As the baseball season begins to gain momentum heading towards summer I find it interesting that the few remaining prominent players from my childhood are vanishing right before my eyes. They are either in heavy decline or can't find a job.
The ones without job's are:
Mike Piazza,Barry Bonds,Kenny Lofton,Sammy Sosa.
The ones still active are:
Gary Sheffield- A perennial favorite for the annual Ty Cobb Award (Biggest Ass in Baseball) his numbers this year are pitiful. It's easy to say that it's due to his lack of artificial help but I think it has more to do with the fact that he is 39 years young. He is playing exactly how a 39 year old baseball player should be playing.
Frank Thomas- Fantastic career, battled with Griffey for AL supremacy for years. After being released from Toronto he has found a home back with the A's. His numbers have gone up since joining Oakland but they are still far from his career numbers, which are very good.
Ken Griffey Jr-The best baseball player of his generation. His injuries prevented him from challenging Mr.Mays for greatest center fielder ever. His last few years have been productive but not nearly what he showed in Seattle. I hope the trade goes down before he hits #600. It seems only fitting that he does it in Seattle.
Jeff Kent-Nobody seems to like this guy. Considering he is 40 years old his numbers aren't terrible. He is the best 2B of his generation.
1 comment:
Chances are some of these guys will get jobs in the final months of the season. An AL team in need of a DH might give Piazza a shot (Minnesota?). It wouldn't be a bad thing to have guy like Lofton on the bench, he played pretty good down the stretch last year. I cannot imagine anyone resurrecting the careers of Bonds and Sosa. The active players you mention are just old. I think it would be cool to see Griffey go back to the Mariners. It is refreshing to me to see these players decline (that is how it works), as opposed to the Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens model of getting better in your 40s.
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