From what I've heard, Paulino was the guy being groomed as the future closer. He was hurt during spring training, but I think he should be back soon.
You should be worried that his at bats look AWFUL. It's not merely the result...it's that he looks overmatched on nearly every AB and has zero plate discipline. He's swinging at balls nowhere near the strike zone. Honestly, I think he'll be fine.
There were a bunch of anonymous quotes from scouts too. I think it was a combination of his wrist & him packing it in last season in Baltimore. He is a joy to watch play.
You said the key word -- anonymous. In this business, you can get anyone to say almost anything you want if you ask enough leading questions and promise them anonymity. I don't discount the wrist and the Baltimore environment influencing him as well, but trust me -- there's definitely an agenda among a lot of media members hoping for the Mitchell Report names to fail. I've heard it myself. What are everyone's thoughts on Valverde? Obviously, he's up in the zone more than he should be -- but is it a mechanical problem? Throwing too hard? Simply missing his spots? I've been watching mostly on the small MLB.TV screen so it's hard for me to make too much of an analysis.
Yeah, but I've been too lazy to download the plug-ins for the higher streams -- and enlarging the lower stream just makes it really fuzzy. It's my own laziness, though.
No. Pence got sent down to AAA since the Astros did not want to platoon him, The Astros wanted Pence to start everyday at AAA. IIRC Pence spent most of the prior year (two years ago) at AA not AAA.
They might have caught on, but its still kinda hard to stop a pure hitter, even if he does swing at everything.....Vlad's been doin it for years, no one has seemed to slow him down.....Hunter will be more than fine
He's missing spots, but its a little bit more than that. Any idea how fast his fastball was last year? He's topping out at 91 this year I think, I remember him having good stuff last year. Right now his fastball is just not getting people out.
the guy was scorching in the spring, which was like.....a week ago. some of you overreact like crazy. once a hitter always a hitter. he'll get it going. i'm not worried a bit.
I'm not overreacting, just being objective. He's getting a steady diet of offspeed stuff off the plate and that's been his weakness for many, many moons. He's getting into a ton of pitchers' counts because he's hacking at crap. He needs to adjust, heard that JD was saying pretty much the same thing on the broadcast last night. He has to be more selective.
Hey Biggio this is Astroholic from the old forums..we have a new forum up and want you to come join us.. http://forums.astrospoint.com/ -- do you remember me?
One thing I noticed about Pence by looking at the statistics is that he really struck out a hell of a lot last year as well. At Baseballreference.com they do a '162' game average like a per-48 in the NBA, and Pence's averages out (based almost exclusively on last year's numbers) to 144 strikeouts. Compare that with Lee at 85, Berkman at 113 and Tejada at 87 as an average over the same 162 games and Pence, even when on like last year, has been a strike-out machine. For the year, 95 strikeouts in 456 at bats = 1 / 4.8 AB. For this year, he is 8K's in 35, or 1 / 4.375 AB. In other words, he's actually making nominally better contact than last year. And combined AA/AA he averaged about 1 / 5 AB. Based on this, I think he really should be hitting at 5 or 6 in the order. He simply is a free swinger. This isn’t anything new. He's always been a high strikeout guy. Perhaps being in the top 3rd of the order makes it stand out more. But unless something changes, he probably will be a guy that flirts with being in the top-10 in the NL in K's year in and year out.
I think that's where he was projected to hit but since Matsui is out they him to #2. Hopefully once Kaz is off the DL, he'll be the #2 hitter, and Pence will hit behind Tejada. Bourn Matsui Berkman Lee Tejada Pence Wigginton Towles Pitcher
