How Much Longer Does Bellhorn Have?
Slump could cost Bellhorn job at 3rd: Kelton continues to shine at Iowa (Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 4/26/2003)
The Bellhorn’s Losing His Job articles are back again. This time from the Trib. Unfortunately, since the Sun-Times published an article just over a week ago saying Mark Bellhorn was quieting his critics by starting to hit, Bellhorn has struggled again. He’s currently hitting .188/.348/.290. That .348 OBP% is higher than both Corey Patterson’s and leadoff hitter Mark Grudzielanek’s. Bellhorn’s power has yet to show up, though.
Unlike Mike Kiley at the Sun-Times, who appeared to be making up news about Bellhorn, the Trib’s Paul Sullivan at least gives us a quote from Dusty Baker: “There’s a point in time where you have to know who you have on an everyday basis. I’m giving him an opportunity to play here. It’s up to ‘Bell’ to seize the opportunity. We saw flashes earlier that he was coming out of it. I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
Not exactly a vote of confidence.
Mr. Sullivan informs us that David Kelton is currently hitting .328 at Iowa with a .419 OBP%. There’s nothing in the article, though, that suggests Mr. Sullivan isn’t just raising Kelton’s success on his own, that the Cubs are actually considering calling him up.
It may be the case that Kelton is ready to play. If so, what I’d really to like to see is Bellhorn moved to second. Over the course of the season, there’s a better than not chance that he’ll be better than Grudzielanek, who’s really started to slow from his hot pace at the beginning of the year. I don’t expect that to happen, though.
UPDATE (4/27/2003 4:40pm): Mike Kiley really poured it on in today’s Sun-Times:
Bellhorn should realize that his time as a starter is running out. No one on the Cubs is ready to say that [then why are you writing this “news report"?], hoping that he finds his stroke somewhere, but general manager Jim Hendry has to be laying the groundwork soon if he plans to pull off a June trade.
Whatever Mr. Kiley’s merits as a journalist are, it’s “reports” like these that make it clear that he’s not a reporter, but a columnist, even if he’s not labeled by the paper as such.
UPDATE (4/27/2003 4:55pm): The Cub Reporter has more, including a nice comparison of Bellhorn, Mike Lowell, and Shea Hillenbrand.