Nick Hagadone had it made. He was a huge piece of the a trade that sent an Indians superstar (Victor Martinez) away and the Indians always over value the players brought back in such deals. He pitched well in a short time in 2011, and well enough this Spring to make him the first relief pitcher called up from AAA this year. In the pros he was good enough to earn the top left hander spot in the bullpen as Rafael Perez was injured and Tony Sipp has been inconsistent. Scott Barnes, who was also pitching well during the early part of the season got blown out once and was sent down, thus alleviating any competition for Hagadone on the 40 man roster. All he had to do was sit in the bullpen, warm up when he was told and pitch to the best of his abilities when called upon.
Instead this idiot punched a wall (or something else hard enough to break his arm). Hagadone will now be out for the season, placing him in the same place next year that he was this year (fighting for a spot in the bullpen) instead of working on his game in the Majors, trying to get better. Now he has to sit for the next two months without even holding a baseball and will need to rehab after that. The Indians have placed him on the disqualification list meaning they don’t have to pay him until he comes back from injury and they are completely justified in their actions. Hagadone was purchased (for a very large price) from the Red Sox as property and he has made that property useless. If this was accidental it would be a totally different situation, but this was a conscious decision to hurt his pitching arm with full knowledge that he would probably hurt himself and that he would lose all respect of the Indians front office.
Good luck to Hagadone in 2013. He is still welcome to pitch for the Indians, he just needs the rest of the year as time to cool off. He had it made, but overreacted after a small failure (2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs allowed in 0.2 innings) and showed everyone a little bit more of his character. Hopefully during his time off he can spend some time with Josh Tomlin to learn how to be zen. Nick Hagadone was supposed to help the Indians in their playoff chase. Now he can just sit back and watch and think about what an idiot he was.
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