Jarrod thinks you live in your parents’ basement

DMZ · February 23, 2009 at 8:22 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

From the Times

Washburn is aware there’s a segment of Mariners faithful less than enamored with him.

“Nobody ever says it to my face,” he said. “I think most of those people who do that … they hide behind their computer and write it online and do all that and nobody ever knows who’s saying it. Lots of people can do that.”

I’ve really tried to keep my dislike for Jarrod limited to the things I don’t like: the Johjima stuff, specific comments, and so on. But this just begs for a response.

Jarrod, maybe they say it to your face but you don’t understand them because they’re speaking Japanese. Right now in Japan there might be people doing press interviews about your poor communication skills.

Or maybe they’re afraid you’re going to shoot them and have the kill scored.

And I don’t know about most people — that’s probably true, the Internet is a wonder of anonymity with all the joy and horror that entails. But I put my name on the site and every post, and so does Dave, and so do the Lookout Landing guys.

I’ll just get this over with, though. Hey, Jarrod’s face from MLB.com?

“Huh?”

You weren’t that great last year, and that business with trying to publicly blame Johjima for your poor performances was low. Whether or not you feel that way, you should have kept it out of the press.

“Huh.”

“Was I overpaid last year? Yeah, for what I did,” he said. “But somebody told me once that when you sign a contract like that, you’re not pitching for that contract. You’re getting paid now for what you did in the past — when you weren’t making any money and [were] putting up the numbers.”

This is entirely fair, and I don’t ever blame players for getting paid as much as they can. I don’t know that Washburn’s getting paid for what he did in the past, but that’s a whole other argument. Blame the guys who offered him the deal, not him for signing it.

But the way this is worded is bad. It’s really bad. You’re being paid to pitch, and even if we buy the assumption that the money is based on the past performance, this seems to let anyone off the hook for any post-signing performance. If you’re the highest paid free agent pitcher and you don’t do any conditioning work and suck all season, that’d be fine too, because you’re being paid for what you did when you cared, right….? Down that path lies madness.

I don’t think if you put the question to Washburn that way that he’d agree, either — I suspect this is just a case of not quite saying what he thinks, if you will, or not entirely seeing how it would come across.

And at least he’s being honest, and we know he hates people on the Internet now. Would we rather he said that or “Fans who come out to see a game expect a good performance, and too often I failed to deliver that. I understand their frustration and look forward to this new season when I can prove…” ? I don’t know that I would.

Comments

56 Responses to “Jarrod thinks you live in your parents’ basement”

  1. DMZ on February 24th, 2009 6:48 pm

    There is a link in the very sentence too.

  2. Dugan on February 24th, 2009 7:57 pm

    Jarrod like to hunt deer. A lot.

    There is a link in the very sentence too.

    I read the story the first time. Is this anti-hunting snark? Agreed, Jarrod Washburn is a bad pitcher and he may be a bad teammate. He didn’t threaten to shoot someone and “have the kill scored”.

  3. Jeff Nye on February 24th, 2009 8:08 pm

    It was a joke.

  4. Dugan on February 24th, 2009 8:10 pm

    Got it – I am dense sometimes. Should stop reading political blogs in between Mariner blogs.

  5. section331 on February 24th, 2009 8:12 pm

    He didn’t threaten to shoot someone and “have the kill scored”.

    joke   [johk] noun, verb, joked, jok⋅ing.
    –noun

    1. something said or done to provoke laughter or cause amusement, as a witticism, a short and amusing anecdote, or a prankish act: He tells very funny jokes. She played a joke on him.
    2. something that is amusing or ridiculous, esp. because of being ludicrously inadequate or a sham; a thing, situation, or person laughed at rather than taken seriously; farce: Their pretense of generosity is a joke. An officer with no ability to command is a joke.
    3. a matter that need not be taken very seriously; trifling matter: The loss was no joke.
    4. something that does not present the expected challenge; something very easy: The test was a joke for the whole class.
    5. practical joke.
    –verb (used without object)
    6. to speak or act in a playful or merry way: He was always joking with us.
    7. to say something in fun or teasing rather than in earnest; be facetious: He didn’t really mean it, he was only joking.
    –verb (used with object)
    8. to subject to jokes; make fun of; tease.
    9. to obtain by joking: The comedian joked coins from the audience.

    EDIT; never mind, he got to it before I did…

  6. Ron Stevens on February 24th, 2009 9:48 pm

    [and that’s it for you]

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