Cesar Vargas pitched an inning for the San Diego Padres against the Cleveland Indians Thursday. He faced eight batters and five reached base. At least one of the outs he recorded was hit hard. Vargas was a borderline contender for a spot in the San Diego bullpen, after seven years in the Yankee farm system. It is hard to imagine that is still the case after today. His struggles today got me thinking about failure.
I spent most of that morning in the Indians’ minor league camp. There are 140 players there, and, even if you are disturbingly interested in baseball, you are probably familiar with a third of them.