So if you hadn't seen the news at the official site, or from StrosDux' post over here, they've gone and cut Steve Sparks.
Finally.
And I know you're saying, "Hey rastro, you really couldn't be much worse than Steve Sparks. I bet, considering the the large amount of innings they allowed him to pitch, you could make a case that Steve Sparks gave us Astro fans more bad pitching than we've seen from anyone in Spring Training over the last ten years."
And I'd say you'd probably be right. Lots of guys had worse ERA's, including poor Jailen Peguero this year, but for sustained and consistent suckitude across multiple statistical categories, Sparks has gotta take the cake.
Highs among this mediocre bunch in innings, hits, runs, and earned runs. They really wanted him to work out, and he really, really could not do the job.
It's a pretty evocative table, actually. Like years from now, they'll wonder what the story with Sparks was, just as I wonder now what was going down with Dean Crow . . . And I kind of find myself feeling sorry for Santiago Ramirez, who must have felt like he got hit by a train after his inning in 2004.
Assuming Sparks re-retires, he'll join Bob MacDonald, Turk Wendell and Chuck McElroy as guys who were pushed over the edge by their putrid ST performances into a well-deserved retirement.
But then Roy and Freddy Garcia show that making this list doesn't necessarily indicate a lack of talent.