If this is the Diminished Vázquez, Sign Us Up
04/02/2058
Brianna Robles, Starscreams contributor
Opening night was also the long, long awaited Stars debut of starting pitcher Rubén Vázquez. It was two winters ago when the Valencia front office pulled the apparent coup and plucked Vázquez from free agency very early on, effectively swiping the six-time all-star and one-time Nebraska winner away from nemesis Sacramento. This was the same hot-headed Rubén Vázquez who had for years tormented Stars hitters, and their fans. There was a great deal of excitement among the Stars fan base. Rubén would continue to torment Pacific hitters, but now he would do so on Valencia's behalf. The Stars would finally get one over on the Popes. The team was loaded and ready to go, and people began to speak of a Valencia divisional crown unironically, except ….
Shoulder inflammation sounds like something that could be cleared up with a few days rest and some ibuprofen, but it kept Vázquez out of action for the entirety of of the 2057. At first, he was slated to return later in 2057, sometime around July, but the injury, it seemed, would not heal or respond to treatment. I'm no doctor, but it seems like we could use a more descriptive diagnosis than 'shoulder inflammation'. And so his window of return was moved back to this spring.
That's not ideal, but then we had to be subjected to the months-long angst of: 1) crappy, losing baseball, and 2) ominous rumblings about what sort of pitcher Vázquez would be on his return. A long-term injury and age (35 years old) might leave him a shell of his former self. OSA scouts were not at all optimistic. He would have a harder time consistently finding the zone, have a harder time missing bats, just be less effective overall. He would look, in other words, fairly average, and not a franchise savior.
There developed a line of thought that the Stars would hide Vázquez in the middle of the rotation this year in order to take the pressure off the veteran hurler while he tried to find himself, but it became evident this spring that Rubén was working from his own plan, and that he wouldn't be hiding from anybody.
