Dear Pedro,

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on another incredibly bad season at the plate.  Once again you have failed miserably to prove yourself a worthy major league ballplayer with a bat in your hands.  When it comes to hitting, you have my permanent Dave Kingman Award vote.  Way to go, Pedro, once again you truly stunk.

The 2007 season saw you hit .253 (sadly the second best average of your career) with a .290 on-base percentage – the 6th time in seven seasons (min 150 PA) in which you’ve failed to reach the .300 mark – a .418 slugging percentage and .708 OPS, both which were the lowest full season marks of your career.

Your devoted but blinded faithful will point to the fact that you topped the 20 HR plateau and 70 RBI mark for the 4th consecutive season but your 20 home runs and 72 RBI with an 81 OPS+ do not impress me, sir.  No, your 28 doubles and 50 extra-base hits were the fewest since you graduated from part-time play in 2004 as were those supposedly impressive 20 long balls (12 of which were solo shots). 

More importantly, your 29 walks were the 3rd lowest total in your 4 seasons of 500 or more PA as was your OBP.  You also created outs in 74% of your 590 plate appearances (your career average) and the 7th time in 7 seasons of 150+ PA you’ve created outs in at least 73% of your trips to the plate.  You even managed to draw just 1 walk in the entire month of September and just 7 in your final 205 PA after August 1st.  All of this simply reaffirms your well earned status as a Prodigious Out Making Machine.

Pedro, you also proved your worthlessness this season by once again dropping off the face of the Giants offense down the stretch – not that it mattered much this year, but just the same….

Despite hitting .800/.800/.800 in your final…uh…1 game of the season (4-for-5 with 4 singles in the season finale), you still managed to hit just .251/.280/.372 with 4 HR and 11 extra-base hits after July 28.  Of course that also means that between July 28 and September 29 – essentially the final two months of play – you batted .238/.268/.362 with once again, just the 4 home runs.  And to think at the halfway mark, you were actually on pace to have the 24 good at bats – aka home runs – I predicted for you when the season began.  Oh well, a new career best will have to wait at least one more year.

I will also give a most sincere thanks to another one of your patented “short but sweet” scorching hot streaks - .373/.439/.686 in 51 AB in a two-week span from July 13 through July 27 – because of which you managed to hit .275/.313/.434 in the second half, all above the .241/.282/.429 career 2nd half marks you entered the season with.  Of course, the flip side of that is you hit just .234/.270/.405 as the Giants offense got off to a miserable 1st half start that doomed the season essentially before it ever got off the ground.

And speaking of those hot streaks, you proved once again this year to be just about the most consistently inconsistent hitter in the majors by yet again resembling a Victorian era house with the original plumbing still intact.  Hot, cold, hot, cold…nobody does that better than ‘ol Popup Pedro!

But most of all, Pedro, I wanted to congratulate you on a fine defensive season that might finally earn you a spot in the BaseballReference.com Leaderboard and Awards section of your player profile for something other than games played, double plays and outs.  This season your defensive abilities may have actually earned you a Gold Glove Award.  If not, I’ll even argue that you were robbed. 

Even more than the golden glove work, Pedro, your fine defensive season might even earn you another contract from the suddenly pitching-speed-and-defense-oriented Giants.  Yup, you just may have fielded your way into aggravating the living hell out of me for yet another year.  Prior to the season, I predicted you would “give the team solid defense at third base and produce just enough pop at the plate to mask (your) considerable inadequacies with the bat,” and to that end you seem to have been most successful at pulling the wool over the eyes of GM Brian Sabean who gives every indication that he may yet be willing to bring you back for another season (or two?!?) of absolutely detrimental production at the plate.

Yup, congratulations once again Pedro.  I just can’t wait to see you back next year for another 400+ popups, strikeouts and weak groundballs to short….oh yeah, and those 20 home runs too.

Sincerely yours,

Richard Van Zandt

Devoted Member of the Pedro Must Go Anti-Fan Club