Visit All World All Sports

by Digger

Most teams had their share of underachievers who were showered with plenty of boos bellowed by jam packed crowds. Eric Bedard (injured) was one of baseball's coveted free agent starting pitchers last winter. Pedro Martinez was to help bring a title to Shea. Detroit's off season free agent frenzy had fortune tellers predicting post season play. Two New York teams bidding farewell to home stadiums rolled the dice ... and lost!. Seattle was to challenge Los Angeles in an AL West showdown. Major League Baseball's Office of the Commissioner was to hand out penalties arising from "The Mitchell Report". None of these things happened in '08.

Time to hand pick my favorite duds, underperfomers, underachievers, lame ducks, primadonna's, goats and blundering players of 2008.

TEAM CHOKE ARTISTS AWARD
New York Mets - Mets magic faded with Carlos Beltran's series ending Game 7 called strike three National League Championship Series at bat in 2006. Back to back September collapses doom Mets in 2007/08. Shea Stadium closes with Mets failing to make the Playoffs on season's final day.

KIDS WRECK PARENTS DYNASTY AWARD
Steinbrenner's (Yankees) - Boss George was arguably the most devoted owner in all of sports. He took control of the Yankees and molded Championship calibur teams. When his teams weren't playing up to snuff, he let them know. Sometimes famously in headlines read nationwide... prompting tales from the "Bronx Zoo". Prior to 2008 season, Boss George handed over the reigns. Hank and Hal Steinbrenner now control day to day operations. Their hands off style was noticeably absent when the Yankees needed a swift butt kicking. This season was to be a spectacular sendoff to Yankee Stadium. A monsterous payroll in excess of $200,000,000.00 was to bring another exciting Playoff appearance. Yankee Stadium hosted the All Star Game. New York's string of consecutive playoff appearances stood at 13. Frustrated with a lack of recent Series victories, Yanks and Joe Torre parted ways. Then, anything and everything went wrong for a team often looking lackadaisical, overweight, overmatched and out traded. The world's most famous Stadium has closed forever ... remaining silent during 2008 MLB Playoffs... for the first time in recent memory.

TOUGH LOVE AWARD
These players never voluntarily retired. Some were either released or became free agents with no offers. Many were just laid out to pasture after baseball owners changed tunes following the Mitchell Report. Barry Bonds, Kenny Lofton, Bernie Williams, Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AWARD
Seattle Mariners (61-101) - Retooled and ready to challenge Los Angeles for AL West division honors... so they thought. Seattle fired Manager John McLaren after the team flatlined (27-45). Players injured (Bedard, Putz), career worst seasons (Richie Sexson) and sloppy play highlighted 2008. Seattle is ready for another fresh start.

HOW DID WE LOSE? AWARD
Detroit Tigers (74-88) - Picked by many for a return trip to the World Series (lost in 2006). Detroit was relying on big years from maturing starting pitchers (Justin Verlander 11-17, 4.84; Nate Robertson 7-11, 6.35; Jeremy Bonderman 3-4, 4.29) anchored by rising star Dontrelle Willis (0-2, 9.38) and crafty veteran Kenny Rogers (9-13, 5.70). On offense, Tigers were to roar. Stars seemingly everywhere: Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Pudge Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, Edgar Renteria, Gary Sheffield and Curtis Granderson were the big names expected to light up scoreboards with crooked numbers game after game. Manager Jim Leyland was to piece it all together. Detroit was horrendous opening the season. Losers of their first seven (and 10 of 12) left this team searching for answers. Tigers clawed back to 3 games over .500 (55-52) before they lost their bite for good.

2008 ALL WORLD ALL SPORTS "NON-STARS" OF THE YEAR
C - Kenji Johjima (SEA). He stunk at the plate, both hitting (.227) and fielding (.988) while signal calling a 101 game losing team. Honorable Mention: Jason Varitek (BOS).
1B - Richie Sexson (SEA). What happened to this once feared hitter? Batting .218 got him jettisoned out of Seattle. Yankees gambled then folded after a weak 22 game tryout. This is a two time 45 HR season player quickly gone bust. Honorable Mention: Paul Konerko (CHW).
2B - Robinson Cano (NYY). Resigned to a 4 year $30,000,000.00 contract, Cano was goat-like this season. He finished the year with halfway respectable numbers (.270, 35 2B, 14 HR). Don't be fooled by numbers. He's two years removed from batting .342. Began 2008 hitting .151 in March/April. .246 before the All Star break. Manager Joe Girardi finally benched him for not hustling in the field. He was terrible with games on the line and looked like someone who couldn't be bothered trying to play hard. Honorable Mention: Luis Castillo (NYM)
3B - Mike Lamb (MIN). Lamb had spent years fighting for playing time as a fill-in extraordinaire. Minnesota gave Lamb his long awaited shot... choked (.233, 1 HR) before the Twins finally gave up. He'll be home watching Monday's one game winner take all Playoff game between Minnesota vs Chicago. Honorable Mention: Bill Hall (MIL).
SS - Tony Pena (KC). Pena quickly went from being the Royals shortstop of the future... to history. Overpowered by big league pitchers (.169 BA, .189 OBA) this kid may never get another shot at starting. His replacement took full advantage of an open door (Aviles, .325 BA, 27 2B, 10 HR). Honorable Mention: Khalil Greene (SD).
LF - Eric Byrnes (AZ). Byrnes had back to back years of showing great improvement as Arizona's catalyst before leg woes derailed this season. His mistake for trying to play thru it from early spring training instead of taking proper care of the problem. Self above team. Team missed post season. Bad move. Honorable Mention: Shannon Stewart (TOR).
CF - Andruw Jones (LAD). What happened to Andruw Jones????????? No one has fallen harder then Mr. Jones. This former Gold Glove All Star hit a combined 92 home runs in 2005/06. He dipped to .222 BA in '07. He never showed up in '08. An abismal .158 batting average, 3 home runs in 209 AB's. He was put out of misery by injury back in August. Returned to play just one game before Manager Joe Torre thought it best to demote him for reconditioning. Jones might be thru. Honorable Mention: Corey Patterson (CIN).
RF - Jeff Francoeur (ATL). Francoeur's star was on the rise. A cannon armed line drive hitting rightfielder who seemed destined for future stardom. Coming off of back to back 100 RBI seasons. Then came 2008. He slumped to .239 with only 71 RBI. Batted .236 or below in 4 of 6 months. Honorable Mention: Austin Kearns (WAS).
DH - Travis Hafner (CLE). Once a prominent and feared power hitter, Hafner looked completely lost at the plate before and after being injured. Career .289 hitter prior to '08, hit only .197 with career low .323 slugging. Completely off balance in the batters box. Honorable Mention: Jose Vidro (SEA).
STARTING PITCHER - Miguel Batista (SEA). Batista was counted on as M's #3 starter. His failures (4-14. 6.26) led directly to Seattle falling out of contention early. Walked (79) more than he struck out (73) in only 115 innings. Truly an ugly year. Honorable Mention: Carlos Silva (SEA), Justin Verlander (DET), Nate Robertson (DET), Greg Reynolds (COL).
CLOSER - C.J. Wilson (TEX). On the upside, Wilson was 24 of 28 in save conversions. However, the downside loomed large. Sporting a not so nifty 6.02 ERA, Wilson's 2008 season came to a close by way of injury and attitude. He'll be remembered for a slight tamtrum when being removed from a game by Manager Washington. Instead of handing the ball to Washington, Wilson flipped it which is a baseball no-no (sign of disrespect). Texas fans already had enough of their erratic closer and let him have it. Honorable Mention: Manuel Corpas (COL).
MANAGER - Willie Randolph (NYM). Randolph's Mets were set up to win NL East after a historic September collapse in 2007 (and gutwrenching loss in NLCS Game 7, 2006). New York signed one of baseball's best pitchers (Johann Santana). Young stars were supposed to have matured after recent events. Randolph was to be ready do duplicate successes learned under Joe Torre's tutelage. It never happened. Mets opened (34-35) looking sloppy and unmotivated. Randolph's failures made sportspage headlines. When Willie later accused media types of playing the race card, things really turned sour. He was finally fired after 69 games. Games lost in April are just as important as games lost in September... in the Mets case... equally important. Honorable Mention: Bud Black (SD), Joe Girardi (NYY).