Post by bstros on Apr 21, 2007 7:33:44 GMT -5
Minor leaguers can learn from Albers, Lidge
Baseball
A baseball blog with Jose de Jesus Ortiz
Houston Chronicle
April 20, 2007
When the Astros broke camp, righthander Fernando Nieve was ahead of Matt Albers in the pecking order for the first promotion when a rotation spot opened up. Albers showed tremendous maturity after the demotion and focused well enough to pitch better than Nieve at Class AAA Round Rock.
Nieve didn't respond as well, and that's a big reason why he's still at Round Rock. If he had responded better, Nieve might have been the one starting Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
"This would have been Nieve," Phil Garner said. "We want Nieve to come up. And if he would have been doing the job, he would have come up."
Garner doesn't mind players being angry, but he hopes they channel that disappointment to improve.
"I think what happened was he let getting sent down when he evaluated himself a little differently than I did," Garner said. "I think what he should do is he should hear and take it as being angry, being upset, being ticked off is a good motivator. But he should have used it as a motivator. Instead he did not. Instead he went to the other side (of), 'I should have.' Well, you know what? There's a lot of things that should be in this game and guys don't get them.
"You don't sometimes get what you deserve in this game. Sometimes guys deserve to be here and they don't get here. Look at (Eric) Bruntlett. He's a guy that deserved to be on this ballclub, but we can't do that right now. That's unfortunate. Might be somebody else. What a kid can do in his shape is take the anger and use it to your advantage and spur him on. You do your job. Then it's our job to get him here. If he does the job down there then we'll get them here."
• • •
Speaking of guys using disappointment as motivation, Brad Lidge has impressed Garner with his attitude since he lost his closer's job April 9.
"He's pissed off, and he's throwing the ball like a man," Garner said of Lidge. "He's going to get back in his role. He's fighting. Competition is hard enough, and you got to fight."
Baseball
A baseball blog with Jose de Jesus Ortiz
Houston Chronicle
April 20, 2007
When the Astros broke camp, righthander Fernando Nieve was ahead of Matt Albers in the pecking order for the first promotion when a rotation spot opened up. Albers showed tremendous maturity after the demotion and focused well enough to pitch better than Nieve at Class AAA Round Rock.
Nieve didn't respond as well, and that's a big reason why he's still at Round Rock. If he had responded better, Nieve might have been the one starting Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
"This would have been Nieve," Phil Garner said. "We want Nieve to come up. And if he would have been doing the job, he would have come up."
Garner doesn't mind players being angry, but he hopes they channel that disappointment to improve.
"I think what happened was he let getting sent down when he evaluated himself a little differently than I did," Garner said. "I think what he should do is he should hear and take it as being angry, being upset, being ticked off is a good motivator. But he should have used it as a motivator. Instead he did not. Instead he went to the other side (of), 'I should have.' Well, you know what? There's a lot of things that should be in this game and guys don't get them.
"You don't sometimes get what you deserve in this game. Sometimes guys deserve to be here and they don't get here. Look at (Eric) Bruntlett. He's a guy that deserved to be on this ballclub, but we can't do that right now. That's unfortunate. Might be somebody else. What a kid can do in his shape is take the anger and use it to your advantage and spur him on. You do your job. Then it's our job to get him here. If he does the job down there then we'll get them here."
• • •
Speaking of guys using disappointment as motivation, Brad Lidge has impressed Garner with his attitude since he lost his closer's job April 9.
"He's pissed off, and he's throwing the ball like a man," Garner said of Lidge. "He's going to get back in his role. He's fighting. Competition is hard enough, and you got to fight."
