Am first in wins and had Mike Minor starting (who won), am second in K's so I need them. So fantasy purpose am okay with Santana not winning (I also have Halladay and Ubaldo). What a play by Lopez, take that Wolf!!!! Redemption
Well, there's your new closer for the time being. Landlord, where are you? Your boy's done good. Real good.
I get the feeling that Pence came to the realization that this is his team now. I can't speak for what's happening in the locker room, but it seems like he's trying to lead by example...probably no coincidence with Bagwell on the bench. Pence, Johnson, Castro & Wallace make me feel a lot better about the future than I did just a month ago.
A Met hit a trickler toward 3rd that looked like it was definitely gonna be the 2nd infield hit of the inning. Lopez came darting over almost to the 3rd base line, cut off CJ, grabbed the ball and rifled it to Wallace while falling to the ground. Just as impressive as Wandy and Wolf's similar plays in recent weeks.
Amazingly, Pence is right around his career averages in all offensive categories now. His career numbers aren't great but given where things were early in the season, that's pretty impressive. He's also looked much better in the field since that really rough patch around the AS break. He seems to be talking and acting differently as leroy alluded to above. It's also clear that Bagwell is stressing for him to relax more at the plate.
Could he finally be stepping up with the vets gone and little to no pressure on the club? He could end up hitting around .300 with 25 hrs 90 rbis and an obp of .350, all that is entirely possible for him which is VERY good to see for sure.
How great is it to watch exciting, FUN baseball again? I know that at this point in the season it is meaningless as far as October is concerned--but how can you not be at least cautiously optomistic for next year?
It's all about quality at bats. I'm not saying Bagwell is the ONLY reason these are happening...but since Bags has been around long enough to have an effect, it seems like Pence has had some of the best at bats I can ever remember him having.
he is the writer of wrongs, after all! i hate to say this...but i'm not sure richard would know a quality at bat if he saw it. i think he'd be smart enough to listen to the coaches/players/executives who'd know how to spot one. but i don't think he could watch pence, with no commentary from anyone else, and know that his patience and approach is different.
If he were coachable, the great Sean Berry would have made him into a future hall of famer. With Berry's great style of sitting back and waiting for you to come to him, how could you not learn from him?
Since his most latest hot streak, his season #s resemble the likes of Ryan Braun. He's also most likely going to have career highs in a few categories (runs, RBIs etc).
For all we heard of Wallace being a zero defensively, the dude has played some nice "D". Another nice play at first on Pagan.
Dickeys fastball is pretty fast for a knuckle-baller. Damn, is Carlos Lee faster than Angel Sanchez??
I bet people would be surprised at the results of a a race between Caballo, Keppinger and Sanchez. Sanchez really is amazingly slow for his age and body type. He almost appears to be moving in slow motion when running. He has good bat control and is fundamentally sound with his glove but I really think that his lack of speed/range will hurt his chance of sticking in the long run. People don't talk about it lot here but he has missed several chances to get outs due to his lack of range, slow release and weak throw.
Having said all that, it's not like we have any other good options right now which is why he's here in the first place. Manzella doesn't do anything special offensively or defensively so Sanchez may be able to beat him out but that's not saying much. I like the kid and he's been solid for us but it's hard to ignore his utter lack of speed as a SS.
That's what I was thinking, he makes a routine groundball to his left look like a spectacular play. Dude needs to do some plyometrics or something.
