Dean Palmer Retires

Dean Palmer retired today. Who? The Tigers' third baseman who had only played 87 games in the past three years due to injury, used to be a pretty good slugger and a good third baseman. Palmer hurt his neck again and just came to the conclusion that he couldn't stay healthy enough to play anymore. Palmer is 35.

Palmer had some very good years with pretty bad teams in his career with Texas, Kansas City and Detroit. Palmer hit over 25 homers six times in his career and over thirty four times. In his best years, he hit 38 homers twice. He also drove in over a hundred runs four times in his career and just missed it another year.

Dean Palmer's two weaknesses were strikeouts and injuries. Palmer struck out 1332 times in 1357 games and his strikeout average was higher than his lifetime batting average (.271 to .251). Injuries also took a toll as he missed most of the '94, '95, '97, '01, '02 and 2003 seasons limiting his overall value as a player.

He did seem to kill the Red Sox and the Yankees but he will be another one of those players who will fade out of the game without much notice and fanfare. Few will remember. That has been baseball throughout its history. The only difference now is that a player like Palmer fades away a mult-millionaire.

The Orioles Sign Mora to Multi-Year Contract

It was nice to see that the Orioles signed Melvin Mora to a multi-year deal. Mora came into his own last year and for half a year--before he came down with an injury--he was one of the best players in baseball and spent a long time at the top of the batting charts.

The only downside for Mora is that it took him a long time to put it together. He showed flashes of brilliance with the Mets but never with consistency. Now he is 32 and could be another Alex Gonzalez--a late bloomer.