Returning to Form

Is any phrase more tiring than hoping a player with return to form? It's just a code saying that a player had one good year and we're supposed to delude ourselves into thinking it should be expected. Of course, the yaysayers and Twins Propaganda Machine would try to argue the reverse about our favorite infielder. They insist we are judging Punto by one bad year. They are half-right. In his 5 seasons of roughly 400 or more at-bats, he's hit .239, .290, .210, .284, and .228. Even in '08 when he hit .284, he still looked like a .225 hitter. He just had way too many terrible at-bats. I wish I was beating a dead horse, but there are still way too many apologists out there keeping it alive.

Of course, the STRIB had a story about JJ Hardy "returning to form" today. I don't care what form he returns to. He's not Nick Punto. I feel bad for Hardy though. He'll boot a grounder on which he has no play to make the out anyway. He'll get in Gardy's dog house. (He'll need a bigger one this year). Then Gardy will run Puntosy out there for some defense. Plus he looked at [Nick's] numbers against this guy, and he hits him pretty well. (2-6 in 2006). Unless of course, Gardy returns to form.