Elijah Dukes' season evaluated

by VA SLIM on Sep 16, 2009 9:52 PM EDT Comment 9 comments

Might find this article from Fangraphs interesting...I'm not sure Elijah Dukes is the final answer, but am hoping he can continue improvements and become that everyday starter long term. Durability has been a major concern to this point as well so either way I would expect the Nats to look at corner outfield depth either from within or without the organization over the offseason.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/elijah-dukes-struggles

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Despite the arcane numbers, which may point to Eckstein's influence, or may mean nothng.

I’m going with the commenter who stated, “He was jerked around this year ……”

''...we were tied for first place for the wild card, and we can't have September call-ups. We couldn't do any trades. They didn't want us to win.''

by cat daddy3000 on Sep 17, 2009 6:54 PM EDT reply actions

+1...

…I’d noticed he didn’t seem to be walking as much, but I hadn’t run the numbers like the Fangraphs guy.

Friend of Dukes and Desmond #3

by Doghouse on Sep 17, 2009 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll take this over the last 28 days....339 .487 .492 .978 , with 15 walks and 8 Ks...

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=dukesel01&year=2009&t=b

Too erratic this year to look at totals……. June?…….. that’s the jerking around part…

''...we were tied for first place for the wild card, and we can't have September call-ups. We couldn't do any trades. They didn't want us to win.''

by cat daddy3000 on Sep 17, 2009 10:30 PM EDT up reply actions

He's only 25

So when did we start throwing out guys when they are 25? And still under team control for seasons to come?

Padilla walked into the Nats' clubhouse for the first time and said, "My God. I'm in heaven."

by Mezza on Sep 17, 2009 10:52 PM EDT reply actions

agreed mezza

I find this line particularly telling

“His walk rate is 10.4% which is above league average, but below what Dukes showed in the prior 500 plate appearances in the majors (~15.2%). "

Are we really ready to hang a guy on 277 appearences?( 777 in career) It seems like all that is happening is pitches are figuring out where he is weak, as they often do with new players…. it’’s his turn to adjust.

I like fangraphs a lot, but its kind of aggrevating to me how it’s become the final word on everything. Journalists at fangraphs are the same as journalists anywhere else.

Sometimes they write about inconclusive jibberish.

This seems like inconclusive jibberish to me

by martins on Sep 18, 2009 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

correction

277 at bats, not appearences.

by martins on Sep 18, 2009 4:55 PM EDT reply actions

2nd correction

317 abs this year…. probably a few less when this article was written, still… the same point applies.

by martins on Sep 18, 2009 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

This story gave me some more heart

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092102307.html

I really think he is trying his guts out and its worth seeing if it can pay off.

Padilla walked into the Nats' clubhouse for the first time and said, "My God. I'm in heaven."

by Mezza on Sep 21, 2009 10:49 PM EDT reply actions

And Chico's excerpts from the conversation that didn't make the paper......

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/09/more_on_elijah_dukes.html#more

“But when it happened, I tried not to take it too hard. I just kept doing my job. Because I’ve been there before, in the minors. I never thought that I was too good to go back, either.”

Mezza: ''Are we there yet?'' ...Roscoe: "In baseball hell? Yes we are."
"I did not want to take Pete Orr's bat out of the lineup."

by cat daddy3000 on Sep 22, 2009 9:05 AM EDT up reply actions