Reports out of St. Louis say the Cards & Rolen have agreed to a 8-year $90M contract, the richest contract in Cards history. This certainly escalates the market value of Kent & Alfonzo, whom the Stros should be interested in. Heard Daryl Hamilton on 610 this morning discussing a conversation he recently had with Kent, who was a teammate for several seasons with the Mets & Giants. A couple of very interesting points: 1. Kent lives on his ranch outside of Austin in the offseason, and would love to play close to home; 2. Kent is kind of sick of the whole "Barry Bonds Show" media onslaught over the last 2 seasons; 3. He's still a little bitter at Brian Sabean over comments the SF GM made after Kent's dubious injury in spring training; 4. Kent would have no problems with a position change to 3rd. He'll turn 35 in March, think he'd sign for 4-yr $40M? 3-4-5-6 of Bagwell-Berkman-Kent-Lane would look pretty sweet next year.
Yeah, I would have serious concerns as to what his attitude might do to our clubhouse atmosphere. But if didn't cause any problems, that would be a great pickup.
I think Barry (who I like as a ballplayer) had a lot to do with Kent's attitude. While maybe Kent could have remained silent like the other players, the Astros don't have a Barry-type player on the team. IMO, I don't think he'd be a disruption on this team. Will DM open up his wallet for him - I doubt it.
Jeff Kent comes with a lot of character baggage as well. Outside of the ongoing dispute with Barry Bonds, there were a lot of rumurs that Kent was 'less-than-forthright' about his offseason injury. He has a clause in his contracts that says he can't ride motorcycles and many were speculating that his injury was the result of a motorcycle crash... Kent has significantly benefitted from the protection that Barry Bonds has provided him in the lineup, as well as the RBI opportunities that Bonds provided (high OBP) when he batted ahead of Kent. You could argue that his numbers are artificially inflated. You could also argue (quite convincingly) that it doesn't make sense to invest $40mm in a player that is 35 years old.
and i WOULD argue that! i agree...I think it's more likely that Jeff has seen his best days than it is that he'll ever actually prove worthy of the money he's asking for.
Kent bats ahead of Bonds right now. Berkman provides great protection, so Kent can take advantage of that too. Kent may be 35, but he has had one of the best years of his career this year. To add to it, he has played in less games.
Kent=overrated Kent also shows his true colors, if he's jealous or whatever of the attention given to Bonds. Will this mean that he'll hate Oswalt or Berkman? Kent is a grade-A jerk, and is even more selfish than Steve Francis.
Jeff Kent overrated???? Do you even watch baseball, Kidrock? I'm sorry, but a 2nd baseman who has an OPS of almost 1000 and consistently hits 30 hrs and drives in 100 rbis while batting .300, in the best pitchers park in the league is not overrated. Pitchers have two guys to avoid on the Giants: Kent and Bonds, so the argument that they pitch to him simply because of Barry(who I love as a player) may have been true a few years back, but it isn't now. Also, I don't think his attitude is as bad as some in this thread believe. Barry Bonds has even come out recently and said he would be very pissed off if SF lost Kent, so that feud is way overblown. He did screw up on the motorcycle thing, but who really cares? Are athletes not allowed to be human? Because I guarantee all of us here have done stupid things that we really regretted or tried to lie about. I would be all for Signing Kent if he wouldnt mind playing 3b. But personally I can't see the Giants letting him leave unless he chooses to himself.
What about Mark Loretta? He's been outstanding here, stated he wants to stay. Est on his salary is $5mil. He also has the advantage of being able to play any infield position, including short stop. Granted, Loretta may not be in the same league as Kent, but he's a good, solid player, and for his est. $5 mil, would leave money for shoring up the outfield & rotation.
I like Mark Loretta...but I have my doubts as to the kind of production he would give us long term. The man has been red hot since joining the team, but he will eventually cool off, and I don't know if a season long Mark Loretta player would be worth $5 million... If we could get him for close to what we signed Orlando Merced and Jose Vizcaino for, I would be ectstatic.
That can't possibly be correct. Maybe it was a $5M deal total (for say, 2-3 years) but there is not way that Loretta gets anywhere near that much per season.
Didn't Loretta hit .340 one year? I've always liked him and I think he may be as good as Biggio at this stage.
Originally posted by DVauthrin Pitchers have two guys to avoid on the Giants: Kent and Bonds, so the argument that they pitch to him simply because of Barry(who I love as a player) may have been true a few years back, but it isn't now. I think you have this backwards. Bonds has always been in the three hole until this season. Kent has a 1.066 OPS batting in front of Bonds and a .838 OPS batting behind him. A pretty big difference. Also, I don't think his attitude is as bad as some in this thread believe. Barry Bonds has even come out recently and said he would be very pissed off if SF lost Kent, so that feud is way overblown. Kent has been considered to be a difficult person even back from his days with the Mets and Blue Jays. Barry doesn't care about his teammates good or bad so I don't know what his opinion is worth when it comes to clubhouse chemistry which seems to be much more important to Biggio and Bagwell. I dunno if the Astros should go after Kent. $10mil/year is a lot for a guy that age, especially if we're talking a 4 year contract.
Actually now that I look, Blum has an .804 OPS for us this season so maybe Kent isn't quite the improvement at $10mil/year.
Man you know our cheap ass owner won't make a play for a Big Time Free Agent. Instead he will try to get another Mark Loretta or Orlando Merced type of player. No knock on those 2 guys because they helped out alot this year but in order to compete with The D-Backs and Cards you need some more sticks in the lineup.
