Around the Horn (8/29)

[General]

++++

Rocksports..school them.

[RockSports17]

The stupidest one in this situation is Maurice Clarett. First of all, this wasn't the greatest draft by any analysts standards. I consider Maurice Clarett more of a 4th round pick. Shanahan thought he could turn Clarett into a 1,000 yrd rusher like he's done with so many other RBs behind that great OL in Denver. Clarett is the stupid one who gave up guarenteed money in his deal. His deal was based on performace only. Broncos lose barely any money with waiving him. He was a mistake. Everybody makes mistake. Shanahan is human. Clarett's career is basically done now with a few stops here and there maybe. Broncos didn't lose nothing but a draft pick in a weak draft. Clarett has ended his career without any money to be gained from being picked in the 3rd round. Clarett made a 500 thousand dollar mistake.

[General]

++++

Shanahan tends to make a lot of mistakes though.


Bwitty?

[bwitty24]

First of all I would like to say that Maurice Clarett never had a good MO which made it easier for the Broncos to drop him. How could Clarett think that one, he would go in the first round, and two the Broncos would offer him a nice signing bonus if he couldn't even run a good 40 meter dash (4.82 seconds). You can't be a premier runner EVEN with the broncos who happpen to have a tremendous run offense (look at portis in denver and then in washington), if you are running the 40 in 4.82 seconds. Also the lack of attitude and the small desire to try gave the broncos a very easy way to say bye to Clarett. Therefore Clarett obviously looks stupid. Although Clarett may some day be a good running back there is no need for him or his TO like attitude to ruin the broncos especially when their running back,tatum bell, is almost as good as clinton portis. (5.3 ypc vs 5.5 ypc while on the broncos)

[General]

++++

We now move to the city that never sleeps and the man who never stops walking..yes, the Giambino himself, who currently leads the ML in OBP. Is Jason Giambi the comeback player of the year? Around the Horn to Goyankees.

[RockSports17]

This guy, despite everybody against him, takes it one AB at a time and plays decent ball. This guy's doing it without roids. He was booed, he was yelled at, etc., etc. He got back up when he fell down. This guy had a good spring training and continued it into the season. There's a guy named Ken Griffey, Jr. who has come back and played magnificent and actually stayed healthy. KGJ will give Giambi a run for his money at the comeback player of the yr. award.

[General]

+++

You didn't answer the question: is he or is he not?

[RockSports17]

Statboy here needs to get his head straight.

No. KGJ will win it in the end.

[General]

That wasn't so hard, was it?

Bwitty, what say you?

[bwitty24]

Although Giambi has really had a killer season this year he still isn't back to where he once was so how can he really be a COMEback player. I think that this award has to go to Mr. Griffey. This is a player who hasn't played 122 games (which he has played now) since the 2001 season. Everyone thought that he wasn't ever going to recover since he would never get healthy. Well guess what Griffey truly has COMEBACK to his normal self. This year he is batting .302 after coming off a year with a .253 avg. He is only trailing Andrew Jones, the major league homerun leader, by 9 homeruns (griffey with 33).

Although Giambi's avg has shot up 65 points while griffey has only shot up 49 points in one season, Griffey's current stats are far superior to Giambi although Giambi does lead the league in OBP.

[General]

Good stuff Bwitty..+++++

Browntown, go time.

[browntown653]

Being a biased Yankee fan, I have to...not pick Jason. Since there's no Reds fans here tonight, I have to stick up for all of them and go with Ken Griffey Jr. Sure, Giambi leads the world in on-base percentage, but Griffey takes the cake in almost every other stat. Junior's batting average is 29 points higher than Giambi and his SLG is 53 points higher. Although Giambi does lead in OBP, that doesn't change the fact that Griffey's been responsible for driving in more runs with 90 to Giambi's 60...and although the Reds have a good offense, Giambi hits behind the best 1 through 4 in all of baseball (Jeter-Matsui-Sheffield-Rodriguez). Griffey's also 7th in all of baseball with 33 HRs, and has 63 extra-base hits (Giambi only 35). A few more things Griffey has going for him - he's not coming back from steroid allegations, he's coming back from injuries that have slowed him continually throughout his Reds career, and has managed to stay healthy while playing good defense in CF (Wanna get into D? Giambi DHs half the time). Jason also gets a little help on that OBP because he's been hit by 16 pitches...and getting hit takes no skill at all. Were this who should win in the AL, I would vote Giambi...but Junior takes the cake here.

[General]

Good stuff...good stuff. +++++

Mariners?

[MarinersFan87]

You're all wrong. It is Richie Sexson. The guy goes from playing in just 23 games last year with Arizona to being tied for 10th in the entire league in HR's. He has put a god awful Mariners' offense on his back, carrying them, even though they still suck, it is scary to think where they would be without Richie. While he (along with every other player in the league) does not have the OBP that Giambi does he is slugging better than the Yankees DH. And while Giambi is raking in on the short right field fence at Yankee stadium and Griffey is jacking HR's in the homer friendly GABP, Richie is hitting his HR's despite the fact that he plays half of his games in a pitcher-friendly Safeco.

[General]

An interesting perspective..+++++

Alright..we take a quick commercial break and move onto Buy or Sell.


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