There are a lot of records in baseball that are considered sacred and highly desirable to surpass. You have the career hits, career home runs, career wins, and career strikeouts. There is one record, you don’t want to own. It brings with it a distinction of failure. The record I am speaking of is the minor league career home run record. Sure you may have hit more home runs in the minors than any other hitter in the history of the minors, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? I mean they made a movie about that “Bull Durham”. Substitute Mike Hessman in for Crash Davis and you have an idea where I am going with this.
Mike was originally selected by the Braves out of Fountain Valley, CA in the 15th round of the 1996 draft. The Brave’s brass knew he had the power, it was just a matter of teaching him the strike zone and patience. Mike put up impressive home run totals with the Brave’s farm system (21, 20, 23, 19, 26, 26, 16, and 16) before finally being traded to the Tigers in 2005. Power has never really been an issue, he has played in a little over 1500 career minor league games and has struck out almost 1900 times. Out of his nearly 1600 hits, 311 of them have been for home runs (nearly 20% or 1 in 5 hits).
The truth of this story is that Mike is your prototype AAAA player. Not good enough for the pros and too good for the AAA. He is only 31 years old, so you can bet that he still has plenty of power left in him. When it’s all said and done he could possibly (and I know this is a stretch) break the 500 home run plateau. If so he would certainly roll up more than 2000 hits and nearly 3000 strikeouts. Meaning if he never get’s to play significant time in the majors, he still would have had himself a stoic career.
While most of us tend to celebrate the greats who play the game, I am one to celebrate the greats that never made it. Like most players who get drafted, you will probably never remember Mike when he retires. He will though have his name in at least one record book, current minor league home run king. It may not be as impressive as Aaron or Ruth, but it’s something that I am sure he will always treasure no matter what happens in his career.
http://badwax.net/page/13
-look, I don't normally print an entire story, but I hope my friends at badwax don't slam me for this one... the Mets have the biggest baddest home run hitter in the world!!!! Well, maybe, in Buffalo...
Mike Cameron turns 37 next month. Jon Heyman says: Red Sox in serious talks for Mike Cameron. He would replace Bay. who's a goner.
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23redsox
Mack: do you see what I am saying now... does it seem like everyone wants to join either Boston, the Yanks, the Phils, or LA... it's not the money, it's the ring... and there is no ring at Willet's Point in 2010...
FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports the Red Sox and Mike Cameron are closing in on a two-year deal worth around $15.5 million - rotoworld
Mack: Another one bites the dust...
And where does that leave the Mets? If they are smart, it reinforces for them two lessons: the ability to put together a team likely to win in 2010 is not attainable from the remaining parts on the free agent and trade markets. More enticingly, their young players likely to begin contributing in 2011 dovetail nicely with some tremendous possibilities on the free agent and trade front. Take starting pitching, for example. Is it likely Seattle will be signing both Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee to the type of mega-contracts they will require? Take catcher- will Minnesota really be able to retain Joe Mauer? Can Tampa Bay keep Carl Crawford? San Diego will have only one year left of Adrian Gonzalez- will they really keep him? These are franchise players in their primes, with the exception of Lee (due to age). Think about John Lackey, Jason Bay, even Halladay, given his age, in comparison. The Phillies have made their move. Halladay likely means none of the aforementioned players are going to Philly. They won’t be able to afford them. It will be awfully nice for Mets fans to be in the home that isn’t over-leveraged when that day comes.- nybaseballdigest.
Monday's action undermined the Mets in multiple ways. For starters, presumably, the addition of Halladay will make the Phillies a better team. So the Mets may be even further away from the top of the league than they were two months ago. Then there is the matter of Lackey, whom many saw as the most efficient route back to the top of the division. With Lackey off the market, the Mets must look at alternatives -- and there are not many. No free agent pitcher comes close to Lackey's ability, and yet the second-best starter on the market, Joel Pineiro, is likely to command more than the three-year, $29.75 million deal Randy Wolf earned from the Brewers. It's an expensive deal for an injury-prone, mediocre-leaning pitcher, but that is the market. Moreover, a trade for a rotation-quality pitcher remains all but out of the question.
And so suddenly, it has become even more critical that the Mets sign Bay. If they allow Bay to go to the Red Sox, Mariners or some other suitor, they will have passed on just about every opportunity to significantly upgrade their team this offseason. And without a significant upgrade, they are unlikely to put much pressure on Halladay and his new Phillies teammates.
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