There is a fixation on Torii's low OBP, which ironically, is the one stat a #4/5 hitter needs less of when they can mash - and again, this guy hit 1 more homer than Vlad last season.

The Angels are damned when they do and damned when they don't - they have a baserunning machine in place in 2007 and they get scolded for ignoring batting power. Then they go out and get some pop and are scolded because Torii Hunter does not get on base as much as a leadoff hitter.

And heaven forbid that Fox criticize the ew-signings of Mariano Rivera or Jorge Posada - players that are 8 and 4 years older than Torii Hunter respectively.

that story was written by Dayn Perry, which explains a lot.

Second, the only real beef he has with the signing is the dollar amount of the contract and, to some degree, the length of it. He even admits that Torii will help the Angels win.

There's nothing original here. Perry's story adds nothing new to the debate.

Yankees have Damon and Abreu.
Red Sox have Drew.
We have Matthews and Hunter.

They're all bad contracts.

Why does it bother you that it's stated?  It's all true.

Writes the lists

i agree in relation to contracts 5 years ago, its a little pricey for Torii Hunter...but look at the market.

you cant be players in a new market while referring to the old market.

Barry Zito got the biggest contract for a pitcher ever. A-Rod got an even bigger contract even though hes much older and on the wrong side of his prime.

This is why Torii Hunter can make 18 million even though hes 32 and Andruw Jones can make even more after hitting .222

Look at the payrolls of teams, youll be surprised that more and more teams are approaching, reaching or going well above the $100 million threshhold.

the games doing well, inflation is showing some signs and you just have to compare the contract to ones signed THAT YEAR because free agency fluctuates like crazy

fantasyland. It's a great book about fantasy baseball and the author talks about how everyone has gotten way too into sabrmetrics and has lost the idea that there is a human element to these players. They're people just like us, maybe millionaires but they have issues just like we do. Torii Hunter has amazing character and he'll give us what our team has needed for a while now, a team leader that actually speaks. Hunter is going to add a dimension to our offense shitty career obp or not. He is going to help us out.

You can talk all the shit you want about GMJ but when he robbed Texiera of that double in the right center gap on opening night last year i knew he would help us become a better team, and look at what happened, we won the division.

Personally I agree that the post-season is a crapshoot, and in the coming years our offense will actually click in the post-season and we'll win it all based on timely hitting and running and all that stuff and Scioscia will be praised for sticking to his guns.

Personally i love the Angels style of play, it's exciting and I am proud to be a season seat holder because of it.

A lot.

I hate! the GMJ jr. signing.  

As many of us mentioned last year; we should just wait a year and sign Hunter.

In lieu of all these outfield signings, our think our team is a lot better than last year.  Do I think we win the WS, no, we will a game in the playoffs, yes.

=/

How is signing Hunter worse than signing a washed up, over rated, expensive, and unproductive closer that is Eric Gagne?  I respect Gagne for what he has done but for $10 million i would rather pass on him.  Hell I'd rather have Kevin Gregg over him any day.

saying at the time that the signing of Escobar was the worst offseason move when it happened. LOL. That's turned out pretty well. So, I'm not worried about the Hunter signing.

ESPN...the buster olney's and the peter gammon's....damn them!