The Washington Nationals need a new manager pronto! Matt Williams was a fine heads-up thinking mans ball player, but the eye test shows him to be a humorless sour-ass and just plain no fun; and the demeanor of his players reflect it. He is the opposite of Joe Maddon with the Cubs, a guy who seems to be having fun and transfusing it to his young crop of players who are HAVING fun and staying loose and look like a lock in the playoffs. The Nationals look tense and grim.
The manager at Seattle seems a clone to Williams. He looks positively miserable. He goes apeshit over calls and bungles his pitching staff. He is stereotyped and rigid in his strategies. A good replacement for both these guys would be former player Roy Howell, a big tough old school guy with a great sense of humor who has the capacity to teach on a high level and keep his players loose.
Mike Trout is over-rated. Why? He hasn’t learned the art of hitting and anybody striking out 3 times against a lefty and 175 times during a season has no place being compared to Mantle, Mays or Aaron, or even Frank Robinson. With his speed he should hit .330, but he takes hittable strikes and puts himself behind in the count by swinging at un-hittable strikes and ends up swinging at un-hittable balls. He can’t hit inside heat because he’s a low-ball hitter with an elbow-up bottom-hand swing. Once he learns to set up pitchers, ala Barry Bonds, Keith Hernandez, the great Al Kaline, etc, he’ll be the triple crown threat he should be. He also guesses too much, when he should rely on his bat speed. Right now I’ll take Bryce Harper.
Albert Pujols, fine person, Hall of Famer, can no longer play a full season and produce. He can’t hit the good pitchers and has become a doubleplay liability who seldom runs out ground balls because his legs are shot. The Angels are paying millions for a .250 power hitter reduced to a “cripple shooter.”
The Pittsburg Pirates are a happy, sharing team who remind me of the raucous Willie Stargell teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They’ve got a good shot at winning it all because of their chemistry and deep pitching staff and versatility.
Don Mattingly is the most under-rated manager in baseball. The Dodger troglodyte fans who know less about baseball than a Disneyland character write moronic letters to the LA Times calling for Mattingly’s head are the same boobs who screw up Little Leaguers with improper techniques and should largely be muzzled at games. I doubt they know how to keep score. They parrot the bilge they hear on ESPN, MLB.com, and talk radio. Mattingly is canny, a student of the game, a fine psychologist and has done a tremendous job working his way through some of the worst divas and underachievers and babies in baseball.
Baseball is NOT that complicated, though you never stop learning. Donnie Baseball knows this!
The manager at Seattle seems a clone to Williams. He looks positively miserable. He goes apeshit over calls and bungles his pitching staff. He is stereotyped and rigid in his strategies. A good replacement for both these guys would be former player Roy Howell, a big tough old school guy with a great sense of humor who has the capacity to teach on a high level and keep his players loose.
Mike Trout is over-rated. Why? He hasn’t learned the art of hitting and anybody striking out 3 times against a lefty and 175 times during a season has no place being compared to Mantle, Mays or Aaron, or even Frank Robinson. With his speed he should hit .330, but he takes hittable strikes and puts himself behind in the count by swinging at un-hittable strikes and ends up swinging at un-hittable balls. He can’t hit inside heat because he’s a low-ball hitter with an elbow-up bottom-hand swing. Once he learns to set up pitchers, ala Barry Bonds, Keith Hernandez, the great Al Kaline, etc, he’ll be the triple crown threat he should be. He also guesses too much, when he should rely on his bat speed. Right now I’ll take Bryce Harper.
Albert Pujols, fine person, Hall of Famer, can no longer play a full season and produce. He can’t hit the good pitchers and has become a doubleplay liability who seldom runs out ground balls because his legs are shot. The Angels are paying millions for a .250 power hitter reduced to a “cripple shooter.”
The Pittsburg Pirates are a happy, sharing team who remind me of the raucous Willie Stargell teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They’ve got a good shot at winning it all because of their chemistry and deep pitching staff and versatility.
Don Mattingly is the most under-rated manager in baseball. The Dodger troglodyte fans who know less about baseball than a Disneyland character write moronic letters to the LA Times calling for Mattingly’s head are the same boobs who screw up Little Leaguers with improper techniques and should largely be muzzled at games. I doubt they know how to keep score. They parrot the bilge they hear on ESPN, MLB.com, and talk radio. Mattingly is canny, a student of the game, a fine psychologist and has done a tremendous job working his way through some of the worst divas and underachievers and babies in baseball.
Baseball is NOT that complicated, though you never stop learning. Donnie Baseball knows this!
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