Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal has compiled his “All-Washed Up Team” and the nominees won’t surprise anyone (Piazza, Juan Gone, Bob Higginson, Raffy, Nomar, etc.), prefacing the list with “In many cases, their declines reflect age and injury. In some, they might be related to tougher steroid testing and the toll of performance-enhancing drugs. Whatever the reasons, fading stars are easily replaced by younger, cheaper players who offer comparable production.”
Replies Ben Schwartz,
Rosenthal has truly blown the lid off of this œaging thing in baseball. And he™s only hit the tip of the iceberg with œinjured players like Nomar and Hidalgo, those players who somehow œget hurt and then don™t produce numbers like when they are œhealthy. I™m sure there™s a rationale explanation for this that Bud Selig is avoiding, but to quote Mr. Giambi, œI™m no renowned authority or anything.
Neither Kevin Brown nor John Franco made Rosenthal’s list, but considering that the former has a temper and the latter has many connections in the legitimate business community, we can’t be too surprised.