As you can clearly see in the above screen shots of various pages on ESPN's website, they seem to have an inexplicable and unconditional love for Francisco Rodriguez.
Aside from starter Joe Saunders and maybe Garrett Anderson, K-Rod was arguably the Angels' worst player in this game. He was fortunate enough to escape without giving up any runs, but he DID allow 3 baserunners, and 2 of those were walks, which are completely his fault. Yes, he got out of a bases loaded jam. But if Jed Lowrie's fly ball was a few yards to the left, it would have been a 3-run double. And if it weren't for K-Rod's mediocrity, he never would have been in the jam in the first place.ESPN featured Rodriguez' picture on their homepage, praised him in the title of their game recap, and have generally been overhyping him all year. Why? I'll never know.
In K-Rod's first outing of more than one inning, he gave up the game-winning HR to JD Drew in Game 2. He gives Angels fans a heart attack more often than not, and he is one of the least consistent closers in baseball. He allows way too many baserunners, has average control at best, and simply isn't the elite pitcher that ESPN would like you to believe he is.
This isn't the first time I've bashed K-Rod (or ESPN, for that matter), and I'm sure it won't be the last. But can we please give it a rest, with the "OMG, K-Rod!" crap? For the sake of all that is right... let's see him for what he is: an opportunistic, slightly better than average closer, who happened to get lucky and end up in the right place at the right time. Oh yeah... and an obnoxious punk.
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