Mariners Analysis

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Gammons on Bonds

Many of us believe Barry Bond's performance over the last few years has been nothing short of phenomenal. He has been the very definition of MVP- he makes his team and others around him better.

Yet Peter Gammons seems to believe the Giants will be ok without him- espn link

This seems to run counter to everything we've been told. How can you lose the greatest player in baseball and not see a huge dropoff?

If Bonds is out for any length of time, the Giants FO is going to be in a serious bind. They created this team to win NOW. They signed a ton of veterans all on the principle of winning short-term, knowing Bonds has a short shelf-life. If he misses serious time, it puts the entire team in danger of looking like last years Mariners.

You know, OLD.

The only saving grace for the Giants is that someone has to win that division. Arizona? Dodgers? Lots of questions. It would seem the division is wide open.

But regardless, watching the Giants play this season w/o Bonds will tell us just how important he really has been to past Giant's teams.

I'm guessing the 2005 Giants won't remind anyone of the 2001 Mariners after they lost Alex. Instead, I see a team struggling to play .500 ball. Regardless of what Gammons says.