Schmidt Happens To the Worst of Us

For me, there is no lower form of living things than former Giants who join the D-gers and publicly state "I've always dreamed of being a D-ger". Well, besides being a D-gers player, that is. Brett Butler was one turncoat and Jeff Kent, unsurprisingly was another. However, I was pretty shocked when Jason Schmidt became the latest to add his name to this ignominous list.

So, while I don't wish ill upon anyone, I take pleasure knowing that the Giants didn't lift a hand to sign him, given the latest news on him. In Sporting News, Stan McNeil's Inside Dish column reported the following news:

Dodgers RHP Jason Schmidt's fastball, which fluctuated from the mid-80s to low 90s last season, was in the mid-80s at Dodger Stadium last week. Schmidt says he's not concerned.

I wouldn't be concerned either if I had a guaranteed 3 year, $47M contract. If I were D-gers's fans and management, I would not be too happy at all. If I remember right, he had a similar problem, I think at the start of 2005, that lingered throughout that season. He was still good, just not up to the standards he had set for himself in the previous years as a Giant. Given that he's pitching in LA (extreme pitchers park), his stats probably won't suffer to much relative to his numbers as a Giant, so he will probably look as good as ever, but if he's only throwing mid-80's, he's probably going to be beaten like a rug on the road.

How's that for a big question mark for the D-gers? Among others, like losing JD Drew and replacing him with Pierre, who makes Feliz looks like an average hitter in terms of taking walks. And he's batting 2nd in the D-gers lineup. Yippee! More another day....