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Sluggers for hire

Sluggers for hire With Major League Baseball’s offseason simmering along with much of the focus on the Cliff Lee Sweepstakes there are a slew of young, Popeye-forearmed, sluggers for rent. As GMs play a guessing game of High Stakes Holdem poker with their rosters, do they have to reevaluate what they are looking for, because it’s almost universally accepted that last year the steroid era officially ended. Sluggers these days aren’t players chasing 70 home runs, or 60 or 50 but guys that hit half of what Barry Bonds did in one season. So, today’s version of Paul Bunyan, sorry, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are guys like Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko. Now, instead of seeking the next guy that’ll bash them 40 homers they have to set their sights a little lower. Adam Dunn hit .260 with 38 home-runs for the Nationals. With the DC franchise trying to stockpile some young guns in the bullpen, it’d probably be a good idea to keep some pop in the bat on offense. Dunn has long been their center-piece and apparently they’ve low-balled him. No surprise all the big boys in the American League looking for homers are going to come calling to chase Dunn this off-season. One of the bigger names out there is Prince Fielder. His father Cecil Fielder was a home-run king, so it makes sense son Prince will inherit the throne. Cecil always looked like he was fueled by hot-dogs more than injections and Prince isn’t too far from his father’s physique, but the decline in numbers mirror the rest of the big hitters. Fielder popped more than 40 home-runs a year until last year where that number fell to 32. He averaged a percentage point higher than Dunn in hitting last year, but was 6 home-runs lighter than the National and 20 rbis short. On the basis of one year clearly Dunn is the bigger catch, but recent history isn’t ancient history and Fielder is young enough for his bat to keep him in play. Weird, this is a contract year, and instead of exploding in his stats, like many players do, Fielder has actually dropped his numbers. Fielder turned down an early offer from the Brewers for a contract extension and could be valuable enough to shop around. Another guy, who might be shopped is Vernon Wells. Unlike the 26 year old Fielder, Wells is getting a little long in the tooth at 31. He’s locked into a big contract with almost 90 million still to be paid out by the Blue Jays, but if they are ever going to get another team to take on that package the time is now. While the Brewers will likely have a lot of offers for Fielder, can’t say the same thing for the Blue Jays and Wells. Wells hit 31 taters, batted .273 and punched in 88 rbis. That’s almost one rbi for every million still left on his contract. Considering he’s got four years left on the deal, that’s about a million for every four rbis to come. Paul Knoerko had the most homeruns of any player last year that may be on a new team this year. He bashed just one short of 40, hit an impressive .312, and batted in 111 runs. However, if you thought Vernon Wells was old at 31, Konerko is really getting up there at 35. Course, that just means the AL teams with a designated hitter spot will be that much more interested than national league teams. Sure, Konerko could sit on first base but he’d best be served playing defense from the bench. Did you know Pat Burrell was 15 home runs from 300? Question is will he get the at-bats to connect for those final 15. Miguel Tejada is sitting on 300 but since the steroid era ended he’s hit home runs more like a guy his size should, which is to say by not hitting many. Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome will also be looking for homes with Thome 11 from 600 and Manny not too far behind.

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