A slightly different note
DMZ · August 28, 2008 at 5:49 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Attempting to be ridiculously specific since there’s always people complaining about the poll question or options or trying to invent their own poll or what the heck ever and it’s really really annoying, even though I know this will do nothing to prevent it:
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For me, personally, Kenji Johjima is the most disappointing Mariner. What a disastrous season, coupled with an ill-timed extension. Plus, Clement waiting in the wings. Ugh.
Soooo does that count? Painful != disappointing?
To clarify — yes, for me, personally, painful=disappointing.
And you said it was “subjective.”
For me, Lowe. He’s the only player on the list I wasn’t expecting at least some measure of decline from (save Yuni [and Jose, who just hasn't been bad enough], but that’s passed from “painful” to “infuriating”). Plus, I like him for whatever reason.
In terms of sheer pain/disappointment, it’s Yuni. His regression has been horrifying to watch.
Oh, come on! No Mariner Moose on the ballot? You can’t ignore his blatant failure to pump up the crowds this season.
I was one of those people who held out a shred of irrational hope that Richie would somehow find a little power, or at least not make me want to cry every time he slumped, beaten, after another strike out or dribbler. I just tangibly FELT the pain.
This one was easier for me, Yuni. I was expecting marked improvements from him this year, and he’s totally fallen off a cliff. Very, very disappointing.
Gotta be Yuni. It’s so hard watching him play now, after the flashes of brilliance we saw a few years ago.
Excellent ridiculous specificity. It made it very easy for me, I had no doubt about my choice this time.
I defended Richie saying this was his rebound year…
It’s Johjima for me. I really like Joh, and I want him to do well.
Other than that it’s Silva because he’s just so soul crushingly bad and so expensive and franchise crippling. That combined with the absurd knowledge that we have to put up with him for 3 more years.
I really want to root for and appreciate Yuni, but he’s just too weak at Defense and too impatient at the plate.
Silva. Watching him suck all year, and knowing that he’ll be coming back, for three more years, and eating up another $36 million.
It’s too bad about Yuni, but at least we can cut the cord with him.
Richie….”without a doubt”….
He’s had too many “He’ll be better eventually” years here in Seattle.
It was painful for me when the Mariners traded for Jose Vidro oh so long ago, giving up prospects to quire an expensive second baseman who could no longer play second base. The pain of seeing this obviously washed-up hack (and perhaps a nice person off the field, for all I know) had been compounded each and every day he remained on the roster, and it was gut-wrenching by the time the M’s FINALLY released him.
If Vidro remained the DH until the end of this season, I would have seriously questioned my allegiance to this team. Considering everything else that has gone wrong this year, Vidro still gets my vote for most painful.
They’re not the worst Mariners by any stretch, but in terms of underperformance relative to sheer likability as guys, it’s gotta be Kenji or Yuni. I want those guys to succeed. Their situation is different from guys like Silva, whom you fully expect to suck and don’t even really like very much as a personality.
Bedard has to be considered, too, no?
If one didn’t wish to annoy the creator of this poll, one might be tempted to mention Erik Bedard. We trade half our farm system for an injured guy. Owie.
But there were oh-so many other options, I did not have trouble voting.
J.L. White said:
It was painful for me when the Mariners traded for Jose Vidro oh so long ago, giving up prospects to quire an expensive second baseman who could no longer play second base. The pain of seeing this obviously washed-up hack (and perhaps a nice person off the field, for all I know) had been compounded each and every day he remained on the roster, and it was gut-wrenching by the time the M’s FINALLY released him.
And those “prospects” are doing worse than Vidro and I think were released waaaaaay before Vidro was.
Sexson? Really?
When we have Silva, Batista, and Cairo on this team?
OK, now people, Silva has to be the painfullest(not an actual word) because of his torrid April, when he went, what, 11-0 with a 1.37 WHIP or something, then apparently ate an entire Old Country Buffet one evening to celebrate and self-destructified.
Also, we have him under contract for now and all eternity.
Turbo for me. Watching him DH and bat forth was exruciating to say the least.
I mean, good God! The whole Vidro thing had to be some sort of cruel joke, right? I mean, who would be stupid enough to think that having Turbo play DH was the right move!
Kenji for me. His performance was not on the radar in the off-season, while the others’ were (even Yuni’s). It makes no sense to be disappointed in Turbo for being Turbo; it’s the FO that causes the pain there.
For me, it was Vidro. Silva is brutal to watch, but he would only appear every 4-5 days. Whereas Vidro played somewhat regularly, and even batted clean-up at one point.
To see him on a ML roster, and to hear the explanations for his presence in a position of importance (”nobody fills the clean-up role, so we put Vidro there”), was extremely painful to endure.
Hah! Love the poll. Made me laugh.
I seem to be alone in choosing Raul. To preempt imaginary criticism of my personal, subjective pain ratings…
For me, Raul’s defense in left is a constant, painful reminder of how much of the pain this team suffers (and inflicts on me) is so easily avoidable.
Their refusal to value defense hurts as much as anything else. And Raul in the field is a constant left jab to my kidney.
For me I put Joh because I’m a fan of his. As the first Japanese catcher he was groundbreaking- People doubted he could catch in the majors and believed he couldn’t communicate well enough with the pitchers (and with some of the comments I’ve seen directed at him this year, some people still believe it). But he worked hard and put in two solid seasons, improved his defense… and then this season comes along. Ouch. To me this was a very painful season watching Kenji struggle like he has.
Oh and one more thing I just thuoght of about the people saying maybe Bedard should be on the list. Maybe he should have, but to me personally the trade was the most painful thing. And him being injured has actually caused me less pain since I didn’t need to be reminded of that trade as often.
As the embers continue to smolder as Bavasi burnt out of town, investigators are still assessing the carnage.
It’s going to be years before we can recover from this. I remember Dave’s assessment when Bavasi was hired. As bad as he said it could have been, it’s truly been much worse than even the wildest imagination could conjure.
Yuni. *sigh* Oh, how much I’ve missed you this year, Betanclutch; those big smiles… that crazy death-metal-lead-singer speaking voice I got to hear in post-game when you’d come up with the big AB. Were you high on those too? Is that why you must turn every four-pitch walk into an inning-ending GIDP? Too eager to not throw a ball six feet over the 1B’s head?
As a Mariners fan, I’ve gotten pretty good-natured about losing, but watching Yuni fall off a cliff makes me wanna cry.
Joh. You could hear the ticking before most of the bombs, but Kenji blew up with no warning. A shocking decline is more painful than expected suckitude.
For this one, I had to say Betancourt.
His continued regression creates yet another roster problem that this team will need to solve before they can be successful; but it wasn’t that long ago that we were thinking he’d solidify the shortstop position for years to come.
I don’t think he actually harmed the team’s chances to win as much as Vidro did though, which is why I’m answering differently this time.
Vidro, I never expected to do anything other than suck from the moment they signed him; I used to have hope for Betancourt, but it’s pretty much all gone.
As always, Willie is putting up a gallant, gritty effort by garnering 1% of the vote!
It has to be Carlos Silva statistically, physically, spiritually, and chemically.
Still Johjima, for me, obviously. The lack of warning made his performance very painful, and it is almost scary how anemic he has been pretty much overnight.
My vote was for Batista. I just don’t see how he can fit into this rotation in the future; there’s simply no realistic role for him. Silva is a good vote, but we did have those first couple of starts that went rather well.
One note on Bedard. What has been painful for me regarding him was having any hopes that he might sign here dashed when it became apparent what a shmuck he is. I agree with the posters above who said the trade was the most painful thing, but realizing that it wouldn’t be salvaged with a longer term contract was like salt in a wound. The injuries? I don’t know, go ahead and add to the metaphor, maybe the wound was festering. Every start just became a painful reminder.
There’s a blogosphere lobby among us to call Betancourt the worst player on the team this season, but beyond his disappointing season and loss of mobility, I can’t say that he is nearly as painful to watch as Miguel Batista. He makes me cringe before he even takes the mound, because I know I’m going to see a bunch of wild, swerving cutters miss the zone half the time, with each pitch taking him forever to throw, and walk after walk after base hit after walk.
Silva has been awful but at least he throws strikes and moves things along. Betancourt has been awful at the plate and on the field but he’s at least somewhat useful at the plate and on the field. As for his hitting… Scott Spiezio’s 2005 will forever be the benchmark of complete uselessness at the plate, which Yuni is nowhere close to, plus Yuni defensive woes are truly noticeable only when you look at defensive metrics.
I wanted to say Sexson and Vidro but Sexson was at least benched, and while Vidro’s sucktasm was a known quantity, he mainly stuck out due to very poor usage by the field manager.
$14 mil. a year + 2.5 years of futility = excruciating
Richie will always be in a class of his own for me, god bless him. He might be the most painful for me since Bobby Ayala.
Shouldn’t this be multiple choice?
Isn’t it?
I voted Sexson. Every time he’d come up with guys on base, you’d hope that he, Samson-like, could reach deep into the black hole into which his skills had plummeted and pull out a conquering vestige of his former glory. And almost every time you, and he, would be denied. That’s painful.
Elmer, that’s it for me. Sexson was just exactly good enough, for the exact period of time that it took to make us think that he could do it again.
Betancourt had so much defensive potential, to see him fat and slow, and his range completely gone, is absolutely painful. Especially since I’m a guy who loves defensive shortstops. They don’t even have to hit (my all-time favorite player was Ozzie, who actually hit more as his career progressed).
I guess that’s a point you have to give Silva over Batista; he sucks, but at least he sucks quickly.
This.
You mean multi-select. That would be a control with check boxes.
Vidro all the way, especially after the hilarious piece where the Ms were defending using him at DH despite his complete lack of power because he gave great at-bat. Or something.
I can see Vidro, but for me, pain expresses itself as white-hot anger, and nothing stokes my furnace like seeing Miguel Cairo playing first base. It’s like man-on-dog sex; it’s JUST PLAIN WRONG.
So Steve T is the one guy who voted for Cairo?
Sexson still gives me the jitters when I think about him/hear his name.
Make it stop
1% of 2,248 is somewhere around 20.
Why isn’t Beltre on the list?
why would he qualify as a “Most painful 2008 season performance by a player for you, subjectively, as a fan”?
It was painful to have a MLB record within M’s grasp then have boom-boom hit a double, so he got my vote. Sure it’s not the most desirable record, but I’ll take anything this year and we can’t even get that much.
I chose Johjima over Sexson because after Sexy’s season last year I really didn’t expect much from him this year.
I was most angry about Vidro getting the early season at-bats that Clement and/or Balentien needed to get going, but Johjima’s cursed season has been the most painful. Why the baseball gods decided to punish Johjima (and us) is a mystery for the ages. Perhaps Johjima should make a ritual sacrifice of his spikes and Silva’s used athletic supporters or something.
First post, very long time reader.
Choices, choices, choices. It is so difficult to pick a single painful entry from this year, partially based on previous years.
Joh: back from 00-02 I would yell into the screen “just strike out!” when Dan Wilson came up to the plate with 2-3 on and 1 out. Joh makes me realize how good we had it, then.
Pitchers I can not comment on, because my most hated pitcher of all things Mariner (ok, on any team I’ve ever followed) was let go last year.
That leaves me with Yuni, who has become my image of GIDP incarnate. Last time I grimaced through a game, he was up with the bases loaded, one out. I called my wife in and predicted “one pitch, double play”. Yuni came through brilliantly, swinging weakly at the first pitch.
When I see him, I think Carlos Gullien, what could have been, and wonder how had things unraveled so far. I still follow Carlos, Freddy, Ryan (I know), Jamie, Joel; I can’t watch most of the current team while they are with us.
I have boycotted the stadium this year.
Clarification – by hated pitcher, I mean Weaver, and by “grimaced through a game” I meant inning.
Ichiro. It’s really painful to see him stuck on a terrible team.
Richie got my vote. Probably because of the pathos of seeing a nice guy, working hard, just lose the incredible skill set that made him a threat.
At the end, when every pitcher viewed him as an easy out, maybe a GIDP, no longer a danger of any kind, much less a HR possibility…my heart broke for the guy.
Also, I don’t recall a lot of excuses, and I seem to recall a fair amount of taking responsibility, (Memo to: Washburn), which I thought showed some class. He admitted that it bothered him to be booed, but didn’t lash out at the fans.
I wish him well.
Putz. Let-down from the start.