The Loss of A Baseball Prophet

For all of you who do not know. There is a man who prides himself on being " The Baseball Prophet".
He claims that anything baseball that is uttered from his lips is "straight from G-D's mouth".
The Person I am referring to is an avid reader of this blog and contributes sparingly. You can see his picture in the right hand side with the likes of A-Rod (his former hero) and Cano. As well as Sterling and Sheppard.
His name is Avi Dwek.

The truth is, He "WAS" a heck of a talent.
Although I never wanted to admit it. He always "WAS" correct.
Whether he was predicting which prospect out of high was the real deal or which prospect would be a bust, he always was dead on.

If I were a baseball owner I would hand over the General Manager job of my franchise to him in a heartbeat.
He simply "knew" how to evaluate talent as good if not better than Theo himself .
I know for a fact he would field a championship caliber team with a Billy Bean like budget .
I don't know anybody who is a better at Fantasy Baseball than him.

There comes a point in every man's career where you start to see a drop in his productivity.
Its only natural to slip in performance as you get up there in age.
Just look at the ladder stages of Bernie Williams tenure in pinstripes for example.
He was a shell of his former self and nobody gripped about it simply because it happens to just about everybody
(with the exception of Barry Bonds but we know the truth behind that story )

The drastic fall of Avi however came upon us in the blink of an eye.
Some say it was his Devotion to his job (anybody need a car?),
some say the key to his downfall was his obsession with fantasy baseball. However you slice it, the facts are inevitable. Avi Dwek no longer is "The Baseball Prophet".

Here are a few telltale signs of my reason why.

#1, A few years ago our former "Prophet" lost a monetary bet with another one of our readers Max N.
The wager was that Bobby Abreau will not reach the 100 RBI Plato after his first half of the season slump.
Avi made it a point to publicize this wager to prove his point.
As we all know, El Come Duce reached the century mark on the Yankees final series of the year to cap his blistering second half.

A few minor false predictions were made that I don't feel is important to mention. I skip all the way to this past season and give a few more examples.

#2, Before the season, along with everybody else that knows baseball , Avi was screaming that Yankees should somehow rid themselves (one way or another) of the services of Mike Mussina.
He even was willing to bite the bullet and cut him.
By no stretch of the imagination could anybody not entertain that notion. Especially after his atrocious 2007 campaign.
As it turns out. The Moose turned in one of his best years of his career and established himself as the Yankee stopper and ace. In a year when they least counted on him and needed him most.
Mussina ended up throwing over 200 innings to an E.R.A in the mid 3's and won the elusive 20 games. Something he failed to do through out his entire illustrious career.

Anybody else gets a pass on this one.
But, if your calling yourself "The Baseball Prophet" , you must take the hit.

#3, The final example I will be giving is,
This past season Avi Predicted at the half way point that
"Grady Sizemore WILL NOT hit 30 HRS this season".
Once again, he was wrong. He ended up with 33.

In no way shape or form am I saying Avi no longer knows his stuff. I still would let him be my GM of my franchise.
But I think its time to announce that He no longer is
"The baseball Prophet".

Its a shame we lost such a talent in Avi. It was a once in a lifetime gift which we may never see again and I am happy to have been a part of something special.