Carlos Beltran

Every now and again, the sun even shines on a sleeping dog's ass.
Big Sluggi (the designated former favorite player of Beantown) seems to be back. He had a great game last night and raised his average to .295, his homers to 7, and his RBIs to 19. Hell, he has as many walks as strikeouts (19) and is nowhere near as futile as he has been at this time in years past. And last night, he had a great game in helping the Red Sox kick the holy hell out of the Yankees for a weekend sweep and a .500 record for the season - albeit with a performance against a team in the decline... a team that is looking to one of it's former greats and saying (in the words of Buster Olney):
The bottom line is that Posada is 39 years old and failing at the last task the Yankees' decision-makers believe he can handle: being a designated hitter. The only thing saving his job this morning is his two decades of history with the franchise.
It's a sad day when a team has to kick its former star to the curb.
But it's only REALLY a sad day when a team isn't prepared for the what ifs... take Minnesota who is in dire need of plastic sheets to avoid bed crapping supreme (that would be the fault of the 2 Joes - Mauer getting injured and Nathan just being lousy) as they went down this weekend to the Blue Jays and Jose Bautista who jacked 3 souveniers out to the customers in Sunday's game alone. I know that I didn't believe in him before, but he seems to be in the groove in the relative obscurity of Toronto, which is nice - as long as he doesn't think he can parlay that power into a move south of the northern border.
This weekend was quite a weekend for former Royals going on a 3 homers in one game tear.
With a 3 for 5 performance (all long balls) on Friday, Carlos Beltran showed that he still has a little wiggle in his stride. That said, he's batting .285 as of this fine Monday morning, but it was a weekend to make the Mets remember why they paid the big money to get him after his 8 homer / over .400 batting average performance in the 2004 playoffs against Atlanta (who everyone beats in the playoffs) and St. Louis (who Houston couldn't beat).
Of course, those were different days for Carlos Beltran. He had a fair bit of pop and a hell of a lot of upside. Then again, he was playing for Kansas City, and when he got traded to Houston for the stretch run, he jacked 23 dingers and hit .258 with 53 RBIs in a potent lineup. He quickly signed with the Mets, which is a place where dreams come to die (and injuries pile on like trash in the Hudson). Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, and Luis Castillo are just a few, though fans and followers seem to have many more choices of who the worst Met signing is, but this isn't about the worst - it's about getting out from under bad decisions.
That said, Beltran's 7 years haven't been all hard time. The first 4 years had some power and some bat, but the last few years... half and 1/3 seasons just make the team wonder what they were paying for. Was he really going to hit 40 home runs and bat .300 every year? Would he patrol center field with a fine toothed comb and shag all of the nasty fly balls that came his way, or would he prove to be what most things that do well in media obscurity truly do when the light of the Big Apple shines on them?
That said... it seems like he's just trying to play his way out of the Mets lineup, which would be nice for them if they could get some return for the next few years and ship him to a contender, where he can just be free to decide if he'll come back or not next year - provided he doesn't get injured and provided he can continue to hit... which are 2 big ifs.
One definite thought being... he won't get 7 years, $119million - no matter what kind of potential he has with the decline he's already showing.

Neil Walker

Beginnings are beautiful. They can go the other way, too, but alas... there's something to be said for playing games when one isn't mathematically eliminated. For example, Kansas City is off to a 4and1 start. Baltimore is off to a 4and0 start, while the Red Sox overuse of Verizon to phone in the season continues with a loss to Cleveland - a stat that doesn't fare them well for a weekend series against New York, who finally LOST to Minnesota, something that is about as rare as sun on one of my day's off to do something, but yeah... it's the start of the season and for new grass on the field and fans in the seats - unless you're in Cleveland where less than 10,000 fans came to watch their team beat Boston. If you're Adam Dunn, you're apparently wanting to keep Matt Holliday company on the appendectomy list, which is at least more positive than being a Rockies pitcher since 2/5 of their starting rotation is already suffering maladies. This definitely doesn't bode well for real or fantasy teams as there is a need for a big bop from certain players and to see Evan Longoria singing those DL Blues (thank you, Baseball Project), it doesn't look promising. If you're Nick Hundley, you're sitting on top of the world - 8for15 with a .533 batting average to lead the league in offense generation. This is helping San Diego to keep it tight in the NL West, a division that's going to get more competitive as the teams look to capitalize on the parity between each other. Hell, between the Giants, the Padres, the Rockies, the Dodgers, and the DBacks, all of the teams have been to the dance in the past 10 years. Only the DBacks are pretty much eliminated from jump, and if they rebuild, they could be back in the flow soon. A sound GM could definitely make a play for this year or next year with ANY of those top 4 teams - barring injury and having career or contract year explosions from some of their borderline players. But if you're already eliminated, and we're talking about you Pittsburgh, a team that may NEVER EVER see a winning season again, you play for July in order to get traded to a competitive team somewhere else, and that seems like what Neil Walker may be doing. He has 1 full season and a little bit of 2 others under his belt, and he's hitting .333, which is a good sign. He's got 3 doubles and a home run, and he's also got 7 RBIs. Last year, he had 12 home runs, 66 RBIs, and a .296 average for the season (just over 400 at bats), but he did whiff 83 times. This year, he's leading the league in that number. Seeing as teams are willing to be patient with their Mark Reynolds and Ryan Howard type players, this may not be such a conundrum - unless you're batting .063 for Cleveland and are generally known as a player worthy of being a bobblehead giveaway. So here's to all those guys making the cut and those who are trying. And for all of you guys on the DL, there's this to aspire to.

Gil Meche

It was passed on to me from one of my friends that Gil Meche threw his $12million salary for 2011 back to Kansas City because, “When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it. Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy amount of money for not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I didn’t want to have those feelings again.”
While it's a badge of honor, it's not like not taking the $12million leaves him applying for welfare. Also, according to NBC, "Meche made more than $50 million playing baseball, with most coming in the five-year, $55 million deal he signed with the Royals after leaving the Mariners."
And so today, we have to think about all of those albatross deals that take down a team forever as they sign a player that they can no longer afford. Vernon Wells who left Toronto for Anaheim, the only city desperate enough for him. Michael Young, who is still good, but who has become obsolete in Texas is awaiting to see where he will end up... Toronto perhaps. Moving through the connections, we think back to how Alex Rodriguez sank the Texas Rangers ship to be the highest paid player in baseball.
Thinking back, we can remember Carlos Lee, Denny Neagle, Mike Hampton, Juan Gonzalez, Kevin Millwood, Derek Bell, Hideki Irabu, Carl Pavano, Mo Vaughn, Barry Zito, Albert Belle, Gary Matthews, Alfonso Soriano, Kevin Brown, Travis Hafner, Daisuke Matsuzaka (I want the money back from the shirt and jersey I bought, too, Daisuke; you suck, and I just want to say that I know the reason why you threw so many pitches in Japan, too - your walks and WHIP).
Few players give back the way Gil Meche or Mark McGwire did when they realize that the end has come and they're still on the hook for a lot of money. It shows that they're going out like a class act instead of an ass crack.
Yep.
These lists could go on all night and they do. You just have to look for them.
And for that, we still believe that there is hope in Kansas City - if they invest the right way for the future. Let's be honest... the now is dead in western Missouri.