If there is one sport I absolutely fascinated by, it would have to be baseball. One of the few things that first intrigues me is the sheer competitive nature and atmosphere of each game. I love when you have a bases loaded situation and the pitcher of the home team has to get out of that bases loaded situation with no outs, one out, or two outs. The second thing I love about it is that it is so unpredictable and yet so predictable at the same time. For example, coming into the year 2012 I had it in the back of my head that my team, the Oakland A’s, had little chance of even sniffing 70 wins and they proved me oh so wrong. It was also predictable in the back of my head that the San Francisco Giants, having been down 3-0 to the St.Louis Cardinals, had a shot once they won game 4 because they did it with pitching, speed, and defense. This is where the idea of unpredictability and predictability come in with one of my other fascinations of baseball: appearing and disappearing baseball players. My goal here is to observe what I saw throughout the years of these players careers as well as what might have lead to them being so great to just vanishing. Now, my first player comes as a bit of a weird one because he was so big and strong yet he struck out so much
10. Richie Sexson
When I first started watching baseball in 2003, I noticed this big scruffy guy that played for the Milwaukee Brewers and he had this big bad powerful stroke that would scare opposing pitchers. I remember when I saw him playing for the Seattle Mariners he would do one of two things a) strike out or b) hit a home run. I wondered, how do guys with a big powerful swing get punched out so often? I started noticing that this is not the case with every big and tall major league player (i.e. Prince Fielder) but with guys like Adam Dunn, Jack Cust, Josh Hamilton, and even sometimes David Ortiz it is easy to get these to swing at pitches low and away. For example, one time Richie Sexson was going up against Rich Harden and every time Harden threw a nasty splitter at him he would swing away at it which made it seem clear that power hitters just get payed to hit home runs. It didn’t matter that he averaged 150 or some odd strikeouts, he just had to make contact and when he did it had to make an impact. My theory is that Sexson’s body broke down from so many years of striking out, hitting home runs, and also the toll that does to your body by trying to hit home runs. He sure did have a good swing and what mattered is whether or not he had his team on the w column.
9. Brandon Webb
I have been fascinated by this guy’s career because he retired at the age of 30 and we never got to see the true potential of what could have been one of the greats. I remember one of the few times that I was watching a Giants game and he was throwing a very good sinker against them getting ground ball after ground ball. True, velocity does dip as you get older but from what I saw this guy could have been hall of fame material if shoulder surgery hadn’t ended his career. What’s interesting about Webb’s career is that, not including his rookie year, he pitched 200 innings in 5 straight seasons. He was well on his way to becoming the next money pitcher had injuries not hampered his career. This is my theory on Brandon Webb, he pitched on a team that wasn’t great but they weren’t awful so what ended up happening is that he they became too reliable on one guy that threw like a machine to save their pitching and eventually your arm just goes out. Cheers to pitchers!
8. Johan Santana
As the theme with pitchers continues, it seems like Santana’s career might have been too little too late as he had a run with Minnesota Twins that was quite impressive. When he first burst onto the scene, he was nearly unhittable with a beaming fastball that ran in hitters like nobody’s business. His changeup was even more impressive due to the pitch looking like it was going to be hittable but it would go down and in at the last minute. He was very impressive due to his stance he would take on the mound and I was disappointed that we never got more from the pitcher due to the fact that he was seem geared up for the games. He once faced the Oakland A’s and he looked deadly mowing down hitters one by one with that nasty changeup. Recently, he threw a no hitter and he was throwing essentially the same and once again injuries seemed to rack up once again. The theory here is that pitchers seem to put too much stress on their shoulders and this is what ends their careers too early, It might also be that training programs and therapy could play a big part and this is probably no different in Santana’s case.
7. Jim Edmonds
Nothing got better than watching Edmonds play in the outfield, coming up to bat, or even just hearing his interviews bashing other major league players. He almost had the 5 tools of a baseball player (average, power, defense, speed, and throwing). He didn’t have the speed which, give or take, might have made him a better all around player due to his ability to drive the ball with such a compact swing that just looked like a big golf swing. I am glad I got to see him play in his prime with the Cardinals because he was so good at what he did, you just couldn’t help but to cheer the guy on. He came across like a true gamer and someone that would enjoy getting the team going with his energy and his willingness to win tough games. Man, baseball needs players like this. My theory on Edmonds is that yes, he disappeared, but he had an excellent career which ended with him going to several different teams at the end of his career.
6. Miguel Tejada
At some point, I had to put Miguel Tejada in here because he always came across as a big league guy that would be fantastic for years. Truth is, he never had quite the success that he had with the Oakland A’s and early on with the Baltimore Orioles as his swing became a little shorter after and he started getting behind the ball just a little bit less than before. One of the key things I remember about Tejada is how excited he would get whenever he made a great defensive play or when he hit a home run which was always welcome in my eyes. Even though he has averaged a .285 Batting average in his years as big leaguer, he will probably never get the accolades that a Derek Jeter or a Jimmy Rollins might get because his career was never as great as the names mentioned. My theory with Tejada is that age and the question of staying healthy probably hampered his career and now he is almost 40 ready to call it a career. Cheers to Tejada and the many great years he had with the Oakland A’s. Next time I’ll come back with the next five players that have probably skipped my mind and yours:
-Matt Morris
–Mark Grudzielanek
-Larry Walker
-Grady Sizemore
-Carlos Lee
Just Another Day... 