Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Parise/Guerrero

Devils forward Zach Parise is about to become a UFA in a few weeks. I’m sure his agent is following the rules and not fielding an insane number of phone calls. If you're an NHL team with cap room, why wouldn't you be taking a hard run at this guy?

The question I'd have for Parise would be, in choosing your new NHL home, what's your wish list look like? Can't be money. Everyone is willing to give him his price. The next wish is likely to play for a contender. Again, that doesn't narrow it down much either. There are ten teams who are legit contenders and probably another ten who become contenders once Parise arrives.

The LA Kings are now said to be in the mix for Parise's services. A classic case of "If you can't beat em, join 'em." Didn't work for Marion Hossa. He was with Pittsburgh in '08 when they lost the Cup to Detroit. The next year he joined Detroit and the Wings lost the '09 Cup to Pittsburgh, the team he just left. I don't see it for New jersey, but the Kings could be back. They're already a killer team that could be back in the final.

Add in Parise and they'll be serial killers.

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A little confused by the Blue Jays allowing Vladimir Guerrero to walk away yesterday. Guerrero understood the Jays wanted him to audition before calling him up. So he played 4 games in A ball and hit .450 with 4 homers and 8 rbi. Then in Triple A he played 8 games, hit .303 with 4 rbi.

Guy can obviously still play.

Vladdy felt like 12 games was a long enough tryout. GM Alex Antholpolous didn't agree. He wanted more. So Guerrero threatened to leave and the Jays basically said, "Be our guest..."

That's ridiculous.

Odds are, Guerrero still has it. Rather than lose him, I'd at least have given him a shot. The 12 games, the good numbers in 2011 and the hall of fame career earned him that. Anthopolous let him walk rather than allow a player to tell him what to do.

"He certainly felt he was worthy of a call-up," said Anthopoulos. "But we're just not prepared to do that right now. We felt we needed to see him in more games."

It comes down to whether you think Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero would be a better option at DH than David Cooper. And I say hells yeah. Vladdy would sell tickets, he can obviously still hit, and for a lot more power than David Cooper. Why wouldn’t you bring him up?