I'm with all of you about wanting to see bagwell come in for a pinch hitting situation and hit a homer and drive it into the upper deck like he did in his hay day, but I have some info: "It ain't happenin". Bagwell's shoulder is jellow, he can't even throw from first base to third without looking like a wanna be gumby. Everyone always wants this guy to pinch hit and smack a homer out of the park, but realistically, it ain't happenin' If he can't throw to third then how is he going to muster up the power to go yard? I'm glad we have this guy in the lineup to pinch hit in desperate situations, hes a homer, but lets not bash Garner for not putting in Bagwell in critical situations when Garner knows that his soulder is Jello.
side note: i was drunk when I wrote this, but I thought about it while in the bar and it made perfect cents to me, I'm jusut having trouble typing right now.
I don't know, the ball seems to be jumping off his bat pretty well. I think if he were to get some opportunities it could happen.
Different muscles, different motions. Just because he can't throw doesn't necessarily mean he can't hit.
He can hit doubles with ease...but home runs are a stretch for him right now. If the Stros did win it all this year, do you think he would feel satisfied? If i were in his shoes, i don't think i would. Not taking anything away from him, i still consider him our best pinch hitter, and he was our best player for years till Berkman came around.
He sure juices them out of the yard during BP. While that's not Izzy pitching, it's certainly a power stroke and plenty of distance.
Heck, even the pitchers juice them out of the yard in batting practice. Most just play home run derbey. The reason Clemens is a good hitter for a pitcher because he actually practices hitting the ball the other way and utilizing the whole field rather than swinging for the fences. I remember when we got Randy Johnson. He would swing the bat and it would go flying 30 feet. I was at a game were he did it twice in a row during 1 at bat. When he finally made the slightest contact with the ball, he got a standing ovation in the Astrodome. The fans went wild over that out.
I thought his bat had a lot of life in it myself. I dunno about a homer, cause we haven't seen it, but his cuts have been hard. He's also been getting screwed by perfect pitches early in the count. I never seen one hitter get that many good pitches in a long while. Seems like every first pitch is unhittable and a strike. Makes it tough to go yard when you down in the count.
Jeff Bagwell is a better option as a pinch hitter than Jose Vizcaino. Orlando Palmeiro is a better option as a pinch hitter than Jose Vizcaino. I'm anxious to hear what Garner has to say about that. I rarely second-guess managers. But I was baffled by seeing Jose step into the batters box last night in that situation.
Exactly. Palmeiro's the perfect choice right there in a situation where Isringhausen has been wild and you likely were better off taking one or two pitches. He's also the most likely of anyone on the bench to either get a hit or draw a walk and get Biggio to the plate. I don't understand the fascination with Viz anymore. He's looked absolutely terrible at the plate the last month or so. Not in numbers (maybe they're bad, maybe they aren't, I haven't looked), but he's not making contact at the rate he normally does and his bat seems to be significantly slower than the Viz of previous years.