Zach Duke tonight. The Rockies have been on the road for some time, so they should be adjusted to baseball near sea level. But the gamblers are onto Duke, and the Bucs, I understand it, are pretty heavily favored.
I've lost patience with Daryle Ward. DFA him if no one wants him. He's only making 900K; someone must want him. We've seen enough to know he's no part of the future. And I want Ryan Doumit to stick at catcher. If that just gets worse, let him play 1B in the AFL.
This means it's time to watch just-turned-25-years-old Brad Eldred. Big Country's numbers at Indianapolis look like this. 53 hits in 192 AB (.276), 28 extra-base hits (a Branyanesque 53% of all hits), a .583 SLG. 4 steals! The man can lumber. Or maybe it's the giant steps. The swing is giant too: 56 K (29% of all AB) and only 14 BB. Some of those BB must be intentional, too.
He can strike 67% for all I care, provided he still manages a .330 OBP and a .580 SLG. My concern would be that a guy who Ks 29% at AAA will K 49% up here.
But would that be so bad? After 1200 MLB at-bats, Russell Branyan is striking out 37% of the time. He's only starting against RHP, but he's been very productive in this limited role. Ryan Howard, who is six months older than Eldred, is now K'ing 47% of the time and being moderately useful.
So damn the strikeouts, I say, they are of little matter when every second hit goes for extra bases. Let's not quote that K rate without mentioning the .583 SLG.
Tonight, Indy plays Syracuse at 8pm.
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