Put up you Dukes?
I'm half posting this to use the bad pun in the title. But Dukes is a once top prospect whose career/personal life has been a train wreck. However, he's only 25 and if he could be gotten for a Minor League contract or sub 500k offer, could be worth a flier to give the Phillies an option close to Major league level in the event of injuries. If he works out, you have a very good Left Fielder for years to come, if he doesn't cut him loose after the season.
4 months ago
Cormican
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Mind reader....
He’d need to enroll in the Chase Utley School of Baserunning…going around various sites and reading comments from Nats. fans, that seemed to be one common, unifying complaint. Speaking of pipe bombs, did you watch any of the Rangers and Marniers game last night on MLB network. Milton Bradely after being called out on strikes threw his bat down in disgust which as I don’t think mouthed-off, was the only thing that the ump felt warranted his rejection the game…or so that’s what the Marniers color analysts were saying. I kept switching back and forth between that and the Chic. Blackhawks/ Ana. Ducks game so maybe the story changed. At any rate after Cliff Lee is suspended for the first 5 games of the season for throwing at the head of D-Back’s Chris Synder (very un-Lee like) and will likely miss his first start and this pre-season game Bradley blow-up wonder what the Marniers fans are feeling after all the praise they received for their offseason acquisions. Thing about Bradley other than his behaviorial track record is everytime I look at a picture of him I can’t help seeing something tragic in him. Normally I’d concede that this read is a way biased, but this is one of those occasions that transcends this informed empathy and the impression catches me off guard. For some reason, despite his antics, I feel bad for this guy…anyway Dukes as potenial pipe bomb would be safe in the minors and having a possible future with a winning organization might inspire him to play up to his talent. I like the idea…Like I said you read my mind. Good call.
threadjack!
Taking this in that Mariners direction, I wonder if the M’s are going to be as superbly improved as everyone seems to think. Lee’s production is likely going to be close to a wash with what they got from Bedard and Washburn in 2009, and it’s going to be hard for King Felix to improve. And that offense is really bad.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I guess when your looking to spark your offense and go Milton Bradley what does that say…I mean, he supposedly has the talent but with his mental issues I think making him “the guy” is not wise. And as the Cubs learned spending just about everyday for 6 months with him has got to be the same as juggling grenades everday. What a supremely bad move to begin with for the Cubs last year esp. when they where still dealing with the mental scars from that epic collapse against the Dodgers…the last thing you’d want is to throw a live wire into the clubhouse. The pressure is on the Marniers to bring a championship to Seattle as the Seahawks are probably another 15 years away from seeing the Superbowl again. The funny thing about the Marniers is with their pitching why not just try moving the friggin’ fences in a bit..and so now with Chone Figgins they had the ultimate contact hitting team. And Eric “master of the infield fly ball” Byrnes and Ryan Langerhans. Is it me or does it seem that they over valued the two things in baseball that can’t score runs?
Love it.
Amaro & Co. would never, ever, ever do it, but I’d be all in favor. Dukes has had an uneven career thus far, but he’s still just 25 years old, and there’s no reason to believe that the patience and power combo he’s flashed at times has gone anywhere.
Obviously, you’d have to really do your due diligence, but the opportunity to snag this caliber of freely available talent doesn’t come around very often.
j reed brings up a good point too
The risk of Milton Bradley like doucheiness can not be overstated. That combined with Dukes’ absurdly high strikeout rate last year is also concerning. I think you’d have to hope that being around good guys like Howard, Rollins and Utley might help him change his ways. At the very least, we could have the single most despised outfield in all of baseball.
…Dukes’ absurdly high strikeout rate last year…
He struck out in 20.3% of his at bats last year. For comparison’s sake, that’s less than Ryan Howard, Matt Stairs, Jayson Werth, Chris Coste, Eric Bruntlett, Ben Francisco, and Raul Ibanez. He did whiff in 28.6% of his at bats in 2008, but he also coupled that with a 15.0% BB and a .214 ISO (to equal a 135 wRC+).
There are plenty of arguments to be lodged against Dukes, but few of them are performance related.
by PhillyFriar on Mar 18, 2010 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions
I dunno… Personally, I kind of like Milton Bradley. But Bradley just has a hot temper. Dukes, in contrast, seems to be into some really deviant stuff. It might not be worth it.
Believe me on I see something genuinely tragic in Bradely but that can’t excuse his affect on teams which is hard to ignore…it’s alot to ask a clubhouse to live with that kind of dispostion 6 days a week for 6 months. It’s just unfortunate but I don’t think he’s malicious, just tragically self-destructive which can be worse for a team because they empathize with him more readily and try to help him instead of cutting ties with him. Dukes type of behavior is on the other hand more sociopathic in nature and therefore is easier to make a clean break with as it clearly defies acceptable boundaries.
Agreed
Dukes is a true bad seed from the looks of it. But I imagine what Cholly and Milt can do with his offensive potential, and keeping him in Lehigh Valley until he proves he can be trusted in any capacity. Other than the risk that poses to Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, I think it’s not too dangerous a call, as you could cut him loose at the smallest infraction.
I agree, RAJ is extremely unlikely to do it.
I’m totally down with the move… bad seed behavior if it were to rear it’s ugly head is episodic and is usually severe enough that clear boundaries are violated and decisive action is taken without consideration esp as he’d be in Allentown. I think it’d be a great move and can it hurt us any more that Juan Castro’s career -9.0 WAR . Is that really true about Castro (i’m not sure how career war is calculated) ? And he’s 37 to boot…I want my 32 year old Bruntlett back if that’s the case.
But he’s a good glove man. The announcers said so on tv the other day.
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on Mar 18, 2010 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions
I just ran into this WAR stat this the other day…I just see utility guy and unless it one of the bunch out the that are good I just assume their all about the same…that won’t happen again. -9.0 career WAR! …is he rich and secretly paying teams to be on their roster. That’s just…we’ll Chase try not to get hit by pitches this year…I know your a gamer but even with thorazine drip and you’d still be better than this baseball abomination.
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