Huff turned out not to be anything special. A meager 15 homeruns and 72 RBIs was not what Baltimore had in mind. His OPS was a pedestrian .778. He looked stiff. Awkward. Nothing he did was graceful. Nothing he did was anything more than average big league production. Not what the Orioles signed up for.
Then the incident happened.
On a satellite radio show designed for, um, mature audiences, Huff, appearing as a guest alongside an adult entertainer, made some less-than-flattering comments about the City of Baltimore and revealed far too much detail about his unorthodox ways of passing the time on long road trips.
As 2008 dawned, I had already anointed Huff to be my official whipping boy for the upcoming season. Orioles Lose... Blame Huff. Daniel Cabrera can't throw strikes... Blame Huff. Its raining... Blame Huff.
Then something kind of cool happened. Huff spent a decent chunk of the 2008 season knocking the stuffing out of the ball. Homeruns, doubles, line drives to the gap. He hit like a man possessed. He still looked stiff. He still wasn't graceful. And I think I still shouted a bit too loud whenever he failed to reach base. But, as if by magic, Huff's performance at the plate was making him much less of a perfect scape goat for all of the Orioles ills. Its hard to blame a 9-4 loss on someone who has gone 3 for 4 with a double and a homerun. By seasons end I started to almost take it for granted that Huff would make solid contact whenever he stepped into the batters box.
2009 has been more like 2007 for Mr. Huff. He spent the months of June and July mired in a slump that dropped his average from close to .300 to well below .250 for a time. I saw him in person against Zach Greinke in late July and he looked simply awful at the plate. Swinging at balls in the dirt. And with his stiff manner, swings and misses at 57-foot curveballs look doubly awkward.
Huff's trade value plummeted. His potential free agent value to the Orioles vanished. (By way of explanation here, when someone who is a big star leaves via free agency their team gets compensatory draft picks at the end of the 1st round of the MLB Draft. If he had repeated his 2008 numbers this year, Huff would have been such a player) I confided in a friend one day in late July that in order for the Orioles to get anything of real value for Huff something absolutely catastrophic would have to happen to the 1st baseman of a contending team. When the July 31 non-waiver deadline passed with no such calamity befalling any pennant chasers, Huff remained an Oriole for a few more weeks.
Aubrey Huff is now a Tiger. The Orioles netted a Single-A pitcher with a 96-mph fastball in return for him. Not a terrible deal. Not a terribly inspiring one either.
But somehow thats a fitting end for Huff's tenure with the O's. He wasn't bad. He just wasn't great. At least not for longer than a few magical months in 2008.
No hard feelings Aubrey. He's far from the biggest mistake the Orioles have made in my lifetime. I wish him well. really. I wish him the best as he tries, stiffly and ungracefully, to help Detroit make it to another World Series.
1 comment:
His leaving made so little a mark that I didn't even know about it until I read this.
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