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Saturday, June 24, 2006

Eat This 470 Footer, RISP2 Weenies: Angels 8, Diamondbacks 2

Team speed — for Christ's sake, you get f*ckin' goddamn little fleas on the f*ckin' bases getting picked off trying to steal, getting thrown out, taking runs away from you. You get them big c*cksuckers who can hit the f*ckin' ball out of the ballpark and you can't make any goddamn mistakes.
— Earl Weaver
Gather 'round, kids, and I'll show you how successful offenses work. Even RISP2-lovin' Mike Scioscia agreed that, hey, Walks Are Good:
"We've been in a bit of an offensive funk the last couple of weeks," manager Mike Scioscia said. "But we're getting walks, and that allowed us tonight to get some runs in the first inning. We got the long ball and we got some good pitching."
Especially when the opposition pitcher walks a pair with the bases loaded, eh? It's hard to go wrong when the other guy's giving up runs, and your guys are hitting blasts out of the park, including Napoli's eighth homer of the season; he still leads all AL rookies in homers this year. His 470-foot blast was the third-longest recorded at Corporate Malfeasance Park, or whatever its name is this year. O-Cab also homered in this one, a solo shot in the second. Vlad damned near got his 17th homer of the year, but a revised ruling declared his hit a ground-rule double on fan interference. He ended the night 1-5, continuing his skid.

Speaking of slumps, Kendry Morales' longstanding woes at the plate plague me; he did get a couple walks in last night's game, and so, bully for him, but like all good things, OBP can be taken to extremes. Jason Giambi is perhaps its worst cariacature, getting on base plenty, but so slow he hurts the team by being unable to score from second. I don't think Kendry is like that, and he's taken a while to adjust at every level, so I give him a short-term 'bye on his current record, noting he's only got 107 at bats at present; he's halfway to being a monster. I hope.

ESPN BoxRecap


Comments:
Wasn't the rap on Morales coming up that he was a free swinger, ala Vlad and the rest of the guys in this system? It doesn't seem likely that a player would suddenly discover plate disipline in the major leagues. He's not Giambi, but it makes you wonder how reliable some of these scouting reports really are, especially internationally.
 
For whatever it's worth, I believe that Morales led the Arizona Fall League in walks...
 
Andre Eithier and Daric Barton tied for the AFL lead in walks with 21. Kendry had 12, though, tying him for 9th in the league. Still not bad...

Kendry DID lead the league in doubles, though, with 14. Kendrick was third with 10. And, obviously, Wood led in homers with 14.

On a side note, Wood, despite our perception that he is not doing as well as last year, is still leading the TL in doubles with 26, and he's third in homers with 15. He's also tied for tenth in walks with 34(!). Not bad. He just needs to continue working on cutting down the K's and errors...
 

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