Thursday, November 10, 2011

Is Jorge Posada Delusional?

(Courtesy of The AP)

It's been Jorge Posada Day over at LoHud today.  The one post that stood out to me was this one linking Posada and Bernie Williams and the similar paths their Yankee careers took at the end.  And within that post, I found this comment by Jorge to be particularly interesting when he was asked if seeing what happened to Bernie five years ago prepared him for this past season:

“If you asked me that question in February of this year, I would have said, no,” Posada said. “But now, I would say, yes. It went the same way, pretty much.”

Uhhh, Jorge?  Are you serious?  You really weren't prepared for your Yankee career to end after this year?  How could you not see the writing on the wall?  You were in the last year of your contract as a 40-year-old catcher with abominable defensive skills.  After years of letting that criticism slide, the team flat out told you well before Spring Training that you weren't going to catch anymore and to prepare to be a DH.  The picture was already being painted for you for this to be your final season before the season even started.  And as the season progressed, your role became increasingly smaller as your offensive skills eroded, and the Yankees focused on Russell Martin and Jesus Montero as their new catcher/DH tandem of the future.

If Jorge honestly didn't think that 2011 was going to be his final year in pinstripes, then I really don't know what to say.  On the one hand it makes the whole situation a little sadder, knowing that he played like shit all season and got relegated to platoon status after thinking he was going to be back in 2012.  On the other hand, I have to knock him for being a bit of a dope for not expecting this.  Just serves as a reminder that as hard as it is to watch our favorite players decline, it must be even harder for them to have to experience it.

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