Thanksgiving Thoughts

Well, A Happy Thanksgiving to you and all your beloved on this wonderful of holidays. One of my personal favorite days of the year. As we are sitting around mulling over the football games and tending to the family, I felt it my duty to give back a little on this day. Since this being award season and all, I figured I’d hand out some hardware of my own.

I know everyone else has beaten this to death and the saber metric guys are thrilled and the heat string fans are disappointed. Ol’ Josh Wilson will be testing the free-agent waters. I say THANK GOD! That is something to be thankful for on this day, him not returning for another year.  Which is my personal 2009 “Who I am thankful for losing during this off-season”

I will admit that it was close between Miguel Batista and Kenji Johjima also placing for this award.

Ultimately it came down to everyone knows Batista was awful. I know it, the writers for the Bleacher Report know it, even Geoff Baker and Larry LaRue can agree on it. The guy just sucks and what better way to celebrate him being gone than not even wasting a whole paragraph on it.

Kenji wasn’t as bad as his 2008 stats reflected. He had a late 2009 resurgence which could have suggested he had more in the tank and could have ultimately, maybe, perhaps done something positive for us. Not that he would have in any way been worthy of that gargantuan contact he was given. But, he could have contributed something more than batting practice pitching in the 7th inning of a blow out.  Johjima also did us a huge favor opting out of that contract. While he made a good sum of money over in Japan this gives us an edge going into free-agency that is much needed.

Now, understand I have no qualms with Mr.Wilson. I just have become extremely exhausted that every time I turned around people were suggesting his talent as an “untapped” resource within this team. You know how 28 year old washed up shortstops that also serve as part time 7th inning blow-out pitchers suddenly turn into . I wish him the best and expect that he in no way ever returns to the Seattle organization.

Also, I would like to remind everyone that while you may be sitting on the Brandon Morrow fence or even be on one side or the other, there is simply one fence everyone should be on at this point in time. That is the Ryan Rowland-Smith fence.  This guy really stepped up and pitched great once he got healthy. FIP – 4.20 K/9 – 4.86 BB/9  – 2.52 LD% – 18.5% HR/FB – 6.7% – Oh and while those K/9 are the lowest of his career Bill James suggests that his numbers jump up to over 6 this next year. Ladies and Gentlemen we have our #3 pitcher and the next annual Jarrod Washburn award winner of the most misleading pitching performance in 2010.

I wonder with the upgrade of Jack Wilson at short and the constant rotation of Carlos Silva’s tRA from ’02 to ’09 going like the following

2002: 4.84
2003: 5.06
2004: 4.94
2005: 5.11
2006: 6.81
2007: 4.68
2008: 5.63
2009: 6.94

Is he due for a mass resurgence? Assuming resurgence is merely being thrust into the mediocre pitching tier.  Since I issued out the award of the most misleading 2010 stats to RR-S, I think it only fair that I name Joel Piniero the 2010 Carlos Silva award winner “I got a huge contact because I didn’t have an ERA over 5 the year I hit free agency.” If Met fans were angry this past year. Next year is really going to suck.

Today I got caught up with the last week and half posts over at Prospect Insider has left me hopeful that maybe Jack Zduriencik has a greater fondness for Michael Saunders than initially thought. Should this be the case, we may not go another decade of nameless and faceless left fielders. But with this said and the season now over it’s time to induct both Endy Chavez and Wladimir Balentien into the honorary Mike Felder anonymous left fielder hall-of-fame.

I feel only a tiny bit guilty as Endy was awesome and had it not been for Yuniesky Betancourt and his shameful I-don’t-know-why-Don-Wakamatsu-continues-to-let-me-endanger-other-players-because-I’m-truly-that-awful gymnastics. Saunders most likely wouldn’t have been seen until September. Sadly, he will still be forgotten and most likely Balentien along with him.

Wlad seemed to make a good impression in Cincinnati after the trade but I recently heard he isn’t even in the running for a starting position. Which I would think could make him a non-tender candidate but then again. I don’t really have my ear to the ground in the Reds camp. All I’m saying is I don’t think it’s going to be too big of a loss that we let him go for nothing.

More of my 2009/2010 awards:

Douglas Fister wins the 2009 Dave Fleming “I have just enough talent to get by and fool you all” award.

Adam Dunn wins the 2009 Yuniesky Betancourt “Seriously, I’m still playing the field? Even I think that’s a bad idea” award.

Franklin Gutierrez wins the 2009 Edgar Martinez “I’m sorry you play in the Pacific Northwest, you would be appreciated more if you did this in Boston or New York” award.

Manny Acta wins the 2009 “Can you believe I was only unemployed for 10 minutes, let alone someone actually gave me yet another chance at responsibility” award.

I’ll end this on a sad note, as it seems inevitable that Adrian Beltre will receive the 2009 Raul Ibanez “We love you and will have to find something to complain about you once your gone to numb the pain” award. This past year we hid behind his lack of fielding. Which lets face it was an legitimate issue the past few years.

However, that’s going to pave the way for someone to start a rant come spring training. They will somehow acquire the balls to rip Beltre for his slow starts and “poor” offensive showings while in Seattle. Sir whoever you are, you suck.