Good read. It also sorts out the years and money left on Bagwell's contract. Bagwell seems like he knows that a lot of the fans are against him due to his relatively subpar stats, but he is still working his *ss off doing what he can with all that he has. I would want him to get more kudos for his efforts on the field, but the guy is making ten figures to play a game.
Oops. Allow me to post the link: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/n...content_id=818904&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp
Bagwell's decline at the plate has been so drastic it is impressive, sadly. His vulnerability at the plate is disturbing. He rarely makes meaningful contact on a breaking pitch outside, which throughout his career has always been his out pitch, but it is just magnified now. What's more disheartening is that the breaking pitch is not the best out pitch for Bagwell these days: a high fastball in excess of 93mph will do it. Where he used to be able to turn on that, he just can't now. And many times I see him sitting on fastball and he still does not generate the bat speed to get around on it. It's truly sad the path that Bagwell has taken since his shoulder injury, and as a result this has put this team in a tight situation in more ways than one.
Is it a prerequisite that anyone with a Yao related name starts retarted threads? Is it a language barrier thing?
man, smoltz just got nasty after the homer. ensberg even seemed to sit fastball on the first pitch and got blown away with a 98 mph pitch. then smoltz throws 98 on the corner, then throws a beauty in the dirt that ensberg had no way of laying off and no chance to hit. i felt bad for him when it got to 0-2 because you knew there was nothing he could do.
Sad, but true. Bags is not the guy we want up there in a clutch situation. Maybe he should move below Ensberg...
A play in today's game made me exceptionally sad, when it was hit to Bullinger, he stared back Furcal and Furcal ran because it was on Bagwell's arm. He couldn't even get the ball to 3rd base from 1st base but I none the less am one of his biggest proponents. Also there was a diving play were he threw the ball at the pitcher runnin to cover 1st base, and literally had nothing on the throw, as the commentators put it, he "shotput" the ball. It makes me respect him that much more for he's doing and hes still being moderately productive because to be truthful no other Astro aside from Beltran is blowing him away statistically. I never thought I'd see the day were Biggio had more homers than Bagwell.
