From
Kevin Kennedy's blog:
Ryan Zimmerman, the Rookie of the Year third baseman for the Washington Nationals, is experiencing his first preseason caravan and enjoying it. Zimmerman hit .287 in 2006 with 20 homers and 110 runs batted in. That's what impressed me. It showed that he not only maximized his homers, but had other big hits as well. I've seen players hit 25 or 28 homers with only 72 or 76 RBIs to show for it.The nerve of them -- waiting until there are no runners on base to hit their HR so they get all the glory to themselves.
Not like good old Ryan, who "maximized" his homers -- like, I guess, he was allotted 20 homers at the beginning of the year and spent them wisely -- and "had other big hits." Not like those selfish other players who hit 28 homers and only have 76 RsBi. Those types are assholes. That's why they never get any RsBi -- they're dicks, and their teammates hate them, so their teammates deliberately fail to get on base for them, so they never get any RsBI chances.
It's a vicious cycle. Or maybe Kevin Kennedy's just a dummy.
Edit: He most certainly is, in fact, a dummy, as several people have already pointed out: Zimmerman lost the ROY voting to Hanley Ramirez.Labels: kevin kennedy, r.o.y. award, rbi
An excerpt from Kevin Kennedy's new book, "Twice Around the Bases."
"Age is just one of many ways players, teams, managers, scouts -- everyone involved in baseball -- try to get that little extra edge that will help them succeed and win, even though the rationale behind these decisions doesn't always make sense. Let's face it, a great player who comes up to the majors at twenty-five will produce more in a shorter time than a mediocre player who makes his big-league debut at nineteen or twenty."True. I'd say that a great player who comes up at any age will produce more in a shorter time than a mediocre player who comes up at any age. (By the way, this excerpt is from Chapter One. So, this is his opening "grab the audience" salvo. Pretty compelling stuff.)
"While it doesn't take a genius to understand that, most teams still look for youth. That's why so many Latin American players coming in have changed their ages over the years. It's much easier to change or create a new birth certificate in a third world country, where records are not kept so closely. However, 9/11 has changed all that."First of all, Kevin, how did you sit down and write a book about your life in baseball, and find yourself droning on about birth certificates in the very first chapter? And, moreover, though this has nothing to do with baseball: how in the world do you just drop a "9/11" reference like that and then just drop the subject completely? (He doesn't go back to it in the rest of the excerpt, at least.)
I am now officially excited to read this book, which I imagine to be 288 pages of the most boring and wrong-headed dreck ever bound in cloth.
I am going away until Sunday, FJM. Keep the homefires burning.
Labels: kevin kennedy
From Kevin Kennedy's Mailbag:
"If you were the GM of a smaller market team that could not afford to go out and sign a bunch of free agents how would you build your team? Would you go with position players or pitchers in the draft and try to develop them? Also, do you think small market teams are doing all they can to win or trying to make a profit? — Colin Adams"I would definitely start with pitching. If you don't have pitching you won't be able to out slug anyone no matter how good your hitters are. Look at the Yankees for the first couple of months of the season. The pitchers dug a hole and the hitters couldn't get them out of it. The Dodgers in the 1960s and 1970s became a pitching-oriented organization and made drafting and signing pitchers a premium — and it won for them. In 1964, the Dodgers traded their top slugger, Frank Howard, and five other players to Washington for pitcher Claude Osteen and a utility infielder. They wanted Osteen to be their number three starter behind Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Pitching was so important to them that they traded six players for a number three starter! But Claude was a very good one."Why would anyone, answering a question about low-revenue teams, which is clearly a 1990's/00's issue, cite the 1964 Dodgers? Are you kidding me? That's like being asked about the future of indie rock and citing The Cyrkle.
Yeah. You heard me. The Cyrkle.
Labels: claude osteen, kevin kennedy
