Since he was traded by the Colorado Rockies to the San Francisco Giants on July 27, former Athletics' infielder Marco Scutaro, 36, has played 73 games with 271 at-bats spanning the regular season and playoffs. He's driven in 49 runs. In four seasons with the A's from 2004-07 Scutaro never appeared in less than 104 games and never had fewer than 379 at-bats. Yet during that span from ages 28-31 Scutaro's Oakland RBI total never reached as high as 43 (in 2004 with 455 at-bats when at 28 was in theory just entering his prime).
That statistical information can be digested two ways:
1. As a baseball fan and admirer of a gamer like Scutaro, you appreciate that a supposed "valuable utility player", unheralded veteran and clearly a late bloomer can carry a team all the way back from the brink of elimination (the Giants as a team did it twice in separate series and won six elimination games) to the World Series, Scutaro's first.
2. As an A's fan, you shake your head at how such improbability can occur this late in a career and when it doesn't elevate your favorite team!
The Giants, Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers' dominant starting rotation be damned, have to be the favorite to win the World Series if fate means anything and if Scutaro's remarkable stretch is destined for anything but the highest level of greatness.
Giants catcher Buster Posey should win the National League Most Valuable Player award and if so it should not questioned because he was that good from Opening Day to Fan Appreciation Day. But Scutaro's NLCS MVP honors won following the Giants' Game 7 coronation from 3-1 down to St. Louis to a laughable rout of Games 5, 6 and 7 might as well cover three months. Posey drove in 42 runs combined in August, September and October heading into the playoffs. But he's supposed to do that as an MVP candidate and one of the faces of the franchise. Scutaro had the same number of RBI during that time, batted .402 in September and hit .500 (14-of-28, three doubles and four RBI) in the championship series. It insults the term unsung hero. The likely NL MVP against St. Louis? A svelte .154 (4-of-30 with no extra-base hits and all of one RBI).
Granted, Scutaro's been good all year even pre-San Francisco; 2012 saw the Venezuelan record career-highs in RBI (74), batting average (.306, his first .300 season), hits (190) and games played (156). But consider that Scutaro played the first 95 games of 2012 with the Rockies, 54 in the light-aired, hitter's paradise known as Coors Field. Not surprisingly, he performed very well in Denver (.320/.379/.434, 27 RBI, .812 OPS in 219 at-bats). But consider Scutaro's regular-season numbers in the sea-level, heavy air of AT&T Park: 33 games and 125 at-bats, 2 home runs, 20 RBI, .352/.399/.488 with an .887 OPS.
Scutaro is Exhibit A why baseball can dump at the side of the road logic, common sense and sanity. You can't possibly explain it and if you try to nobody will believe you, but you can't deny it either.
That statistical information can be digested two ways:
1. As a baseball fan and admirer of a gamer like Scutaro, you appreciate that a supposed "valuable utility player", unheralded veteran and clearly a late bloomer can carry a team all the way back from the brink of elimination (the Giants as a team did it twice in separate series and won six elimination games) to the World Series, Scutaro's first.
2. As an A's fan, you shake your head at how such improbability can occur this late in a career and when it doesn't elevate your favorite team!
The Giants, Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers' dominant starting rotation be damned, have to be the favorite to win the World Series if fate means anything and if Scutaro's remarkable stretch is destined for anything but the highest level of greatness.
Giants catcher Buster Posey should win the National League Most Valuable Player award and if so it should not questioned because he was that good from Opening Day to Fan Appreciation Day. But Scutaro's NLCS MVP honors won following the Giants' Game 7 coronation from 3-1 down to St. Louis to a laughable rout of Games 5, 6 and 7 might as well cover three months. Posey drove in 42 runs combined in August, September and October heading into the playoffs. But he's supposed to do that as an MVP candidate and one of the faces of the franchise. Scutaro had the same number of RBI during that time, batted .402 in September and hit .500 (14-of-28, three doubles and four RBI) in the championship series. It insults the term unsung hero. The likely NL MVP against St. Louis? A svelte .154 (4-of-30 with no extra-base hits and all of one RBI).
Granted, Scutaro's been good all year even pre-San Francisco; 2012 saw the Venezuelan record career-highs in RBI (74), batting average (.306, his first .300 season), hits (190) and games played (156). But consider that Scutaro played the first 95 games of 2012 with the Rockies, 54 in the light-aired, hitter's paradise known as Coors Field. Not surprisingly, he performed very well in Denver (.320/.379/.434, 27 RBI, .812 OPS in 219 at-bats). But consider Scutaro's regular-season numbers in the sea-level, heavy air of AT&T Park: 33 games and 125 at-bats, 2 home runs, 20 RBI, .352/.399/.488 with an .887 OPS.
Scutaro is Exhibit A why baseball can dump at the side of the road logic, common sense and sanity. You can't possibly explain it and if you try to nobody will believe you, but you can't deny it either.
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