Player Comparison

Take a look at the 2005 numbers of these two players:

Player A - .276 BA/ 14 HR/ 50 RBI/ .290 OBP/ .444 SLG
Player B - .221 BA/ 14 HR/ 45 RBI/ .295 OBP/ .376 SLG

Player A is a 12-time all-star while Player B was a 7-time all-star. Both players have won MVP wards in their careers. Player B's team from this year recently announced that they had no intention of having him back for 2006 and that news was greeted by most as a sign that Player B's career being over.

Player A has 2 more years and at least $16 million left on his contract (there is an option for 2008 plus various incentives).

Both Player A and Player B have been linked to steroid rumors. Player A was named in Jose Canseco's book as a steroids user and Player B appeared before Congress to testify on steroids and many have recently started to call Player B the "incredible shrinking man".

Player A is Pudge Rodriguez and Player B is Sammy Sosa.

The point of this exercise was to highlight how Pudge Rodriguez (like Gary Sheffield) continues to fall beneath the radar of reporters when speaking about steroids. I laugh when reporters are asked about how they failed to report on steroids as the steroid age was at its peak. Most of them say that they dropped the ball. I think they are still dropping the ball.