Wednesday, August 15, 2007

What'd I ever do?

Hi, my name is Edwin Encarnacion. Many announcers call me EncarnaRcion. I've been called Edward, too. Oh, and there was that Calvin guy from North Carolina - one of those bananaphoners - who called me Enconcepcion.
Yesterday, I was batting eighth in the lineup. Eighth. You know, where the sucky players bat. See, the Reds don't like me. They don't give me much of a chance, and when I do get to play and have an 0 fer night, they do things like bench me or send me down to AAA. Now they're talking about letting this scrawny white dude Keppinger play instead of me all because he's hitting like .360 something in a fairly small sample size. I mean, the only reason I got to play last night was because Gonzo's kid is sick and he wasn't there, so Keppinger played in his place.

Don't get me wrong, Kepp's a good dude. He'd make a really nice bat coming off the bench. And yeah, I'm a big believer that when a guy is going good, you have to play him. But why am I the one getting screwed?

I hear some Reds fans say that what Marty says, everyone believes. Well, he doesn't really like me. Pretty much called me a baby when he said Kepp "has to be in the lineup, and I don't care whose feelings are hurt." That sort of pisses me off. How would you like it, Marty, if you went out there, played hard and never complained, yet for some reason, you find yourself riding pine all of the time? It really gets into your head, especially for a young guy like me, and it affects your game. How am I ever supposed to prove myself if I'm being treated this way?

Last night I was 2-4 and scored a run, so hitting eighth was not all that bad. But I'm a pretty good RBI guy - career .291 hitter with runners in scoring position and a big old .484 with the bases loaded. So why was I hitting eighth? I guess we had a pretty good lineup going last night, what with Hobbs back and all, but we did leave ten runners on. Maybe I should have been further up in the lineup?

Anyway, I have to go. Despite being the team punching bag, I'm still working hard, trying to improve and all, you know? Hey, maybe next year we'll get a new manager and, if we're lucky, a new GM who know talent when they see it and nurture it instead of letting it rot away on the bench or eighth in the lineup.

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