Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Obligatory Nolan Reimold Post

Reimold in Norfolk...for the last time...
I haven't written about Nolan Reimold since his recall from Norfolk nearly two weeks ago which may seem odd since I kept the "Reimold in Exile" vigil on Twitter for 53 straight days.

Mostly, it's been because I had mixed feelings about the call up. Reimold was only called up due to injuries to other players and, after some struggles in AAA, Reimold was finally hitting his stride in Norfolk and I was afraid that he would ride the bench in Baltimore and not get enough at bats to help his development or help the team.

Those fears have turned out to be unfounded. Reimold has gotten plenty of ABs which is all I was wanting for the guy. Failure or success, I wanted Reimold to get his playing time in the majors. Not because he "deserved" it (which is such a nebulous concept anyway) but because it was best for the team to find out what he was and what he could be.

The fact that he has started so well is great. But mostly it's great that he is helping the team and it will help him get more playing time going forward. There is no vindication for me. Not yet.

(Of course, I think that even with the limited sample we have here, it is apparent that Reimold absolutely has the potential to be a good major leaguer. It was incredibly frustrating to see him dismissed by those who gave him absolutely no credit for 2009 but chose instead chose to judge him from 6 weeks of at bats in 2010. So I lied. There's a little vindication here.)

I mean, I saw how he played in 2009. I know he was not fully healthy last year. I know that a young hitter with good patience and good power has a fair shot at being successful in the major leagues. His .357/.455/.714 line through his first 10 games is not at all surprising to me. He's a good hitter. He won't hit like that all the time obviously but he's going to have stretches where he does.

I was just hoping he would get a good 400 plate appearances this season. I'm hoping the hit start will get him those chances and we can see how much (or little) he could help the team in 2012. When Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee are long gone.

5 comments:

Joe Guido said...

Do you think the DFA of Fox yesterday is a sign that Reimold is on the team to stay for awhile? (unless he tanks of course)

StarMesa said...

Amen! Let's Go Nolan!

DempseysArmy said...

Well, there are a ton on spots available for Nolan right now. Too many relievers on the team right now and Ryan Adams can go back too.

I think they just came to the conclusion that Fox's catching was worse than they thought and that he couldn't hit lefties. Fox being gone certainly helps Reimold if he hits a slump though...

Roar from 34 said...

Reimold's bat is obviously the topic of interest, but what can we make of his fielding? Some seem to think he's a liability while others don't see any reason to concerned. I haven't been able to glean much from the numbers myself, and the defensive stats tend to be spotty anyway in my opinion. What's your take?

DempseysArmy said...

I don't think Reimold's a good defender, not to my eye anyway. Decent arm but the range and instincts look iffy. I have always advocated the plan to move him to 1B, think he would be fine over there and let Felix Pie play left with Scott.