This Swing By Javier Baez Made Me Want To Bash My Head Against A Wall

Man, I don't like being mean. Even Tigers fans hate me because I hammer home the point that Javy Baez is the worst baseball player I've ever seen. Some guys struggle, many of them happen to play for the Tigers, but I understand why they may have been good at one time or another. Eric Haase has been a catcher for the Tigers for four years. He was pretty darn good in the last two seasons. This year, the league has figured him out. He doesn't get on base and chases a lot of pitches. He's been a mess. That stuff happens. Javier Baez puts my brain in such a pretzel because I don't know how he was ever good. Something had to have been going on when he was in Chicago (and those few months where he was with the Mets) that allowed him to succeed. Whatever helped him reach all-star status in Chicago has not translated to Detroit.

I've been watching baseball for a long time. This is the first time I have seen a catcher set up that far away from a right-handed hitter. Christian Vázquez is halfway to the Twins' dugout. Baseball is a hard game, and hitters are going to chase. I understand that we live in an age where guys sell out for power. But when the same guy is making the same mistake over and over and over and over again, I can't express to you the urges I get to swallow glass. Everyone at that ballpark and everyone at home knew what was coming. Would Javy spitting on that pitch probably prolong an inevitable out? I'm sure it would've, but it's the principle of it. Baseball is a game of adjustments. You have a catcher whose entire body is sitting in the left-handed batter's box, and you still chase that pitch.

Do you know what's the worst part about this moment? It shouldn't even be on my mind. The Tigers won today. Reese Olson was fantastic, and AJ managed the bullpen brilliantly. They took three out of four against the first-place Twins. I should be feeling good. But the baseball world doesn't care about that. I've had Javier Báez chasing this pitch, and the memes that have resulted from it sent me upwards of 1 billion times in the last hour. It's just astonishing. And I get comments from people saying that I'm overreacting, and I'm telling you I'm not. Imagine if you worked in an office and every day, the same employee ran face-first into the plexiglass instead of opening the door to enter. That's Javier Báez as a hitter. 

Now I have to give Javy some credit here because I am an equal-opportunity offender. In his next at-bat, Javy took strike three down the middle. But after that, he bunted for a base hit. He never thought about bunting in the several chances he had this year in which the Tigers had a runner on second in extra innings, but he felt it necessary to bunt on August 10 and a meaningless game against the Twins. You know what? That's progress. The guy still has speed. I would be happier if he bunted every plate appearance, regardless of the situation, as long as it meant him not chasing that pitch repeatedly. His free-swinging is well documented, but that one today was an all-timer.