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Thread: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

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    Yay! dabvu2498's Avatar
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    D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    I can't believe someone hadn't already posted this info.

    At the expense of injured Ellis, Jimenez reaches center stage
    - Ray Ratto
    Friday, October 6, 2006


    The D'Angelo Jimenez story wasn't supposed to be told this way, not that of a sure-handed, light-hitting infielder finally getting his chance on the national stage as the Oakland Athletics' Plan C at second base.

    He was, in fact, supposed to be Alfonso Soriano before there was Alfonso Soriano. Then the bus intervened.

    "I was ahead of Soriano," said Jimenez, the one-time Yankee uber-prospect and now the man who replaces Mark Ellis as the Elephants' second baseman from here through the end of October, whenever October ends for them. "But after the accident, everything went differently."

    The accident was Jimenez getting hit by a bus riding on the wrong side of the road in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in January 2000. His career as the New York Yankees' mortal-lock second baseman of the future ended with a broken second cervical vertebrae, surgery and a halo to stabilize his neck and ultimately, a tattoo that from a distance looks like a zipper on the back of his neck to symbolize the lesson of the best-laid plans.

    He had trouble walking and moving his head. His left arm didn't respond to his brain's requests for action. The Yankees sent doctors to the Dominican Republic to help with his surgery and recovery, and if Jimenez is bitter at all after all these years, he makes sure to credit George Steinbrenner for doing the right thing for someone who probably would never be able to help the Yankees.

    So now, after trying to relocate his inner Soriano in San Diego, Chicago, Cincinnati and Texas, and having his career ebb and flow through his arbitration/making-too-much-money-to-keep years, he is finally getting the spotlight long denied him, even if as he said, "It's not the way it should happen."

    Ellis' fractured finger, and an eerily similar injury to Antonio Perez, who would have replaced Ellis, changed all of it. Ellis, for whom the hideously timed injury is as regular as coffee, gives way to a man whose story is as compelling.

    "Maybe the reason I got hurt is so he can revive his future," Ellis said Thursday, even though his heart clearly was more attuned to his own misery. "He definitely has the ability."

    But much as we respect the concept of predeterminism in career tracking, we respect history more, and one of the less noticed but still fascinating sidebars here is that this is only the latest in a long line of A's postseason teams with an issue at second base.

    The 1972 team had four men handle the position in October -- Dick Green, Ted Kubiak, Dal Maxvill and even Gene Tenace, plus a fifth, Tim Cullen, just in case. Three played routinely, and starter Green was pinch-hit for once before his first at-bat as Dick Williams micromanaged his way to the first Oakland ring. In '73, it was Green, Kubiak and Mike Andrews, the man Charlie Finley tried to fire after his two errors in Game 2 of the World Series. In 1974, it was Green and Maxvill again, and in '75, Phil Garner, Marty Martinez and Cesar Tovar.

    Then after a seven-year layoff, they returned in 1981 and used only one, Dave McKay, against the Yankees. That stability seemed awkward, so when they returned in 1988, they used three -- Mike Gallego, Tony Phillips and Glenn Hubbard. In 1989, they exchanged Hubbard for Lance Blankenship, and in 1990, Phillips and Blankenship were replaced by Willie Randolph (yes, that Willie Randolph). Then Blankenship and Mike Bordick in '92, Randy Velarde and Frank Menechino in 2000, Menechino and F.P. Santangelo in '01, and finally Ellis in '02 and '03.

    That's 20 men for one place, and Jimenez will be 21. If pressed, they still have Hiram Bocachica, although he has been more a shortstop and outfielder ("He has all the gloves," manager Ken Macha said), and if the A's get past this round (assume nothing until the deal is closed, remember?), they will probably elevate either Mark Kiger or Kevin Melillo from their farm system to potentially make a nice, round 22.

    In other words, there are an almost endless supply of infielders' dreams, both dashed and realized, here. Shortstop Marco Scutaro is playing every day because Bobby Crosby's back is taking on the attributes of an accordion, and Jimenez was signed after his release by the Rangers after Ellis broke his thumb in May, and called up when Crosby's back first went south. In fact, Scutaro's 2005 trading card has a picture of him making the pivot at second base over a sliding Jimenez, who was with Cincinnati at the time.

    "See?" Scutaro said when he was handed the card by Jimenez. "We've played together before."

    Yes, it's almost as if no beats have been missed here. The A's use lots of second basemen. They're going to use lots of them this year. Mark Ellis' dreams have been dipped in turpentine again, D'Angelo Jimenez's dreams have been temporarily revived, and there are two and maybe three more second basemen floating around the compound at any given time, perhaps even hidden amidst the grounds crew.

    But baseball people know better. Jimenez is filling more than his own spikes here, in the hottest month of the baseball year, and the question of how long he has waited to be Alfonso Soriano is secondary to how well he can approximate Mark Ellis.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The playoffs
    Thursday's games

    Tigers 4, Yankees 3 (Series tied 1-1)

    Today's other game

    ALDS: Yankees (Johnson 17-11) at Tigers (Rogers 17-8), 5:09 p.m.


    ESPN
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable
    When all is said and done more is said than done.


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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    So now, after trying to relocate his inner Soriano in San Diego, Chicago, Cincinnati and Texas, and having his career ebb and flow through his arbitration/making-too-much-money-to-keep years, he is finally getting the spotlight long denied him...
    Excuse me for mentioning this (might be hearsay)... I thought I had heard that his attitude was also a problem and might have contributed to that spotlight being denied. It is not everyday that a guy like him gets demoted from being a MLB starter to AA for the rest of the season b/c of abilites. Didn't a fight with Freel in a team hotel contribute to Jimenez' end in Cincinnati?

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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    I want to see an A's/Tigers ALCS more than ever now. Casey can get back at D'Lo for being mean to him.

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    I rig polls REDREAD's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by RedFanAlways1966 View Post
    Excuse me for mentioning this (might be hearsay)... I thought I had heard that his attitude was also a problem and might have contributed to that spotlight being denied. It is not everyday that a guy like him gets demoted from being a MLB starter to AA for the rest of the season b/c of abilites. Didn't a fight with Freel in a team hotel contribute to Jimenez' end in Cincinnati?
    Could be, but DanO did a lot of questionable things, and the media here seems to love to paint the "Attitude" problem on a former Reds player after he was dealt.

    Lopez and Kearns were attitude problems.
    Aaron Boone was reported as "demanding" a trade, even though he denied it.
    Wily Mo was accused of being lazy.
    And there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head.
    [Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob

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    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Servo View Post
    I want to see an A's/Tigers ALCS more than ever now. Casey can get back at D'Lo for being mean to him.

    What's he going to do, hug him to death?
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I was wrong
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right

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    A Pleasure to Burn Joseph's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by REDREAD View Post
    Could be, but DanO did a lot of questionable things, and the media here seems to love to paint the "Attitude" problem on a former Reds player after he was dealt.

    Lopez and Kearns were attitude problems.
    Aaron Boone was reported as "demanding" a trade, even though he denied it.
    Wily Mo was accused of being lazy.
    And there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head.
    I know players themselves came out after the D'lo situation and said he was a problem. All the others I'll grant, but I think this one had validity.

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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by Joseph View Post
    I know players themselves came out after the D'lo situation and said he was a problem. All the others I'll grant, but I think this one had validity.
    Of course, he also arrived having worn his welcome out on several teams. "Attitude Problem" was a tag on his box when the Reds opened it.

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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    Of course, he also arrived having worn his welcome out on several teams. "Attitude Problem" was a tag on his box when the Reds opened it.

    Bowden sure was a nice guy for trading for him though. (It was Bowden last deal wasn't it?)
    School's out. What did you expect?

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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by pedro View Post
    Bowden sure was a nice guy for trading for him though. (It was Bowden last deal wasn't it?)
    He was worth it for Scott Dunn.
    When all is said and done more is said than done.

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    This one's for you Edd Heath's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Some people play baseball. Baseball plays Jay Bruce.

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    Member Wheelhouse's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by RedFanAlways1966 View Post
    Excuse me for mentioning this (might be hearsay)... I thought I had heard that his attitude was also a problem and might have contributed to that spotlight being denied. It is not everyday that a guy like him gets demoted from being a MLB starter to AA for the rest of the season b/c of abilites. Didn't a fight with Freel in a team hotel contribute to Jimenez' end in Cincinnati?
    I wouldn't assume he had an attitude problem--and if he did, what does it say about a guy who has an "attitude" in a clubhouse that has a "losing is OK" mentality? He got in a fight with Freel, a known boozer, at a party. I reserve judgement on that. As a player, I always liked Jimenez. He made good contact and worked pitchers deep into counts and was reliable defensively. Congrats to him for this opportunity.
    "Don't trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."--Winston Churchill

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    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...f7cc9993f2a520

    One note about the A’s: D’Angelo Jimenez is awful. He couldn’t get back to make a play on a hit-and-run single by Craig Monroe in the first, and his incredibly slow double-play pivot extended innings for the Tigers in the second and seventh. Watching him on an everyday basis is stunning, as if someone dropped a decent MSBL player into the ALCS and wondered who would notice.

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    Re: D'Angelo Jimenez... playoff starter...

    Quote Originally Posted by Wheelhouse View Post
    I wouldn't assume he had an attitude problem-
    I'm pretty sure his "attitude" tag was applied a while ago with the White Sox. He was half of the "OK to lose" mentality. The guy didn't care one single bit about the game at hand, if he did, he never showed it. I personally felt like he was the laziest guy on the team. Appearantly others did too. He wasn't an attitude problem bc he was angry at the team, he was an attitude problem bc guys didn't like his work ethic and effort towards the game.

    Here is a good post from a Mariners board when we DFA'd him:

    Jimenez has worn his way through four organizations with people saying good riddance at each stop. The Yankees dumped him for Jay Witasick. The White Sox dumped him for Scott Dunn. It’s clear the guy has a pretty serious attitude problem, and he’s not far away from being in the Carl Everett/AJ Pierzynski mold of players.

    Also, he’s not free. The Reds DFA’d him, meaning that they have 10 days to trade him. If no one trades for him, then any team claiming him on waivers would have to pay the rest of his $2.87 million contract, which would be about $2 million for the rest of this season.

    I might be tempted to claim him on waivers, simply because the M’s lack of shortstops is so glaring that its worth a shot. But let’s not confuse this with a no brainer. There are legitimate reasons to not end up with Jimenez on the roster.


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