Day Forty One: Rich Aurilia

My cousin Chris is writing up a Giant for each year of his fandom leading up to their first World Series title in 2010, and fittingly he had Mr. Richard Santo Aurilia as his representative for the year of 2001. Rich Aurilia was an absolute beast in 2001. He was hitting in a lineup with the best single season numbers that had yet been put together by a position player (Barry would later top that season in 2 of the next 3 years. What a player!) and Jeff Kent. Those early 00's Giants teams could rip. Reggie Sanders was in the mix too if I'm not mistaken and Reggie was always just on good teams. I'm pretty sure that everyone associated with that team was drinking magic juicy juice (flax seed oil?) and casting arcane magical youth spells, but as many people know I have zero problem with players taking drugs. I took a lot of drugs and they didn't do shit for me. Anyways, Rich Aurilia was a force of nature in 2001. He regressed to his usual numbers in 2002 and 2003, but those weren't bad either. He was a decent fielder and had a small amount of pop. So he signed as a free agent with the Mariners ahead of the 2004 season. And oh what a half year it would be!

Coming of their last 90 win season and final push for the playoffs in 2003, the Bob Melvin lead Mariners were hoping to convince the fanbase that their aging team could hold up again. So bringing in a guy like Rich Aurilia was like saying, here! this is a piece that will help us remain where we are. I don't think anyone was expecting Rich Aurilia to put up 2001 numbers, but I think there was hope that he would do something! At that time I was very skeptical of Richard Aurilia. He was a dead red fastball hitter with little to no plate discipline and very little gap power. He was coming to play in the big leagues after sitting on meatballs in The Weenie League. He was about to get throttled. And by God he did!

First, let's talk about The Weenie League. My father coined this phrase to describe the regressive National League and their adherence to giving the other team an automatic out every nine hitters. I have differing opinions about some things in the game from my dad, but on this topic we are in complete agreement. There are so many numbers that can be trotted out about how much more difficult it is to hit in the American League than it is in the National League, and how much harder it is to pitch as well. Weak hitting middle infielders and glove first outfielders may seem like below average hitters, but they are still hitters. They have the potential to do incredible damage on any hit. Pitchers are novelties that kill rallies and help disguise bad baseball as strategy. I like National League ball somewhat, but I would really prefer if they adopted the DH because when dudes like Rich Aurilia come to the AL they get scorched. You just can't hit fastballs like you can in the NL. I remember Ian Snell (god bless that dude) saying straight up when he arrived in the AL, "this is much harder." I have never heard a player admit the truth, but we all know it. Albert Pujols knows it. Jeff Cirillo knows it. Matt Holliday knows it. And Rich Aurilia learned it right quick.

The first half of 2004 was a mess. All the elders fell to pieces together. Every player that had over 300 plate appearances that year was over 30. And they were showing their age. Their was no Barry Lamar or Jeff Kent to hide behind. Rich Aurilia was exposed. And he floundered accordingly. I remember so many ab's that he just gave up on that year. He was never a patient hitter, but stuck in a lineup with the post-juice cadaver of Bret Boone and 41 year old Edgar Martinez there weren't a lot of guys you needed to worry about. Ichiro was going to get his hits, but if you handled the rest of them it wasn't going to matter. The shortlived Rich Aurilia Experience ended with a midseason trade to the Padres where Aurilia immediately returned to form. He played like five more years hitting well in the Weenie League but never came back to the Big Circuit. He knew the score. And he made his living well with that knowledge. But that half year in Seattle was a signifier for us as well. The horn of plenty was empty, and Nintendo was bringing in spoiled meat and trying to get us to eat it. And no matter how rancid a baseball team is, if they are playing in the Mariners uniform I will watch them. And I rooted for Rich Aurilia that year every time he came to bat, because I'm also a Giants fan by lineage and I don't like to see that kind of suffering in public.

Wow! I just read over this and I evidently had a lot of dislike for Rich Aurilia as a Mariner! He did have 0.3 WAR that year and so wasn't totally useless. He is a symbol of the fall off though. It can't be helped. If Shawn Kemp is a figure of all that was good about Seattle sports, then Rich Aurilia's half season is representative of the "how things go wrong" that is constantly playing itself out for the Mariners. Either way, thanks Rich Aurilia for having quality years after leaving the Mariners so the self-laceration and masochism that is inherent in all Mariners fans could grow that much stronger. Your 2006 campaign with the Cincinnati Reds was delightfully bitter nectar for our sickness. Well done!