The Hall of Fame elections, the most enjoyable part of the most boring baseball month of the year have just come and gone. The least enjoyable part is what happens after: Approximately 5,000 articles about why someone voted for player A, didn't vote for player B, whether you should vote for guys who took PEDs or not, Keith Olbermann's annual "they should shut down the hall of fame because the guys I like aren't there" rant and Jayson Stark using not one but two articles to express his disgust of the ten player per ballot rule. Now here's my take: Calm down.
I love the Hall of Fame. I was lucky enough to go there when I was twelve, and it's by far the most important one between the four main sports, but with that said, it still doesn't really matter that much. Barry Bonds is the home run king and, the directions the game's headed, will still be it more quite some time whether we like it or not. Regardless of what happens, most people's perception of him won't change if he makes it in. It's all ceremonial. It's a great honor, but that's all. I believe that Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell should all be in there, but I'm not getting bent out of shape about it.
I know I defended him a few weeks ago, but what the hell is Billy Beane doing? I've liked most of his moves, especially the Norris trade, but I don't even know how to react to him trading for Ben Zobrist. Oakland's clearly building for the future, so why would they trade a top shortstop prospect and former first round pick like Daniel Robertson for him? He hit .310/.402/.471 last year with 15 homers. Zobrist is a good, versatile player, but it just doesn't add up. What's especially perplexing about it is that the A's traded another shortstop prospect, Addison Russell last summer in the trade for Jeff Samardzija, making Robertson even more valuable.
No comments:
Post a Comment