So long, Duaner Sanchez. May you forever remind Met fans to fasten their seat belts and not fall in love with relief pitchers. We’ll always have the first half of 2006.
I’ve got issues with the World Baseball Classic but they’re pretty much limited to the non-baseball aspects of it, particularly the addition of ugly sponsor logos to the uniforms, which we ought to know is a trial balloon for this sort of thing on a regular basis, considering Bud Selig is running the thing. However the competition has been great, once again, and fans who pooh-pooh it, no matter how well argued their cases, are missing out.
If it makes Spring Training seem boring by comparison, I’ve got news for you: Spring Training is already boring.For the Mets they’ve so far brought us little more than Sanchez’s release (which could have come last September); some mildly interesting competition for a few bench and bullpen roles which experience tells us don’t tend to matter a whole lot anyway; and health-related terror alerts around three of our projected starting pitchers.
This is not for me.
Submitted by rowery (not verified) on Thu, 03/12/2009 – 5:34am.
I’ve got issues with the World Baseball Classic but they’re pretty much limited to the non-baseball aspects of it, particularly the addition of ugly sponsor logos to the uniforms, which we ought to know is a trial balloon for this sort of thing on a regular basis, considering Bud Selig is running the thing. However the competition has been great, once again, and fans who pooh-pooh it, no matter how well argued their cases, are missing out.
– Thanks for the info
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On the WBC: It seems the
Submitted by Chris C (not verified) on Thu, 03/12/2009 – 7:45am.
On the WBC:
It seems the tournament isn’t dumbed down enough for the Tabloid Society we have in the U.S. to enjoy it. Some of them are the same people who whined years ago about the fact that the juiced-up power hitters were padding their stats against below average starters and shoddy bullpens.
The WBC is not just about keepign Americans entertained and playing for one’s country, it is also a way for us to see the worldwide baseball talent pool which might produce some good major leaguers over the next decade. This year, we saw improvements out of Italy, the Nethlands, Austrailia and China. Hopefully, South Africa will start catching up as well.
The first classic showed a major disparity in talent and, so far, the teams with less-than stellar baseball programs then are learning to improve. This is all great for baseball. We might see a better quality of overall ballplaying in the next ten years as the larger talent pool will offset the previous thinning of such talent thanks to recent expansions.
I must also point out that the first classic was not without its moments: We got to watch Cuban sensation Yunesky Gouriel dominate the tourney until the finals, we saw Daisuke Matsuzaka own opposing hitters, the Pat Molyan (AUS to the Braves) story and the Wei Wang home run off Japan that let China tie a game 2-2 inthe early innings and silenced a crowd of Japanese fans expecting a quick blowout (too bad Wei, a talented catcher, will miss out on the chance to play MLB). That blowout, however, did come when China sent in their bad bullpen.
This year has been quite exciting too. The WBC will wind up being a great asset to MLB as a whole, but we need to be patient. The event may not mean much to Americans, but soon more undiscovered talent will get a chance to play pro ball in the US. That can only be good.
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traitor!
Submitted by hodges14 (not verified) on Thu, 03/12/2009 – 9:08am.
oh sure, bail on the poor guy, As you know, I defended him in my latest blog post.
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Well, I’ll be honest, I
Submitted by Jon Springer on Thu, 03/12/2009 – 10:50am.
Well, I’ll be honest, I bailed on Sanchez 30 seconds after the car accident, or at least as soon as I realized he was out for the balance of the ’06 season. Not because I didn’t like the guy or want him to succeed but because of how enigmatic and mercurial relief pitchers and relief pitching is, I knew we wouldn’t ever again come to the intersection of Moment and Man for the Moment that were, respectively, early 2006 and Duaner Sanchez. Nothing against him, but his time came and went.
I do think Duaner Sanchez will live forever in Met lore as the fulcrum of the entire decade (I realized recently that its late enough in 2000s that we can start to talk about the whole decade now). He was a symbol of the franchise’s best few months, and his injury would have far-reaching direct and indirect reverberations.
Chris, I totally agree with your post.