Francisco Liriano IcyHot Award: Tom “The Bartender” Wilhelmsen

bartender

We hope The Bartender has not forgotten any martini recipes.

Taylor is in a much more exciting place then the rest of us this week (India), so I’m taking over the IcyHot award and keeping it alive in his absence.

It’s only fitting that a guy in his city of residence take home the hardware for this week. Everybody, put your hands together for Seattle’s very own Tom Wilhelmsen. Last season, he was the best closer you had never heard of. If you’re like me, you went into this season not even knowing the origin of ‘The Bartender’ and wondering who the hell the guy was.

Wilhelmsen was barely good long enough for fans of the game to get to enjoy the best nickname in baseball. And HOLY SHIT look at the June the Bartender has strung together. My goodness, that’s ugly. The guy probably wishes he was pouring drinks for someone right now, it’s a good part of the year for bartender’s if they’re in the right establishment. Lately, he’s been serving up nothing but Jack and his only customers are big league hitters.

Ok, excuse my horrible joke. I can  with Wilhelmsen a little bit. Not because I know what it’s like to have my act figured out in only being able to throw a straight fastball and curve, but because recently I moonlighted as a bartender. My wife caters weddings and the bartender was a no-show. I was asked to be the fill in. I decided it wasn’t such a bad gig at all. If interest rates keep rising, I might have to vacate my day job and try my hand at getting people drunk. Just don’t ask me to be the guy who is going to cut people off for being too drunk; because I’m not willing to be that guy.

Back to Wilhelmsen, his ERA has climbed from 1.85 at the start of this month to the present 4.22, somehow managing four saves in that time. In the week that was, Bartender served up batting practice to Oakland twice and Anaheim once. He only allowed three earned runs in 3 and 1/3 innings but none of the appearances were save situations. Because things are going a certain way recently for good old Tom; he still managed to blow a save in the 8th inning of a game.

It might be the least amount of innings an IcyHot Award Winner ever throws in a week, but Tom Wilhelmsen definitely deserves this one on the house!