his performance last night was one of the most impressive offensive performances I’ve seen in a game. Crazy thing is Tyler Flowers did a 2-3 2 HR, 5 RBI, 3 BB game himself.

I see him as building value to be trade bait as part of a package we can put together for a starting pitcher in the offseason. I admit that I don’t know his situation first hand, but from what I’ve read in the papers about him, his attitude prevents him from being a ‘Bobby Cox’ type of player. Yeah, Cox isn’t going to be around forever, but if Campbell doesn’t improve that attitude I don’t know if I want him on my team.

Is that pro-Thorman propaganda?

I think stating that he has a poor attitude AND the he doesn’t hustle is redundant, but that’s just me. He clearly has the talent and, if he can get his head on straight, there’s no reason to believe he can’t reclaim his status as a top prospect. As for the whole “swings at bad pitches critique”, his strikeout and walk totals/ratio indicate that he’s turned a corner in that regard. Did you only watch him last season?

He had a pretty big year in 2006 in Rome, and I saw him play 25 or 30 games. Well, probably more like 20 – I went to about 30 games, but Campbell had a stint or two on the DL that year and seemed quite fragile. As for his play, he had the most lazy way about playing 3rd base I’ve ever seen – there were times I’d tell whoever I was with that Bobby Cox would have come out of the dugout and yanked his butt out for his sloppy, lackadaisical play. And I don’t mean confident and smooth like Andruw Jones – I mean he would rarely dive, didn’t hustle, and he also had a habit of being what I called ‘too cool for school’ – and by that, I mean when he made a mistake (whether it was ruled an error or not), Campbell was prone to sit on the ground and just look around as if he couldn’t believe the ball had been so stupid as to bypass his glove. I can’t remember if those antics ever allowed a runner to advance or anything, but I’d bet if you could review all the video, you’d find a time or two when it happened – he did it all the time. But he could hit – .294 w/22 HR. And all of this was before any of his suspensions, so when the suspensions happened, I wasn’t surprised. I could be wrong because I honestly don’t know for sure, but I’d also bet he was being reprimanded for his lack of interest on the field.

I again saw Camppell play for six games this season in Myrtle Beach, and, sadly, nothing much had changed (it was before the all star break). In that short time, I saw him kind of stand around when balls were hit to his left or right, and he would do the ‘too cool for school’ thing and look just amazed if he made an error. But again, he’s pounding the ball big time in MB this year – especially lately. I NEVER figured him to get his average above .250, and yet he has.

His interraction with the fans has also, from my experience, been almost nonexistent. He just doesn’t respond when people – even little kids – ask him things or compliment him on his play. Again, I met Eric on many occasions, so it’s not like I saw this behavior in an isolated incident – it was all the time. That’s something that may not really be important to some people, especially compared with what he gets paid to do, but it’s still something that I, as a fan, think is important. I would think it would be easier to endure a slump, rehab, or deal with a crisis with the support of fans. I suppose he has some fans out there, but I’m guessing he hasn’t made very many along the way.

There’s no question the guy has talent. He can even make some very good plays at third now and then. One of the games I saw him in MB it seemed like every ball was hit to him, and he didn’t miss not one. But the whole package is just something I’d rather do without as a Braves fan. What he brings to the table in terms of character just seems to run contrary to the ‘Braves way.’
I know Chipper’s days are numbered – I’m really pulling for Jon Gilmore.

Sorry it’s such a long post….

Batting Average of Balls In Play

Honestly, I believe this “debate” is settled and the winner was… both. It’s clear that one without the other leads to an incomplete picture and that such imperfect information can make one look foolish from time to time. I lean towards the stats side, but I lend plenty of credence to scouting and am looking to improve my knowledge in that department.

Looks like he currently playing with the Tribe this year and is .169/.221/.272 on the season. Ouch.

See, that’s a great guy to bring up. I’m sure if somebody examines the stats, they’ll see that Andy performed much better than Campbell at the same level at a younger age. And he had the work ethic and in game skills to match the stats. But he still didn’t pan out, the Braves hosed the Red Sox and Indians on that trade. Predicting minor leaguers is just for fun, because you never can tell.

And Renteria turned into Jurrjens and Gorkys, so Marte (who stinks as Beard pointed out) netted us our number two starter and a top prospect OF, as well as the excellent play we got from Renteria while he was here (293/361/436 in 2006 and 332/390/470 in 2007).

I’d say we made out pretty well in that deal.