Beltre has so much talent, yet refuses to go up to the plate with any sort of coherent approach. There are little things even a struggling (as he ALWAYS seems to be early in the year) hitter can do regarding simple siutational hitting. Things he doesn’t do consistently. Like hitting it to the right side with a runner on second & no outs or even hitting a simple sac fly, instead of flailing at pitches well out of the strike zone leading to strikeouts.

I’ve heard various excuses justifying his struggles. So I’m well aware I’m probably in the minority thinking he’s one of the problems of our mediocre offense just as often as he is one of the alleged solutions. I think for the superstar contract he signed, he should be expected to contribute more than Lopez, Vidro, Kenji and Raul…not less.

His first year and a half were sure nothing special, but he was great in the second half last year. I guess I’m disappointed that we’re seeing him regress back to that first year and a half type of hitting for who knows how long.

Oh well…at least he looks better than Sexson right now.

Grover believes that the only way to get a player like Sexson out of a slump is to play him every day. When asked questions like this in the past, Grover has always said that it would not help the player to sit him for a game or more.

fwiw, he is far from the only manager/coach who believes that.

Jeff Weaver’s Opponents OPS: 1340.
Barry Bonds’ OPS: 1347

Weaver turns his opponents into Barry Bonds.

So any hopes of seeing Broussard taking some of Sexson’s at bats, are sadly misplaced.

At least I actually fell asleep twice for brief periods during the game. Something I’ve been having problems doing at night.

You could probably get someone to give you a non-prospect minor leaguer if you ate the whole contract. The Nationals, for instance, would gladly take a free arm for their rotation.

Doyle?!!

Drayer was speculating that they skip a start, work on things, and then give him a start, which would fall against Detroit, coincidently the last team he had success against.

Weaver did at least say it was all him when talking to the media.

OK, once you add it altogether, Weaver made 20 starts with St. Louis.

113 IP, 124 H, 35 BB, 64K, 18 HR, 4.62 ERA.

I think this was the “New” Jeff Weaver we hoped we were getting. Even if he pitched like this, he would have been an OK 5th starter. How could we have known he would suck beyond anyone’s wildest dreams?

I hate to bring up this controversial point, but St. Louis is a National League team. Even Mariner pitchers did well against National League teams last year. Then we got back to our own league and took a tail spin. His World Series Victory could be written off as a victory against a very tired team and as a fluke, like Ryan Franklin pitching a complete game.