http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Fri, 9 May 2008 22:06:37 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/09/132327.php#comment-716854 Mclouth is definately on a tear but his story is far different. He was a 25th round draft pick who never hit over .258 before this season. I'm not trying to prove that Nady is Ted Williams in this piece. He's simply a good story about a one time highly touted prospect, finally fully utilizing his skills to the benefit of a baseball starved town. Mclouth is the sensationalist story, but if anyone is going to fall back to earth its him. I'm not a Pirates fan, but from an objective standpoint, Nady is a patient hitter who walks, hits for power and average, and produces with men on base. This article only attempts to illustrate that these attributes have been shown in small doses over Nady's career, and are now fully manifesting, precluding the idea that this is meerly a random hot streak that will inevitably die off. While the Pirates will most likely trade Nady to the Mets, this is only because they continually screw their fans by fielding garbage teams year after year, and expecting fans to pay to watch. The idea that contenders are clamoring for this guy says something in itself. 716854@blogcritics.org Fri, 9 May 2008 22:06:37 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/09/132327.php#comment-716850 first of all, nate mcclouth is a much more interesting story than nady. second, his "finally" arriving this april has been MUCH more about a complete inability to stay healthy than about a lack of opportunity (he never got the latter BECAUSE of the former). and whil i am a pirates fan, i am also a realist. his .806 OPS and 107 OPS+ are not "very good". they are, by definition, league average. a player who, at age 28, posted a career best OPS+ that was just above league average is NOT a player who is going to maintain a 170 RBI pace. his numbers last year were right in line with his career numbers, so even though i enjoy watching him play, he needs to be traded before he hits a slump that will bring him right back to the numbers he has always posted. 716850@blogcritics.org Fri, 9 May 2008 21:38:20 EDT