At last, something moderately useful in a Gammons column, the most recent of which he provides a running list of "players teams would love to unload to rid themselves of the salaries. They are, pure and simple, bad contracts" ...
Sammy Sosa. Preston Wilson. Kevin Brown. Jason Giambi. Kenny Lofton. Cliff Floyd. Mike Piazza. Tom Glavine. Byung-Hyun Kim. Ryan Klesko. Jason Kendall. Andruw Jones. Shawn Green. Darren Dreifort. Arthur Rhodes. Jose Vidro. Pat Burrell. Mike Lieberthal. Charles Johnson. Chan Ho Park. Matt Lawton. Paul Konerko. Eric Hinske. Edgardo Alfonzo. Ray Durham. Juan Encarnacion. Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Jay Payton. Jeff Bagwell. Jose Guillen. Tim Salmon. Bret Boone. Joe Mays. Kazuo Matsui ... the list goes on and on.
Note: This thread quickly morphed into "Jose Guillen: Underappreciated All-Star or Satanic Overpaid Clubhouse Monster?" Join the fun!
The interesting and moderately useful part comes in the game of constructing what could be a complete roster of these players. I haven't calculated what their combined salary would be, but let's pretend that some team out there has a billion dollars to spend; they could do worse than this. Any changes to make to this roster using only the listed players? Who hasn't Gammons listed that we can use to fill the only holes on the team -- two bullpen slots? How would this team do, anyway? Can we do something about the injury-prone nature (and the general suckitude) of the rotation?
25-Man Roster
C Mike Piazza
1B Jeff Bagwell
2B Bret Boone
SS Kazuo Matsui
3B Jose Vidro*
LF Ryan Klesko
CF Andruw Jones
RF Shawn Green
DH Sammy Sosa
SP Kevin Brown
SP Tom Glavine
SP Joe Mays
SP Chan Ho Park
SP Darren Dreifort
CL Byung-Hyun Kim
RP Shigetoshi Hasegawa
RP Arthur Rhodes
RP
RP
Bench
OF Jay Payton
OF Jose Guillen
IF Edgardo Alfonzo
IF Ray Durham
C Jason Kendall
Sorry, no room at the Inn: Eric Hinske*, Jason Giambi, Kenny Lofton, Pat Burrell, Mike Lieberthal, Charles Johnson, Preston Wilson, Juan Encarnacion, Matt Lawton, Paul Konerko, Tim Salmon
*Yes, Vidro is primarily a 3B, but we went with him over Hinske for reasons discussed ad nauseum here on Da Box; Boone has appeared at 3B eight times, while Vidro's career total at the hot corner is 45. Durham has never appeared there. Believe it or not, former Red Sox 3B phenom Jeff Bagwell has also never appeared in a MLB game as a 3B.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20041119033908999