Biggest piss-job on Bonds to date

ARod is better now and Griffey was better when both were in their primes. Barry's a great player, with or without roids, but to say he's the best I've ever seen is poppycock.

 

It's funny that Bonds is gonna break this thing and A-Rod's gonna take a huge dump on it in a few years.

 

SC, Griffey has the nice smile, he was The Kid. He was nice to reporters.

He has less than 200 stolen Bases.

C'mon. It's not close.


Arod needs to keep on keeping on is all and then he gets into the equation for sure.

 

I have no interest in going round and round on Bonds again for the umpteenth time, but whether you agree with Reilly's position or not, it's a damn good column.

 

Absolutely!!!!!

 

IT'S AN AAAA-BOOMB FROM AAAAAA-ROOOD
I laugh everytime I hear that

 

Griffey, in his prime and injury-free, was a better player than Bonds ever dreamed of being. Bonds is an average defensive outfielder. Griffey was one of the game's great CFs before the injuries.
Without the juice, BB's power is/was negligible. Griffey was hitting bombs before he was 20. BB didn't start hitting bombs until he juiced up.
What if Griffey had juiced up to avoid injuries? We wouldn't be talkin' 'bout FrankenBarry.
Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron will make me do something I thought I'd never do _ root for Alex Rodriguez to have a long and productive career.

 

You can definitely make an argument for Rodriguez or Griffey. But you can make one for Bonds, too. Let's be more conservative than Reilly. Say he reaches 600 homers "unaided." Combine that with over 500 steals and that is an amazing total.

Throw in the fact that he is easily the most disciplined hitter of his generation (Frank Thomas being next in line) and despite a mediocre arm, he was an excellent defensive outfielder in his prime.

As a hitter, we can go round and round depending on how you measure it. Griffey was the better defender in his prime because he could do everything Bonds could, but he also had a strong arm. But Bonds blows Griffey away in two key areas -- stolen bases and durability.

I'd probably put Rodriguez ahead of Bonds in terms of players I've seen live, but not Griffey or anybody else.

 

Juicing up does not help you avoid injuries. It helps your body recover, but also makes your ligaments and tendons more vulnerable. Griffey's inability to stay healthy is unfortunate, but it is a negative and it does count against his legacy.

Every reasonable account of when people think Bonds started using steroids puts it around 1998, his 13th season in the major leagues. At that point, he was averaging about 31 home runs per season for his career, counting his partial season in 1986 when he had only 16 in 113 games. That is not negligible power. Bonds was incredibly durable to that point in his career and might still be playing either way. He easily would have made it past 500 career home runs.

The one and only thing Griffey had on Bonds defensively was arm strength. That is also the only reason Bonds moved to left field. In terms of getting to the ball, he was an outstanding center fielder when he came up. The Pirates simply had another option, Andy Van Slyke, who had a stronger arm.

As I posted about before, Bonds was a dominant basestealer, something Griffey never contributed. And his durability was an asset, one he demonstrated for a long time without any enhancements.

It's amazing how hard a time people have separating their hatred of the man from a fair evaluation of his skills. Can we be sure Bonds didn't start juicing before '98? No. But that's where all the evidence points. The rest is just speculation with no real basis in fact.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa ...

Do pitchers not count as players? Is Bonds better than Clemens? Maddux? Rivera? Hoffman?

 

Reilly should go for another bike ride with his buddy Lance Armstrong. Seems like Bonds greatest sin is being an ass to Reilly. (and everyone else).

 

Babe Ruth. Thank you.