Results tagged ‘ Chino Cadahia ’

Cadahia gives Escobar an earful

Placed in Yunel Escobar’s shoes, I probably wouldn’t have reacted favorably had I been charged with the error that he was given during the fourth inning of Thursday night’s game against the Yankees. 

And there’s certainly a chance that I would have fired off some kind of expletive. But I don’t think my Irish temper would have led me to fully mimic Escobar’s unprofessional reaction. 

When Escobar pointed toward the press box in disgust, he provided the reminder that he’s still immature.  While continuing to sulk with his hands on his thighs during the next two pitches, he clearly showed a lack of respect for his teammates and the game. 

Braves bench coach Chino Cadahia took Escobar behind the dugout and gave him an earful when the inning concluded. 

Based on the accounts of multiple sources, Cadahia berated Escobar with greater vigor than he ever has in the past.

While we can hope that this is the last unprofessional act committed by Escobar, you have to assume that it won’t be.  This is his third Major League season and as time has passed it’s become clear why he essentially led his former Double-A Mississippi manager Jeff Blauser to decide he didn’t want anything to do with the coaching profession. 

After Cox benched Escobar in the middle of a June 14 game in Baltimore, I used this space to talk about how his stubborn personality makes him difficult to coach.  At the same time, I pointed out that he’s arguably the best all-around talent on the Braves club.   <p>

Based purely on talent and the fact that he has one arbitration-eligible season remaining, Escobar ranks as one of the game’s best bargains and there’s undboubtedly a number of teams that would be interested in his services.    

Right now the Braves don’t have any intention to trade Escobar.  But as he continues to show immaturity and a lack of professionalism, he’s providing the club more reason to wonder if there will ever come a time when the majority of the attention he draws is based on his tremendous physical skills.

Impressions of Kawakami

Just before Chipper Jones, Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur started drilling rocket shots off bench coach Chino Cadahia’s batting practice fastballs on Saturday, Josh Anderson, Gregor Blanco and Brandon Jones did the same against the ones supplied by Kenshin Kawakami. 

But before any of you start to worry, you should know that Chino was just working on a few pitches, trying to find his location and tinkering with his delivery.  Or maybe my notes are wrong and that was actually the Japanese dude that’s getting paid $23 million over the next three years.

In all seriousness, I’m putting next to zero stock in what Kawakami is doing on Feb. 21.  All that matters is that he’s ready to pitch when the season begins in April.  But to guard against shaken confidence, he probably doesn’t need to know that Blanco compiled a .309 slugging percentage last year.

The only National League outfielders who compiled 500 plate appearances and produced lower marks were Michael Bourn and Willy Taveras, who have stayed at the Major League level simply because of their existence as stolen base threats.

At Blanco’s expense, we’ve gained a transition to Anderson, who seems to be in position to beat Blanco and Jordan Schafer in the battle to open the season as the team’s starting center fielder.  While Schafer undoubtedly is the most talented candidate, it still appears the Braves might be more comfortable starting him in the Minors. 

Anderson’s cause is aided by the fact that he’s out of options.  And unless you’re among those who don’t believe that he’s capable of hitting left-handed pitching, he might also be the team’s top candidate to serve in the leadoff role.  He’s been successful with 80 percent (247 out of 310) of his stolen base attempts at the professional level.

As I mentioned in an earlier comment on a previous post,  I don’t really worry too much about the fact that Anderson has hit .254
with a .299 OBP in 63 big league at-bats against southpaws. He hit .304
with a .352 OBP against them at Richmond last year.

My feelings about Anderson’s capabilities against left-handers improved after talking to Bobby Cox on Saturday afternoon.  This conversation also made me think less about the possibility that he might be used in CF platoon with Omar Infante.

“Everybody is going to struggle against certain left-handers,” Cox said. “He’s faced them his whole life. He’s never platooned anywhere that he’s been. All he has to against lefties is make contact. If he hits a dribbler or one in the hole, he’s going to beat it out.  Contact is what we’ll preach to him against lefties.  If you put it in play, amazing things can happen with a left-handed hitter like (Anderson) who can fly.”  <p>

In other camp news, Chipper Jones’ cough sounded horrible on Saturday. But he participated in the workout. 

Cox said Jason Heyward hit a ball “a mile” on one of the back fields.  While I didn’t see that one, I did see Francoeur drill one of Chino’s fastballs halfway up one of the flag poles situated on the hill above the left field wall.

- Mark Bowman

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