Javier Vazquez

My Double G Sports fantasy baseball team which is competing in the Battle of the Blogs continues to struggle and has hit a new low. I am now officially in last place in the Willie Mays Division and am ranked 13 out of 20 teams.

So far in 2010, it's pretty safe to say that Javier Vazquez stinks for the Yankees.

He hasn't just been bad. He's been horrific—so horrific that every time he departs from Yankee Stadium, he gets by far the loudest boos of the team.

In his first five starts back with the team, he is 1-3 with a 9.78 ERA.

His longest outing thus far has been 5.2 innings. His innings totals aren't that high, but his hits, runs, walks, and ERA are extremely high.

Since Brian Cashman took the reigns of a championship-bound team in 1998, he has acquired several players who were run out of town following their disastrous tenures in pinstripes. Scathing condemnations written by dozens of columnists questioned these previously successful players' respective abilities to succeed under the bright spotlight of New York. 

The New York Yankees finished up a three game series against the Chicago White Sox with a 12-3 win today. The Yankees won the series by winning the opening game as well as the finale, but losing the middle game.

I wanted to share some thoughts that came to mind as the series wrapped up.

New Look Outfield

If Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman purchased Nick Johnson and Javier Vazquez at a department store, he would be frantically searching for his receipt right now. Sorry, no returns.

Last night my dad called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the Yankee game with him on Sunday. I told him I had plans for Sunday and asked him why we didn’t just go Saturday (today) instead. I was promptly told, no and reminded that Javier Vazquez is pitching today which meant that he didn’t want to go. “With so many good pitchers on the staff I’d rather wait and go see somebody better,” my dad said.

Curt Schilling criticized Javier Vasquez publicly on ESPN Radio for his slow start this season as a member of the Yankees.

He might have already proved himself as a pitcher, but he shouldn't be saying that as a future HOF. When's the last time you saw a loved HOF criticize someone when they can't even do it themselves anymore? Never? Not anymore, thanks to Schilling.

I've been debating recently why it is that Javier Vazquez has been put on this Earth.

If you asked Javier, he'd probably say he's here for his wife and three beautiful children. That would certainly make sense. His Wikipedia page states he's a huge wine aficionado, so maybe he's just here for the fermented grapes. Then again, he may go the religious route and say he was here for God. That's kind of the safe choice when asked these types of broad-based questions.

But you and I know none of that is true.

There are probably fewer things more frustrating to a sports fan than watching an expensive, recently imported veteran player repeatedly fail in his efforts to help the team.

The more prior success he's had, the more money he's making, the more you had to give up to get him...well, that all just makes it worse.

And then there's Javy Vazquez.

Vazquez had all of those things against him:

Like Carlos Zambrano, big-time pitchers Justin Verlander, Jake Peavy, and Josh Beckett are off to awful starts. They are not alone. Names like Jon Lester, Aaron Harang, Javier Vazquez, Chad Billingsley, and Jeremy Bonderman join them on this list of the top ten worst pitchers in 2010.

Virtually all of these pitchers have two things in common. They were expected to be aces, stoppers, shutdown grinders, strike-one dealers. They are all disappointing.

Let’s take a look at how bad they all really are, see if they’re improving, and ask ourselves:

Is this just an April shower?