Buhner Dot Com Est. 2000, which is like 1947 in Internet years.

Oh, Colorado.

Poor Jay Witasick.

Witasick was called up by Colorado today to give them bullpen help. This normally wouldn't be that much of a big deal, but it got me thinking about pitchers and career choices.

Take Jay Witasick. Witasick's been a pretty ordinary right handed short reliever (or [finger quotes] set-up-man) during his career. Drafted originally by St. Louis, he was traded to Oakland for Todd Stottlemyre, getting a few cups of coffee with the A's before getting dealt to Kansas City, where he was in the rotation for a year and a half before eventually getting dealt off to San Diego, where he started for the Padres for the rest of 2000, before going into a relief role in 2001.

In 2001, Witasick settled into his relief role by keeping his ERA under 2 and striking out more than a batter an inning. This got the Yankees to go after him, dealing no-longer-necessary infield prospect D'Angelo Jimenez to the Pads to get him.

(Note to Yankee haters: Jimenez was a year removed from a horrible car accident where some thought he wouldn't play baseball ever again. He wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire in Columbus, and the Yankees had Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter blocking his way. He was expendable. San Diego didn't know what to do with him either, and he went through the Padres and the White Sox systems before finally finding a home in Cincinnati.)

Anyway, Witasick (or the Yankees) killed any of the momentum that he had once he got in pinstripes, looking like a typical middle reliever and getting his butt handed to him when the Yankees made the playoffs, including a delightful one and one third inning, eight run affair against Arizona in game 6. Witasick was dumped off to San Francisco during the offseason and would play for the Giants for a season before rejoining the Padres for two more seasons.

This past offseason, he was with Baltimore, who cut him at the end of Spring Training. Looking at a 32 year old (33 in August) right-handed reliever in the mirror, Witasick had to be wondering if he'd ever see the majors again. That's when Colorado came calling.

Now, here's the thing. You're holding onto the possibility of being a major league baseball player by a thread. Your previous season, not too bad (3.21 ERA in 61 2/3 IP, 26 BB, 57 K) albeit pitched in San Diego, you've got two choices - sign with Colorado, who wants you and probably gives you the quickest shot to get back to the majors again, or hope someone else contacts you.

What do you do? Signing on with Colorado (and pitching there) pretty much gives you a 75% chance that your ERA is going to look like a bus hit it after you're done there, and no team is going to be impressed by those numbers and give you a shot. Ugly numbers at Colorado pretty much end your career. Granted, every GM in the league knows that Colorado numbers are inflated (except for Jim Bowden and maybe Chuck LeMar), but pitching in Colorado does something to a pitcher's psyche.

Look at Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, and Darryl Kile - three pitchers who were good to very good pitchers before coming to Colorado. All three were torn apart by Coors Field, yes, but they pitched just as poorly on the road as well. Hampton and Kile ended up leaving Colorado and were able to save their careers, putting Colorado somewhat behind them, while Neagle got hurt, and was released from a minor league contract by Tampa this past offseason.

Hampton and Kile got opportunities because they were very good pitchers before they hit Colorado, but what of a Witasick? Right handed relief pitchers are a dime a dozen. And what's up with Colorado pitchers losing their ability to pitch even away from Coors? Can it be that damaging psychologically to have to watch your best stuff fly everywhere in Coors that when you pitch somewhere else, you forget how?

Signing on to pitch in Colorado is like making a deal with the devil - immediate reward, but after that's over, you can never go back and you're left wondering why you did it in the first place.

Good luck, Jay. You'll need it.