We can all remember when Jose Tabata signed his contract last year that it was greeted with great enthusiasm, as one of the most team friendly contracts in history. Sure there were questions about Tabata's age and his ability to hit for power, but essentially if he simply stayed as good as he was, at the very young age of 23, it would be an absolute steal. Stories were popping up about how Tabata fired his agent because he refused to be apart of such a team friendly contract. I even had a friend tell me that other players will refuse to talk extensions with the Pirates because of the way they took advantage of such a naive kid.

Fast forward to today. Tabata OPS has dropped from .746 in 2010 to .711 in 2011, and now stands at a miserable .624. His stolen base percentage also has declined from 73% in '10 to 70% in '11 to a putrid 56% in 2012. His defense is also on the decline with his UZR/150 going from 9.6 to (1.6) to (33.4) for LF. He looks overweight (Pedro fat not Fat Rod fat) and if you read the game summary is either hurt (another issue that keeps cropping up in his career) or not caring. I'm not making this point to indict Huntington (although feel free), but more just to point out that Tabata's name is not brought up much when discussing why are offense sucks, and he is a BIG reason it's as bad as it is. Also, I wanted to note that sometimes what looks to be a great contract at first, can look like a total waste of money 9 months later. Meanwhile, Jose is laughing all the way to the bank.