Goodbye 'Stache

Sometimes a player does something so egregiously hideous while wearing your favorite team's uniform that it colors your opinion of him for the remainder of his days with the team. Every time you see him, you think of that moment, and you're disgusted all over again. His mere presence aggravates you, and you curse your team's general manager daily for allowing him to remain.

So it is with myself and Jose Valentin.

Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against the Cardinals, all tied up at one run apiece, and up comes Valentin with the bases loaded and just a single out in the sixth inning. Endy Chavez had just, moments ago, made a catch that you still couldn't get your brain around, and you figure with only one out, at least one run is coming home, right?

And, maybe, just maybe, you break this mother open right now, then it's on to Detroit and let's win there.

Instead, Valentin has one of the worst at-bats I've ever seen a ballplayer have in a big spot, striking out and failing to bring the runner home from third. The inning ended without any runs being scored at all, and of course the Mets went on to lose the game and the series.

I found Valentin's at-bat particularly galling for a few reasons. First of all, the most unforgivable of all sins a ballplayer can commit is failing to bring a runner home from third with less than two outs. It's a gimme, no excuses for failing to lift a simple fly ball to the outfield.

Moreover, one of the primary reasons Valentin is on the team is because he's a veteran, and veterans are expected to deliver, most of all, in those kinds of spots. And then, to have such a miserably clueless at-bat, to be so thoroughly dumbfounded? Well, it's been a long time since I've been that angry. Whatever remained of the good will Valentin had banked during the season was exhausted in that one at-bat.

Really, though, most of it was gone even before that. Valentin was hitless in the three NLDS games against the Dodgers, and did not play well in the NLCS either. All told, Valentin failed to bring home a total of 19 baserunners during the ten playoff games the Mets participated in last year - I don't know how that compares to anyone else on the team, but it sure seems like a lot to me. He had bad at-bats, he made dumb mistakes, and he hardly drove in a run: the majority of his RBI in the NLCS came in a single at-bat during a game in which the Mets already held an 8-3 lead.

Nonetheless, Omar brought him back for 2007 and, injury and all, he's been atrocious. To me, Carlos Delgado, despite a few decent games in the field here and there, seems to have lost even a little bit more range at first this season, and to have Valentin at second with his own mobility issues, you might as well just concede most balls hit to the right side of the infield with any zip on them at all.

And, now, our friend Mr. Valentin has apparently injured his hand over the All-Star break while intervening in some kind of dispute. Ah. Well, then. Ahem.

Time to say bye-bye to the 'Stache.