Pic of the Week

The thrill of victory: San Francisco's Marco Scutaro and
Sergio Romo celebrate their World Series title.

Marco Scutaro — or, if you're TBS' Craig Sager, Scooter-roo — had a 2012 that is a testimony to the randomness of baseball.

He opened the season with Colorado, where he played 95 games and had 415 plate appearances, in which he hit .271/.324/.361— which, in the context of Coors Field, is underwhelming at best. His OPS+, which computes his production in the context of the league average and home field, had him a 27 percent below average as a hitter as a Rockie.

On July 27 he was traded to San Francisco. And there — in a much more difficult environment for a hitter — Scutaro hit .362/.385/.473 the rest of the way (61 games, 268 plate appearances).

His has been an odd career, period; he didn't get his first real shot at playing time until age 28, which is old for a rookie, and he's hit better as he's aged. In four years with Oakland (2004-07) he hit .262; in the five years since, bouncing between Toronto, Boston, Colorado and San Francisco, he's hit .286.

He's a free agent, and he just turned 37 last week. It will be interesting to see what kind of offers he gets.

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This concludes the Pic of the Week Sunday feature for this year; to see them all, click here. Next week I'll resume the Sunday Funnies.