Red Eye's Top 10 Baseball Players
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Mar 30, 2005 8:15PM
You know baseball season is close at hand when Red Eye decides to start the annual Chicago baseball debates with Jimmy Greenfield's Top 10 baseball players list.
- Carlos Zambrano - Cubs
- Mark Buehrle - White Sox
- Aramis Ramirez - Cubs
- Paul Konerko - White Sox
- Mark Prior - Cubs
- Nomar Garciaparra - Cubs
- Freddy Garcia - White Sox
- Kerry Wood - Cubs
- Derrek Lee - Cubs
- Aaron Rowand - White Sox
While Chicagoist isn't aware of Greenfield's loyalties, we're willing to bet it's to the North Side team. Of course, their owner also signs his paycheck... On his list, the Cubs outnumber the Sox by a 6-4 count. Greenfield left Frank Thomas off the list because he "is likely a non-factor this year," which is more than a bit presumptuous when it sounds like Thomas might be back not long after Mark Prior returns to the rotation. Given that both missed time last season due to injuries and are currently injured, why does one get left off when the other makes the top half? I'd be more concerned with Prior's durability once he returns than Thomas'. And based on reports of Thomas' great shape when he arrived at camp, he could be a very big factor in the Sox success.
Chicagoist would also replace Kerry Wood with Greg Maddux. Wood seems to be a lot more hype than performance if you look at his career. Sure he can dominate at times, but his career high in wins is only 14, when he went 14-11 in 2003. Maddux has won at least 15 games every year since 1988, when Kerry was playing T-ball. He just plain knows how to win, and I'd rather have a winner.
As Greenfield said in his article before getting to the list, "Start reading, and arguing."