Carlos Ruiz, still a Philly.

Yesterday the Phillies signed Carlos Ruiz to a three year contract extension for 8.85 million. Now Ruiz seemed like a very decent player to me, but personally, I think the Phillies have gone a little crazy trying to sign and resign all the same players that have been on or are on the team. For example, they also recently signed Chad Durbin, Shane Victorino, and Joe Blanton. It seems to me that they’re going crazy trying to make the perfect team for this year so they’ll win the World Series. Thing is though, they don’t need the perfect team. They won the National League Pennant two years in a row and won the series in 2008. They already have a great team if they accomplished that. Nobody’s going to want to play them anyway especially since they have star pitchers Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Here’s a look at Carlos Ruiz from photobucket.com

 

So, the Phillies may have gone completely wild, but Carlos Ruiz was a good choice for a catcher.

Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire, though not getting into the Hall of Fame this year, is still receiving a whole lot of attention at the moment. Why? Because he just admitted taking drugs for over ten years of his record-breaking carrier. He must of thought that it was a perfect time to admit it, because he didn’t get into the Hall of Fame, so nobody would have really cared what he was up too since he didn’t get in. Well, he must not have thought about it much. In my opinion, it was a pretty stupid move admitting it now, when he’s going to be the Cardinals hitting coach this year, and if he does a good job at being a hitting coach, he might have gotten into the Hall next year if he didn’t admit it.

I mean really, everyone suspected that he did take drugs, otherwise he might be in the Hall of Fame by now. Look at his stats, by admitting it now, he probably made a whole lot of people forget about his stats and start thinking about his drug abuse. This video is pretty much what I think of him.

     Video from ESPN.go.com

You have to admit, Mark McGwire was a great hitter, being number eight on the all-time home run list and all, but we can all agree now that Mark McGwire wasn’t the good man we all thought he was.

Andre Dawson

It is now official. Andre Dawson, age fifty-five, has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A great player from the beginning, his major-league debut was September 11, 1976 with the Montreal Expos. Some of the accomplishments in his career are 2,774 career hits, 438 home runs, and 1,591 RBI’s. Also, eight golden glove awards,(playing center and right field) and  he’s an eight time all-star. He got 79.9% of the votes to get into the Hall of Fame, making it in by a landslide.

Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven came close to getting into the Hall, but Dawson finally made it in. It sure should be interesting to see him take that podium in the summer and see his plaque go in. I always thought that Dawson would make a good coach though, but he never did coach.

There’s no doubt about it though, Andre Dawson will be remembered for a long time for his great statistics and love of the game.        

 

 

The 2010 Hall of Fame contenders

Once again the Hall of Fame contenders have been picked, and some good names are among them. The names are: Roberto Alomar, Harold Baines, Bert Blyven, Andre Dawson, Andres Galarraga, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Tim Raines, Lee Smith, and Alan Trammel. Some names to watch for are Don Mattingly, who’s been a contender ten times. Also, Mark McGwire, who is number eight on the all-time home run list and has been a contender four times now.

I actually went to the Hall of Fame myself in November and I highly recommend any baseball fan to go there because it really is a great place. The town itself is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but other than that it’s a great place and it really gets you in the baseball mood and there are some great baseball stores around the town of Cooperstown.

So with that, the Hall of Fame contenders seem very decent this year and those contenders lucky enough to get in the Hall of Fame will be announced on January sixth. 

Jason Bay

Jason Bay

Now we all know Jason Bay was a great name with the Sox, and a big name in the league. The thing is though, everyone is questioning if he will hit well in Citi Field. In my opinion though, I don’t think there is question at all about him hitting well at Citi Field. He is a good hitter, and good hitters can adapt to a new park. The guy did hit 36 homers last year and 119 RBI’s. Sure he may have a little slump at the beginning of next season, but only because he’s not used to Citi Field, which is very big, but he is used to a small field (Fenway Park) with a wall twice the size of the average left field wall. (The Green Monster.) And because of this, all the MLB reporters have gone totally overboard and poor Jason Bay probably has loads of pressure on him.

I also believe the Mets made a wise decision in signing Bay because they need a lot of additions to their lineup this year and a power hitter playing left field is a good place to start in my opinion. I’m also wondering if the Red Sox are planning to try and get Johnny Damon back in there lineup this year, him being a free agent and all. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to sign him to a four year deal because that’s what he wants from the Yankees. But, that’s another article. For now, we will see what happens with Jason Bay, and his deal with the Mets.

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