Absolute zero is the coldest temperature theoretically possible, but this temperature cannot possibly be reached by any means because no matter how insulated the system, no matter how remote the nebula, nothing can be completely detached from the entropy of the universe. This is oddly comforting and is also the reason that even the Pittsburgh Pirates can have an all-decade team, even without a winning season. You can find the other entries in this series here.
Left Field, Jason Bay: 2003-2008
To begin with, let’s quell some worries here by saying that there are two corner outfield spots on this team and two deserving corner outfielders, so if you maybe had another pick for left field then there’s a good chance you’ll see that player in right field because 1.) said other player played in right a few times and 2.) Jason Bay has a noodle-arm.
More about Bay after the jump.
Less than a month after Bay arrived in Pittsburgh as the centerpiece of the Brian Giles trade, he hit two home runs and drove in eight in a game against the Cubs. The next summer, as he chased down the National League Rookie of the Year award, he did it again. All Bay did when he came to the Pirates was hit. He hit .282/.358/.550 with 26 homers in his rookie year despite not playing in April. That won him the only Rookie of the Year award in Pirate history. In 2005, he stepped things up a notch from there, hitting 32 homers and 44 doubles, pushing his OBP over .400 and finishing sixth in either league in WAR, despite playing a position with a high replacement value and performing poorly defensively.
He kept hitting in 2006, hitting 10 homers in a 10 game span in May and being elected to start in the All-Star Game at PNC Park. The huge ovation he received during that game is one of the brighter moments in the history of the park.
I always thought Bay was badly underrated by most Pirate fans. In 2006, we had a really stupid debate about whether or not he was a “clutch” hitter, followed by an ugly, injury-riddled season in 2007 that caused a lot of people to say a lot of nasty things about him. His even temper and easy-going demeanor was confused by some fans as laziness and lack of fire, but the truth is that good players will always be a target for the public on bad teams. Bay played four full seasons at parts of two others with the Bucs and is eighth on the team’s all-time home run list, fifth in slugging percentage, and seventh in OPS. It’s impossible to think about the last decade of Pirate baseball without Jason Bay.
