Last night against the Angels David Ortiz took the golden sombrero to a whole new level of 0-fers.  Last night, in a 12 inning loss to the Angels, David Ortiz went 0-7, striking out three times without a walk while stranding 11 men on base.  11!  This was a 1-run loss in extra innings.  If he connects on just one, this game never goes extras.  An 0-fer against the likes of Shields, Fuentes, Arredondo, and Bulger, all of whom have an ERA north of 4.96.  Not exactly shut down pitchers.

On the year his decline has been widely publicized.  He’s got a line right now of .318/.300/.618.  This is .50 points lower than his lowest OBP and .200 points lower than his lowest SLG.  He has no power anymore and because of that no one is afraid to pitch to him so his on base numbers are dropping right along with his BA.

We all know he hasn’t hit any home runs yet but did you know that the following hitters all have at least one home run: Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations, AJ Hinch, on your new position as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It’s a brave new world in front of you, one that has very low expectations at its beginning.  As a 34 year old, former catcher with no professional managerial experience not a single person expects you to succeed.  This should work to your advantage even if you fail, because, let’s face it, all of the guys on this team are underperforming.

I’m not surprised by this hire.  You were the VP in charge of player development and most of the guys on this team are familiar with you as you were instrumental in bringing them up the line.  You made decisions about their playing time and promotions in the past and now you get to make similar decisions at the highest level.  Now that you’re the head honcho, it’s going to be you who has to answer to those decisions however so don’t be a dummy like your predecessor.

Here’s what I suggest: do the opposite of Bob Melvin.  Don’t treat these baseball players like kids; treat them like baseball players; ballplayers who have talent, talent you expect to see everyday.  That’s a bit generic, I know, but I always got the impression from watching Dbacks games that Melvin not only didn’t trust his players but that he expected them to mess things up.   In addition to that, here’s some more advice for you in list form which I know you’ll appreciate since your a busy guy now: Read the rest of this entry »