There are some bloggers at SBN that feel changing the stock A.P. photo captions isn't at all desirable.
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Now that Dave Krieger talked to Don Baylor and got word from the coach himself that he's trying to get Rockies players to adjust their offensive approach to the situation, it takes us to the next quandary:
- Is the reason that some players aren't getting the message because Baylor's a bad coach or leader?
- Is the reason that the players are stubborn and "uncoachable"?
And I'm hesitating to use that word, as given prior conversations on Purple Row, people might get the impression we're talking only about Ian Stewart here, but there are more Rockies than him that show signs of stubbornness. In addition to Stewart, both catchers, Miguel Olivo and Chris Iannetta, Seth Smith, Dexter Fowler and even Carlos Gonzalez could improve their results and hitting approaches deep in a pitch count and have been stubbornly bad in those situations this year. I'd include Clint Barmes, but I really don't know how possible a fix would be with him. The Rockies in particular need to be aware that what works at Coors doesn't on the road, and while given the results, its okay for them not to make these adjustments in the friendly confines of LoDo, once they get on that plane elsewhere they need to have a whole different mindset to how they approach each at bat.
If the issue isn't Baylor, then the blame goes up the ladder to the GM for creating a team of so many problem cases and the solution is in swapping out on field personnel, not the off-field coaching staff.
Jhoulys Chacin isn't going to get much, if any, love from NL ROY voters in a deep year, but just in case you were curious (I was) check out his current FanGraphs WAR compared to the players that will be mentioned prominently come award season (this is a pretty random order, I don't mean to imply anything by it):
- Jaime Garcia 3.1
- Buster Posey 2.9
- Stephen Strasburg 2.6
- Jason Heyward 3.5
- Jhoulys Chacin 2.3
I think Posey's going to get the bulk of the Western U.S. vote, Heyward's going to rule in the Southeast (along with that Gaby Sanchez guy, who I hate) and Garcia will have a pocket of support in the Midwest. The Northeast will get to decide who wins, probably largely based on who goes to the playoffs and whose highlights are seen most on Sportscenter over the last month of the season. Sorry, Buster, your games are too late.
Chacin's not far off from these players in value, and a few more starts like last night could see him being the most valuable rookie pitcher in 2010, even if it's fairly certain he won't factor into the ROY voting.
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