To play what, exactly? I wouldn’t touch him.

Couldn’t wish that on a nicer guy!

“Sheffield hits one onto Sheffield!”

other than that nope

…is an AL team takes pity on him, signs him as a DL, let’s him get his one home run and then cuts him loose. Toronto maybe? I dunno.

…dont let the door hit you in the arse Gary.

Tigers to Sheffield: Go suck somewhere else.

hoping that someone kicks in the $400K they will use to play someone in his place on the roster. This is a write down—-it won’t be the first this year.

Back in the early 90s he supposedly admitted to purposely making errors with the Brewers.

Does anyone ELSE remember this?

sign him

The Phillies want him.

They’ve released Geoff Jenkins with an eye on signing Sheffield.

…but Sheffield definitely can’t, or shouldn’t be allowed to, play the field anymore and his bat has been ssssllllooowwwing down at a fairly precipitous rate for the last few years. On the other hand, his price tag has now been wiped out and he was productive for a few months during the 2007 season, so some hopeless team might make him an offer…whether or not a guy with such an immense self-image accepts it is another matter.

The Phillies tidbit is surprising…as he and Geoff Jenkins are such similar players, especially at this point in their careers, even though Sheffield is a few years older. Maybe the Phillies think that, as World Champions, they must always show interest in every declining superstar…or maybe the agents now feel obligated to spread those rumors.

Sheffield has had a very odd career. He was a Teenaged-Super-Prospect with the Brewers and managed to alienate everybody remotely associated with that franchise. Then he nearly won a triple crown in San Diego but was traded in the middle of the next season during a fire sale. He played on the very first Marlin team and the Marlin team that won the WS in 1997 (playing very well that postseason). Then he was traded in another fire sale. Then the Dodgers, Atlanta, and NY, with continual contract acrimony everywhere along the line. During that phase of his career, he was always hitting, always trying to renegotiate his contract, and his teams were always losing in the playoffs.

It’ll be interesting to see how the HOF voters treat him, between the fact that he was one of the best hitters of his generation but also one of its’ most notoriously unpleasant people. I instantly think of Dick Allen when trying to remember a comparable sort of player…the Jerk That Can Really Hit. Yet Sheffield has better counting stats( basically because of the longer career) than Allen and the all-important WS ring. Eventually, the glare from that combination of numbers and jewelry will obscure the fact that the man wasn’t very nice. I’ll go on record as predicting that he’ll be elected to the Hall of Fame, probably by the writers.

he never gets inducted in the hall of fame. I have always disliked Sheffield, mainly for the reason that he is hypocritical. He calls out former teams, calling into question race and that team’s integrity. This coming from the same guy that once stated publicly that he tanked plays on purpose in Milwaukee to get traded.

8:52pm: Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News has another quote from Jocketty:

“Sheffield and (manager) Dusty Baker have a history and they talked yesterday. He has to clear waivers today, but we’ll talk. We have interest because he would be a legitimate big right-handed bat to add to our lineup.”

I actually laughed out loud. That is a marriage made in … well, I’m not sure where that’s made. “Heaven” is not the right word.

(I can’t post the link because I couldn’t find it on the web site. I got it on my daily email from Tim.)

I assume he’d go to left field over Tatis and the young Dan Murphy?

LINKY.

Then again, this article speculates he could land with the Reds (as mentioned above). It also clarifies Sheff’s relationship with Dusty:

Baker’s long-standing friendship with Sheffield—they met years ago through mutual friends from California—is the biggest thing in Cincinnati’s favor.