As soon as pitchers and catchers start to report, hope
springs eternal for each and every team and fan. People across the nation are talking about
how their team has gotten better, the new players on the roster, how the young
guys have matured, etc. In my case, the
thoughts go something like: Weiters will win MVP, Orioles will win the East,
and Adam Jones will make a run at the Triple Crown.
However, once the season starts, that optimism slowly starts
to fade away. As a fan and as a player
you cannot account for other teams being better than expected and you cannot
account for injuries, but the one thing you can count on is how the players on
your team are playing and whether they are living up to expectations.
It may be unfair for fans to expect the good players to
never struggle and for the average players to always play above their talent
level, but hey, it happens. A true fan
has emotions tied to their favorite team and players and for all the love we
give to the players, a little hate and disappointment is allowed. When someone is playing way below their skill
level, it is disappointing and it comes as a huge let-down. This year, there seems to be a good amount of
all-star players playing not only below expectations, but below any level at
which they ever played before.
There has been so much hoopla about Pujols and his struggles,
but there is no reason to discuss him.
He just may be the greatest hitter of our generation who is
simultaneously in one of the worst slumps of any player in our generation. I dis-agree with the fans booing him, but
with that contract and the expectations on him, I can understand why.
There are other all-stars playing at a very poor level, but for
different reasons I will let them slide.
For example, Teixeira and Adrian Gonzalez are both not living up to expectations. Yes, they are both on my fantasy teams and I
am not happy with either of their performance, but I will not let my love of
fantasy sports bias me in any way! Teixeira
is a notoriously slow starter, so I will give him until the end of May to pass judgment. That being said, even for him, this is a very
slow year with OBP, RBI, and HRs. Deep
down I want to believe that if he was playing in the Orange
and White, he would be having a Kemp-esque year, but that is just wishful
thinking. Gonzalez was a pre-season MVP
candidate. He is having a very poor year
so far, but with all the injuries to that line-up, and not to mention the absurdity
going on in that dugout, I will also let him slide for now.
Now, players that should be just plain ashamed of themselves
are the likes of Joey Votto, Heath Bell, Tim Lincecum, and Carl Crawford. If I was a little kid still collecting
baseball cards (nothing will ever top the ’89 upper deck Griffey card), I would
have tons of cards for all of these players.
Instead, these guys are playing at a level where I would trade all of
their cards together for a Snickers Bar.
These players are all-stars, and some have signed big contracts to deliver
for their team. Also, because of the downward
slide that Pujols is on, these players seem to be getting a free pass from the
press. That being said, even if the
press was all over Lincecum, I am not convinced he doesn’t do anything off the
field that involves the news or reading.
Players the likes of Josh Johnson and some others, I will leave off this
list, since he, along with others, are coming off surgery and that will take
some time to fully recover.
Carl Crawford is shaping up to be one of the worst free
agent signings ever. Between injuries
and just awful playing, he is working his way towards having to go down to AAA
to fix whatever is wrong with him. I get
that the whole Boston team is
playing down (more on that later), but for who he is and the contract he
received, he is an incredible let down.
Batters were not the only people to sign huge contracts in
the off-season. While Miami
was signing what seemed to be every player they could, they landed Heath Bell
to be their shut down closer. As I type
this, Heath Bell is currently sitting in a bullpen and has been replaced as
closer. He has almost as many walks now
as he did all of last year. His velocity
is down and his WHIP and ERA are up.
Those stats jump as a huge letdown year.
For Lincecum and Votto, these two were Cy Young and MVP candidates
respectively, and even though it is early and they can turn the season around,
right now, they are playing so down, they will not even make the All-Star Team.
I talk about all the players that are under-performing, but
for the first time that I can remember, the biggest let down of the early
season may be a manager. With all the
pub and press that Bobby Valentine came in with and the team he is managing, he
is under-performing at a level I have never seen in my thirty years as a
baseball fan. Almost every player on his
team is playing below their level, he is fighting and disagreeing with veteran
players, he is making questionable choices with his lineup and pitchers, and
overall he is doing an incredibly poor job managing. He was brought in to win and to win now.
I don’t see him getting fired mid-season, but if this keeps up all year,
this could be a very interesting off-season for him.
I do hope that all the players that are under performing
turn it around, because baseball is a great sport and it is made even greater
when the stars are playing at star level.
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