Maybe not of much interest to the Giants fans, but since this blog also touches on Mariners, Royals and clandestine purposes, I offer the following:
While watching the Phillies and Astros, I couldn't help but notice the crawl on ESPN, which showed the D'Backs starting line-up. Batting leadoff will be the proverbially scrappy Willie Bloomquist, with his robust .299 OBP from 2010. Even worse, his OBP is .275 against righties, which is the situation he faces today.
Doing a little research, I found an article listing the ten worst leadoff hitters since 1957. At least Willie has about 20 more points on his OBP than Ivan DeJesus (1981, Cubs), Brian Hunter (1991, Mariners) or Ducky Schofield (1965, Giants), but it's hard to believe that there's not somebody, anybody that's a little better suited than Bloomquist.
Even today's starting pitcher, Ian Kennedy, had an OBP of .290 last year. Why not give him a shot?
I think the legend of Kirk Gibson just got a little weaker in his managerial debut. Like so many others, he's let "scrappy" get in the way of logic.
In game note:
As of the 11th inning, Willie Bloomquist is 3-for-6 with a double, a run scored and a stolen base. Maybe we shouldn't question ol' #23. I'm going to personally take credit for Willie's success today since it's obvious that my prognostication skills from March Madness are carrying over to opening weekend.
Hoo boy...Bloomquist was "scrappy" for the Royals the last couple of seasons. He was really, really good at times (like say, when he got a hit), it's just that the times he wasn't good at all was the vast majority of the times he played.
ReplyDeleteShame 'bout that.
The man doesn't hit for average, doesn't walk, and isn't even a very good base stealer (less than 80% for his career, although I'm sure he'll get better at it now that's he's 33).
But wait...the legendary Kirk Gibson is managing, so I'll just be quiet.