"Steroid Era" keeping Sosa out of the Hall of Fame?

Sammy Sosa hit his 600th career home run last night which brought up the debate of whether or not he is "hall worthy." Obviously, the only thing that is holding him back is the dark cloud that was the decade he played during. He is only the 5th player to reach 600 career home runs. His defense was never very good, nor his batting average, but only four other players have ever hit as many home runs, and no one hit as many as he did over 10,9,8,7, and 6-year stretches. His body added around 60 pounds of muscle between his start with the Rangers and his hey-day with the Cubs, however, there has been little evidence that has linked him to steroid usage. You may remember Rafael Palmeiro lying and Mark McGwire refusing to talk on Capitol Hill a couple of years ago, but many people forget that Sosa did not talk because of his poor excuse of "poor English." If it is steroid suspicions that causes you to believe that Sosa put up such great numbers, then I ask, at age 38, why he continues to be productive now that steroid testing policies are implemented? Perhaps it was not so much steroids that ballooned home run numbers in the 90's, but watered down pitching, increased weight-lifting technology, smaller ballparks, and a juiced baseball...

Yankees eyeing Dunn and Weathers

Reports are surfacing that the Reds have sent scouts to Yankees games, which has subsequently been linked with the other rumor that Adam Dunn is on the Reds's chopping block. Ex-Yankee David Weathers has also been mentioned because the Yanks need some bullpen help. This sounds like a win-win situation in my opinion for both teams. Dunn and Weather are both going to leave the Reds at the end of this season, so the they might as well snatch up a couple of prospects. At the same time, the Yankees attempt to improve their bullpen and add a bat to the lineup that can help get on-base and score runs (that is actually what Adam Dunn is good at, NOT driving in runs). I also think that the Yankees may plan to test Dunn out at first since Andy Phillips is NOT going to cut it. Joe Torre should be able to do enough lineup shuffling to get everyone sufficient at-bats...

Baseball Tonight hypocritical

Most baseball fans watch Baseball Tonight on ESPN each night so that they can see what happened around the majors that day. I love the show, even though it is probably the most frustrating thing I watch at the same time. Usually, I'll complain about how the first 20 minutes of the show are devoted to Yankees-Red Sox, but this time I'm actually going to stand up for a Yankee-Jason Giambi. Jason Giambi has gotten in trouble because he told USA Today that "he shouldn't have taken that stuff" and that the baseball brass should have stood up with the players a long time ago and been honest with what had happened. Sounds pretty funny from a guy that once held a press conference to apologize for something but he never actually came out and said what he was apologizing for. Must have been "that stuff"... Anyways, I was watching Baseball Tonight and besides the host (by the way those guys generally know nothing about sports, just watch Entertainment Tonight and you will see an ex-SportsCenter anchor) there were three ex-players; John Kruk, Eric Young, and Eduardo Perez. Each one personally took the time to attack Giambi for not being honest with his situation first before telling others what to do. They did however agree that baseball people should have come out and told the public what happened. But wait a minute, didn't all three of those guys play during the "Steroid Era"? They've got a camera in font of them, why don't they tell us what happened? Heck, John Kruk played on the Phillies with Lenny Dykstra, who has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. Eric Young started his career in Colorado with the likes of Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette, and later played with Sammy Sosa on the Cubs. Why don't you tell us what really happened in baseball, Eric Young? Eduardo Perez has been around baseball his whole life, being the son of Tony Perez. Surely he can tell us what happened between the "Big Red Machine" and the "Big Clear Syringe"... I just don't want to hear ex-players pretend like they are outsiders now because they are on Baseball Tonight and that they have no idea what happened because they weren't actually on the juice... They were in the same locker rooms weren't they? And judging from Eric Young's lisp and ear ring, he was keeping an eye on his more muscular teammates...

MLB draft on TV can't fix obvious problems

The MLB Draft is on ESPN. Great! Now we can listen to all those stupid communists blab about the Yankees and Red Sox even more than they already do (This just in, the Yankees are 13 games out of first place yet still have at least two games telecasted on ESPN every week). But in all seriousness, this isn't the NFL draft, or even the NBA draft for that matter. You won't find a bigger baseball fan than me, but it really doesn't matter. There are three beefs I hold against the draft.
A) Sure, I got excited a couple years ago when I saw that the Reds drafted some Texan named Homer Bailey, but it was only because he was a pitcher, not because I knew how good he was. That is the first thing that I think makes the draft irrelevant. This doesn't ALWAYS hold true, but I believe that generally all the prospects have upside and that their isn't much that separates them. Sure, there are college players and high school players, pitchers and position players, but for the most part everyone has upside and them becoming big leaguers just depends on how they are handled by their organization. Maybe that's why some teams like the Twins at the back end of the draft always have more talent coming up than a team at the front like the Pirates. They take guys who fit (college players) and groom them.
B) Foreigners with names we can't pronounce. I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed to play, it's just that international stars such as Dice-K shouldn't have the right to sign with any team they choose. It becomes a bidding war, and leaves small market teams in the dust. I just can't see a smart, money conscious team like the Twins shelling out 50 million dollars for a guy that has never thrown a pitch in the United States and who's style is completely unknown. If Major League Baseball wants to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor they could start by forcing teams to draft all foreign prospects (Dice-K in a Reds uniform, HA!).
C) Another piece of evidence was shown Thursday on how Major League Baseball allows money to drive away small market competition. Pick after pick, teams balked at selecting a pitcher that would clearly have gone in the top 10. However, Rick Porcello fell all the way to number 27 where he was taken by big money Detroit. Reportedly, he fell because he is a Scott Boras client, and Boras has been asking for upwards of 8 million dollars. 8 million dollars! For a high school pitcher that has never proven anything! And if he gets the money, what is going to stop other players from doing it? You can get way more money and get drafted by a team at the back end of the draft (those are the good teams)! It's no wonder that some teams can't get themselves out of the cellar...

Welcome

This blog will be a place where I spew my thoughts about baseball, fantasy baseball, and any random crap related to me and baseball...
I am a Cincinnati Reds fan. Yes I know, they suck. There is always next year, right Cubs fans! Anyways, if they had a 200 million dollar payroll I'm sure Wayne Krivsky could find a way to win more games than the Yankees are this year!
I have a fantasy baseball team. It rocks. I will be keeping you updated with my team every week, and feel free to drop some fantasy comments that we can discuss. I love arguing... And putting these three periods... It just turns me on I guess...