“Hi, I’m Richmond Braves outfielder Ryan Langerhans. I’m hitting .319/.421/.553 in AAA, I’m already on the 40-man roster, and I have options left. I’m lefthanded, I run pretty well, and I can play all three outfield positions. The Braves are playing with essentially a 22-man roster now, and I think I can help the team. Unfortunately, I don’t get to make that decision.”
Baseball America – Richmond Braves Stats
(Okay, I wrote that, not Ryan Langerhans. But I bet he’s thinking it, only probably with profanity. DeWayne Wise?)
If he’s not thinking it, I am.
Very very funny. Right up there with Base12. Its early in the season blah, blah. But if Marrero and Wise are our best bench outfielders then we are in trouble. Why not give Langerhans a chance? But if the Braves stay true to form then the play he made last night and the 3 triples will seduce them into keeping him way too long on the big club. Remember the Ken Caminiti experiment?
One more note before moving on from that Florida series: J.D. was quite the offensive hero, what with the 2-run homer on Friday, 4-for-5 on Saturday and that best-of-all-possible hits, the (de jure) grand slam yesterday.
It’s early and he has already been injured, but I’m taking this “return” from the injury as a good sign.
And just for kicks,
Drew: .271/.417/.500
Sheffield: .265/.375/.397
It’s interesting; I think perhaps that one of Cox’s few failings (and Schuerholz may be afflicted as well) as a manager (and in fact, seems to be a problem with most “old school” baseball types) is that he tends to form impressions, or ideas about a player pretty quickly, and goes with that instead of the actual performance. This, I think explains things like Gryboski (“Grybo always gets us a DP grounder”), and Hernandefonseca (“He’s a capital-C Closer, and we get to use him as a set-up guy”). I still think Cox is the best manager in the game, but it can be frustrating.
And Mike Hessman had some good PAs late last year as a desperation callup when Julio was hurt, so the Braves are going to let him come up and aerate the stadium in SF.
I would agree that Bobby is pretty much a pure “that’s what he’s done for me” guy. Once a player gets in that club, he usually gets more than a break or two.
I am a big Bobby guy, but I always get a chuckle out of this.