{"id":967,"date":"2009-06-02T22:34:05","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T03:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/?p=967"},"modified":"2009-06-04T20:36:37","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T01:36:37","slug":"counterparts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/967\/counterparts","title":{"rendered":"Counterparts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We try to take the high road around these parts, but there comes a time when certain players need to be put in their proper context not for their epic home run milestones or marked improvement over anyone&#8217;s wildest hopes, but for performance trends in the exact opposite direction. A player who only fills their intended role on a technicality, and even while you wish them the best you also wish they would either get better or get out of the way.<\/p>\n<p>Except you can&#8217;t, because you remember that player&#8217;s predecessor and how said predecessor was almost exactly as bad and, in many ways, even worse. And then it makes you cry to think about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE PROMISE:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Wilson Betemit: <\/strong>Replacement for bust acquisition Nick Swisher.<br \/>\n<strong>Nick Swisher:<\/strong> Replacement for departed mercenaries Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AT THE PLATE:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>.209\/.277\/.326, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 13 K, 9 H<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong>.236\/.373\/.503, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 48 K, 38 H<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHERE IT WENT WRONG:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>The month of May, in which Betemit hit .105.<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong>Also the month of May, although Swisher posted a mighty .150.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ONLINE PRESENCE: <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>None, save for assorted news and reference sites.<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/NickSwisher\">Friendly<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CULT FOLLOWING:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>Justifiably non-existent.<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/voteswisher.com\/\">Inexplicable<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/951\/54-40-or-fight\">arguably embarrassing<\/a> as time goes by.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TRIBUTE FOOD:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>None, although we will begin the crusade at Wilson Avenue Snack Shop to rename the Wilson sandwich to the Wilson Betemit Sandwich. Actually, no . . . that sounds nasty.<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/nickswisher.net\/news_052009.html?context=podcast&#038;id=4167294\">Swish and Chips<\/a>. Also nasty-sounding, but at least deep-fried for a good cause.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DESCRIBED IN A MADE-UP, HYPHENATED WORD:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Betemit: <\/strong>Stick-to-it-ive.<br \/>\n<strong>Swisher: <\/strong>Bro-tastic.<\/p>\n<p>And this, I think, is why we should all take a moment to put young Wilson in our thoughts because this his poorly-going season actually makes Nick Swisher look good. And that, friends, is just about the saddest thing I have ever heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Better the devil you bro than the devil you don&#8217;t want playing first ever again. Actually, not really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[35,456,32,457,455],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":979,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}