I practically threw my phone on vacation when I found out that a) Rendon was available and b) that we passed on him for the guy with the cross-body motion and suddenly-increased velo.
"But Rendon is injury prone," they said.
"ALL PITCHERS are injury prone," said I. "At least hitters are less likely to lose their careers to injury. Scott Rolen was injury prone but gave a whole lot more WAR than Mark Prior..."
So now Rendon is making the Nats FO talk about moving Zimmerman off of third for him, while Hultzen tries not to reach for the top-shelf liquor with his bad arm and we wait and see how he's doing in 2015.
Urgh. Thanks for the reminder about helium though. I still wouldn't mind seeing us take Alex Jackson with the pick instead of an arm - I just don't think it'll go that way.
As long as we don't take some college bat with helium. YEESH...
I don't have a good phone replacement plan. I can't afford to throw this one in June.
~G
News item: Sonny Gray stifles the Mariners for the A’s.
News item: George Springer just called up by the Astros after 37 homers in AA/AAA in 2013.
News item: Anthony Rendon has 1.008 OPS in 14 games for Washington.
What do they have in common?
- All were taken in the 2011 draft.
- All were under consideration for a top-5 pick prior to the 2011 college season.
- All had their stock drop between February and June.
- All could have been taken by the Mariners at No. 2, when Danny Hultzen got the nod.
Rendon went at No. 6 to the Nats; Springer at No. 11 to the ‘Stros; Gray at No. 18 to Oakland.
Add in Jackie Bradley, who dropped to No. 40 (he also had an injury), who is with the Red Sox though not setting the world on fire, and it seems like almost all the most successful players from that draft are ones who had disappointing pre-draft seasons.
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We were driving back to the Las Vegas airport from the Grand Canyon (drove through old Route 66). Somewhere past Kingman and Hoover Dam we stopped at a Dairy Queen for a blizzard, I checked my iPhone, and was, well, flabbergasted at the Hultzen pick. I could practically hear Gordon's phone explode while reading his post. The good Doc talked me off the ledge (where would we be without him). Well, we didn't get Rendon, but we did get Seager. If Z continues to fill the pipeline like this, we can afford to strike out on some of these things. And yes, all pitchers are injury prone. I think this may mean you gotta stock up on them all the more (and not trade your Pinedas and Fisters).