Open Thread: Chase Wright
By
(AP)
Everyone wants to make a name for themselves during the course of their lives, creating some kind of legacy that at least friends and family will remember them by. Baseball players are in the public eye and leave much bigger legacies than regular schmucks you like and me, and if they’re lucky enough that legacy will be a positive one. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Reggie Jackson, Aaron Boone, David Cone, Bernie Williams … we’ll remember those guys for all the good they did in pinstripes for many, many years to come. Chase Wright isn’t so lucky.
Unless you’re a new Yankees fans, I mean you started following the team within the last year or two, there’s only one way to remember Chase Wright. April 27th, 2007, third inning. The Yankees were up three-zip on the Red Sox at Fenway Park thanks to Jason Giambi, who doubled in a pair in the first inning and singled in another run in the third. Wright started the bottom of the inning by getting Kevin Youkilis to fly out to the warning track in right, an ominous sign. David Ortiz then lined out to left for the second out. That’s when it happened.
2-1 pitch to Manny Ramirez: homer to to left-center
1-2 pitch to J.D. Drew: homer to right-center
1-1 pitch to Mike Lowell: homer to left
1-0 pitch to Jason Varitek: homer to left
Within the span of 13 pitches, Wright had surrendered four consecutive homeruns to turn a 3-0 lead into a 4-3 deficit. He struck out Wily Mo Pena to end the inning, then was replaced by Colter Bean (!) to start the fourth. The Yankees went on to lose 7-6. Wright was send back to Double-A Trenton after the game, then threw two innings during his September callup. He spent the next season in the minors, then was traded to the Brewers for Eric Fryer (who was later traded to the Pirates for Eric Hinske) before the 2009 season.
Wright hasn’t been back to the big leagues since that September callup in 2007, instead toiling around in the minors with rather hideous results: 5.39 ERA in 386.2 IP with the Brewers. Today is his 29th birthday, and unless Wright makes some significant adjustments, he’ll never return to the big leagues and those four homers in Fenway will remain his legacy. Harsh.
* * *
Here is your open thread. The only local clubs in action tonight are the Knicks and Nets, but you can use this thread to talk about whatever you want. Go nuts.
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He should change his name to Chase Wrong.
Hey all, I’m in a just-forming ottoneu league that is in need of one more owner to fill out the league. Anybody interested? We’re playing fangraphs points, $9.99 tier, draft date TBD.
Jeremy Lin open thread.
Screw the Knicks.
Good to see him play well
It’s too bad that Wright’s short stint in the big leagues was only memorable for that negative results. However, he did get to put on the pinstripes, pitch in Yankee Stadium and win two games in the big leagues. He has his own page on baseball-reference.com. For that I envy him.
True. He’s done more than the parasite lawyers that hang out posting on this site will ever do – no matter how many ties they wear.
Parasite lawyers? Please do tell.
Maybe he’s a Y2J fan.
Check out the list of spring training invites:
http://www.nj.com/yankees/inde.....witterfeed
looking forward to seeing JR, Gary Sanchez, Stoneburner, and Brett Marshall. I don’t know if it’s possible but I’m even more excited for ST now.
Surprised to not see Dellin on there.
Nevermind I’m stupid, he’s on the 40 man…
Is Stoneburner have a chance to pitch in Yanks in 2012?
No. No chance frankly.
The name “Chase Wright” is just one big punch to the stomach. I can remember that as if it was yesterday. Even sadder/funnier was that the start was a “reward” for a good Spring Training performance.
At least Anthony Claggett got a couple of extra appearances in.
watched this game with my buddy who is a sox fan. awful night.
I was AT this game. An even more awful night.
oh Abreu how i miss ye
i rmember that game… my jaw dropped after the second homer… i just started laughing after Tek’s shot.
heres the video, in case you dont remember, or are looking for something to make it crawl back up inside you
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play......1&v=3
funny, Joe Morgan does his best Christopher Walken impression during Mike Lowell’s shot…
http://deadspin.com/5883584/ye.....-stop-sign
This is bad. Bad in the sense that he’s YES’ best studio host and a well-liked one. He will be punished but I hope he stays with YES. Bad enough that Kim Jones left, and I don’t to deal with Nancy Newman on the Opening Day pre & post game.
*don’t want to deal. But yeah, I cannot stand Nancy Newman. Bob, I’m pulling for you, man.
Nancy Newman is the absolute worst, no argument there.
But good riddance to Kim Jones who was nearly as terrible and though Lorenz isn’t quite as terrible in the studio as they are anywhere (he’s even worse in the broadcast booth those rare times), I wouldn’t mind in the least if they dumped him right away.
And, how do you say you’re pulling for him? It’s not like he got sick or had an accident. He was driving drunk and deserves all he gets and possibly more. Just lucky he was stopped when he passed out instead of killing someone else (and of course surviving the accident with no or minor injuries as the drunk one too often does).
/end rant
If I remember correctly it was after these 4 home runs that Youkilis was on the top step of the dugout doing these over exaggerated full body fist pumps (which later made it to the Sportscenter intro montage for a while). I always wondered if this over celebration was the catalyst for Joba going after Youbkilis for a while. It could be possible that Joba was friends with Chase Wright (they could have been in the minors together)and took offense to a friend being shown up. Or he just could have hated Youkilis for the total lack of sportsmanship he displayed that day. Or maybe it was just cause Youkilis seems like a total douche bag. Either way i thoroughly enjoyed Joba beaning Youkilis to the point of him crying, too bad that will be the highlight of Joba’s yankee career. Did not see that coming at the time.
That box score is amazing.
Chase Wright, Colter Bean, Scott Proctor (doing his best post-2007 Proctor impression), Luis Vizcaino, and Sean Henn all in one game. Pettitte in relief. Wil Nieves and Josh Phelps catching. Miguel Cairo making yet another appearance. A-Rod rocking a 1.418 OPS!!! (And of course Daisuke allowing 6 runs yet still getting the win)
It’s amazing just how much A-Rod and Posada had to (largely) carry that team to somehow win 94 games. I know a couple other guys were a bit above average with somewhat good seasons, but A-Rod and Posada were just head and shoulders above everyone else.
And just because, time for fun with OPS+ and ERA+ from that season:
Melky Cabrera: 88
A-Rod: 176
Posada: 153
Miguel Cairo: 65
Shelley Duncan: 127
Wil Nieves: 10
Alberto Gonzalez: -44
Kei Igawa: 73
Mike Myers: 171
Joba Chamberlain: 1221
Mariano Rivera: 144 (easily the worst non-rookie year of his career)
And yes I know about relievers and ERA, just liked the numbers…
Hope Chase Whitley has better luck.