Sammy Sosa

[gohlkus]

Have fun, Baltimore. Can we say "decline"?

[retep]

I agree. Sosa makes a great 5-spot hitter. But batting cleanup? Not smart. In fact, they have like four 5-spot hitters" Sosa, Palmeiro, Bigbie, and Gibbons.

[AntMoOAK]

Anyone remembe the last time B'more tried to load up with stars... ended up second to last... As much as I hate say it... they are still not in the same league as the BoSux and the Stankee's

[Baseball=Life]

Well put everyone. But Jason, there can be no "decline" when they weren't successful before.

When was the last time Baltimore was actually in contention? They haven't won it all since '83 right? That's even worse than the Royals ('85).

[Southpaw Slim]

I thought he meant Balt. should decline Sosa.

[Guest]

Sosa's okay, so Miguel Tejada still is the ONE...why the hell the A's let him got?

[Southpaw Slim]

Because not only did he want millions and millions, but Crosby was ready. The A's have been holding back infielders. Why did Giambi go? Why Huddy or Mulder? It's all the same thing. Tejada is the only one to do as well as he has since leaving the A's (have yet to see how #'s 15 & 20 do)

[retep]

I think the A's played it smart, reagrding the amount of money that he wanted, and the amount of money that the A's seem to wanna spend. But is it me, or did the A's new SS have a lot lower AVG than it seemed?

[Baseball=Life]

The reigning AL Rookie of the Year, Oakland A's SS Bobby Crosby, was enigmatic at the plate last year, for sure.

While leading rookies in RBI & HR, he had respectable numbers even compared to veterans. 2004: 22 HR 64 RBI .239 avg. He had the same number of HRs and 73% the Season RBIs that cleanup hitter Eurubial Durazo had, despite hitting at 8th and 9th the whole season.

While leading the team in Strikeouts (141), he saved many a game with his amazing glove at SS (too bad MLB doesn't track webgems like we do), and he also saved some games with his bat. I was there when he hit a walk-off HR, and also when he hit a game-tying HR in the bottom of the 9th.

He was streaky at the plate. At one point, it looked like he was going to hit in the .290 range, but, once he got to like .275, he slumped and fell back down.

He played under tons of pressure. While replacing team leader and 2003 MVP Miguel Tejada, Crosby was always there... He was 2nd on the team in games played, with 151 (Hatteberg 152). The errors he did make at SS were often attributable to his amazing superior range... the classic problem facing dynamic SS's. They get to what would have otherwise been a base hit, and due to being offbalance at the peak of their range, make a bad throw or flub the pivot on the double play at 2B.

Crosby was next in a long line of A's Rookie-of-the-Years.... Who can name all the other A's ROY's in the last 20 years? There have been many.

If Nick Swisher can keep that trend going and the young starting pitchers come through, the A's are the team to beat in the AL West in 2005.

[retep]

I had no idea he was such a good defensice SS, Scott. Thanks for letting me know. What do you think about his swing: why is his AVG so low? Will he get significantly better, or stay around .250?

[Southpaw Slim]

Crosby was faciong Major League pitching for the first time last year, so of course his bat will be a little slow. But this year he knows what to expect, and as an added bonus he doesn't have to face either Hudson or Mulder unless they make it to The Series.

Concerning his defensive play, I agree with Scott that he saved a lot of XBHs with range comparable to that of Tejada, but he doesn't have the same speed Tejada has with the transfer from glove to hand. Also, every game I watched last year, it seemed like Hatteberg saved Crosby from at least 3 errors. His throws were all over the place. I would suspect Ron Washington has put a lot of time into smoothing those issues out, so I'm thoroughly excited to see how our middle infield does this year. And with Ginter telling Crosby where to make plays, I have a feeling we might see some magic on the field before all is said and done.