The Detroit Tigers announced this morning that they have released future Hall of Famer Gary Sheffield (OF/DH) when he was just one home run shy of becoming the 25th player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs.
Sheffield says that he is still in excellent shape and insists that he can still play the outfield if a National League team were interested. With 500 home runs on the horizon he could be an interesting pickup for a team that needs help selling tickets and some offense. He says that he prefers the Rays. Look for the Marlins, Blue Jays, Padres, Astros, Giants and perhaps even the Pirates to get involved.
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He could be a good replacement for Barry Bonds for the Giants both from a production and a publicity standpoint. He'll put people in seats and then hit balls out. He makes Frank Thomas' life a lot worse though. Also while the Giants might be able to put people in seats to see Lincecum or Johnson (doubtful on johnson) they are going to need to really pack seats if they are going to come up with the money to keep their young guys around. I think with anothe big bat or two and that rotation achieving its potential they could be a contender tomorrow. Maybe get a bullpen.
ReplyDeleteI have no clue what the Tigers' rationale for releasing Sheffield was. Considering the team has seen a pretty big drop in ticket sales since a) the economy sucks (particularly hard in Detroit) and b) the team was pretty awful last year, they're not in a position where they should be eating 14 million dollars in salary just because a player had a poor spring. They don't look like a contender anyways (their pitching is in shambles), so they should have just played him and hoped he rebounded (like Carlos Delgado last season for the Mets, another older player who looked cooked the first couple months of the season and then turned it on), so that they could get some trade value out of him in July. Best case, they could have gotten some young players/saved some money. Worst case, they could have released him in June or July, and be in the same place they are in now. Yes, Sheffield has been tarnished by BALCO and general surliness, but you have to figure that if his bat showed some signs of life a wanna-be contender would have gladly taken that extra baggage on just to have his oh-so-violent swing in their possession.
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