Sean Rodriguez Doing Nothing for the Rays But Losing Games

It takes an idiot to punch a wall and break his hand. It takes an even bigger idiot to say something like this.

Sean Rodriguez, who the heck do you think you are? You’re hitting .215. Yes, .215! And no this isn’t batting average not being a display of your true ability! Your batting line on the season is .214/.279/.328. Your OPS+ is 72, 28% below average. You’ve stolen a grand total of 5 bases. But you’re a platoon guy who plays best against, lefties, right? You’re hitting a whopping .230 with an OPS+ 21% below average versus lefties. Great! You’ve done so much to help this team this season!

How about your defense? Congrats, you can play second base, shortstop, and third base. Well, you’re a natural second baseman. That’s nice. Every other natural second baseman in the majors can hit better than you. The Rays needed you to play a halfway-decent shortstop. The player splitting time with you at the position, Elliot Johnson, can’t defend for his life. Reid Brignac was sent down because he hits even worse than you. The Rays were giving you the job on a silver platter. And you’ve given them absolutely no reason to let you keep it! You move well at shortstop. That’s good. You even make some nice plays. But why should the Rays give you playing time when you can’t hit and you make an error every other game at shortstop? You’ve been so incredible at shortstop that the Rays had to take Ben Zobrist, who hadn’t played shortstop in three years and hadn’t played there regularly in five, and install him at shortstop in the middle of the season!

How about third base? Evan Longoria has been hurt, so even if shortstop didn’t work out, third base was just begging you to entrench yourself there for much of the season. There you’re even worse! You have as many errors as Adrian Beltre at third base while playing just a third of the games! All in all, you lead the entire American League in errors despite playing 108 out of the Rays’ 148 games. You make Eduardo Nunez look like Ozzie Smith! Errors aren’t everything. But why can’t you make the routine plays? Why do your throws go past first base into foul territory and even down the right field line? Is it all the fault of the first basemen Carlos Pena, Luke Scott, and Jeff Keppinger?

Are you perfect and everybody else is to blame? Is it just a natural reaction after an argument to break your hand, especially when it’s your livelihood? Is it just a coincidence that the Rays’ winning percentage is 60 points better when you don’t start? Their winning percentage without you is .596, which would be the best in the American League! Stop your delusions of grandeur, Sean. Just be quiet. You are nothing special at all as a major league baseball player. You were never a savior to even the slightest extent, and lately you have been the polar opposite, contributing directly to Rays losses. You’re lucky to be in the big leagues right now. Realize that.