It was a scary thing in a game the Cubs won easily. In the second inning of yesterday's game versus the Marlins, Colvin was stabbed by a piece of Welington Castillo's broken bat. Colvin was on third base and was watching the flight of the ball over his shoulder when the flying piece impaled his chest. He'll be in the hospital for a couple days, since the bat punctured his chest wall. His season is over.
Colvin was a pleasant surprise in an otherwise unpleasant season. He tore up the Cactus League in March and forced his way onto the roster. He started in only 80 games this season, yet hit 20 home runs and knocked in 56 runs. He was decent in the field too. If you compare his stats to the much-hyped Jason Heyward, you might be surprised. Heyward started 123 games, yet has two fewer homers than Colvin and only 16 more RBIs in an additional 114 at bats.
Colvin's problem has been finding playing time. Soriano and Fukudome's over-inflated contracts meant more playing time for them than they may have deserved and less time for Colvin. It will be interesting to see what GM Jim Hendry plans to do with the crowded Cubs outfield next year. Colvin has shown that he can be an adequate major league outfielder and I'd like to see him in the lineup every day next season.
The most recent blog bat around topic is what you would do as commissioner. Most of my suggestions (expansion, less interleague, no DH) have already been written about by other bloggers, so I didn't bother to put up a post. But Colvin's incident brought one change to mind. I would get rid of the maple bats and go back to ash. As the Tribune's Paul Sullivan pointed out, the bat got Colvin only a few inches from his heart. Do we have to wait until someone is killed by a flying bat piece before the maple bats are banned? Commissioner Wrigley Wax will get rid of them now!
Man that was scary and quite a bummer. It was great to see Colvin blossom this season too even through his limited play time. My fiance is a big Cubs fan so she's bummed too. I agree with the maple ban but I doubt it'll come around soon. Maple is harder than ash that means more kinetic energy transfered to the ball, i.e. more home runs i.e. more excitement.
ReplyDeleteI guess the other option would be to allow metal bats. NEVER. Man the more technology gets in the picture with tighter wound balls, harder bats, steroids, the more I respect the old timers and then things they accomplished. Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire will never hold a candle to Mantle, Ruth, DiMaggio, ect ect.
I saw the headline for this and I said NO! NO! NO! This is scary. Colvin has rapidly become my favorite current Cubs player. He just goes out and plays hard. I wish him well and hope he wears a Cubs uni for long, long time.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the bats... By now, some company, somewhere could develop a composite bat that is similar to the feel of wood without the thing exploding like wood. Just takes money. Bud could get the thing started with some kind of investigation that includes possible solutions. But, he probably won't. The commisioner won't care until a superstar gets killed. Even then, it will take him several years to decide what to do. MLB needs a new commish.