My favorite thing about Milton Bradley is that, more than any player I’ve ever seen, he seems–what’s the phrase I’m looking for?–totally psyched to draw a walk.
Huzzah for walks!
I may have left some people thinking I don’t care for walks after a recent throw-away comment I made about walking in RBI situations. Jon Weisman took me to task for it yesterday over at Dodger Thoughts.
My beliefs are a bit more subtle than that flip statement made it seem. (I explained this in more detail in the DT thread.)
It’s not that I don’t like walks in RBI situations. For a batter, a walk is always a good thing. But in some game situations, a ball in play has extra value. At those times, it’s nice to have a good contact hitter at the plate. The A’s haven’t had many good contact hitters over the years, so Jay Payton was a refreshing change. That doesn’t necessarily make him a better player, overall, but the contrast with the recent past helped me enjoy Payton’s tenure in Oakland.
1. It looks like Bradley's bat is waiting for the pitch in Photo Outtakes #12
2. There is an interesting photo on the front page of Baseball America. Guys standing around in the Dominican, possibly doing work on setting up the A's academy there in the 80s.
Anyone know who the guy on the right is? Also, why is he wearing baseball pants?
Talk about a photo outtake.
3. 3 Looks kinda familiar, but I can't place him.
4. I hate that I gave the impression I was taking you to task. It was more like it just gave me pause as far as my own beliefs.
5. 4 Well I didn't really feel bad about it, but I couldn't think of a better phrase than "taking me to task". I'm sure there was a better way to put it, but it was late.
6. 2 Could it possibly be Steve Boros?
7. It certainly could. I was 3-4 years old when he was managing, and don't really know anything about him. A Google image search got me a look at him a little bit from his playing days, and I could see that guy aging into the one in the picture. That's all I have to go from.
I am just totally hung up on the guy wearing his uniform out in what appears to be the middle of nowhere in the Dominican.
8. But I guess if my alternatives were to wear what the other guys are wearing, maybe I'd stay in uniform too.