Notes: Lee's legs a boost
Nelson urges team to steal more bases
MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers love what Carlos Lee's bat has brought to the team's
new-look offense. But they have also been impressed by his legs.
"Carlos is a real good baserunner out there," said first base coach Dave
Nelson, the team's baserunning instructor.
Manager Ned Yost was impressed on Monday when Lee hustled to score from
second when Pirates infielder Bobby Hill botched what should have been an
inning-ending popup. Nelson was impressed when Lee singled earlier in the
game, then hustled to second base when the relay scuttled through the
infield.
He made his first glaring mistake on Tuesday night when Lee was doubled off
second base on a lineout to right field -- Yost confirmed that it was not a
hit-and-run -- but Lee has usually been good at the little things. That's
leaving good impressions about the Brewers' big man.
"What I look at is can they go from first to third when they're supposed to?"
Nelson said. "Do they get back on line drives? Are they aware of situations
before they happen so they are prepared to make the right decisions?"
Much is being made in Chicago this week of a play involving Lee in Sunday's
Brewers-Cubs game. Walker was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday with
a moderate to severe medial collateral ligament sprain of his left knee,
suffered in the crash at second base in the 10th inning. Lee slid in hard and
successfully broke up a double play, but his right shin collided with
Walker's left knee.
"He stood there the whole time," Lee said. "I didn't have my spikes up or
anything. I was just trying to break up the double play. I wasn't trying to
hurt anybody."
Walker, who called Lee a good friend, saw a photo of the play on the Cubs
website and said, "It looks like he's doing some kind of tae-kwon-do on my
knee." But he declined the notion that Lee's slide was dirty.
"In baseball, you're taught to break up the double play and that's the bottom
line," Walker said. "We have mixed emotions in the clubhouse about whether it
was malicious. Personally, I haven't seen it."
Nelson had seen the replay, and had no problem with Lee's slide.
"Carlos slid in and got his leg out to hook [Walker]," Nelson said. "It was
nothing with spikes or rolling into him. Carlos just hooked him with his
leg."
That's fair game, according to Nelson.
"If [Walker] didn't get hurt on the play, nobody would have said a word,"
Nelson said. "It's all a part of the game. Carlos didn't go in there trying
to hurt him. He just went in there and tried to break up a double play."
Running free: Nelson loved watching Scott Podsednik because he always tried
to make something happen on the basepaths. The Brewers don't have anybody
with Podsednik's raw speed this season, but Nelson pointed to Lee, Junior
Spivey and Bill Hall as players who have showed savvy on the bases.
Nelson also mentioned Brady Clark, who replaced Podsednik as Milwaukee's
leadoff man. Clark won't lead the Majors in steals, like Podsednik did last
season, but Nelson is urging him to be more aggressive anyway.
"Brady has to get a little more larceny in his heart for me," Nelson said.
Hot start: Mark the date. Damian Miller led the Major Leagues entering
Tuesday's games with a .471 batting average.
"Obviously, I like to hold my own offensively back there and not embarrass
myself completely," said Miller, who laughed when someone pointed out that he
won the Week 1 batting crown. "You just try to keep doing the same things
you're doing, which is not easy in this league."
Just as Yost declined to put stock in left fielder Geoff Jenkins' slow start,
he is not jumping up and down about Miller's quick one. It's all about
consistency, Yost said.
"You just have to keep it going," Yost said. "You look at everybody's track
record and you see that they've all been run producers throughout their
career. They're going to produce runs. It doesn't mean that they're not going
to have high spots and low spots."
Doubleheader: The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is scheduled to host
Valpariaso on Wednesday at Miller Park following the Brewers-Pirates game.
UW-Milwaukee is managed by former Brewers pitcher Jerry Augustine and is
11-13 this season. Current Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon played his college
ball at Valpariaso.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.121.215.44
Brewers 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
93
176