This week: Riding the fence on the much-maligned Craig Paquette, spotting the good, young pitching talent, wondering what’s up with Livan Hernandez at the plate, and what the heck ever happened to Terry Francona?

Not saying much

This year St. Louis Cardinals utility specialist Craig Paquette is enjoying what is probably his finest season as a major leaguer. Considering only the years when he’s gotten at least 200 at-bats, he’s reached career highs this season in both on-base percentage (.311) and slugging percentage (.460). Before this season Paquette was a lifetime .239 hitter. Compared to that his .279 batting mark in `01 looks gaudy. Paquette’s recent success has endeared him to a surprising portion of Cardinals fans. And why not? In 265 at-bats, he’s hit 13 home runs and driven in 51 runs. Hitting with men in scoring position, he leads the Cardinals with a .357 mark. Yet, he’s also struck out 55 times this season
compared to only 14 walks. The jury is still out on Paquette this year, but I leave you with this. In August, Paquette has hit .301, gotten on base at a .350 clip, and driven in 19 runs. That’s more RBIs this month than Chipper Jones (10), Jeff Bagwell (13), Manny Ramirez (13), or Luis Gonzalez (15.)

Priceless

Mark Buerhle. Ben Sheets. Bud Smith. Roy Oswalt. C.C. Sabathia. Joel Pineiro. Jason Johnson. Cory Lidle. Carlos Hernandez. Jason Jennings. Dave Coggin. Brandon Duckworth. Adam Johnson. Jason Marquis. Danny Almonte. Chris Reitsma. Chad Fox. Jarrod Washburn. Willis Roberts. Bret Prinz. Josh Towers. Adam Eaton. Jose Cabrera. Nelson Figueroa. Luke Prokopec. Kip Wells. Erik Hiljus. Juan Cruz. Giovanni Carrarra. Ted Lilly. Mike DeJean. Brian Lawrence. And Luther Hackmann.

Roll Reversal

Last Thursday, Giants pitcher Livan Hernandez went seven innings against the Montreal Expos and gave up five runs. This was a fairly average outing in terms of pitching for Hernandez, whose earned-run average this season is 5.42. What was unusual about this outing for Hernandez was his failure to get a hit. He went 0-for-3 and his average on the year dropped from .333 to .318. Before this inexcusable oh-fer, Hernandez was hitting .769 (10-for-13) in his last 13 at-bats. If you want to talk good pitcher’s hitting though, the conversation begins and ends with the Colorado Rockies’ Mike Hampton. This season the southpaw is batting .290 with seven home runs, 13 RBIs, and 20 runs scored in 69 at-bats. Of course, his .609 slugging percentage has something to do with the Coors Field Effect, but Hampton’s always been competent with the stick. He hit .274 last season
with the Mets and .311 with the Astros the year before that. His ERA this season, however, currently resides at 5.14.

Terry, Do You Hear Me?

And speaking of people in the news, where is Terry Francona anyway? Actually, I spoke with a buddy this weekend about Terry Francona and he (my buddy) was pretty sure we were the first people to talk about the ex-Phillies manager since he was fired at the end of last season. FYI, I was not able to locate Terry Francona’s whereabouts using a simple web search. The only recent mention of him I found came up in stories about Michael Jordan’s current quixotic NBA comeback attempt. Francona was Jordan’s manager during MJ’s baseball stint with the AA Birmingham Barons. Back then, Francona was considered the hottest managerial prospect in the
minors. Eventually Francona made the big leagues managing with
Philadelphia. He compiled a 285-363 mark over four seasons with the Phils, a .440 winning percentage. With Francona at the helm, the Phillies never finished above third. Gosh, it seems like only yesterday (in fact, 08-30-00) that the son of former major leaguer Tito Francona was gettting tossed out of a game for arguing that the opposing pitcher was allowed too
many warmup pitches. We miss you Terry, wherever you are.

To contact Jack Randall, email him at [email protected]

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