Josh Hamilton is back

Narron knows about human tragedy. He was the Yankees catcher in the first game after Thurman Munson died.

 

Want Steve Phillips' opinion? I know I don't and neither does anyone else, but he plays the Grinch to this feel-good story.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/columns/story?columnist=phillips_steve&id=2792089

 

and that's why steve phillips is holding fake press conferences on espn rather than real ones anywhere outside of bristol

seriously -- norris hopper or chris denorfia over josh hamilton? please. i doubt anyone in the reds clubhouse -- even hopper or denorfia -- thinks hamilton doesn't belong there. i think it was in a hal mccoy story, but adam dunn said of hamilton 'he's the best baseball player i've ever seen' -- dunn said he'd played with hamilton in the instructional league and had never seen a better player

 

Props to Steve for at least mentioning all the second chances he's gotten from Marni and the Mets.

 

So has Hamilton earned the starting spot in right field? If so, that will likely push Freel back to the bench/utility role -- at least until either Encarnacion or Griffey get injured.

 

Funny, when I first saw the story in the Post I wondered what the hell it was in there for. I saw Hamilton play in the minors last year - short season A - and he didn't do anything to stand out. I read the story and thought it was pretty good, but didn't SI do a story on Hamilton within the last year or two that compared his career to Beckett (I think the No. 2 draft pick that year). I didn't feel like I found out much new in the Post story.

 

i don't think so freelance... it's still up in the air

 

He didn't stand out? He had played like 15 games in four years. He's tearing the cover off the ball. Sure it's spring training and sure he hasn't gone around the league yet, but if this guy can stay clean he'll be an All-Star in five years. Bank on it!

 

Right now, Freel is the projected starter in CF and Griffey in RF...at least according to one article I saw where Griff said he had no problem playing right.

 

Hamilton will be there waiting in the wings when Griffey gets hurt playing with his kids.

 

He's a great story and we're all rooting for him, but from a baseball standpoint has anyone wondered what will happen when Josh starts facing curveballs in real games?

 

He'll probably be on the bench. Again if this guy stays clean he'll be an All-Star in five years. He's that talented.