Bastards. That, again, wasn't really a performance worth being all that excited about, but I suppose we can look for a silver lining in the fact that they finally scored some runs against a bad team, and that Ricky Romero was pretty good out there, before getting whatever the opposite of bailed out is by his defense and bullpen. That loss is on Brett Lawrie and his questionable defense, though JP's throw behind the runner didn't exactly help things out either. Adam Lind probably should have had the throw if he's going to be a major league 1B. JP was safe at home in 7th inning, by the way.
So yeah, a lot of if's and but's about that game. That's just kind of the way things go, and every team is going to have this kind of bullshit happen to them at some point over the course of a season, it's just always frustrating when it happens to your team, especially when it's a tight division and you need to squeeze out every win. TheAck sums it up pretty perfectly here.
I said it on my twitter last night, but I'll say again that I feel like Bautista is right there, ready to break through. He just seems to be fouling everything straight back, so maybe there's a little mechanical inconsistency there or something that's stopping him from squaring up on the ball. You always hear Tiger Woods talking about how he's "close" week after week, and then he finally breaks through and putts well, winning a big tournament by 7 shots. Jose is close. And again, if a slumpy start to the season is a .341 OBP, I can live.
I guess we can give Thames a Zaunhead for his game last night.
Elsewhere, the Angels have released 38-year old fringe hall-of-fame candidate Bobby Abreu, and have called up top prospect Mike Trout to fill the roster. Mike Scioscia has said that Trout will definitely play, but we don't know exactly what that means, considering the lack of playing time for Abreu before the release. They also said that Abreu could get 400 AB's this year, and he was on pace for about 230 before his release.
It's easy to say that Vernon Wells should just hit the pine, because it's not our money that would just be wasting away on the bench. Trout needs to play everyday in the same way Brett Lawrie does, but it's a whole lot easier to give Lawrie time at third when the alternative is Edwin Encarnacion or Jayson Nix, but Trout is being blocked-ish by Torii Hunter, Vernon Wells, Peter Bourjos, Mark Trumbo, Kendrys Morales, etc. If Trout is just replacing Abreu, he's not exactly getting a bunch of AB's (Abreu has 27 so far this year). There are alternatives, such as releasing/benching Wells or Hunter, demoting Peter Bourjos, or finding some kind of trade alternative.
If that wasn't enough, Ryan Zimmerman was placed on the DL yesterday, and the Nationals responded by calling up the second coming of the lord, Bryce Harper. I'm not entirely sure where they plan on playing him (probably RF, moving Werth to CF), or who goes to 3B (Morse? Laroche?), but that hardly matters at all now, does it?
Harper is 20 years old, and was drafted 1st overall two years ago, after finishing highschool a year early so he could play college ball isntead of highschool. I highly doubt he's full-on ready for the majors, but I don't care; with Trout and Harper both making their debuts today, not to mention the fact that Stephen Strasburg is starting for the Nats, this is still a must-see day of baseball.
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