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G-Moneyball sez,

With his weak chin and baby-soft skin, Vargas is one of those guys that old-time scouts would decry as having "bad face."  He looks entirely unthreatening.  "Bad face" is what Vargas would get, "Bad body" is what Boomer would get.

Bad body didn't stop Boomer from having a 240 win career.  I think Vargas and his weak chin are gonna be around a while too.  He seems to just be hitting his stride.

~G

Just saw that "baseball face" thing a month ago, and now can't remember where...

If there were a Bleacher Report slideshow on 10 most unlikely baseball faces, Jason would make the list... and would make $5M this season, by the way...

Here's something weird.  *I* am more susceptible to "baseball face" bias than anybody in the world, even though aware of it and hostile to the bias.  Ain't that something?

I was about 12 years old when I was hanging around an ex-pro-basketball player, and this subject of "sports faces" came up even then.  He laughingly claimed that PRO (not college) athletes are not dumber, uglier, or any other-lier compared to non-athletes.  He said they're not only better at sports, they're better-looking, smarter, and everything-er.  They're just born superior.

That's considered offensive, of course, but personally I'm not offended.  I'm not a member of the Homo Superioris species, but find it amusing that some people might be...

Scouts, at least the scouts who are my age, do seem to take this "baseball face" thing into serious consideration.  Are they thinking about the "overall gifted at birth" thing, or are they just thinking that "Pretties" go through life with more confidence?  You know how the head cheerleader behaves.

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=== Rankings, Dept. ===

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Dustin Ackley:  awesome baseball face.  Especially with the stubble-beard.  And this dude has the persona to go with it.  Have never, in 30+ years, seen a young player come up with this level of mystique -- and it's intact.  Does he intend to re-sign with the Mariners?  Does he intend to be better than ARod?  Is he just Willie Bloomquist with talent?  Who knows?

We just know that we wouldn't want him showing up at our back door at 3:00 a.m. with the half-lidded eyes, the blank stare and the Walther under his coat.

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Justin Smoak:  he looks kinda magoo at first glance, but in baseball terms he's fine because it's the country-bumpkin, "pick up the cow and put him in the barn, Junior, before I take'n a razor strap to yer" face.  

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Brendan Ryan:  about fifty or a hundred Hall of Famers from the 1910's looked exactly like Ryan does.  Square jaw, angular cheekbones, a look in his eye like he'd hook your belt as you tried to round third base.  The wiffleball vid didn't do him any harm.

The Eric Wedge Fu Manchu almost blew it for him, but 2.7 WAR talks and baloney walks.

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