Oh…that’s why.

probably won’t throw batteries at this kid if he makes it to the majors with another team, a la Drew.

that HR should NOT save his skin all together.

I think it’s a little premature to suddenly be so accepting of him after hating on him all year because of one AB. Yes, it may be a sign of him turning it around, but let’s see him pinch hit a couple more times before considering him a sure thing on our bench.

because all the people calling for Ward’s head are doing it based off of a tiny 70 AB sample size for Ward and a microscopic 37 AB sample for Hoffpauir. To say Ward’s pinch-hit HR doesn’t mean anything because the sample is too small is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Ward has 70 ABs this season. I can find a similar line to Ward’s 2008 line in 70 consecutive ABs of Berkman’s MVP 2008 line by cherry picking out of his cold July. I can find a line like Micah’s 2008 in Cesar Izturis’ 2008. I can find Hoff’s line in any of Neifi Perez’ years with the Cubs (except that Neifi strikes out less). Ward’s first 70 ABs this year do not tell us all that much how he will hit going forward this season.

You have to look at the players in the box. When you look at the two players’ approach at the plate, that’s where you see the difference. Micah was swinging and missing at horrible pitches – give him another 35 ABs and his line is almost guaranteed to be worse than Ward’s. Ward remains a professional hitter who has had some bad luck on fly balls being hit to fielders.

This is a simple choice between experience (DWaryle) and, well, a huge left-handed question mark (Hoffpauir). I’ll take the former (Astro, Pirate, National, Brave).