he's 30; if he actually had potential, his first full year wouldn't have come at the age of 27. he's never been considered a top prospect at any point in his career. last year was the aberration. not sure the criteria, but cabrera's numbers were better (.323/33/116/.946 v. .283/36/101/.945); wright's were comparable (.306/27/102/.911). difference is, they're both 23, an age when potential has meaning. ensberg will never be better than he was last year. our best hope was that he'd duplicate it; considering it came at the age of 29, and was inconsistent with past production, that was asking a bit too much. i think he's a mediocre player: decent '03; horrible '04; great '05; horrible '06. yep; mediocre. i thought the same thing of lane, but with less hope he'd have a decent '06. i think if pupura has a fault, he failed to step back and objectively view their seasons. they should have jumped out at him as highly likely aberrations, and he should have been prepared for that inevitability. he seemes blind-sided by it, as if players routinely bloosomed at 28, 29 years old.
Ric - he's not having a HORRIBLE 2006. i'm with you on possibly moving him in the order. but the guy is on pace to hit about 35 homeruns, score about 100 runs and drive in about 90. he's getting on base, to be sure. those numbers out of another spot in the lineup would be great.
Ensberg seems to be up there looking to walk more than trying the drive the ball. he's need to swing at more first pitch fastballs rather than taking, taking, taking.
Marshall actually threw 7 innings. There are times for walks and times to try and drive in a run. Ensberg should never be consciously seeking a walk with a runner in scoring position (especially batting 3rd) and yet here he was in the 7th inning with the tying run on 3rd base and not taking his bat off his shoulder for the first 5 pitches.
Hmm, guess I missed the pitching change. I did actually watch the game--honest! I don't know about consciously looking to walk...surely you'd prefer a guy who recognizes pitches he can't or shouldn't hit (because they're balls) to a guy who hacks at the first pitch. The former is a pitcher's nightmare; the latter is what every pitcher wants. Morgan is forcing pitchers to give him good pitches--whether or not he can do anything with those pitches is the real issue.
he's watching strike zone pitches during times of the game where we really need runs in and runners are on base. we absolutely need him to be more aggressive.
actually, at his current pace, he'll wind up with 19 homers, roughly 50 RBIs and he'll threaten the mendoza line. ensberg's production since june 1: .175/1/7/.744. maybe "horrible" is a bit harsh, but let's not get carried away with the spin - it's not like he has a track record of great seasons - he's had one. not enough to endure a month and a half of abject futility. i mean, he may very well, right now, be the worst everyday position player in baseball. aside from our catcher, of course. but that's the problem: this team has no other power outlet. none. so we can't look less harshly at his numbers because they'd look damn good for the 7-hole; he has a single job: to drive in runs. he hasn't done that since may. so how long do we give him to "figure it out," and what can we realistically expect from him when he does figure it out? frankly, i'd hit him second. let him walk til his legs fall off and hope lamb, berkman and/or wilson can pick him up. and then get ready for arguably the worst 6-9 line-up in baseball.
Man, did yall watch the game last night? Ensberg looked totally out of sync at the plate. His confidence looked totally shot, and he wasn't comfortable up there at all.
I think it goes beyond an injury. It looked like he didn't know whether he should to try to swing away, take the pitch, or place the hit. Discombobulated would be right word to desribe it.
He's had 3 full seasons in the majors, and in two of them had an OPS over 0.900, and in his 4th year is at 0.896. That puts him in the top quartile or so of 3rd basemen most years. For a player who you admit is extremely streaky, why on earth would you try to project season numbers based on his worst month of the season? Adam Everett, since June 1st, is batting over 0.300. Do you expect him to continue that as well?
Howry pitched the 8th. Hard to tell the difference between the slow pitching lefty and the hard throwing righty . Ensberg's problem is that he is taking that down the middle pitch, regardless of the count. He also strikes out looking more on that outside corner pitch than anyone else I can remember seeing. It is one thing to work the count, it is another to leave yourself only one pitch to hit by taking too many strikes. It's great that he is forcing pitchers to give him good pitches. It's a shame that he tends to be taking those good pitches.
Trade Ensberg. He's going to bring a good return because's he's proven himself capable at the big league level, and he's not overly expensive. Moving Ensberg would allow you to play Lamb everyday at 3B and Berkman everyday in the OF, while hopefully bringing in a solid OF bat and/or effective arm at the back of the bullpen. Ensberg's got 25 errors since Opening Day 2005, so he's not irreplaceable on defense, either.
I hate how fans want to trade players the minute they're not "producing." Ensberg is key to this club. He's still maturing as a player IMO, even though he's not that young. His numbers are still decent and they WILL pick up. remember that the season is freakin' 162 games, so please be patient, or just don't watch until the last week of the season (like most baseball "fans"). i can't wait 'til mo starts going crazy again at the plate and all you haters start jumping on the ensberg bandwagon again.
Lamb has been just as streaky as Ensberg...look at all of last season. That's a huge gamble there. Ensberg is just lost right now, like he was during the playoffs. He's out of sync and is falling back on the one thing he can do, and that's draw walks. Maybe he should change his approach a little, cause "waiting for the pitcher to make a mistake" isn't exactly working.
I was hoping you meant to the minors, he is hideous right now. If he doesn't get a walk then he is worthless.
