Bad Wax

Yesterday I wrote about Pudge Rodriguez, today I’ll talk about Johnny Damon.  There was a time when Johnny Damon was a hot commodity.  He came off his finest season with the Royals and there was no way they could afford to pay him.  So off he went to Oakland, then Boston.  Those days were a long time ago, now Damon is turning 38 and in his 17th season.

I have to say though, say what you want, but the guy keeps on hitting.  I mean he spent a season in Tampa last year and although defensively I can challenge him for an outfield slot, he still hits like crazy.  Last year he hit 0.261 with 16 homers, 73 RBIs and 16 stolen bases.  Not bad for someone who was basically ignored by most of the league.  As a DH he is perfect, which is why I am stunned that he hasn’t signed with a team like the Yankees who clearly are in need of a DH.

If he plays two more seasons and continues to hit the way he normally does, he would get to 3000 hits believe it or not.  He is sitting at 2723 career hits and a lifetime batting average of 0.286, crazy right?  He could very well become the first 3000 hit club member not to make it into the Hall of Fame. Looking at his stats, even if he does end up entering the elite club, how can you put him in the Hall?  Yes 3000 hits is impressive, but it looses it’s luster when you do it over 19 seasons and average just 158 hits a season.  That is just not Hall material sorry Captain Caveman!

If you think I’m wrong, let’s look at his other awards and whatnots.  MVP’s . . . none and never finished higher than 13th. All Star appearances . . . two . . . in 17 years.  Golden Gloves . . . HAHAHAH . . . none, surprise! Silver Sluggers . . . none . . . although that isn’t really a surprise, since he really wasn’t known as a slugger.  Out of his comparables only Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, Roberto Clemente, and Lou Brock who all have other things going for them.  His closest comparison is Steve Finley and as good as Steve was, he just wasn’t Hall of Fame material.

I would like to see Johnny in the Hall as much as anyone else, as I always like to see Yankees in the Hall of Fame (even if they only were on the team for four years).  I am a realist though and I just don’t think, even if he got into the club, he gets in . . . ever.  As far as his cards go, I’ve seen his signed cards going for as low as $8 and as high as $25.  I don’t think his card is a must own in every personal collection, but at eight bucks you could do worse.

What do you think about Johnny Damon?

As the offseason churns along, there are some big names that have yet to be taken off the free agent market. One of them is sure fire Hall of Famers like Ivan Rodriguez.  Now I’m not saying he is a first ballot guy (although he deserves to be in my mind), however he deserves to be in the Hall at some point.  Now at 40 years old entering what would be his 22nd MLB season, he has drawn almost no interest from any of the clubs.

He is just 156 hits shy of 3000 for his career and sadly he might not get the chance to make it.  Although he still is fairly strong defensively, his offensive output has struggled mightily over the past year.  He bat speed and reaction time seem to have dwindled with age and his once cannon arm with pinpoint accuracy is merely ordinary.  Last year he hit a career worst 0.218/2/19 in 137 at bats. Add that to the nomadic nature of his past three seasons (5 different teams) and it all adds up to retirement.

Don’t get me wrong, someone is going to sign him as a non-roster invitee and he might make it out of camp, but don’t expect him to play out the entire season. Expect retirement to come early on in the season, if not before the season even starts.  Then the clock begins to count off the 5 year waiting period for the Hall nomination.

His credentials are top notch, an MVP, 14 time All Star, 13 Golden Gloves, and seven time Silver Slugger.  He has 2844 hits and 311 home runs and sports a 0.296 career batting average.  Add in the fact that he played probably the hardest (on the body) position to play and he excelled at it for more than a decade and I think it’s a no brainer first ballot entry.  The only thing that could sap him is the link to steroids and Jose Canseco.  I think though when you look at his entire career and his on the field leadership, you have a first ballot guy.

There are so many of his autographed cards on the market and amazingly enough they only run between 10 and 20 dollars for the most part.  Sure there are some 1/1s and patch autos that go for a bit more, but for the most part they are pretty affordable. So go and buy them now in what is most likely was or is his last season, so when he enters the Hall, you can reap the rewards.

What do you think of Pudge’s chances?

Normally only about 8 at most make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but this year’s list looks like a who’s who of who should get into the Hall.  Here is the list of this year’s finalists:

• Jack Butler  (veterens committee)
• Dick Stanfel (veterens committee)
• Bill Parcells
• Jerome Bettis
• Tim Brown
• Cris Carter
• Dermontti Dawson
• Edward DeBartolo Jr
• Chris Doleman
• Kevin Greene
• Charles Haley
• Cortez Kennedy
• Curtis Martin
• Andre Reed
• Willie Roaf
• Will Shields
• Aeneas Williams

For me this is a difficult list to select from.  There are so many players and so few votes.  Here is my list and why I think they deserve to be in the Hall of Fame:

Bill Parcells – Possibly the best coach in footbball history.  It’s one thing to win with one franchise, he did it with the Giants, Patriots, Jets, and Cowboys.  In my mind, if anyone gets in it should be him first!

Willie Roaf – NFL 1990s Players of the Decade, he was the prototypical tackle.  He was one of the tackles who was part of reinventing the position and making it one of the most important positions on the offensive side of the ball.

Tim Brown and Cris Carter – Both tallied over 1000 receptions and over 100 touchdown.  That should lead to automatic enshrinement.  Both of these players are long over do for entering the Hall.

Curtis Martin and Jerome Bettis – Both I consider top ten all time running backs.  Both were undervalued throughout most of their careers.

Chris Doleman – Absolutely a terror on the defensive side of the ball.  Most Hall of Fame quarterbacks that played against him said that he was an elite defensive player.

Well, those are my seven, what are yous?

 

I saw this over the news wire:

Oden Undergoes Knee Procedure

I can’t even imagine what is going through not only his mind, but his agent’s and the GM of the Trailblazers.  This is going to be his fourth knee operation in as many years for him.  The Blazers were going to offer him 9.5 million for this season.  That was until they found out that he was having knee problems again.  The offer dropped down to 1.5 million which of course he took because there was no other offer that was going to come to him.

Oden hasn’t played in over two years and it looks like you might as well chalk it up to three after this operation is complete.  With him not having a contract after this season is over, I just can’t see any team taking a chance on him so he can sit out another season.  No instead I think his brief career is over as sad as that seems.  If his career does end it’s going to look pretty sad.  The number 1 overall pick in the draft done after 82 career games.  A season and two games . . . that is just sad.

Seriously though I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming.  I mean, yes, he did run into some in juries in college, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be this bad.  Before you say he’s a 7 footer, they all have bad knees, that might be true, but there have been a lot of number one overall choices that were big men and didn’t run into this kind of trouble injury wise.  What makes me really sad though is even healthy, he wasn’t the same player after that micro-facture surgery and it never really looked like he was going to ever achieve what was expected from him.

Big things were expected too, just take a look at his signed rookie cards.  They were once one of the hottest cards on the market.  Now his rookie card autographs are selling for a mere $10 on the bay of E.  These were the same cards that were going for $150 – 200 back in 2007.  Now they are “deal cards” at the card shows.  Makes me kind of feel bad for the guy.  He will go down as the second worst overall pick (thanks to Bias dying), still I just wish he didn’t run into all of these issues.  You never want tosee a career end before it really even got started.

What do you think of Greg Oden?