November 4, 2002
Ho hum
Just another boring off-season day.
The Rookies-of-the-Year were announced and they both matched my picks.
Eric Hinske won in the AL and Jason Jennings in the NL.
Jim Thome is apparently being heavily courted by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Thome is one of my favorite players and an extremely good hitter, but the Phillies don't need to be spending $10 million or more per season on him.
They already have a very good hitter on the roster that is capable of playing first base for much, much less money.
Thome hit .304/.445/.677 this year and he is 32 years old.
Jeremy Giambi hit .259/.414/.505 this year and he is 28 years old.
Add in the fact that Thome would probably cost the Phils about $50 million bucks and it is an easy call to make.
The Phils are also pursuing David Bell.
The one thing that I think teams should never do via free agency is pay for middle of the pack talent.
David Bell is a nice player and a good guy to have on a team, but he is nothing special and there is no way someone should be attempting to sign him to multi-year deal for millions a season.
Other than that, there just isn't much else to report on in the World of Baseball.
I just put the finishing touches on my third article for BaseballPrimer.com and it should be available for everyone to check out sometime later this week.
I'll make sure to let everyone know when and where to find it.
Also, I would like to announce that my Diamond-Mind baseball team, the Minnesota Gophers, have clinched a playoff berth by winning the Three Run Homer League (TRHL) AL Central Division title.
This was my first year playing DMB and I took over a team that had been abandoned by its previous owner.
I was looking 100% to next season and beyond, so making the playoffs this year was a real shock.
I'll keep everyone posted on how I do in the post-season (not that anyone cares).
