From the notes column at the official site we learn that Sunny Kim is likely to start Friday, Larry Bigbie may or may not go on the DL and Zach Day's nice start this past Saturday has the team feeling good about his progress.
Alright, this article from yesterday's Post has me piqued just how much improvement Dan O' Dowd is expecting from this current crop of youngsters next year. Notice how precise he is with his language:
First of all, he doesn't say the expected rise in offense is on the team, but just within the organization. But wait, it gets better:
Notice that the four he mentioned are the four we already note to be the most likely candidates to continue to play roles with the team in the future. Maybe I'd throw in Jorge Piedra and Atkins in my book is still a toss-up, but DO'D definitely isn't including Closser or Bigbie or Sullivan for instance (this other article makes it clear that yes, catcher is on the team's mind for next year as we supposed it would be - also check out the death knell for Aaron Miles' future as a Rockie).
How much can he expect 25 and 26 year old rookies to improve? I would say in Atkins' case, what we see is probably about what we're going to get going forward. Probably a little better at hitting for average and a subsequent uptick in OBP, but don't expect him to hit the twenty or so homers that Brad Hawpe sees. Barmes is probably in the same boat - not much more of a ceiling than he's already shown, but at his position, that's a much better boat to be in. Hawpe and Gonzalez? I think they have room still to grow.
Anyway, congrats to Mark at TGTB&TB for his big catch yesterday. A couple of times at Dodger Stadium, some players threw a ball up my friends and my way, but I let the other girls keep them because I consider that cheating. I would so love for it to happen for real like that.