MLB Comeback Kids: Carlos Delgado, Richie Sexson, Adam Eaton, Dontrelle Willis

Every season a new player will come along and break your heart.

Perhaps this player was a perennial all-star who has a bad year.  Maybe it’s the young up-and-comer who can’t quite match his previous season.  It could be the aging veteran—everyone was counting on him for a stellar year, but he just couldn’t produce.

Each year, teams' hopes are dashed due to a number of factors.  However, a down year by a key cog could spell the end of your season before it even begins.

So arrives a new year with new aspirations.  Who might come back to life after a painful 2007 season?

Let’s take a look at players who need a big turnaround for their teams to have a chance. 

Carlos Delgado, New York Mets

Part of the Mets' epic collapse in ’07 was due to a rash of injuries and a terribly timed slump at the end of the year.  But a major force behind the fall of the Mets was Carlos Delgado’s poor excuse for a season.

24 home runs and 87 RBI is nothing to shake a stick at.  But when you look at Delgado's overall body of work, last year's execution goes down as possibly his worst. 

You can blame his performance on a failed recovery from elbow surgery. However, Delgado has missed 18 or more games in five of the last six seasons.  

Sadly, his time as a prolific slugger may be coming to an end.  He ranks 37th on the all-time home run list.  While he should hit 30 homers this year, he is quite obviously on the downside of his amazing career.  The Mets need him this year, so can he deliver?

Richie Sexson, Seattle Mariners

For a guy who has five 30-homer seasons under his belt, last year was a sickening season for Sexson.

Hitting .209 with only 21 home runs is terrible on any level, but the season was especially frustrating for Sexson, who endured hamstring and hip issues throughout the year.

Seattle is in need of a middle-of-the-order bat to produce big power.  Adrian Beltre has not lived up to the hype following his 48-home run season with the Dodgers a few years back, and Raul Ibanez is not a masher, but will knock in runs.

To be a contender, Sexson’s Cortizone-injected shoulder must carry the offensive load.  Anything less than 30 bombs will be a disappointment again, and will probably mean the end of the run for this once incredible slugger.

Adam Eaton, Philadelphia Phillies

Some, including myself, scratched their heads after the Phils gave Eaton a $24 million contract before last season.  

Somehow reaching 10 wins in first season with the Phillies, Eaton struggled mightily. Yes, with injuries—but also with allowing anyone and everyone to hit off of him.

His 6.29 ERA was the worst of any starting pitcher in the big leagues, a sure sign that the Phillies have wasted money.

This is a new season, but will Eaton be the same man?  A comeback year is one in which a player reaches a level he was at just prior to his decline.  Eaton’s best year came in an abbreviated season where he went 11-5 with a 4.27 ERA, which isn’t anything special.

Even so, the Phillies will gladly take that.  They need just about anything they can get from Eaton, realizing that they are short on arms. 

Dontrelle Willis, Detroit Tigers

When you win 22 games in a season and blow people away with un-hittable stuff at just 24 years old, people expect you to be the next big thing.

Things went the other direction for Willis in the last two seasons after that memorable 2005 campaign when he came in second for the NL Cy Young Award.

Florida cleaned house, as they seem to do every few seasons, and Willis was sent to Detroit—to a team that believes he still has the tools to become a top-tier starter.  After a rough spring, questions are again surfacing about whether or not Willis still has it.

His lack of control and loss of velocity has worried some, and this could be a telling year not only for the Detroit Tigers, but for the career of Dontrelle Willis.

The D-Train needs to get on the track again, and if he does, it could mean huge things for the Tigers.

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