Xavier Nady's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, no-hitters and Brian Wilson's beard are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Your laptop dies for a week and you miss 15 golden sombreros. The golden sombrero used to be special but in this new era of terrible hitting and Charlie Morton, there's just a ton more guys swinging and missing. For full coverage, my good friend Mike does a great job of tracking these at The Golden Sombrero but I'll still try to make fun of as many as possible.

Xavier Nady was Wednesday night's lone giant hat wearer. It would have taken me at least 5 guesses before I got to Diamondbacks as Nady's 2011 team. Nady had a 3.2 WAR in 2008 but has otherwise been basically a replacement level guy. Slight tick above replacement level because his name is awesome. I like him because he strikes out a quarter of the time. Which eventual leads to this...

Bottom 2nd: Nady struck out looking against Madison Bumgarner. He took 3 straight balls before the 3 straight strikes. This might be my new favorite type of plate appearance.

Bottom 4th: Nady struck out swinging against Bumgarner. Nothing fancy about this one.

Bottom 6th: Nady struck out swinging against Bumgarner again. He fouled a pair off just to see what contact was like. He didn't much care for it.

Bottom 9th: Nady struck out swinging against Brian Wilson. 3 pitches. Fear of the beard is a real thing.

Mark Reynolds Moves Golden Sombreros To Baltimore

Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers dealt his free swinging third baseman to Baltimore for a pair of relievers to kick of the Winter Meetings. Mark Reynolds, still just 27-years-old, will provide some pop from the corner infield position as he's hit 32 and 44 home runs over the past two seasons. Unfortunately, the one thing he does better, much better, than hit home runs is striking out. Reynolds has struck out over 200 times in each of the last three seasons and is a good bet to continue that streak considering the quantity of quality power pitchers in the AL East. He could be looking at record shattering strikeout numbers in the near future. Of course, Reynolds already owns the records he'd be shattering but still...

Reynolds signed a fresh three-year, $14.5 million deal at the beginning of last season. But new GM Towers, seemed to be non too pleased with Reynolds' .198/.320/.433 line and 211 strikeouts. So Towers shipped Reynolds off to Baltimore for relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio.

I have a special connection with Mark Reynolds because I document the great moments in plate futility here at Off Base. Reynolds won our first ever Golden Sombrero of the Year Award thanks to his four Golden Sombreros in 2010. He's a strikeout machine and a pure joy to cover. I'm looking forward to big swings and misses next year. The good news for Orioles fans is that I'll be covering your team more closely in 2011 and almost every post about Mark Reynolds will be accompanied by this picture of a drunk donkey wearing a sombrero.

NL West Year In Review

Off Base will take a look back at the 2010 season season with our own brand of science nonsense. Today we'll look at the NL West.

1. San Francisco Giants
Highlights: Let's see, where should we start? The Giants won the West with a 92-70 record. Buster Posey emerged as a budding superstar when he was finally called up. Brian Wilson turned out to be quite the weirdo colorful personality. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be one of his "loser friends." Madison Bumgarner looks like he'll be a front of the rotation starter again. Oh, and uh, they won their first World Series.

Lowlights: Well, Tim Lincecum won't win his third straight Cy Young. Kung Fu Panda wasn't good at the plate and might have actually eaten a few Panda Express franchises. I lost a slap bet because Cody Ross hit a home run in the World Series. That was more of a lowlight for me, I suppose.

Hot Stove Outlook: Try to convince Aubrey Huff to sign a one year deal. Maybe try to get another outfielder. Try to trade Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand. Haha, good one. Figure out how long to leave Brandon Belt in Triple A before calling him up next year.

2. San Diego Padres
Highlights: The Pads finished second in the West with a 90-72 instead of finishing last like most people projected. Mat Latos looks like an ace in the making despite, tragically, only having one "T" in his name. There is a secret underground factory where quality bullpen arms are manufactured. They play in SAN DIEGO.

Lowlights: A September collapse left them looking in from the outside of the playoff window. They employ and play David Eckstein.

Hot Stove Outlook: Brace yourselves, Pads fans. Trade Adrian Gonzalez for a boatload of high quality prospects from the Red Sox.

3. Colorado Rockies
Highlights: Troy Tulowitski is really freaking good. Ubaldo Jimenez through the first no-hitter in Rockies history. Carlos Gonzalez became a monster hitter (at home) and contended for the NL Triple Crown for a while. The Rox got off to another one of their hot September runs toward the playoffs.

Lowlights: The Rox stumbled their way through the end of September and missed the playoffs by nine games. It was partially due to Jim Tracy, who mismanaged the team all over the place. They're still paying Todd Helton a ton of cash.

Hot Stove Outlook: Well, they declined the option on Miguel Olivo and seemingly have zero interest in giving Chris Ianetta the full time job. So a catcher is probably a priority and I've heard (on Twitter) that they like Mike Napoli who the Angels might be looking to move. The Rox will also try to extend Jorge de la Rosa.

4. Los Angeles Dodgers
Highlights: They managed to somehow lure Zach Lee away from LSU.

Lowlights: The McCourt divorce was the biggest story of their season. Kemp hit 28 home runs but his .249/.310/.450 was a disappointment. The catcher formerly known as Russell Martin had a .306 wOBA.

Hot Stove Outlook: I'm sure they'll bid on some big names with money they aren't allowed to spend. Crazy Matt Kemp rumors will be floated around. I will continue to be angry with the Dodgers while watching Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee play quarterback for LSU.

5. Arizona Diamondbacks
Highlights: They led the world in strikeouts. Oh, batters' strikeouts. Perhaps more of a lowlight then?

Lowlights: Everybody underperformed and Mark Reynolds had over three times as many strikeouts than the team had wins. They finished with the third worst record in baseball at 65-97.

Hot Stove Outlook: Part ways with Brandon Webb. Then blow everything up? Figure out who to draft with the third pick next year.