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USA Today Sports Images Jesus Flores hit .241 with 23 homers in 311 games with the Nationals from 2007-12. |
The Dodgers have signed the 28-year-old catcher to a minor-league contract with an invitation to big-league spring training, according to multiple reports.
Once considered the Nationals' long-term answer behind the plate, Flores saw his promising career in D.C. get derailed by a major shoulder injury that sidelined him most of 2009 and all of 2010. Finally healthy again lat season, he got a chance to re-assume everyday catching duties after starter Wilson Ramos suffered a torn ACL but struggled to produce while dealing with the heavy workload, hitting .213 with a .248 on-base percentage in 83 games.
The midseason acquisition of veteran Kurt Suzuki forced Flores back to the bench, where he remained through the playoffs. The
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30 comments:
Good luck, JFlo, except when playing the Nats. A character guy if there ever was one.
I know his recent stats, but there is a backstory to the stats that I don't know.
At one point, after taking over from the injured Ramos, Gio and Davey were describing him as one of the best C's in the NL. Then everything changed.
At any rate, have a great year in LAD land JFlo! You still have a lot of catching left in the Bigs. Look forward to seeing you play our Nats
I thought this guy would be our catcher for 10 years. Hated to see him struggle last year.
Quick OT: I was on the Nats site a few minutes ago, and every home game in April shows a start time of TBD. Isn't it getting a little late to post game times?
After spending huge amounts of money, the Dodgers are now dumpster dipping.
Good Luck JFlo (except when playing the Nats). Hope the bruises have all healed.
Not to rekindle an old argument, but Flores has every right to blame his demise on lousy medical diagnosis and treatment when he was first injured. His injury was much more serious than originally thought and he should never have come back at the end of 2009.
I wish him well.
Excuse me - but Jesus Flores is not dumpster dipping. After Ramos went down, he was our every day catcher until Suzuki showed up. During that time, our pitchers relied on him and put up some pretty flashy numbers. We were in first place that entire time. His offensive numbers were tepid - oh, well - that wasn't the most important thing. I actually feel that JZimm took a while to adjust to Suzuki and he was struggling for a bit. Let's show a little more respect for a guy that called games for a first place team and caught for a pretty fine rotation. Catcher is a key position and he held the fort for us. Good luck, Flo!
RE: Secion 222
Correctomundo.
At the time, JFlo expressed frustation with the medical diagnoses.
As with many recent Nats' in-house medical diagnoses, we have to wonder what really was going on.
Spend some time with the catcher ERA stats.
Nobody was a bigger Kid Flores fan than me ... up until about a year ago. Injuries (mostly misdiagnosed as 222 correctly notes) and just an overall lack of improvement, especially defensively, made him expendable. Yes, he beat out Brian Schneider (who I thought was the most overrated Nat this side of FLop by the time he got to D.C.) But he is clearly not in Suzuki's league. And he's not close to a pre-injury Ramos. Plus, catching is an organization strength of the Nats down on the farm.
I loved the guy. Once. Time to move on. With only A.J. Ellis the lone experienced backup on Team StanK (How Overrated are these Dodgers? I don't think they finish .500), Flo probably makes the team as a backup. He's 150 at-bats a year at this stage of his career.
Flo is like an old girlfriend you haven't seen in 20 years, and then you see her...wrinkled face from too many cigarettes and booze...couple bad marriages...maybe an arrest or two. You just want to say, "Dodged a bullet there."
Harsh maybe, but probably true.
You are a baseball player and screw your shoulder up then there is a reasonable chance you will never be the same ballplayer. To blame what Flores became on the medical staff is like blaming bad weather on the weatherman because he predicted it wrong.
Remember that in this day of HIPPA laws doctors and teams really can't give out medical information; what you hear has to be passed thru the player and you are never getting the true story. Team doctors are probably overly optimistic with diagnosis because players, just like us, want to hear the best case scenario.
One good reason to remember Flo is to keep hatred of Chase Utley alive. In this game Utley took Flores out in an unsuccessful attempt to steal home, breaking his ankle and ending his season. They had to drive the little white ambulance out to the plate to haul Flores off the field.
I said it last year about Flores during the LA series in April when some were looking for Flo to replace Ramos.
Catchers number 1 job is handling their pitching staff. Ramos is the best at that. All else is a bonus.
If Dr. James Andrews had been there that day wearing his hat with the fuzzy ball on top, Flores might have lived.
Re: Keeping Michael Morse. It's in his interest to be traded after the Rule 4 Draft (in June) so that he won't have a draft pick attached to him when he becomes a free agent. I'm sure Rizzo or Mike's reps can explain that to him. Tyler Moore can go to Syracuse until then, work on his D and get regular at-bats. (This is assuming no injuries--which is not gonna happen...).
Ghost, yup, remember how all the picthers just gushed over having Ramos behind the plate. Care and feeding of our stud pitching staff is the most important thing the catcher has to do.
I still wish JFlo well, like Lannan, Gorzo, EJax, Burnie, MGon, etc. Just not against the Nats.
I wish Flores well, a great steal from the Mets.
So I was at the Dulles Town Center last night and was shocked to see the Nats Team store close. Sad, I guess they just openned it for the holidays.
MicheleS said...
Ghost, yup, remember how all the picthers just gushed over having Ramos behind the plate.
They hadn't met Suzuki yet. Except for Gio, that is.
Good luck, JFlo.
FW, I remember that home-plate collision, and it does give me an unlimited resource of scorn for Chase Utley.
Supposedly Jeff Passan was on a DC radio show and said something like "Boras preys on elderly owners".
Boras is obviously pissed. It may seem that way but you don't say it.
I'm with you Natsnut. We're learning the harsh lesson that winning and sentimental attachment don't necessarily mix. More lessons to come ...
So I was at the Dulles Town Center last night and was shocked to see the Nats Team store close. Sad, I guess they just openned it for the holidays.
The one at Tysons Corner is also apparently closed. Apparently it was always a holidays-only thing, since it never made the listing on the store maps inside the mall. Understandable, since even before the holidays whenever I went in there I was pretty much alone. Perhaps they should have sold iPhones, then they might have got some overflow from the Apple Store.
Ghost, Passan was on with Holden and Danny on 1067.7. I am sure it will be on their page at some point. And yes he did say that about Boras.
sm13, well said. It was like the Redskins and Cooley. Harsh reality of sports. Much better what Chipper did. Cooley was either blind to his own ability or greedy for the money and maybe both. Go out with dignity.
I believe that the off-site team stores were listed on the team site as being open until December 30.
Good luck to Flores, except vs. the Nats. :-)
NL, Morse won't have a draft pick attached to him unless the team to which he is traded makes him a qualifying offer. The amount will be north of $13.3 million next year. Do you think Morse will get an offer that big from his new team if his new team hasn't already made a serious extension offer? Seems unlikely to me. But if so, he probably had a monster year and other teams will be interested in him even if they have to give up a draft pick.
I'm sure Morse and his agent understand all this very well. And I'll bet he's aching for a trade so he can start at 1B somewhere and rake. Everything Rizzo has said indicates he understands that. It's just a matter of the right deal presenting itself.
Feel makes a very good point about Utley. That was the beginning of the end for poor JFlo. I'm not sure there's any player I hate more than Utley. Well, maybe Austin Kearns. :-)
Agree with NatsNut and sm13. As much as I would like to be business minded towards baseball, it would be hard for me to part with fan favorites. Livo would still be playing on my team.
Sunshine! Hardly a post that one would expect from such a screen name. {wink} I must add a little support for my man, Jesus. NOT ONLY did the Nats do him a disservice via misdiagnosis but they threw him into the meat grinder last year when Ramos went down. He caught way too many consecutive games for a guy still trying to get his sea legs. He was game but his body couldn't handle the beating. I feel like the Nats used him until they used him up. I know. I know. It's a business. That's the way it goes. Rise to the occasion or get out of Dodge (no pun intended. But nevertheless, I feel like we owe him a tip of our collective caps. He was a credit to his uniform and did everything he was asked to do. I wish him success (or at least a spot on a major league roster).
Flores is a good guy. One time during a autograph session after a game, he was talking to my fiancee's son who is a lefty, and at the time was really enjoying being a little league catcher. The kid said he wanted to be the first lefty catcher in the majors. So, Flores told him, "no, you should be a pitcher", Of course, he didn't want to hear it, but many years later he's pretty much a center fielder learning how to pitch who maybe is behind the plate for a couple of innings as a sub. The only professional lefty catcher he and I have ever seen in DC was the Mets' bullpen catcher a couple of years ago.
@3ON2OUT:
Yeah, it was a little out of character for me. But it was nothing personal against Flo. As I said, I loved the guy ... until the injuries and Suzuki. It's just time to move on. This team is a World Series favorite. You don't become that with some of the people we had on the roster last year. Rizzo has purged most of the dead wood. The Soriano trade was the clincher. Rizzo et al think we're one closer away. And they got him.
We've passed the likes of Flo (and Gorzy et al) by.
World Series or bust!
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