Skip to main content

The Struggling Natural

On October 1st of last year things looked great for Josh Hamilton. The Natural has just finished his first campaign with the Texas Rangers, he had won fans and admiration from his terrific season and his sparkling home run derby production. He had dominated opposing AL pitching to the tune of 130 RBI, 32 Home Runs and a .304 average. He looked as if he had turned the corner and was going to ferever live up to the potential that once made him the top overall pick.

On April 1st of this year, Hamilton was wrapping up his spring training. A Spring training where he easily replicated his beastly 2008 production. In Spring Training this season Hamilton hit 7 HRs, batted .370 and averaged an RBI per game in just 81 at bats. Again everything pointed towards a replication of 2008. But 2009 was not meant to build off his success in 2008. 2009 was meant to test the fortitude of Josh Hamilton and to test the man he's become since he battled back from drug addiction.

On August 1st, Josh Hamilton had already spent over a month and a half on the disable list, a combination of two different trips to the DL. He had just 7 homers which matched his production in spring training. He was batting just .222. He had just 29 RBIs for the season, a total he matched in the Month of May in 2008 and exceeded in the Month of April.

Everything was looking down in the dumps for Hamilton but one other differing factor from 2008 to 2009. Hamilton's Rangers are actually squarely in the pennant & wild card races this season. Despite the glaring lack of production from their best player, the Rangers are in it. Despite being awful all year, Hamilton can now have a terrific August and September and help lead his team to the playoffs. Will he do it? Who knows, but we can sure hope that the player described as a Natural returns to the point of deserving the nickname.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

M E T S = Mercifully End The Season

Do it before David Wright gets Hurt!

Lou Holtz is the Homer / Annoyingly Delusional

As my buddy Joe and I always joke, if Notre Dame was suiting up against an all Jesus team, aka a team made up of 55 Sons of God, Lou Holtz would probably still pick Notre Dame to win by a touchdown. So of course this weekend when I'm watching Sportscenter and they have him and fellow old man Corso making predictions, Lou picks ND to beat Michigan. Not that big of a deal, Michigan is a big question mark this year, but of course than Lou says that Notre Dame will win 11 games this year. This is the same Notre Dame that lost to a service academy last year. And just when you thought the douchy homerism was going to end ESPN asks which BCS school is going to be the biggest surprise team in the country. Any guesses to whom it was? I'll give you a clue it was another team he coached. If you guessed South Carolina you would be a winner. Next up on Lou's prediction watch, the Jets win the Superbowl, NC St. wins the ACC, Arkansas dominates the SEC West, Minnesota wins the Big...

Guest Post: Thoughts on Sabathia Signing

I asked Grutt what his thoughts were on the Sabathia signing and I thought his response pretty much nailed it. So here it is. I don’t know. Every year I get a little more disenchanted with baseball. Yea, it’s great we signed the top pitching free agent. But we were supposed to. No team was even in the ballpark of the Yankees offer yet they still needed to jump from the already ridiculous price of $140 million to $160 million to close the deal. Now I hear we are going to sign more pitchers who will also get large contracts and the position player gaps are still glaring. Each new, large contract just adds to the feeling that the Yanks are supposed to win it all. “I think we have a good chance this year.” That is a lost feeling. If they don’t win I’ll wonder why, like there has to be some other reason besides that it’s a sport you can never predict how things will work out and some years just aren’t yours to be won. If they win I will be pleasantly smug. It gets a little more...