Looking at the 2013 MLB season there have been a number of players that have come as some surprises, like Paul Goldschmidt and Jeff Samardzija. There have also been some players that have been outstanding performers as we would have expected, like Miguel Cabrera. However, what I really want to focus on here are those players that we expected big years from coming into the 2013 MLB year, but have been complete busts so far.
Here are a couple of my biggest disappointments so far:
B.J. Upton: Upton is sitting in the midst of one the of most ridiculously large MLB contracts right now at 5-years, $75 million, but has completely failed to perform. Going into this weekend Upton has been benched 5 times in the 7 games, and sporting an disappointing .136 batting average with 62 strike-outs in 158 at-bats this season. The Braves have still managed to put together a solid start to the season and are leading their division, but Upton deserve no credit for this team performance.
R.A. Dickey: Not the only Blue Jay you’re going to see on this list, Dickey was positioned as the leader in a bolstered pitching rotation for the AL East Jays. Unfortunately, last years NL Cy Young winner has been relatively disappointing to-date. With a 4-7 record ad 5.18 ERA Dickey has been far from superb. While we’ve flashes of brilliance from him, “inconsistency” has been his middle name.
Roy Halladay: Considered one of baseball’s best pitching talents in the last number of years, the pitching iron man has been off to a rough start in 2013. After a few injury plagued seasons, Halladay has been sitting at an astounding 8.65 ERA, which carries with it a disappointing 2-4 record. Definitely not numbers that Halladay is used to seeing.
Mark Buehrle: Looked at as a strong supporting man in the Blue Jays line-up for “ace” (a term I use VERY loosely) R.A. Dickey, Buehrle has been one of the worst starting pitchers in the Toronto rotation this year. With a 2-3 record and 5.51 ERA, Mark is a far cry from where we have seen from him in previous seasons. Despite all this, Buehrle has recently started to look like the pitcher of old, so there is hope at the end of the tunnel.
Josh Hamilton: A perennial MVP candidate, Hamilton seems to have fallen prey to the same curse that plagued much of the Angels line-up last season. While some players may not be crying over 8 home-runs at this stage in the season, this is well below expected production for Hamilton; complement that home-run tally with .219 average and you’ve got an overpaid and underperforming player.
David Price: Another 2013 Cy Young winner who seems to be off to a bit of a lagging start (something of an understatement), Price has not been able to get into the groove this season. 1-4 with a 5.24 ERA The Rays have essentially been without one of the strongest legs in their pitching contigent.
Prince Fielder: While I might catch some heat for adding Fielder to this list, I think some of the expectations on him were unduly tempered after his performance last season. Many saw Fielder as being one of the top hitting talents in the majors going into 2012. This year, he has been hitting a respectable .271 and 42 RBIs with 9 home runs – but much like Hamilton, Fielder should be performing at a higher level than this (or maybe we just all bought into the hype after 2011).
These are the players that really stand out for me as the under-performers this year. It’s always strange to me how we see players come off such phenomenal years only to tank in their follow-up season. I suppose this really highlights how much of a factor the mental aspect of the game really is! We know that each of these players have the potential to perform, they just can’t seem to get their groove back.
Let’s be honest with ourselves though – it is still early in the season. Any player can turn it around at any time, and I have no doubt than any one (if not all) of these players could turn it around at any given time.
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