Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd Thrift
You'd put Ben Wallace in the D-league just because you had Tim Duncan above him? You wouldn't, um, try him at the 4 (or move Duncan to the 4 for a few years a la what the Spurs did with him and the Admiral)?
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The questions you asked are kind of the idea. It would be ridiculous to put Ben Wallace in the D league, so you'd be asking if you could get him on the court somehow, otherwise you'd want to trade someone if you had the five best post men in the game and couldn't get them all on the court, or else they'd be demanding trades. Well, Howard didn't really have that recourse because of the MLB salary structure, so the Phillies didn't care about getting him on the field or trading him or Thome. They just cared about not starting his clock until Thome was gone. On a talent level, having Howard in AAA would be like having Wallace in the D-league. MLB's salary structure makes it possible, but that doesn't make it less ridiculous. Howard was more than good enough to be starting in MLB is the point, and he was putting up big numbers at a high level of baseball. So those numbers should count if Ichiro's count.