OBP.
Reyes is the same age as Ellsbury, with 4 full seasons in the big leagues.
Anyway, my point was not to argue who is the best leadoff hitter (although that would be an interesting discussion), but that Ellsbury needs to do what he has done, and even improve upon it, for another couple seasons before he can really be mentioned with these other players.
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