The Washington Nationals are 26-9 at home, which is the best home record in the major leagues. Why is that, anyway? Is there something about RFK that other teams haven't been able to adjust to?
Bauxites have spoken, and they are not wildly impressed with the position prospects, but put them in this order:
1. Lind 2. Cannon 3. Roberts 4. Quiroz 5. Hattig-tie 5. Thigpen-tie 7. Pettway-tie 7. Patterson-tie 9. Griffin 10. Negron
I am quite sure that Bauxites collectively have done a better job of appraising prospects than I did. Well done, everyone. It's cool that Pettway and Patterson ended up tied.
Josh Towers could not overcome the evil one, who used both his arm and his bat to overcome the forces of Light and Goodness. We live in dark and desperate times.
Can the Jays keep up their solid play from the Baltimore series against another first-place club? Washington has an excellent bullpen, and scoring runs early in the game will be critical for the Blue Jay bats.
This week's (somewhat abbreviated) Scout features a red-hot home squad, a slap-hitting utilityman with whom a highly respected manager is seriously enamoured and the return of the words "Esteban Loaiza." There, I said it. I even spelled it out.
On to the Advance Scout!Well, the two most recent Batter's Box Interactive Magazine polls have gone off the beaten path a bit, with the first demonstrating the Box's disapproval of all things Devil Ray and the second surprisingly raising the specter of cartoon question mark balloons over most people's heads at the mention of singer/songwriter Terry Cashman.
We've spoken about the minor league pitching prospects. How about the top 10 hitting prospects?
Here are my choices:
1. Quiroz 2. Roberts 3. Hattig 4. Lind 5. Thigpen 6. Cannon 7. Griffin 8. Negron 9. Pettway 10. Patterson
What do you think?
Bauxites have spoken. I tallied the votes using a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale and here are the results:
1. Dustin McGowan
2. David Purcey
3. Brandon League- tie
3. Francisco Rosario-tie
5. Zach Jackson
6. Ricky Romero
7. Shaun Marcum
8. Josh Banks
9. Casey Janssen
10. Chi-Hung Cheng
The hitters poll will be coming later this morning.
That was a sweet win. Doc was good, but not at his overpowering best. And the Jays were not particularly lucky. How many times exactly did they line a ball hard and directly at a defender with runners on base?
It's mid-season and time for prospect polls. Let's start with the pitchers. Here is my list:
1. Marcum 2. League 3. Jackson 4. Purcey 5. Banks 6. Cheng 7. Rosario 8. McGowan 9. Davis Romero 10. Janssen
Ricky Romero's off my list until he pitches. If I were to put him on, he'd be #6. What are your lists? Feel free to flame away at me, while you're at it!
