Boston deals for some big names. In three seperate moves the Brawlers added OF Del Campos, P Cliff Dessens, P Marc White and their 10 combined WS titles. bunting also added former NL MVP Spike Cambridge and 23-game winner Felipe Marquez. Three-time AL MVP Louie Ma might have made some comments to management about the three straight seasons with no playoffs.
motey's big problem with the PooHoles was that he never provided the team with enough offense. The pitching was top notch but they always finished in the bottom half of the league in runs scored. New owner zoobaseball went out and added aging but still effective slugger Santiago Santiago, 200HR/200SB club member Byung-Hyun Chen and speedy CF Mike Pickett.
Big Money Free Agents:
Cristobal Rojas 5yrs/32.5mil (Charleston)
Kenny Borders 3yrs/20.6mil (Washington)
Jacob Wells 5yrs/40mil (Richmond)
Marlon Purcell 4yrs/37.8mil (Fargo)
Edwards Fitzgerald 4yrs/33.2mil (Santa Cruz)
Chris Green 4yrs/54mil (Scranton)
Nipsey Parrish 5yrs/43.5mil (Richmond)
THE YEAR OF THE 500th HR?
Five players are within striking distance of the 500-HR club. All need 43 HRs or less to reach the milestone.
Karim Oliva - 486 HR - Oliva was once a guy with a near perfect power rating. But that number as well as his HR total have been in steadily decline since Season 11. He struggled to hit 17 HR last season and may not reach 14 until late in the year.
Esteban Rivera - 471 HR - The longtime Chicago Blackhawks backstop quietly moved to Mexico City in what could be a steal of a signing. His power rating has also been in decline since Season 11 but his HR total has not suffered. It'll be interesting to see what type of effect the NL pitching will have on this future Hall of Famer.
Clarence Black - 469 HR - Black had his streak of nine straight 40+ HR season snapped last season. It's hard to tell why he dropped to 27 HR since I see his power rating staying the same from the prior season. Regardless though, I can't bet against this guy hitting at least 31 HR. He's just too damn good.
Dale Pritchett - 459 HR - It's been a couple of seasons since Pritchett clubbed 40 HR but if he sees enough LHP he will have a good shot at hitting 41. Again, this is another guy who is too good and too close to 500 to not reach this mark in under two seasons time.
Kenny Butler - 457 HR - The move to a pitcher's park in Portland will probably keep Butler from hitting his 500th HR this season. But it will only delay the inevitable for one more season. He is only 32-years-old so he has a good number of years to exceed 500.
HALL OF FAME
In my opinion these two players are the most deserving of entry to the Hall of Fame. Both played a huge part in the three straight championships that the Richmond Tobacco Beetles franchise won.
Wall won a NL MVP Award and went to nine of the first 10 Fingers All-Star games. He had 11 seasons where he scored 90 or more runs, hit more than 26 HRs and drove in over 85 runs.
For the seven straight seasons it was a lock that Pena would finish with this line: .300 / 14 HR / 80 R / 70 RBI/ 40 XBH. In real life a catcher has only pulled this off 19 times ever. During the three Beetle title runs he hit .353 in 46 games.
No comments:
Post a Comment