Now that utility man Erick Almonte has been officially named the 2nd backup infielder, I can now write an article about him. That's fantastic. I'm beside myself with joy. Hooray for Hollywood. Except for the fact that I don't feel like writing about him. I did feel like writing about John Axford, but I can't figure out the best way to present that information, so I'm going to put that one off for yet another day. If you're very upset about that then you can punch me in the stomach the next time that you see me. If any of you take this shit that seriously then we are no longer Facebook friends. I'm defriending your ass the second after I regain breathing after doubling over on the sidewalk and wheezing for air. Oh I'd be laying on the ground while I do it on my Android powered phone, but I wouldn't look nearly as sexy as Almonte does in this picture. Wait? Did I say sexy? I meant salatorious. I don't know too much about Almonte except what I can gather from his Spring Training and Minor League stats. Except for a cup of tea with the New York Yankees in 2001 and 2003 for a total of 39 games, I got nothing to go on. He certainly impressed someone in the Brewers organization enough for them to give him a shot, but it's anyone's guess how long he will last on the team.
I do use Google to find out everything I need to know about some of these new players, but if I only used Google Images to formulate my opinion, I would speculate that Erick Almonte spends a lot of time on the ground. Better than spending a lot of time on his knees though, right? But these were some of the only pictures I could find of him with the Brewers, and one of them is in a AAA Nashville Sounds' (Brewers minor league team) jersey. The minor leagues are a whole lot different than the majors because players are down there for a reason. Either they're young and inexperienced and working their way to the majors or they simply aren't good enough to play at the top level. Sorry to say but Almonte is the latter of those two. Nothing against him, but there's a good reason why this guy is 33 years old and was playing at AAA. The best he'll ever do is be a backup / pinch hitter, and I'm hoping that he makes the most of it. Given a resonable amount of games and at bats, Almonte has a career minor league batting average .274 with a .349 on base percentage. But this year he won't get a reasonable amount of games or at bats. The thing to watch will be to see how he adjusts to limited playing time. He's not much of a power guy but all he'll be asked to do (like Counsell) will be to get on base in the late innings, except he'll be doing it from the right side. Will he find success in this role or will he find his way out of town by mid-May? At this point it's anyone's guess, and we'll see how this will play out in the coming months.
All that I could think about when I was looking up information on Almonte was Del Monte, one of the country's largest producer, distributor and marketer or branded food products. When I first thought about Del Monte I was like where do I recognize that from? Then I remembered that it is the sticker on bananas that is not Chiquita. Del Monte makes all sorts of products from canned corn and green beans, fruit cups and fruit cocktail, raisins and fruit snacks and such pet food products like Kibbles 'n Bits, Meow Mix and my personal favorite - Snausages. If you can bag it or can it, then Del Monte probably already does. And if you can't then Del Monte will figure out a way to do it damn it! Their newest slogan and branding on their website is "Let's Start a Revolution." Seriously folks, I'm not making this up. You know how I feel about the Revolution and Starting one, and even though Uncle Greg is in charge of making decisions in our Revolution, I'm going to go ahead and proclaim Del Monte as the official canned food of the Revolution. In their canned foods they want to lock in the vitamins and nutrients of fresh foods, which is why the canned foods have "no preservatives, no artificial colors and no unnatural flavors. Just the great taste and simple nourishing goodness of nature." If that is not worthy of putting your fist in the air with pride and promise, I don't know what is.It's really hard to predict what Almonte will do this year. It would probably be easier to predict what Del Monte will do in new sales because they are constantly generating over $3 Billion dollars per fiscal year. If all goes according to plan (knock on wood) Almonte will not get a lot of at bats and will not see a heck of a lot of playing time. I hope he had fun playing in like every Spring Training game because he'll be riding a lot of pine in the big leagues. But I still think he will do all right as a pinch hitter and spot starter, but I can't see him doing too much better than this:
.262 AVG, 3 HRs, 17 RBIs, 91 games payed (mostly as a pinch hitter, look for him to start less than 20 games) and not nearly as vital to the US citizens as Del Monte is in providing them with quality food products.
The last couple of spots are always the hardest to predict because guys like Erick Almonte just come out of nowhere and earn a spot on the Opening Day roster, much like Joe Inglett did last year. That is the reason why I save these entries for the final days before the season begins. But John Axford had his spot locked up from his performance so much to the point that no competition was brought in to challenge him for the role. He was basically handed it, which must have felt good for a guy who has fought and clawed for a roster spot on every team he's ever been on. And I for sure will have Axford up tomorrow because I spent all weekend touching it up. I wanted to make this one a good one and not half-ass it like I did all of the other ones. And I certainly am not crying wolf, which I'm sure that I am being accused of at this time. It will be up tomorrow or else villagers will be storming down the door of my castle with pitchforks and torches, but that my friends is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Roll out the Barrel! We'll have a Barrel of Fun!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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