currently on the front page of espn.com:
San Francisco Treat
(picture of barry bonds and his gigantic head)
Despite a lackluster season and a cloud of suspicion hanging over him, Barry Bonds will be right at home in the 78th All-Star Game.
i would use something other than "lackluster" to describe his season so far (.302/.513/.599, 16 bombs, a staggering 82 BB). something along the lines of.... what's the word... oh yeah, "great."
someone fire the stupid intern who wrote that already. no, not because he wrongly thinks bonds is having a lackluster season, but because "san francisco treat" is a tragically unclever headline.
-Astros "chewed up" at Wrigley
ReplyDelete-How "Sweep" it is!
-Brooklyn Bombers "bomb" Glavine in Subway series win
-The "Heat" is On! Miami burns Dallas in NBA Finals
I hate sportswriters and their goddamned puns
I'm getting pretty sick of uninformed morons saying Bonds isn't having a good year. You can love him or hate him, but he's still one of the most productive hitters in the game. It's sick....I'm constantly defending Barry Bonds in casual conversation despite not really liking the guy.
ReplyDeleteindians blanketed by yankees
ReplyDeletetoo soon, chris, too soon
ReplyDeleteAll of the hitting (except BA) stats say Bonds is having a stellar year, but that's partly because he's getting walked all the time. Is that because he's an amazing hitter? To some extent. What about his inability to effectivly run the bases... does have something to do with it as well? Yup. What about being surrounded by mediocre offensive talent? Yeah that'll all lead to his huge numbers of walks... so there's a reason why Bonds has the 2nd highest OPS in the majors but it's obvious watching him at the plate he's not the 2nd best hitter in the MLB
ReplyDeletefirst of all, as BAs go, .303 is not too shabby. i can think of a lot of great hitters who have finished great seasons batting less.
ReplyDeletesecond of all, his numbers are not good "just because he's getting walked so much." his .603 slugging % is good for 5th in MLB, 2nd in the NL. he's crushing the ball.
third of all, implying that someone gets walked because they're a bad baserunner is ridiculously dumb. that does not happen. why aren't all kinds of catchers, or NL pitchers for that matter, sporting lofty OBPs then? if you think the reason guys like ryan howard, david ortiz, and bonds get walked a lot is because they're slow and fat, you are a bona fide dumb-dumb. even back when bonds was a stolen base threat he was putting up great OBPs. not over .500, but still great. look at his numbers from 1992 to 1998- his OBP was always in the .440/.450 range (as high as .461), and he averaged 31 SB per year. nothing to shake a stick at there.
third of all, who cares about whether or not he's "protected" in the lineup? that certainly contributes to his high OBP but shouldn't tarnish it. the point is, when you walk, 1. you don't get out (the goal of the "batsman" in the game called "rounders" or "baseball") and 2. you're one step closer to scoring a run for your team. i hate bonds as much as the next guy, but if half the time he steps to the plate he doesn't get out, combined with his 18 home runs, i'm going to go ahead and make the case that he was in fact the BEST hitter in the league during the first half of the season. i mean, a .516 OBP- are you kidding me?
he's also a colossal douche, of course, just to throw that out there.