gex wrote:
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Nei prossimi giorni inizierò l'analisi della stagione, cominciando dal monte.
In realtà ora sono troppo impegnato, per cui, visto che tanto l'attenzione generale sarà concentrata sui playoff, mi limiterò a riportare pareri altrui (che condivido ampiamente).
Pitching Staff: A
There's no need in differentiating between the rotation and bullpen because I'd give them both A's for the season. They obviously carried us throughout the season, with very few slip ups along the way. Yeah, they had some disasterous starts and bullpen appearances along the way, but overall they were very good. Instead of the "yeah, we knew that was going to happen" attitude from last year when the bullpen blew a game, we were legitimately upset because of how good we expected them to be (other than Jeff Bennett, who I'm not sure if anyone even wanted him on the team from the start).
Offense: C-
Again, nothing revolutionary here. We knew going into the season that if anything was going to keep us out of the postseason, it'd be the offense. That's what happened. There were some bright spots, there were some bad spots, but overall they were disappointing. Our pitchers had a 3.57 ERA and we won 86 games. That only points to one thing.
Defense: B
I can't think of many games the defense blew this year. There were some games that the ball got kicked around in, but overall we were very good defensively. Chipper was very bad at 3B this year, which is actually not common for him. The last few years, he's been way above average, which isn't common either. Garret Anderson's lack of range hurt us some, especially early in the year when he was hurt and playing LF for the first time in forever, but overall he was good. While we had some lower on the spectrum, we had Yunel and whoever was playing 1B at the time playing great defense all year. We didn't make a lot of spectacular plays outside of shortstop, but we caught everything that came our way.
Needing to be recognized for performance:
Pitchers: Jair Jurrjens, Javier Vazquez, Tommy Hanson, Peter Moylan, Mike Gonzalez, Rafael Soraino.
All were excellent this season. Without their good work, the season would have been a lost cause. How good could the rotation be next year if Tommy Hanson is our #3 starter?
Position Players: Brian McCann, Adam LaRoche, Yunel Escobar, Matt Diaz.
McCann was the best offensive player we had all year. He carried the team for stretches but simply wore down over the season. Needs to have a better supporting cast next year so he can be taken out for some rest more often. LaRoche lit a spark in this team like nothing we've seen since getting McGriff in 1993. He hit .325/.401/.557 - .957 (151 OPS+) with us, which is not quite close to what McGriff did in 1993 (.310/.392/.612 - 1.004/164) but when you compare the two teams, it probably made just as much or even more of an impact. Escobar and Diaz were steady all year with lengthy stretches of picking up the team and carrying them on their back. If we can duplicate those seasons next year from those guys, we'll be in a good spot as a team.
In realtà, sul capitolo difesa preferisco questo:
Continuing my evaluation of the tedious, we’ll go with Fielding Bible Runs Saved. This covers the entire year and includes everyone who started at one point for the team:
Player Name +/-
Catchers ——
Brian McCann 0
David Ross +5
First Basemen ——
Casey Kotchman +7
Adam LaRoche -5
Second Basemen ——
Martin Prado -3
Kelly Johnson -2
Omar Infante -4
Shortstops ——
Yunel Escobar +10
Diory Hernandez -1
Third Basemen ——
Chipper Jones -10
Martin Prado +7
Left Fielders ——
Matt Diaz -3
Garret Anderson -4
Center Fielders ——
Jordan Schafer -3
Nate McLouth -0
Right Fielders ——
Jeff Francoeur -2
Matt Diaz -5
Ryan Church +9
Pitchers (All) +3
So you can see why the team was pretty bad defensively. There aren’t very many good defenders on the team. There are precisely five. Yunel Escobar at SS, Ryan Church in RF, David Ross at C, Casey Kotchman at 1B, and Martin Prado at 3B. 3B belongs to Chipper, Prado’s just the back-up. Church hardly ever played because he was hurt or somehow in Bobby’s doghouse. David Ross is a back-up catcher. Casey Kotchman got shipped off for a below-average defender at the same position. The only overwhelmingly positive performance on defense was Yunel Escobar’s.
Kelly Johnson, probabilmente, merita un piccolo
capitolo a parte.
Infine, per quanto riguarda le minors, un giudizio sulla stagione dei top40 di inizio anno. (
40-31;
30-21:
20-11;
10-1)
: 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB e 7 K per un CG da 104 lanci, che gli vale la quarta vittoria consecutiva, la 15sima stagionale. Alla fine probabilmente non succederà, però credo che meriti di finire almeno sul podio nella corsa per il CY.
