Justin Upton Whiffing Against The Mariners

Hello and welcome back from the Seahawks. On the Mariners front, Justin Upton still isn't one of them, as he turned down a trade last week and hasn't changed his mind. I don't actually know if he's been under any pressure to change his mind; one way or another, his mind has not been changed. Justin Upton, for now, remains an Arizona Diamondback, and Taijuan Walker and all the others remain property of the Seattle Mariners. If you prefer, you could pretend like the Mariners traded Upton to Arizona for Walker, Nick Franklin, Stephen Pryor, and Charlie Furbush. Wow, that's not a bad haul! Good for the Mariners to add so much youth!

Now, this is an unusual situation. The Mariners have been turned down before by players, but that's mostly by free agents, choosing to accept a similar or larger offer elsewhere. Here, Upton has turned down the Mariners not because he has the option to go somewhere else; because he might have the option to go somewhere else, later on. I think it's pretty clear Upton is holding out to be traded to a better team. That might happen for him or it might not.

It's hard not to feel rejected. Mostly because the Mariners have been rejected, by a player they clearly really want. It makes all the sense in the world, of course, and Upton is entitled to have this say in his future. But no matter your stance on the trade, even if you're glad it didn't go down, there's that rejection, like the Mariners just got shot down for prom. Nobody likes to be told they aren't good enough. Even if they're told by someone they don't find very appealing. It's just a shot to the confidence, and people are going to have different feelings about Justin Upton now than they did several days ago. People, to a certain extent, feel hurt. We identify with the Mariners and the Mariners just got turned down.

It's unpleasant to feel hurt. Even when you think you want to be wallowing, you're only doing yourself further harm. One should try to have this feeling as infrequently as possible. So for those of you who are bitter about Justin Upton refusing to go to the Mariners, I have prepared the following .gifs, showing Justin Upton swinging and missing against pitches thrown by various M's. Haha, look at this idiot, prancing around like he's a somebody. I've never swung and missed against Hector Noesi. I've certainly never done it on consecutive pitches.

Here's to being petty. Justin Upton started it.