February 23, 2014

Ruben Tejada, The Unwanted Man

 Marc Carig of Newsday wrote a pretty good article about Ruben Tejada's offseason of coping with a bad year and how he is looking to improve both physically and mentally. Some excerpts from the article:

"The only promise I make is that I'll go every day to the field ready to work hard and play hard, to try to do the best for me, my family, for everybody,'' Tejada said. "That's the only promise I make every time.''
"There was too much thinking about the errors and the bad moments that happened,'' he said as he looked back on his brutal 2013. "That's why I'm trying to separate the days and [approach them] the same way.''"It surprised me because I know this is my job, my profession,'' he said. "I tried to work hard every day to come here in good shape.''
I mean, great that he wants to try harder now. He was 23 years old last year, and while I can't speak for the rest of you, I was pretty dumb and lazy at 23. He's maturing as a person and as a player, in the face of a franchise and a fan base that is pretty open about not really wanting the guy.

That said, I still don't think he's a terribly talented player. I think we're going to find that the year he put up those .280's batting averages were the aberration, not the down years. He looked lost at the plate at times last year. Between a combination of him regressing to his mean and the league adjusting to him a bit better, I just don't think he can return to those numbers.


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