We all remember Jason Botts, right? The onetime Rangers prospect who put up monster numbers in the minor leagues, but never could produce at the big league level? In case you missed it, he ended up in Japan playing for the Nippon-Ham Fighters.
I was always a big Jason Botts supporter. Since I live in Norman, I frequent Redhawks games and over the years saw Botts play upwards of 40-50 games at Bricktown Ballpark. Because of the time he spent at AAA and his monster numbers, he was a crowd favorite. It was hard not to root for the guy whose JumboTron portrait was replaced with a picture of Chewbacca (and at 6'5" and 250 lbs, its not too hard to believe that Botts was a Wookie). I was hopeful that he would translate his minor league success into a steady big league gig.
Today I was reading last year's publication of the Baseball Prospectus annual, and mused at their comments on Botts:
"Once again last year, Botts put up big, big numbers at AAA only to turn into a pumpkin once Texas gave him a shot at the big leagues . . . He could be huge in Japan one day."
At the time this seemed to be a comment characteristic of the BP writers' dry-witted sarcastic humor, until I did an internet search for Botts today. His 2008 numbers in Japan are only slightly better than his "pumpkin"-like performances with the Rangers (.254/.327.423 according to japanesebaseball.com). What I encountered next, however, were two YouTube videos: one was a Jason Botts music video, and one was an entire stadium chanting "Ja-son-Bot-tsu".
Perhaps Baseball Prospectus was not only sarcastic, but prophetic as well.
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