Nats show confidence in Desmond
Jun 29, 2010, 11:20 PM EDT
ATLANTA — Mike Rizzo sees the 19 errors Ian Desmond has made in the first half of his rookie season. He sees the other mistakes Desmond has made in the field that don’t show up as errors.
Rizzo, though, knew this was likely to happen when the Nationals gave Desmond the starting job at the end of spring training, and he’s willing to live with it because of what he thinks Desmond can become in the future.
“He’s a young major-league shortstop,” the GM said last night after Desmond’s crucial error kept Stephen Strasburg from perhaps escaping the seventh inning. “And the best thing about young major-league shortstops is that they become second-year major-league shortstops.”
Desmond is not in the lineup tonight, but as you’ll read on CSNwashington.com, the Nationals remain confident in the 24-year-old to be their long-term answer at shortstop.
-
- rmoore446 - Jun 30, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Mark, on some off day for the team, it might be interesting to follow up on Rizzo's comment that great short stops had error filled rookie seasons. I'm sure that's true to an extent but I'm curious about what a side-by-side comparison with Desmond would show–especially with players who had significant minor league seasoning.I would be more patient with him if he were a 20-year-old phenom but Desmond had hundreds of minor league games at short stop. Was his fielding record good in the minors?
-