Comparing athletes from different generations is a waste of time. Rob Neyer said it best “If the 1927 Yankees played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Yankees would get blown out. Babe Ruth would be frustrated as hell trying to figure out Carlos Zambrano’s sinker.”
Now, I don’t really care if Bonds does or doesn’t juice because apparently high school pitchers juice as well. But, I’m almost convinced that he did at one time take something he shouldn’t have. Simply because his trainer admitted to giving to steroids to baseball players and that kind of narrows it down.
“Bonds is an awesome hitter but his fielding sucks ass, dude can hit a ball 600 feet but can’t throw the ball half way to home”
granted his arm sucks. but his fielding sucks ass??? do you watch baseball?
Albert pujols and Todd helton are the closet to bonds(not just hrs, but overall, and they are better defensively) anyone is.
Actually griffey would have been even better had he not injured himself to medicoreness( is that even a word?.
But if i were to build a team today i would pick albert has my franchise player, if i was to pick any player in the 90’s to build a team around i would pick griffey. Yet if i was to built an all time lineup i would build it around bonds, funny how he was only the diamond of the league for a few short years, yet he is the greatest ever.
Forget to add to my last post.
Its all thanks to the media that bonds isnt being given the respect he deserves. Its kind of like kevin garnett in basketball, he might just be the most complete package ever yet he isnt even mentioned half as often as kobe bryant?
“Bonds is an awesome hitter but his fielding sucks ass, dude can hit a ball 600 feet but can’t throw the ball half way to home”
“granted his arm sucks. but his fielding sucks ass??? do you watch baseball?”
Early in his career bonds had the ability to play center field but his pop-gun arm relegated him to left. he no longer has the ability to track the ball like he did in his younger days…his fielding NOW is pedestrian at best. like most players, the first thing to go is speed as you age. he WAS gold glove calibre. but is an average fielder now, with a below average arm.
a trade to an american league team would extend his career and stat total seeing as he could DH…which is where he fits best at this stage of his career. probably won’t happen though.
“No other athlete that I have witnessed is dominating the one on one game like Bonds is. Not Jordan, not Tiger, nobody.What Bonds is doing is without precedent.” …two words: wayne gretzky. and besides what bonds is doing is basically no different than what joe dimaggio did the year of the streak…or pete rose being the greatest pure hitter of a generation…or ted williams hitting .400 even with the “williams shift” defencing him everytime he stepped to the plate. different eras all have athletes who seem to dominate from time to time. its just barry bonds’ turn in the present.
love him or hate him…think he’s juicing or not…you have to respect his ability.
I just remembered that Bonds wasnt even on the all century team that was put together. That was to be all the best players baseball ever had. I cant remember when they made up the team before 2001, I wonder why because “he’s only been in the spotlight for 3 yrs”, but dont get me wrong he is doing very well. Im just confused on how he got so great so old?
MrSS, I’m not sure if you missed my post, but statistically Bonds and Griffey have been a toss up for claiming the most dominate player of the 1990’s. Like I said earlier, ESPN The Magazine gave the nod to Bonds.
Regardless, Bonds has been doing his thing for a very long time. You don’t just get into the 600 home run club by having a hot 3 years. He has 6 MVP awards. If it wasn’t for some bad blood with the media, he would have at least 8. As for how he has gotten even better with age? Who knows, it defies history.
Bonds certainly was a better player than Griffey even when Griff was healthy.
I dont think people can argue about short fences when hes hitting balls in the water.
Its so obvious who doesnt know any baseball on this thread.
I wanna know this. When I was growing up EVERYBODY told me that being big and strong didnt matter when hitting homeruns. “Look at Griffey and Aaron” they said. Now I hear the same people saying that the reason homeruns are up is because of guys getting bigger and stronger. You cant have it both ways.
On a different note, I hit a baseball 450 feet last week. I hadnt hit a baseball in 10 years. It felt good.
pujols and helton? pujols is an awesome young player and wil probably get even better. but to say he is way better defensively than bonds is rediculous! the guy doesnt even have a set position. not to mention pujols gets pitched to. if you took away for example 100 of bonds’ walks in a season can you imagine the numbers he would put up?
helton? come on. he is the man at coors canaveral. take him away from there and hes a .280-.290 hitter and 25-30 hr guy at best.
Hey Golds if you popped some juice in your ass I bet that ball would have gone 750 feet.
P-dog
Never said albert and helton are better players all i said is they are the closet anyone is to bonds. Helton is gold glove quality and phat albert doesnt have a set position because hes versatile.
Regardless they arent as good as bonds. But if anyone can challenge bonds for the mvp its these two.
However once pujlos matures and bulks up like bonds did i am pretty sure he will be very special. Maybe even better because no one in the history of the game has put up better numbers in their first years.
no doubt, pujols can hit. how many stolen bases does he have in those few years???
i dont think anyone ever will match the 700+hr/500+ stolen bases. you can pretty much mark that one down in the books. oh and sometime this year he will break the all time walks record of rickey henderson.
how in the hell do you hit the most hr’s of all time (possibly) and have the most walks all time??? that is just not normal.
if you could genetically engineer tony gwynn and mark mcgwire together you would get barry bonds!
True bonds does steal a lot more than albert, but at this stage of their careers, Pujols is way(and i mean way) ahead in hits, walks, homers, rbis, and average than bonds. So i still say he might very well end up being better than bonds or that a-rod punk(hes good but not good enough to earn what albert and bonds combined do).
By the way on the mlb site they list bonds at 230. Which makes it apparent that people are only accusing him because of his numbers not body. There are many players in the L who weigh more than him, and are in better shape but his performance just makes him the prime target for a sport the media loves to take any kind of shots at.
“if you could genetically engineer tony gwynn and mark mcgwire together you would get barry bonds!”
a decent analogy although bonds has nowhere near the raw power mcgwire had, and is not as pure a hitter as say tony gwynn or pete rose were. guys like that were the very best in those disciplines.
comparing him to a mix of george brett(great bat control, impeccable eye, sweet hands) and a power guy like sosa or schmidt ( excellent home run to AB ratios) may be a little more realistic. keep in mind he is a blended hitter in every sense of the word. he hits for power and average. but in no way is he in the same league as pure guys like gwynn, rose, williams when it somes to bat control/placement/doing what he wants with what he is given. bonds stands close to the plate to take away the only advantage a pitcher may have (the low and away pitch), seeing as he is nearly impossible to beat up and in. so technically he has virtually no weaknesses when he steps to the plate.
he is pure to a degree, he has few if any weaknesses, and he displays well above average power. i just don’t see him as being in the same league as the greatest pure hitters, or having the same raw bomb dropping ability that mcgwire had. that being said, he is very unique in his ability to do everything at the plate extremely well. sick balance of power, bat control, eye, discipline, focus,and plate coverage. those combined factors make him the most dangerous hitter today.
just my 2 cents
Bonds has been really kicking ass lately.
I’m sure he’s one hell of a motivated guy, but there’s something suspicious in the situation.
His supplement provider, Victor Conte, has already allegedly given steroids to other atletes, such as Marion Jones