He quite possibly has the second-worst-facial-hair in the Giants bullpen and there was some measureable amount of eyebrow raising and tsking at Sabes when San Francisco picked up his $5 million contract option for 2012 at the beginning of this offseason.
And yet despite all of that (that facial hair being the biggest thing I had to get past), he’s one of my favorite guys wearing the orange and black right now.
That’s right, I’m talking about Jeremy Affeldt.
Aside from the fact that he’s hilarious and a huge Not For Sale Campaign guy, I also believe in him as a pitcher. When he isn’t slicing his hand open over frozen hamburger patties, that is. He’s far from perfect, but I personally like having him and his curve out in the bullpen.
But the rumor from Ken Rosenthal is now that he’s on the chopping block.
Er, trading block, that is.
However you feel about Jeremy, doesn’t this seem like toying with our emotions? Whether positive or negative?
Maybe the front office was planning this all along- it was a nefarious scheme to (yay!) get hitting- or maybe they are just perfectly, completely indecisive and only now decided that they didn’t want Affeldt after all. Either way, I am not happy about it one bit. I think Jeremy should be here to stay for the coming season.
Then again, maybe it’s just a rumor that some other GM has put out there to try and actually do something totally different and everyone is working on their own nefarious schemes. Ah! That’s it, I bet! I know all about that sort of thing from the very realistic Moneyball movie.
I feel a lot better now.
And if it’s really a decoy, then I hope the reality of the Giants-trying-to-trade-a-bullpen-guy is that they’re trying to trade Wilson. Closers are… yeah, you know what I’m going to say. Overrated. Moneyball talk again.
Diamond Girl
