Even in the major leagues, where news of large and small trades is reported every day, it is rare for a player to go through this path in one season. The main character is Mike Ford, who is currently in Seattle. The above record is compiled only based on the major league club, but whenever the affiliated major league club changes, including the additional records on the documents that occurred in the process of moving to the affiliated Triple A team, the number of times Ford’s status changed during that period was a total of 32 times.카지노사이트
MLB.com explained Ford’s 2022 year, saying, “All kinds of verbs that can be applied to a professional baseball player’s team change situation have been used.” Assigned (to a minor league club), activated (as an active player equivalent to 26 players), selected (from a big league team), optioned (for a minor league relegation), assigned (removed from the 40-man roster), traded, moved through the waiver claim process, promoted (to a major league club), released (from a team), and so on. Ford himself joked that 2022 is more like a player’s career than a season.
Ford wore 8 types of uniforms in 2022 alone, including 4 major league teams and 4 triple-A teams. He only played three games in three weeks, and was at home for ten days without his team. Because he traded often, there were all sorts of oddities. When he moved to San Francisco, he had to leave the airport at 4:30 a.m. after receiving a phone call after midnight and move to the game at 1 p.m. On paper, it could be done in just a few clicks, but in the real world, it was a tough part for players to handle.
After transferring, he played just one game in San Francisco before being demoted to Sacramento, a Triple-A team. And he went to an away game in El Paso, Texas, and heard about his return to Seattle. At the time, Seattle was preparing for an away game in New York. He stopped by his home in Tampa, Florida, to organize his personal affairs, and joined an expedition to New York the next day. That day, Ford recorded a fly ball, a hit ball, and a walk against Scherzer.
When he joined the New York expedition with Seattle, Ford was unable to pack all his belongings and had to return to Sacramento later. Remembering this time, Ford said, “I’ve accumulated so many airline miles that I’ll be able to travel on a free plane ticket when the season is over.”
As a result, I came up with my own rules. He said that at the beginning of the season, he carried three gym bags, but as he gradually started to reduce his luggage, he said that he carried only one gym bag without any problems. (At the airport, he was amused by the $150 he would have to pay each time he checked in an extra bag.) ‘Baseball Prospectus’ wrote ‘5 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, extra shorts, and a T-shirt’ as an important statistic summarizing Ford’s 2022 season. In addition, he said that it was no different from Ford’s “living in one city for more than two weeks project” throughout the year, and said that a person with an unusual reputation or popularity among celebrities was called a “celebrity among celebrities,” and Ford, who moved teams with an exceptional frequency, was described as a “Journeyman among Journeymen.”
There are generally two perspectives on a player who transfers this often. He can be evaluated as a player who cannot settle down in any team because he has no clear strengths, or he can be regarded as a player who comes to mind first when any team has a vacancy because he has an advantage that is a waste to just pass by. The result of the blending of the two perspectives is Ford’s reality.
Like everyone else, there was a time when Ford was noticed. In 2013, he played an outstanding role as a member of Princeton University and was selected as the best pitcher as well as the best player in the Ivy League. Ford was the first player to be selected as the best player in both categories since the establishment of the Ivy League. He was naturally offered contracts by five teams, and among them, he signed a contract with the New York Yankees.
Ford had a respectable .272 batting average and a high .380 on-base percentage during his five years in the minor leagues. He was recognized as a player who was in line with the trend by getting more walks (267) than strikeouts (245). He also caught the eye in 2014 by hitting four home runs in one game as a member of Single-A. Overall, he was evaluated as a hitter who had his own strike zone firmly established, knew what strikes were and responded to them. It was expected that Ford’s slugging power would be expressed even at the major league level if he went through a certain amount of adaptation. (Of course, the evaluation of having solid fundamentals and actual success are separate issues.)
And in 2019, Ford debuted in the striped uniform of the New York Yankees and recorded 12 homers in 50 games. For the Yankees, who did not have many left-handed hitters at the time, it was worth expecting. But that was the end. In the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Ford’s Yankees era quickly came to an end as he recorded batting averages in the early 10% range one after another. It is a typical story of a prospect who failed to blossom in the major leagues.
Ford, who suffered trade and release during the 2021 season, took on a challenge that may be the last in 2022. After that, I went through the 32 player status change procedures described above. He placed his last hopes on several teams, but all of them were traces of failure. Ford, who did not have many options, signed a minor league contract with Seattle in 2023 and participated in spring camp as an invited player. At the age of 30, a first baseman with no value in terms of defensive power. At least, the designated hitter spot in Seattle that Ford might be aiming for had already been reserved by AJ Pollack. No one looked at Ford as a significant presence in the team’s strength.
Everyone thought it was over, but here is a new starting point for Ford. Triple A season, which could be the last active life. From the start, the results were pretty good. At the beginning of the season, he hit home runs in three consecutive games, and even exploded three home runs in one game. In April alone, he showed off the level of a hitting master with 37 RBIs and an OPS of 1.214. Although his performance in May was not bad, he hit 13 home runs and 56 RBIs with an OPS of 1.032 while playing 49 games.
People really don’t know what to do. If there were no problems with Seattle’s lineup, the team wouldn’t even pay attention to Ford’s performance in Triple-A. However, the Seattle batting line was in a serious condition ‘just in time’. The overall team hitting was also a problem, but the designated hitter position was the worst. Seattle had a designated hitter batting average of only 0.169 until May. Other teams are in a position to reinforce their batting power, but for Seattle, the designated hitter was the position to sever the chance of an attack and blow away a victory.
By June, Ford, who had nothing more to show at Triple-A, declared an ‘opt-out’ and tried to find another team. Ford becomes a free agent if Seattle doesn’t make it to the major league roster. It has also begun to be introduced in Korea as a resource for KBO League clubs to recruit as substitute foreign players if there are no offers from other major league clubs.
Fortunately (?) none of Seattle’s designated hitter candidates showed any sign of a rebound, and Seattle decided to trust Ford once more. Of course, I didn’t have high expectations. Most Seattle fans had the idea that Ford could do no better than the pathetic old DH.
Ford, who returned to the big leagues on June 2, was a little different from before. He wanted to coordinate three or four games, and he immediately began to emerge as a designated hitter alternative for Seattle, writing multiple home runs in two consecutive home runs. His June record was 6 homers with a batting average of 0.204. It was still a poor grade by common sense standards, but it was a number that gave Seattle hope.
Cases where a stable environment brings out the potential of an athlete are common in the field of sports. Ford, which began to earn opportunities in earnest, began to explode properly in July. On July 4, he made his first four-hit game since his debut, including a home run and two doubles. He would have almost recorded a cycling hit on his birthday if he had added just one triple. Three days later, he led the team in a 10-1 win over Houston with three hits, including a home run.
It was a fresh shock to Seattle fans to see the designated hitter give strength to the batting line. Various Internet memes praising Ford appeared, and the Seattle club recorder also found all kinds of Ford records and encouraged fans to praise them. For example, something like this. Ford’s OPS of 0.944 in the first half is the best for an Ivy League major leaguer since the legendary star Lou Gehrig’s OPS of 1.124 in 1937. Knowing that the number of major league players who were former Ivy League players is on one hand, it is a record that is no different from sharing it for a laugh.
Of course, the direction can change at any time. It cannot be said that Ford’s hardships are over. He’s a player who has only played less than two months in the majors this year, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he suddenly sank and then disappeared. Seattle’s thirst for a designated hitter has not yet been resolved. Nevertheless, the scene where a player who was looking for all kinds of opportunities while reducing his luggage was cheered for a moment in the major leagues is worth remembering. Ford said that through the experience of 2022, he realized anew the providence of life that has no choice but to meet peaks and valleys alternately. (He said that there were more valleys than peaks.) While moving to all kinds of regions and gaining various experiences, he also gave meaning to what kind of person he was.
A player who became a hot topic after writing a 4-home run game while he was a promising player, could not overcome his sluggishness for a while, and eventually stood up. We remember Park Byeong-ho as the same case. He is the same, even to the point that when he was young, he wore a striped uniform and inflated his expectations for a while. If you want Ford to have a lot of better memories, it would be okay if he added a little far-fetched story.
In addition, the player who has experienced the most trades in the major leagues is Jesse Chavez, known as an all-weather pitcher. Chavez, who debuted in 2008 and is still playing, has been traded 10 times so far and has played in the American League and National League in the West, Central, and East divisions. Chavez cited console game consoles such as the PlayStation and Xbox as personal items that should not be forgotten in the process of frequently changing teams. He also gave a realistic answer that the hardest thing in every trade was finding someone to babysit. At the same time, he said that he should be able to accept the trade well only when he is in a position to enjoy various things that happen in the baseball world.
Dick Littlefield, a left-handed pitcher who played an active role in the 1950s, also experienced eight trades and is considered a record figure in this field. In fact, the ninth trade almost went through. However, the actual trade did not take place as the opposing player announced his retirement immediately after receiving the news of the trade. (The player who retired at the time was the famous Jackie Robinson.) The player who played for the most teams in one season was recorded as right-handed pitcher Oliver Drake. Milwaukee and Cleveland in 2018. I collected five uniforms from LA Angels, Toronto, and Minnesota.