Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Are we learning to love Scrappy Doo?

A funny and disturbing thing has been happening to us lately. We're going a bit soft on David Eckstein. Maybe it's the fact that John McDonald is hurt and therefore the scrappy gritty full-of-heart gamer isn't stealing playing time that we think rightfully belongs to the defensive whiz. But god help us, Ecks is growing on us. It almost feels like he's a Blue Jay at this point.

Mind you, we're not a big fan of him launching throws way wide of first as he did on Sunday versus the Angels, but now that Little X is hitting lower in the order and we don't have to think of him as the "prototypical lead off hitter" as some small ball proponents were suggesting earlier in the year, we can appreciate his ability to put the bat on the ball and extend at bats long enough to get a good pitch to hit just over the infielders' heads.

Speaking of small ball...
Against our better judgment, we're also big Brad Wilkerson fans in this corner. But watching him get thrown out at third last night just before Scrappy Doo dropped single into right sent us into a blind rage. We don't care how good a jump he got, Tabby and Ginger...you just don't need to take third on that play.

10 comments:

Jim Briggs said...

Don't get too comfortable with the Scrapper. In another game with a closer score, that bounce-pass to first that killed a potential DP late in the game could have been costly. It was pretty lame considering Damon wasn't even coming in spikes up.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

eckstein's been pretty dope since he returned. hopefully it can continue.

as for wilkerson, i'm not as down on him as most others. the drunks and the boys at the southpaw really, really hate him. i think you're the first to say that you're a fan, though. at least someone likes him.

Tao of Stieb said...

We always liked him, even though he strikes out too much.

Maybe it's the whole former Ottawa Lynx and former Montreal Expos thing...we're way more sentimental than we should be.

We also like long walks on the beach.

Andrew said...

How about getting linked and abused on a "top 10" blog?

Free David Eckstien!!

Tao of Stieb said...

Seriously...those Yankee fans can be awfully sensitive.

I guess it's all the years that they spent as scrappy underdogs that makes them so defensive.

Tao of Stieb said...

Hey, Rob Neyer linked to the Joba post too! Awesome!

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=neyer_rob

What can we say. It's good to be back.

Drew said...

I refuse to enjoy Eckstein, but he's come pretty much as advertised. I don't have to like it though.

Anonymous said...

I think it's about time we started hating on Johnny Mac....for, you know, really sucking at hitting. really sucking. really badly.

With Eck and Scutaro showing more than capable SS defense, but with both actually having legit MLB bats, do we really need super-awesome-defensive-replacement Sir John on this team?

hell, with our offense struggling, can we even AFFORD to have this guy in our lineup, ever?

Drew said...

I'd enjoy choking you.

Anonymous said...

Tao, don't lose focus. Bring back the clearly articulated and reasoned argument. Leave the vitriol for the drunkards.