After salvaging one game from their almost disastrous trip to Oakland, Eric Wedge threw out this post-game gem when asked about sitting Franklin Gutierrez (currently in a 0-15 slump): “I just thought Franklin could benefit from sitting and watching some baseball.” Personally, the way he’s hitting, I would have told F. Gut. to go out and watch some curling, or maybe ballet. I really think he’s got the thighs for ballet.
Philosophically, the idea is sound. Decent player mired in a slump sits and watches good players perform up to their abilities and gets motivated to do the same – we’ll call this the WWFMD maxim (What Would Fred McGriff Do). There’s a little problem in this situation, though: while sitting on the bench watching his teammates, Gutierrez watched some very poor baseball. …
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.