Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Seasons come and go...

and somehow THAT's the constant. The teams don't even stay the same (hello Nat's, goodbye Expos), much less the players.

The October 2 post on former-Ray Fernando Perez's tumblr feed gave me a good laugh. Birds crapping all over everything, particularly advanced metrics (have you seen Baltimore's run differential!), and tonight the Rays season. (But seriously, major ups to the O's. Now go kick some ass.)

As for Fer, he was one of the great Durham Bulls I loved watching back in grad school. As a graduate of Columbia University he was also, truth be told, the kind of player a dorked-out grad school baseball fan could really get behind. At one point other orgs thought highly enough of him that he was included in the Matt Garza trade, going over to the Cubs in exchange for a ton of prospects. Sadly, as his twitter feed reads, he's out of a job. Guess that means he's no longer one of MLB's working poor, but it's bottom of the barrel 47%. Or something like that. Guess that's how most poets end up.

With the Rays out of the hunt, thoughts have turned to who'll no longer be with the club next year. BJ is gone. Someone (Price? Hellickson? Shields? Niemann?) from the starting staff will be traded. When the Rays traded Garza I was bummed to lose a great pitcher, but losing Fer, a speedster in the CC, BJ, and DJ mold, was what hurt. I simply enjoyed watching the guy, and he was another link to the great Durham teams I watched as a finished up grad school.
When the compa got her PhD last year I asked him to give me a retweet from the patron saint of educated ballplayers. His response was to say, "I think that's Canseco." Miss seeing you play, 'nando. Hope things are treating you well.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!



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