Kearnsie stabs this blogger in the heart

Austin, Austin, Austin. I stick up for you. I cheer for you. I contemplate purchasing a 25 jersey. Why? Because you're a friendly fella from Kentucky, who sometimes hits well, but always plays stellar defense. Uh, ok, now you're just a friendly fella from Kentucky.

[side tangent alert!]
Note to Ryan Church; Not sure what the fuck you were trying to convey/accomplish with this quote, but now I'm convinced you're a prick.

For that play, at least, Kearns received forgiveness from all relevant parties. The official scorer ruled the play a double. ("I hit the . . . out of it," said Church, whose other hit was a third-inning home run.

Churchie, buddy. Some dude hit the ... out of your wife last night. Some Jewish dude.
[Back to the Kearnsie discussion now]

No, one bad play does not destroy a player's defensive prowess* (no one fields 1.000). But, when that player is struggling to hit my average blood alcohol content, is hitting no home runs, and leaves more people stranded than my 1970 VW Beetle did, you're no good. I hope you turn the corner, dude, I really do. I'd be more than happy to make my season ticket location "Kearnsie's Korner." At this rate, however, it might end up being "Langerhan's Location," or something lamer than that (if possible).

*Since I'm defending Kearnsie's defense here, I might as well quote some folks, who use real, hard numbers.

Capital Punishment:

[Kearns] "puts a lot of pride into his defense and that invisible sort of hustle, the kind that never shows up on the stat sheets, adds a lot of value. But, there are some cases where it does show up in the stats:

-- Two errors all year, leading the league in Fielding Percentage
-- First in double plays
-- First in putouts -- by 50!
-- First in Zone Rating
-- Most plays made outside his defensive zone

If you convert his zone ratings numbers into an estimate of how many runs he saved relative to an average RFer, it's a staggering number, roughly 16 runs."

Baseballevoloution.com (in discussing the 2007 Gold Glove award):

"I would, however, take a moment to point out the fact that Washington Nationals rightfielder Austin Kearns had a wonderful season defensively, finishing first in revised zone rating, plays made, BIZ (whatever that means), and plays made outside the zone, and second in the league in fielding percentage, range factor, and zone rating. I am sure I would have taken him over Francoeur."