Thursday, November 11, 2010

Vizquel Signs: Another Win for the Old Guys

Baseball needs its old guys if only for us older folks who get to hang on to a player we have known for a very long time. Rationally, Vizquel provides little worth for his $1.75 mil that he'll be earning in 2011. But he can play third, short and second and still provide some scrappy at bats for the White Sox. With Moyer trying to prove something in the Dominican Republic and blowing his arm out and with Wakefield and Thome undecided about their futures, Vizquel gives us at least one guy born in the 60's playing Major League Baseball.

Vizquel said that his playing time induced him to come back for another year. The White Sox had tried Mark Teahan and that failed miserably. So Vizquel managed to walk up to the plate 391 times. He hit .276 with a .340 OBP (of course with no power) so he didn't embarrass himself in any stretch of the imagination. Ozzie must enjoy managing a guy he used to play against all those years ago.

Just to give some context to this thing, Vizquel was born in 1967. His first year in the big leagues was 1989. He was signed by Seattle Mariners in 1984. Wasn't Reagan the president then? That was 26 years ago. He has nearly 12,000 plate appearances in his career. Junior Griffey was 19 when Omar first got to the big leagues. Edgar Martinez was still a part time third baseman (Jeffrey Leonard was the DH). Randy Johnson wasn't a good pitcher yet. Do you have the picture? The guy is ancient.

Which is why this is great news for the geezer set. Three cheers for the old guy!

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