According to Ron Washington, the new first year coach of the Texas Rangers, Sammy Sosa will have no problem making the team has a DH and a backup outfielder barring a complete turn around in his play. This makes me happy to see Sosa taking his “comeback” really seriously. From reports that I’ve read he’s in the best shape of his life, and he’s cut down a lot of weight. At the time of this entry he is currently has five hits in 12 at-bats, of which two are home runs. This gives him a .416 batting average. This isn’t too bad for “shaking off the cobwebs” for not playing for 19 months in the majors. His batting is only going to be getting better. I haven’t heard how is fielding has been, or if he has even been on the field in a game situation yet.

While it still remains to be unseen if he was actually a ‘roid user during the big home run race between him and Mark McGwire back in 1998. I am a firm believer that “Big Mac” is/was a steroid user, I’m still not quite sure if Sosa is/was one at the time. I think big deal of my disbelief is my biast as a hardcore Cubs fan. I think there was definately something a little ‘fishy’ with that year, but those thoughts are for another entry and another time. Sosa was probably on some super suppliment that was probably not legal in the Major League Baseball, but not a 100% true steroid, much that Jose Canseco, wrote his book about.

I really think Sosa can help out the Rangers “bang” out more runs than ever, and in such a hitter’s park like the one in Arlington, Sosa could easily be hitting 35-40, if not more, home runs this year. I like the idea of using him mainly has a DH. His last few years in the league, especially when he played for the Cubs, his defense lacked what it was in the past. Originally when Sosa just becoming a super star within the Cubs organization, he had a really good arm. It was one of the best in the league at the time. People dared not run on him. He also had well above average speed and was stealing between 20 and the mid 30’s a season. When he turned into his true power hitting self, his speed, defense, and arm took big hits.

As a fan of the Cubs, I’ve always been a big fan of Sosa’s and I hope that he finds success being a DH in the American League for the last few years of his career in hopes of getting to 600 home runs. While I’m not sure if he’ll ever end up with an asterisks next his name or not, I really think he is Hall of Fame Worthy. It’s hard to say if the steriods “theories” have tainted his name as much as it has with Mark McGwire, who was nowhere near close enough to getting enough votes.

What do you folks think about Sosa?