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Does anyone realize that Andruw Jones has been in the league almost seven years now, and he's only 25! He shouldn't even reach his peak for a couple more seasons. Plus, he really is the best center fielder there ever was. According to Win Shares he's already had (don't have the book in front of me) something like 3 of the top 20 defensive seasons by an outfielder ever. He leads the league in defensive win shares by an outfielder by 2 or 3 WS every year. That's like winning the batting title by 40 points every year.
Also, does anyone else think Darin Erstad has gotten more mileage out of one huge fluke season than any player since Norm Cash? Anyone else notice that three of the last four years Erstad has hit like a 12 year old girl? Except for that one good year, he hasn't had an OPS over .721 since 1998. There are eight Baltimore Orioles with 50 or more at bats with higher OPSes than Darin Erstad. He just signed a how many year contract for how much money? Because of cases like this I feel very, very little pity for any owner who cries that he's one the verge of bankruptcy. There tons of major league outfielders as good as or better than Darin Erstad making the ML minimum. To pay millions a year for one is unconscionable.
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