Hamilton

[JohnU]

Last 10 games look pretty good for the kid.
Since I have zero clue about who he's facing, this could be distorted.
But it's better than .227.

Billy Hamilton Stats, Bio, Photos, Highlights | MiLB.com Stats | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball

 

[Redsfan1507]

Pujols is injured and hitting .257.

Might have been a clue all the way back to late Cardinals days, when he started hitting around mid season...now, reportedly he's done all that HOF work with a repairable elbow problem he never has addressed, and without PEDs. Since then, he looks a lot more human, a lot more in pain, and a lot more like a guy coming down from PEDs, or one than needs some to get back to what he used to be.

Hamilton- you think that a guy with recreational substance abuse issues in younger life, wouldn't do PEDs , Ar least back then ? I don't either. Possibly unfair, given Hamiltobs injury history, but deserving of suspicion given current knowledge.

These guys are owed a mountain of money...unless they fall prey to some Federal PED investigation. MLB doesn't seem to uncover anyone themselves unless they are an insignificant sacrificial lamb, or suddenly an overpaid MLB PR problem...like Manny, A-Rod, and possibly unintentionally, Braun.

MLB did accidentally stumble onto Brauns PED use last year, embarrassingly moments after his MVP award, and the "inconvenient" chain of custody issue sure conveniently made overturning the positive test easier. Then that damned Biogensis thing...no wonder MLB isn't being very nice to them...strange, after all, Biogenisis IS MLB's only evidence/case against these guys...a miracle, if they've really been consistent PED users, that Selig's testing "policy" didn't turn up a positive test on ANY of them, huh ?

Pro wrestling might be less deceptive about previlence and common acceptance of PEDs than MLB. Nixon had more credibility than Selig. If it weren't for Jose Canseco, Congress and the Feds, A-Rod would have 800HR by now...and who knows, Pujols and Hamilton might be still putting up MVP type numbers.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Billy...not Josh.

It's Friday. And my mind is fried.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I'd love to see Hamilton (BILLY) be put to use as a Reds weapon, even if he's only a Vince Coleman kind of weapon. I just don't ever see Dusty running that kind of offense.

 

[eburg5000]

I see him as trade bait in the future, as long as Dusty is here.

 

[Redsfan1507]

A shame if true. A distraction on the bases means less focus pitching to our hitters, too.

No one would be thrilled with another .249 hitting OF, unless he turned 100 singles a year into the equivilent of 100 doubles and/or triples with SB's. imagine if he drew just 50 walks...might be another few dozen steals. Moving baserunners has been a problem on this team. When Hamilton gets on, he can move himself, at an unpresidented pace. That's a fact...but he has to first get on, AND be allowed to steal. Neither is certain here.

 

[WvuDieHard]

Right now, DustMop better be worried about the D-Backs making a move and pushing this club out of the playoffs.

 

[Redsfan1507]

If you win less than 90 games, you're not making post season usually. The difference in winning 86 and 96 is a couple wins a month over 6 months...not impossible, if you start in April. Tough to make those 10 wins up in 6 weeks, unless everyone else that has played well all year, all start losing at once... really improbable if they play each other a lot.

It's entering crunch time. Playoff push. Pressure ? Not always, but that sometimes makes a difference. Some teams catch fire this time of year, and often, surprise players make the difference. We're about to see what kind of team the Reds have the last 6 weeks of the regular season. Post season ? Better get there first.

 

[JohnU]

B-Ham could make a difference in a couple of games down the stretch.
What matters more is that he realizes that the learning curve is a bit more intense at the big-league level than it is in the International League. He'd better learn to get to first base.

 

[Redsfan1507]

They say the biggest adjustment is AA. I don't know why, but Hamilton didn't really struggle until AAA. I haven't been to Louisville at all this year, so I'm ignorant to the difference in Hamilton from a first person perspective. My paranoia always is that in preparation for the current big club "philosophy" they may be trying to get Hamilton driving the ball more, instead of what I saw from him in lower minors-a constant bunt/ slap threat. It's often lengthening a swing that causes less contact, more K's, but more extra base hits...I have zero knowledge if that's true or not, but they sure didnt want Stubbs using small ball techniques to get on back then, or after he arrived in MLB for that matter. Maybe the excuse was that Stubbs couldn't or wouldn't comply, but they can't say that about Hamilton- it was part if his game in A-AA ball anyway.

They say Jim Riggleman is a good preparation baseball guy- better than an execution guy- and it's why he's in the minors, not the majors. If that's true, we would have to know what they are "preparing" Hamilton for, to know how they think it's going. I don't have a clue really.

 

[JohnU]

What I know about slap and go is that Aoki does it with the Brewers quite nicely.
He doesn't steal 2nd base nearly as often as Hamilton.