In a column today, Yahoo's Jeff Passan opines that American players simply don't have as much national pride and that is why talented player after talented player is turning down Team USA manager Davey Johnson's desperate recruiting pleas.
Among those expected to decline an invitation is our own Tim Lincecum, otherwise known, quite literally, as The Franchise.
It would seem that Passan's assertion that Lincecum, Cole Hamels, Josh Beckett and other WBC party poopers are just un-American is a bit simplistic. I mean, those guys all seem decent enough, right? Guys who gave it all for championships and are pretty much beyond reproach in the effort department. They don't have a Bondsian, Cobb-esque stigma that would make it seem like they're all about themselves, others be damned.
Well, Jeff has an interesting perspective. Here's another perspective, which I'd like to dub "The Right One." If you were one of the 18 to 24 solid major league pitchers in 2005 and you pitched for your respective country during the '06 WBC, well, chances are you weren't as good in 2006. And, perhaps most importantly, many didn't recover at all.
In a completely unscientific sample, I present...
"Good Pitchers Who Were Not So Good After the 2006 WBC" (Catchy, huh?)
Jake Peavy: Which one of these seasons is not like the other? Peavy remains the poster boy for post-WBC traumatic suck syndrome. His meteoric rise into this generation's Kevin Brown (no knock on your personality, Jake) was severely curtailed by his workload for Team USA in 2006.
Although he pitched over 200 innings in 2006, his ERA shot up from 2.88 in '05 to 4.09 that year, and he pitched with shoulder discomfort the entire season. Peavy's sublime talent and overall build won the war of attrition, eventually, and he came back in 2007 to win the Cy Young. Some, however, weren't as lucky...
Chad Cordero: Cordero was coming off a stellar season as a full-time closer for the Nationals, posting a 1.82 ERA and racking up 47 saves. His 2006 saw that ERA shoot up into the 3s and his decline continued into 2007, when he battled injuries. Cordero tore a labrum in early 2008 after struggling with his velocity, and is currently a a free agent.
Bartolo Colón: Here's a good example of a patriotic foreigner who gave it all for his country. The 2005 Cy Young winner (seriously, look), Colón has been completely awful since his stint for the Dominican Republic. He's compiled a 5.50 ERA in just 194.6 innings combined over the last three seasons after throwing for 200 in seven of the eight seasons prior.
After pitching on an incentive-laden deal with the Red Sox, Colón is hoping to land another Missouri contract for 2009.
Freddy García: García had been prone to lapses in consistency, but overall, was a horse of a pitcher, amassing 200 innings pitched in five of his first six seasons through 2005, to go along with a 3.93 ERA in that timeframe, including a 3.87 in '05 with the White Sox. After? 4.79 in the 289.3 innings he's managed to pitch over the last three campaigns with three different teams while struggling with shoulder injuries.
The 33 year-old García is currently seeking work.
Dontrelle Willis: Permanent WBCitis doesn't just afflict 30 somethings negatively. Coming off a brilliant 2005 in which he finished second in Cy balloting, the 24 year-old Willis manned up for the Jeff Passans of the world and participated in the WBC. The herky-jerky lefty has never been the same.
The Bay Area native is working to get his career back on track with the Tigers after spending a bulk of the season in the minors...
A couple of pitchers from the WBC came back fine, namely Carlos Zambrano and Johan Santana. But the list is no longer than those who regressed considerably from 2005, many (Estaban Loaiza, J.C. Romero, Huston Street) of whom I didn't list above.
As for the notion of mandatory pitch limits in the WBC, I'll leave you this comparison: 65 pitches in Scottsdale against the A's split-squad team in close quarters with the trainers and coaches that know you well is slightly different than the same number of heaves in a high-pressure competition. I'd hope the body of evidence above proves that.
So, sorry, Jeff, Davey Johnson can't have Timmy. And, while I'm at it, he can't have Matt Cain.
None of them, however, are unpatriotic. They're smart.
P.S. We'll gladly donate Randy Winn again.
Monday, December 22, 2008
FU Fine Reaction to WBC (and Jeff Passan)
SHARE!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Great post. I had an inkling that the WBC was bad for a pitcher, but had no idea how the mighty had fallen in correlation with their time on the national team.
Here's to hoping that not a single Giants pitcher sits on this flagpole. However, I would like to see our boy Dave Roberts get a slot on the Japanese team.
That article really pissed me off. I was gonna write a post about Passan being a complete shitstick but I decided to let it pass. I'm glad you expressed this for me.
Had Lincecum, Webb, Peavy, et al. decided to play in the WBC it's a good bet that Passan would've have written an article calling these guys out for jeopardizing their careers, or some other sanctimonious horseshit.
He's such a blowhard. For some reason Passan gets a free pass because he's young and he's into sabermetrics, so bloggers tend not to call him out, but he's a pompous, reactionary moron. The article he wrote last year about banning maple bats could have easily been written by Plaschke or Bayless, or any of those idiots. This, unfortunately, is his standard fare.
Whatever, I'm not bitter or anything, because he called out Lincecum.
Post a Comment