Vladimir Guerrero is This Year’s Forgotten Free Agent
The free agent signing bonanza has unofficially began. I say unofficially because in my mind it doesn’t really start until a big name free agent is signed. Heck, even a semi-big name will do. The fruits of this free agent market include Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Randy Wolf, Andy Pettitte and Adrian Beltre. Not exactly a class that will knock your socks off.
What makes the free agent market way more interesting this season is the large amount of difference makers that can be had via trade.
Roy Halladay is one of the elite starting pitchers in the majors and is considered by some to be the best pitcher baseball. He can be had via trade, all you have to do is give up half your minor league system, a ton of cash, and maybe your soul plus the souls of two or three young children. The price for Halladay is supposedly dropping a tiny bit, so maybe you will only need one young child’s soul.
Want a 40-homer guy that you can plug into the middle of your line-up and leave there for seven or eight years? We got one of those available on the trade market too, his name is Adrian Gonzalez and he is currently with the Padres so a few burritos plus a failed minor league prospect might get the deal done.
On some days you can even talk the Mariners gm into listening to offers for Felix Hernendez a young number one starter that will probably be in the Cy Young voting mix for a lot of years to come.
What is more important than the names you hear this year in the off-season is one name that you don’t catch much wind of. In his career, he has hit over 400 homeruns; drove in over 1300 runs and has a career batting of .321. Sure he is 34 years old, but that is still younger than Manny Ramirez and the same age as Alex Rodriguez. Everybody should know whom I am talking about, but since he has seemingly dropped off the free agent globe I will remind you. Vladimir Guerrero.
A few seasons ago Vladimir Gurerrero was considered one of the best players in all of baseball. You could count on him every season for 30 homeruns, 100 runs batted in, and a .320 batting average. He was the face of the Anaheim Angels baseball team.
In 2008 Gurerrero took a small step back hitting 27 homeruns, 91 runs batted in and batting .303. It was easily his worse season since 2003, which was his last season with the Montreal Expos. In that season Guerrero had only hit 25 Homeruns and 79 runs batted in but did keep a .330 batting average. When one looks further into his numbers they will notice, he actually produces pretty well that year but injuries held him to playing in only 112 games.
In 2009 Vlad took a much larger step backwards than he had in 2008. He hit only .295 with 15 homeruns and 50 runs batted in but in his defense only played in 100 games. Even if he had planned in all 162, his numbers would’ve still dropped considerably. Is everybody in baseball really so sure that Vlad is done? I find it hard to believe that there aren’t some teams that fill if u put him into the DH slot fulltime that he couldn’t hit 30 homeruns, drive in 100 runs and still bat for a .300 average. I will be the first to admit, I think he can and think it would be disgrace if he ends up playing a part time role like some rumors having him doing. Cheers to a fallen superstar, may we watch you rise to stardom once again.
