Daily Dotes for March 20

Table of Contents

Here’s the table of contents for Daily Dotes, March 20th edition, in which there is some serious dotage in the “to bestow excessive love or fondness on” sense.

1. Everyone’s New Favorite Jack Kerouac, Evan Gattis
2. Everyone’s Favorite Nick Offerman Fan, Brandon McCarthy
3. Everyone’s Favorite Gnome, Vincent Belnome

Everyone’s New Favorite Jack Kerouac, Evan Gattis

Gattis will begin the year at Class AA Mississippi. (Photo: Tony Farlow/MiLB.com)

I was pretty stoked when my copy of Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2012 arrived in the mail in February. I was probably more stoked when, two weeks later, I read the entry on Atlanta Braves catching prospect Evan Gattis.

Though a lowly #27 on the team’s Top 30 list, Gattis posted a .427 wOBA with Atlanta’s Class A affiliate in 2011 by crushing 48 XBH (22 HR) in just 377 PA. That, of course, becomes much less impressive when you notice that 2011 was his age 24 season.

But, it becomes impressive again when you find out why he was only just in the Sally League as a 24 year old. Many articles, including the profile I read in the Prospect Handbook, make mention of Gattis’s unconventional path to the big leagues: he passes on scholarship to Texas A&M out of fear of failure; mother checks him into rehab for pot obsession; tries to play JuCo ball but quits after a semester; works at various ski resorts and pizza joints (etc.) in several different cities as he attempts to find spiritual peace/enlightenment/whatever, all while (mostly) living out of a truck that he has to push start and leave idling while he refuels it, eventually is told by a long-sought-after guru to “chill”; returns to home state of Texas to play college ball; gets drafted in the 23rd round; crushes minor league pitching.

The stuff that I’ve read about him doesn’t include much more detail than that, but it’s a helluva story even in summary, isn’t it?

One thing I am sure of: someone has got to do a better job of interviewing Gattis than was done here. Maybe that someone will be yours truly.

Everyone’s Favorite Nick Offerman Fan, Brandon McCarthy

For no reason, embarrassingly, I was not following Nick Offerman on Twitter.

I have, for some months, been following Brandon McCarthy, who has a sense of humor. Behold his Twitter profile picture:

The rest of them are appropriately blurry.

Last night, Brandon McCarthy RT’d this Nick Offerman tweet:

Did anyone else receive the pleasure of this particular couplet? twitter.com/Nick_Offerman/…

— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) March 19, 2012

I have rarely felt so spoiled as I felt when I witnessed this melding of things that I love.

And now, thanks to Brandon McCarthy, I am following Nick Offerman.

Everyone’s Favorite Gnome, Vincent Belnome

At 5’11”, 205 pounds, Vincent Belnome is the kind of guy that many scouts would peg as, at best, “a regular pinch hitter and roving infield sub,” which is exactly how Baseball America described his future while ranking him 30th amongst Padres prospects. Still, he walks a ton, keeps his strikeouts under control, has an above average ISO, especially for 2B. He lacks a true position but can play a number of places passably enough. In his lone trip to the plate this spring, he drew a walk.

I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a Jeremy Brown apologist, and I’m certainly not above rooting for Vincent Belnome to surpass scout’s expectations. In fact, I’m adding him to all my fantasy watchlists. You never know when you’re going to need a MI, and the Good Gnome just might force his way onto a major league roster by the end of the year.