I wrote a rather lengthy story for the Argus this Sunday about Canaries OF Chad Hermansen.Chad was once one of the top prospects in all of baseball, touted as the next Barry Bonds by Pirate folks.
Now he's in Sioux Falls.
If you read the story, you might notice that I kind of took Chad's side in the story, placing most of the blame for his failures on the Pirates.
That's because I truly believe that Hermansen got screwed by the Pirates, regardless of who he chooses to blame himself (Lloyd McClendon, we're looking at you)
And the biggest reason I wanted to do the story is because when I look at guys like Justin Morneau and especially Jason Kubel - I see Chad Hermansen.
Aaron Gleeman (if you haven't checked out his 'Aaron's baseball blog', to the right, you should) and others have written about this extensively - guys who hit in the minors tend to hit in the Majors - if you give them an opportunity.
People seem to expect these guys to be All-Stars right from the get-go, and call for them to be replaced when they aren't.
Luckily, the Twins seem to realize that they should be patient with Morneau. Hopefully that patience will be extended to Kubel as well.
Just look at Michael Cuddyer. He's finally doing it this year. Sometimes it takes awhile.
I just know in Hermansen's case, it's a sad deal.
You'll never meet a nicer guy than Chad Hermansen, and he refuses to be bitter even though the Pirates dumped him after a little over 300 ABs.
You wanna know why the Pirates stink?
Hermansen is a good example.
If a guy has hit 150 homers in the minors before he turns 25, and you give up on him after 300 ABs - you deserve to lose.
I hope Chad's back in the bigs someday.
And I hope Jason Kubel has a long career - even if it takes awhile to develop.
2 comments:
Matt, read your article about Hermanson on Sunday and it opened my eyes a bit. My only complaint about Chad thus far is that he seems to be sleepwalking a bit when he's playing. I don't see a lot of fire. Maybe that's his nature, I don't know. Realizing, of course, that I've only seen him play twice, I could be totally off base, but it seems to me that he should be far and away the best player on the field. Granted, he's coming off an injury and he does seem to do things a bit easier than everyone else, and maybe I'm expecting too much of him, much like the Pirates, but still.
He does have an awfully pretty swing, though.
Great article on the hermanator in sundays paper. Maybe you should call Gardie and let him know about are talent pool her in Sioux Falls.
Post a Comment