Your friendly SBN Dodger blogger checking in.

In May, I wrote this piece on Marco Scutaro. If you don't want to click through, I'll give you the jist of it. I said that Marco Scutaro is terrible, he compares unfavorably to Neifi Perez, and having him on the A's is an embarrassment. Five months later, I'm happy to say that I was wrong.

Scutaro made huge improvements this year, largely stemming from the fact that he learned how to take a walk. Coming into this season, Scutaro had a career .302 on base percentage, but the .350 OBP he put up was essential to the A's success. Whether or not this represents an actual improvement, or just a sample size related fluke, I can't say. All that I know is that in 2006, Scutaro took himself from someone whose sole redeeming value seemed to be "heart", to a productive major leaguer.

I'm not going to be hyperbolic and say that Scutaro was Oakland's MVP, or even that the A's wouldn't have made the playoffs without him. However, I will say that and if the A's had gone with my boy Antonio Perez instead of Scoot like I wanted, that last series with the Angels probably would have been a lot more important.

Thank you, Marco, for making me look bad. Sure my favorite team may have disappointed me yet again, but at least the A's give me a reason to watch the post season other than "Tommy Lasorda said so".