Knowing When to Walk Away

What do you do when, seemingly at the pinnacle of your profession, you look around and realize that you are missing out on time with your family because of your job? If you had the ability to financially support yourself and your kin, wouldn’t you do something different? One major league ballplayer who is contemplating doing just that is discussed below. I’ll also touch on a couple of injured players, as well as a guy whose name is a bit confusing to me.

No one seems to believe him, but Mark Buehrle continues to maintain that he will retire at the end of next season at just 32 years of age. “Everybody in here is calling B.S. on it,” Buehrle said. “And it could be. Those two years could fly by and I could say I’m not ready to retire. But today? I don’t see myself playing past this contract.” Buehrle has said this before, in fact he dropped the bombshell in the Chicago Tribune in spring training this season. Buehrle has two kids that he wants to spend more time with, and since they live in Arizona with his wife, there just isn’t enough time for him to spend with his family. “Look, I’m having fun. It’s not like I want to quit. If I didn’t have a family, I’d play until I was 60, or until they kicked me out. I just don’t want to miss my kids growing up.” Given the gazillions of dollars these guys make some are always surprised when guys walk away, but Mark will have made more than $50 million by the end of next season. I don’t know about where you live, but that will buy a whole lot of water wings and swimming lessons where I live.

Ryan Dempster apparently has a broken right big toe. As a result, he was placed on the DL today. No word yet on how long he will be out of action, or for that matter exactly how the injury occurred. Being that it’s the foot that he “pushes” off the rubber with, I’ve got to think that we are looking at more than two weeks here, but I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night so I could certainly be wrong. Dempster heads to the DL with a 5-5 record, 4.09 ERA and a K/9 mark of 7.58, and don’t say you are disappointed with that effort after last years 17-6 mark with a 2.96 ERA, because if you do feel that way you just were listening to us when we told you a regression was coming.

Mark DeRosa, aka the “Savior” if you ask some people in St. Louis, has been placed on the DL due to his wrist injury. Having already missed a week of action, and with the All-Star break approaching, it only made sense for the team to put him on the DL (retroactive to July 1st). I’ve said it before, but let me repeat a few salient facts with the guy. (1) DeRosa owns a career .277 batting average and has never hit .300 in a season (currently .261). (2) DeRosa has one season in his career with more than 13 home runs (21 in ’08, he has 13 this season). (3) DeRosa has one season of more than 75 RBI (87 last season, 50 thus far this year). I’m not saying DeRosa isn’t a valuable bat, he certainly is, but at the same time for a guy who has appeared in 12 major league seasons and has only once hit more than 20 home runs or produced more than 75 RBI there is likely too much pressure being placed upon the 34 year olds shoulders. He isn’t a difference maker.

Jose Reyes suffered yet another setback in his attempt to return to the field. Reyes had a cortisone shot into his injured right hamstring, and I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound very fun to me (I had one in my elbow back when I played, and believe me when I tell you that no one feels too comfortable when they see a doctor walking at them with a needle that is five inches long). This latest treatment seems to signal that Reyes won’t be back for at least another couple of weeks as he will likely have to shut everything down for a few days to let the effects of the shot set in. My best guess? I’m not looking for Reyes until the first week of August.

The Rex Brothers were signed by the Rockies today. Oops, that is only one guy isn’t it? The lefty who has a whopping 132 Ks in 94 innings for the University of Lipscomb this past season, may end up using his hard slider and mid 90′s heater out of the bullpen instead of the rotation for the Rocks as he lacks a true off-speed pitch (one of the reasons he might be shifted to the pen).

By Ray Flowers