Why is everyone negative when it comes to Sosa?

[bigh0rt]

The AL hasn't seen him and hasn't started breaking him in with hard stuff then finishing him off with stuff outside the zone and outside. He has gaping holes in his swing that will be exploited and will be exploited soon.

Stop me if I'm wrong here, but Baltimore still plays in the AL, right?

He played 1/2 a season there before injuries and attitude got him a spot on the pine.

You really think that counts as being exposed to the AL?

If you want him, he's all yours, just don't be surprised when he tanks. Guess hitters with slider speed bats and a hacker's mentality don't succeed for long.

Even if he stinks, and bats .250 the way I believe he may, he's going to drive in 100 Runs, hit a fair number of homers with upside of 30 plus, and score 60 or so, the way he's shown the ability to do in the past, and has paced himself for (paced for 30 HR, 107 RBI, 56 R over 500 AB). He's batting 4th in a powerful lineup in a bandbox stadium. As long as his position in the lineup remains consistent, he should be a great fantasy player given what it cost you to get him this season, be it an extremely late pick or a free agent pickup.

[jcde7ago]

I sure am not complaining about his 2-4 performance tonight, along with 3 ribbies.

Sure he has holes in his swing, but it's not like this guy is utterly clueless when he comes to the plate...he's still seeing the ball well. Oh well, there are those that can appreciate upside, and those that tend to just stray away from it...

[The Cow]

Let me say that I have always been a Sosa fan. At this stage of his career he is a 3rd or 4th OF on a fantasy team. Capable of .260 35 100, not too shabby. I had him this year, but cut him for Markakis and Delmon, chasing upside. If you need power, Sosa can still help, but yes he could tank, but what did it cost you???

The Cow

[joecahill]

He played 1/2 a season there before injuries and attitude got him a spot on the pine.

You really think that counts as being exposed to the AL?

If you want him, he's all yours, just don't be surprised when he tanks. Guess hitters with slider speed bats and a hacker's mentality don't succeed for long.

If you want to call 380 ABs a half-season, that's a long season. Besides, Sosa played with the Rangers and White Sox before the Cubs, and has (to date) played 20.676% of his 2,278 career games in the AL. I don't know how much "exposure" one really needs, but I think 471 career games qualifies. For those scoring at home, that's only 7 less games than Jose Reyes has played in the NL.

Besides, I'll take a .259 average, 17 runs, 9 home runs, and 32 ribbies off the waiver wire any day.

[jcde7ago]

10th homer off of Johan today, 36 ribbies on the year...even his avg. at .270 isn't too shabby, even if it drops

[bigh0rt]

10th homer off of Johan today, 36 ribbies on the year...even his avg. at .270 isn't too shabby, even if it drops

Nice. Right after StatTracker fixed and I saw he had hit one, I came straight looking for this thread.

[wrveres]

i hear ya. i picked up both sosa and hamilton early in the season. i had too many OFs so i had to trade one away, and people were more interested in hamilton and i was able to sell him at his high point while still keeping sosa. now it seems like sosa will end up with better numbers since hamilton has struggled badly as of late.

i do notice there seems to be a lot of buying into over hype among unproven (mlb) young kids that some cafe people suffer from. sure, the cafe is very knowledgable, but sometimes it backfires like it did with guys like gordon and butler. a healthy balance is what we need, and we should always underestimate unless he has proven it for a year or two.

agreed, with pretty much everything..
they are Veterans for a reason.