Saturday, April 16, 2011
Video of Harper's Hagerstown debut
In his home debut at low-Class A Hagerstown last night, Bryce Harper went 0-for-3 with a walk. The 18-year-old outfielder is hitting just .226 in his first nine games, and he's learning what it takes to survive the daily grind of the minor leagues.
Here's video from CSNwashington.com of Harper's performance last night, with footage of both his and manager Brian Daubach's press conferences as well.
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12 comments:
How many guys on the big league team are hitting .226 or better? Sorry, couldn't resist.
4. Ramos, Zimm, Nix and Espi. Zimm is the only everyday player hitting above .250 and of course, he currently ain't playing at all.
How much validity is there to what he was saying about it gets easier the higher up you go? It sounds like he's not seeing a lot of strikes and is pressing a bit. Maybe a bit to anxious to get hits and isn't laying off bad pitches?
Grandstander said...
How much validity is there to what he was saying about it gets easier the higher up you go?
I've heard that theory before. Like Harper said, the pitches are more in the zone -- better pitchers actually put the ball where they want to, which probably makes it easier on some hitters to guess along. I suspect that more consistent umpiring and better lighting can also contribute. And I'm sure easier travel doesn't hurt.
Of course, there are the trade-offs you already know about: much tougher breaking balls, craftier pitchers, more pressure. (Though this kid seems to thrive on pressure.) So yeah, anecdotally, some guys have done better at higher levels, but most of the time, it gets harder as they go up.
In other around-the-division news, it was revealed that Chris Young of the Mets -- whose ERA is already only 1.46 -- will not allow another earned run for at least 15 days (retroactive to Monday).
Two earned runs in the entire month of April. And he was totally available this off-season!!!
Rizzo FAIL. >:-(
This was printed this afternoon on Nats Journal:
“I’m not even talking about it with [Zimmerman] because I don’t want any of us to keep asking and making him feel that we’re pushing him to get back,” Riggleman said. “I want him to come back on his timetable. I think in spring training we thought a week or whatever, ten days, was going to do it. But obviously it wasn’t enough. I think we have really gotta let him and Lee Kuntz, our trainer, tell us and let the doctor check him out again and they’ll tell us. For us to keep asking is really not getting anywhere.”
Not saying there is something deceptive going on here but look at what Riggleman said in this interview. It sounds to me that that extra 10 days off for the groin injury maybe was not a groin injury and was 10 days off for the ab injury if I am reading it right.
Yeah, Harper is major-league ready. .226. Maybe the FO knows what it's doing after all.
Anon8, I too noticed Riggleman linking what we were told was a groin injury and time off in ST with what we are told was an ab injury now. Weird.
Anon8, I don't even see it open up to any other interpretations unless Riggleman was having a Senior moment, he got caught up in a lie.
That makes a lot more sense. Tim McCarver talked on Fox today about all the oblique injuries and showed a picture of where these injuries are occurring.
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=471868
I am watching MLB Network and Alberto Gonzalez started again for the Padres. In 7 games he has 2 RBIs and hitting .278. He is a better fielder than Cora and Hairston and obviously better offensively. On top of that, he cost the team the league minimum and was under team control for many more years.
AGonz will never be a superstar but he is a much needed utility guy and would be the starter with Zim gone and producing more I believe than either Cora or Hairston IMO.
I agree ...Albero Gonzales > Cora or Hairston
Any injury to the body's "core" is bad. Every movement starts there. Every trainer you talk to always talks about starting with "the core" Getting the "core" strong etc. The Redskins Sean Springs missed almost a whole season with a similar injury. I think the worst thing Zim can do is rush back
With the amount of pressure on Harper, its amazing he has gotten any hits at all. Watching his post game interview, it sounds like mentally, he is fine. And .226 after 9 games ain't nothing. He is just a couple hits away from .300. Let all the hoop la die down and this kid is gonna be fine.
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