During the off-season, Josh Hamilton was everyone’s top free agent target. Seemingly every fan base was hoping that their general manager would make a play for the former MVP; however, I was not one of those people. In fact, I was — nor ever been — a Josh Hamilton fan for a very simple reason: he is the biggest head case in the game of baseball.
There has never been a baseball player who has had his hand held more than Josh Hamilton. There also isn’t a baseball player who more misunderstood than Josh Hamilton. Most of baseball’s fan base fell for the born-again Christian comeback story that Hamilton has lived through. That’s great and all, but it doesn’t hide the fact that he is still kind of a jerk.
We all remember his little relapse last year, correct? We also know about the comments he made about his former home city being a “football town”. Lastly, Josh stated that he didn’t really care about how people felt about him. Well, in my opinion, there hasn’t been a moment of Josh Hamilton’s life where he hasn’t cared about what people think. Well, on a second thought, maybe there has been a day or two.
Personal life aside, Hamilton has been stinking it up for the Los Angeles Angels, which really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. As I said several times during the off-season, Hamilton gets by strictly on his God-given athletic ability: his approach at the plate is terrible, he swings and misses way more than anyone should and he simply cannot hit left-handers. Because of his early season struggles, Mike Scioscia decided to drop Hamilton from the cleanup spot to the five-hole, giving Mark Trumbo a chance to do what Hamilton was paid $125 million for.
I guess Hamilton has the rest of the season to prove me wrong, and he is definitely capable of doing so. But giving a man with the mental state of Hamilton a $125 million deal is never a good idea — especially one who randomly disappears for months without notice.