When an MLB franchise selects a player with the #1 overall pick in the Amateur Draft, the team is expecting to have that player make a significant contribution to the team for years to come.
In unrelated news, earlier this season, the Padres released Matt Bush, the #1 Pick in the 2004 MLB Draft … before he ever played a game in the Major Leagues. I hope no one actually bought a Matt Bush Padres Jersey.
Bush was a High School Shortstop from the San Diego Area who the Pads selected over the likes of Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew. Bush’s career batting average in the minors is a robust .219 (in nothing higher than Class A ball) … so let’s just go and call him a bust. The Padres have.
This got me to thinking … who else has flopped after being picked first in the MLB Draft?
Mind you, after his first two seasons in the minors … he looked like he might be worth it. In Class A in 1992, he had 187 K’s in 161 innings and in 1993 went 13-7 with 150 K’s in AA Albany.
But in December 1993, he separated his shoulder and tore his labrum in a fight in a trailer park – does anything good ever happen in a trailer park? Dr. Frank Jobe described the injury as one of the worst shoulder injuries he’d ever seen.
Taylor never posted an ERA under 6 the rest of his minor league career and never sniffed the Majors.
Sometime last year we told you about a Seattle Bar which had a awesome promotion called Cheap Sexson Mondays … wherein Norm’s Eatery and Ale House in Seattle would sell cheap bottles of Budweiser and Bud Light (priced according to Richie Sexson’s batting average) all day on Mondays.
Norm’s continued Cheap Sexson Mondays this season, and bottles of beer sold for no more than $2.44 and bottomed out at $1.97.
A bottle of Bud cost $2.15 this past Monday (7/7/08) with Sexson’s average at .215 – what a bargain!!
Home Run Derby talked to Steve Habecker, the owner of Norm’s Eatery to see if we could get the scoop on Norm’s plans now that their favorite slumping Mariner is no longer a Mariner.
Home Run Derby: Thanks for talking to us, Steve Steve Habecker: No problem.
HRD: How’d you come up with the idea for Cheap Sexs on Mondays? SH: Well, we were going to doing something with Bret Boone a couple years ago, but he was gone before we could. Then last year (2007) when Sexson started off the season so badly – we had to do something. We started it in May 2008.
HRD: How was turnout? Was it a success? SH: Well, at $2 or so a bottle, we weren’t making much money on it. It was more of a gimmick and we had people who would come in and be able to get four beers (sometimes five) for less than $10. A lot of people would call us and ask what Sexson’s batting average was – they apparently have never heard of the internet.
I never would have expected to get this kind of coverage for this promo. All day yesterday people were asking what I was going to do with the banners we have up for it and if they could have one. Sexson’s dad lives down in Vancouver, Washington and I’m tempted to drive down and put one of the banners on his garage.
HRD: Now that Sexson is no longer a Mariner – what happens to Cheap Sex on Mondays? SH: We’re going to watch what happens this weekend. If Sexson gets picked up by another team, we’ll keep it going. It’d be funny if another team picked him up and he started hitting .300.
HRD: Would you be mad if he got signed by another team and a bar in that city ripped off your idea? SH: No. We’re all in this together.
HRD: And if he doesn’t sign? SH: Well, we’re thinking about replacing Sexson with Kenji Johjima (signed a 3-yr extension for $24 Million, hitting .216) or possibly offering Well Drinks for a price equal to the Mariners winning percentage (currently 391). It’s going to be tough to come up with as good of a title for our next promo.
HRD: Any good stories from Cheap Sexson Mondays? SH: Well, sometimes we’d get some really creepy calls from old guys asking what our “Cheap Sex on Mondays” was all about – like if we had dancing girls.
HRD: Thanks for your time. It’s the best named bar promotion in the history of bar promotions. SH: Thanks. Some other blog called 10 minutes before you.
Richie Sexson whiffs … and the crowd at Norm’s goes wild!!
I was kind of hoping that Geovany Soto would hit a Home Run last night and end up here to dispell any rumor that I am incapable of honoring a Cub (despite my World Series prediction).
Alas, it was not meant to be, so we turn our attention to a former 40+ Home Run hitter , Adrian Beltre.
If you just look at the final score of last night’s Mariners-Indians game (7-2), you might miss that it was tied going into the ninth 2-2.
Beltre untied it with a 3-run Home Run off of Rafael Betancourt. The Mariners added another 2 run after that for good measure, but that doesn’t take away from Adrian’s clutch performance.
Think of it this way, if they were in Seattle it was a walk off (there’s a movie quote in there somewhere, different locale – any guesses?).
I know it doesn’t take the sting of the bloated contract Beltre signed in 2005, but he actually having a excellent start to the year (.309 BA. .962 OPS) not quite his stats from his last year in LA (.334 BA, 1.017 OPS) but certainly more in line with what was expected from him when the Mariners signed him
Well, for one day anyway, Adrian Beltre you are king of the Home Run.
Things were looking good for the Seattle Mariners. Top of the ninth inning, one run lead … and the Mariners’ closer, JJ Putz (the reigning AL Rolaids Relief Man of the Year) was looking to close the door.
At bat is Josh Hamilton, who struck out against Putz to end yesterday’s game.
Mr. Soul Patch goes back to the fastball that Hamilton whiffed on the night before …
Hamilton went 2 for 5 with 2 Runs and 2 RBI. He also made a great play in the field, saving a run when he made a over-the -shoulder basket catch at the waring tracj in the fifth inning.
Last year, the M’s were 75-0 when leading after 8 innings. This season, they’re 1-1.
Video courtesy of MLB.com. They already have some bugs to work out this season with their multimedia.
OK, I have taken some time off, so I am going to fire through about five or six teams in the next couple days to catch-up. Next up is the last of the light power-hitting teams, the Seattle Mariners. I base that last comment on their team Home Run total of 153 dingers last year. The Mariners are at the point of the team Home Run List that is somewhat of a demarcation line because the next lowest total belongs to the Toronto Blue Jays at 165.
Of course none of this is meant as a slight to the Mariners – whom I think will be the surprise of the majors this year. If you read our Angels preview, I already said that Mariners will best the Angels by 8 games this year on their way to the AL West crown. I guess I am a sucker for pitching (kind of ironic given the focus of this site) and the starting five headed by Eric Bedard and Felix Hernandez is the best in the AL West and they are backed up by one the best closers in the game today … Mr Soul Patch, JJ Putz.
Remember when you used to get a stick of gum in a pack of baseball cards? That oblong piece of stale bubblegum hasn’t been seen since 1991 … and I’ve always felt that something was missing from my baseball cards ever since. Maybe we should replace it with something …
I know!! A Bottle of Wine!! It tastes better than gum, and it’ll just get better with age. Not to mention the side effects you can’t get from gum.
In 2007, a trio of Red Sox players unveiled wines which would benefit some of their favorite charities. There were wines for …
The response was so good, that there’s a lot more players on wine bottles in 2008. Something called Longball Cellars is at it again with wines produced by Selby Winery, but now there’s 21 baseball players (past and present) on wines which go for about $12 or $13 a bottle, all available in Spring 2008. 100% of the proceeds go to a charity of the player’s choice.
The art on some of these bottles rivals the baseball cards my dad has in his collection from the fifties.
Let’s see whose face you could be drinking, and who they’re supporting.
You can believe that the Red Sox are back on the bottle with new “Championship Edition” bottles …
There’s lots of reasons to go to a Major League Baseball game …
But sometimes, that’s just not enough to make you pay $40 for a ticket and drink a beer for $7, especially if the team sucks … and MLB Teams know it. So they offer trinkets and bawbles to get your butt in a seat. Yep, we’re talking promotions and giveaways. And we usually fall for it.
The majority of these handouts are overdone retreads of stuff like t-shirts and floppy hats and plastic doodads like keychains and flashlights and bobbleheads. Bobbleheads are great, but unless you’re the table in front of Mike and Mike or Mottram and Steinz, how many do you need?
But sometimes, the team’s marketing squad does something creative … here are the best ones you can try to grab in 2008.
Joe Mauer Fishing Lure - Minnesota Twins (May 2)
Now this is cool. In a state with 10,000 lakes, you’re gonna need something to catch bass with when the Twins are on the road.
Mind you, I’m not sure how many times an MLB team has given away anything with six sharpened barbs on it before. This could be a one-and-done event, because you just know someone’s gonna lose an eye from this thing. Given out to the first 5,000 fans over the age of 18.
No boys, this will not help you catch anything like Mauer’s ex-girlfriend, former Miss USA Chelsea Cooley. No girls, this will not help you catch Joe Mauer.
Brien Taylor, P – 1991 (New York Yankees)
Seattle beer lovers might be a little sad today.
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