Thank you Hideki Okajima

The Red Sox non tendered Hideki Okajima the other day, thus ending his 4 year run in Boston. It was probably time. He had a mediocre 2010 and pitchers in their mid 30s tend to not improve over the years.

But before he goes off (and as a left handed reliever will inevitably find work) I ask my fellow Red Sox fans to tip their hats to him.

Remember this was the guy who was basically supposed to be Daisuke Matsusaka's caddy. A fellow countryman to keep the new ace company.

When he let up a homer to John Buck on the first pitch he ever threw, it looked like Okajima was Japanese for "Bust."

He didn't let up a run the rest of his outing... nor his next outing... nor the next one.
In fact he didn't let up a run in his next 20 outings.

And he had that bad ass delivery where he literally wasn't looking at the batter as he pitched. I have no clue how that worked... but it did.

His ERA was 0.42 in late May.
By the All Star break it was 0.82 and he was voted in by the fans (presumably by Red Sox Nation and the Nation of Japan) to the All Star Game.

As late as August 8th, his ERA remained sub 1.
Then his arm started to tire and the league caught up with him.

Theo and Tito rested him for a few weeks so he would be fresh for the playoffs... and he delivered.

He was unscored upon in the Division Series and ALCS, pitching 2 key innings in Game 7 against Cleveland.

Then, in the second game of the World Series, in a tense 2-1 victory, he pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings striking out 4.

He looked like a potential MVP candidate before letting up a homer in Denver. But he was a key player for the 2007 World Champs.

So off he goes to begin the journeyman part of his career. But thanks Oke-Doke. You combined with Papelbon in 2007 to give the Sox one of the best 1-2 bullpen punches in Red Sox history.

Give the Rockies credit... they give their fans players to cling to

You are going to hear a lot of mixed opinions about Troy Tulowitzki's long term contract extension with the Rockies.

Jeff Passan has already chimed in on Yahoo. The panel on MLB Network is split on it. (John Hart pointed out what a no brainer Grady Sizemore's super stardom looked like.) And more will come down the pike.

And yes people are pointing to the Rockies rotten contracts for Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, but those are disingenuous comparisons. They overpaid for them to lure some pitching into Denver and as it turned out, they were both bad fits. (Although Hampton liked the schools and Neagle liked the women in his car.)

You will hear Todd Helton's name being thrown around as a lousy contract as well. And I suppose technically it wasn't a great one. It was an albatross for a bunch of years and by 2006, they would have dealt Helton for flat Diet Sprite.

But a very cool thing happened the next year.
The Rockies went on their amazing run and stunned everyone on the planet Earth by sweeping Arizona and storming into the World Series.

And the last out was recorded by Helton.

The Rockies had a bunch of players most fans had never heard of. But they had Helton, who might not have been the superstar he was when he signed his bear of a contract. But he was the steady player whom any baseball fan knew and could relate to Colorado.

And that is something that all the stat heads in the world will NEVER understand. Sometimes for a fan base, it is GOOD to have a steady reliable player that the fan base can point to and say "That's my guy!"

Helton was that guy on the 2007 Rockies. Who knows? If the Blue Jays make the playoffs, Vernon Wells and HIS brontosaurus of a contract might have a similar reaction to Helton in the '07 ALCS.

It is why I totally understood the Ryan Howard contract. Lots of people killed it, but I got it. Sometimes you need to put OPS+, VORP, WAR and everything else and put it on the shelf.

Howard the Phillies fan's guy. He delivered for them with those towering homers in the 2008 World Series and as the 2009 NLCS MVP. He was a World Champion and an MVP for the Phillies... and you don't have to worry about him going to New York or Chicago or Boston. The long term contract gave the fans license to get attached to him as a Phillie.

And besides, how do you know if an Adrian Gonzalez or whomever else would be able to produce in Philadelphia or be as loved by the fans.

Sometimes to build up a fan base, regular fans need to have fan favorites to root for. Not everyone is watching the game with a calculator in hand. Some people (and brace yourself here) root for the PLAYERS. Some people like having a player to cheer for through thick and thin, and not drop them from their Fantasy Team because their Base Out Win percentage dropped.

Yes it involves emotion, but not all baseball fans are Vulcans!
Some fans have been stung by departing players and want to know if this is a long term relationship or just a fling.

I wonder if the Marlins would have a bigger fan base if some of their World Champions were able to stick around. I wonder if Padres fans would have shown up at the park this year if they felt like the stars they were cheering for would actually come back in 2011.

So guess what Rockies fans... you can buy a Tulowitzki jersey and know it will be good for a while. In the age of free agency, spending 10 seasons in a smaller market is really all you can ask for.

Todd Helton has given Colorado fans 13+ seasons.
Tulowitzki could spend 14+ seasons in Denver if the contract runs through all of its options.

Either way there will be many Rockie fans who could point to Todd and Troy and say "They were MY GUYS."

Once again, I feel badly for Cleveland

Cliff Lee was the Cy Young winner for Cleveland in 2008.
Cliff Lee was the post season pitching stud for Philadelphia in 2009.
Cliff Lee has pitched the Rangers into the ALCS with a dominating performance against the Rays this year.

You can't ask for more from him... but could you imagine if the Cliff Lee of '08, '09 and '10 was even 75% there in '07?

The Indians nearly made it to the World Series that year... a year when Lee melted down and was sent to the minors and wasn't on the post season roster.

They had C. C. Sabathia, who won the Cy Young Award that year and Fausto Carmona who was terrific. But come game 7, they handed the ball to Jake Westbrook.

Imagine if Cliff Lee... even a fraction of the pitcher we saw last night... pitched Game 7 in Boston.

Chances are the Indians would have won the ALCS... and would have crushed Colorado in the World Series.

Cleveland would have had their victory parade... and LeBron going to Miami wouldn't have hurt as much.

If only Cliff Lee of 2007 was like Cliff Lee of '08, '09 and tonight.

And so it goes in Cleveland.