Well, we KNEW it was gonna happen. Astros fans are Up Set. You see, ST stats count with guys they like – like Pence, and they don’t count with guys they don’t like – say, Ausmus, Lane. And the same people who think that Willy T is Willie Mays all over again and are bitterly complaining that we traded away our great player for beans are also the ones complaining that we sent Pence down. If we hadn’t traded Willy, where would Pence go? RF, I guess. But what about Luke Scott? Uh, trade him too, I guess. From listening to KTRH, sounds to me like people want Lidge, Lane and Burke traded NOW for, um, something – mostly either Carl Crawford (yeah, like he’s available), Dontrelle Willis (yeah, like he’s available) or – believe it or not, Jason Varitek. Yeah, I don’t get that one neither.
Anyhow, I really have this feeling that Lane IS on the trading block – he’s been playing all over the OF and at first. Even if he’s not, you KNOW he gonna be on a VERY short leash this year. And to all the complaining fans, I remind yall that last August, when they wanted to send him down and he was doing TERRIBLE, please remember SOMEbody claimed him offn waivers, so not all teams share yalls opinion that he is worthless or a loser.
But back to Hitter Pence – he NEEDS to get PA every single day and he’s just not gonna get them up here at this point. AND he needs to prove to me, at least, that he actually can hit AAA pitching. Now that is something I KNOW that Scott, Lane and Burke can do very well. It would be different if we didn’t have anyone to play CF or RF, but we do – and Burke is a good hitter and a decent CF – his ML stats from last year back me up. It seems crazy to me to bench Burke all year except for a few PH, as Loretta is gonna play the majority of second when Biggio is off. It seems even crazier to release him or even to try to trade him – there isn’t any market for second basemen this year. Loretta’s bat might could be bettern Biggio’s this year, but his glove was worse last year, and Loretta ain’t no spring chicken and we HAVE to have a second baseman after Biggio retires (hopefully) at the end of the year. We already traded away Benny Zobrist and we don’t have another guy who is ML ready.
But back to Hitter Pence – IF he can hit AAA pitching and IF Burke, Lane and Scott fail, Pence is ready and waiting (and remember bout the arbitration clock – I ASSURE you that the Organization is thinking bout it too.)
Gotta say I was impressed with how well he got the Bull Durham speech down.
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
I like alot of what you are saying, but I don’t get all the emphasis on Pence needing to prove that he can hit AAA pitching. AA pitching has the live arms, AAA not so much. The jump to watch is from A to AA.