Monday, February 22, 2010

Do You Know the Way to Bad Jose?

"When you get down to it and sit down one-on-one with Jose, I have a lot of fun with him," Gardenhire said. "He's a nice kid. I think we can keep him on the right path."

Giggle. Right. Here's a question: when you sit down one-on-one with someone, do you know who else seems like a good guy?

A: Bad guys.

Q: And when you sit down one-on-one with someone, do you know who seems like a bad guy?

A: Blatantly stupid bad guys.

So I think we can surmise that Jose Mijares isn't blatantly stupid, which is encouraging news given his actions since he joined the Twins:
  • He screwed up his visa for spring training last year, Twinsfest this year and now spring training this year
  • He showed up so obscenely overweight that he cost himself a spot on the 25-man roster for Opening Day
  • He walked out on his winter league team last year, and when he returned his manager left him off the playoff roster even though he was sporting a 1.40 ERA
  • And of course he incited his own teammate to charge him from the batters box during a critical pennant race game.
That is some solid work in just eighteen months. A very large bad guy - not as smart as, say, a Sydney Greenstreet villain. But apparently smarter than, for instance, Mongo from Blazing Saddles. With just a touch of crazy thrown it to boot....

Looks like the Twins have their Jabba the Hut. Or will, once he gets his visa.

7 comments:

scotharr said...

Well written, thanks. He strikes me as a young man who would benefit by having his mother travel with him. Does Bill James have a statistic to measure and predict maturity?

Anonymous said...

Don't forget he 'fell asleep' at the wheel and crashed his car in 2008, resulting in a fractured left elbow and injured pitching shoulder!

Mr. Horrorpants said...

What you write makes sense to me, as always.

However . . .

If our personal Kenny Powers only sees an inning at a time and keeps posting good numbers, I'm all for him. It's a different, creepier feel to see him trot slowly to the mound than a Crain/Guerrier, and I think there is value in that.

If he starts getting hit and loses those numbers, that's a different story.

Eric said...

Little bit of crazy can be a good thing on the mound, I think.

BeefMaster said...

Also, don't forget about his attempt to start a beanball war last year that got him on Delmon's bad side.

BeefMaster said...

i r dum. Disregard my comment... somehow I missed that you'd already covered it in your list of indiscretions.

Anonymous said...

At what point do we get to start saying, that's just Mijares being Mijares?