Singlehandedly?
Look, if your name just doesn't happen to be Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, or Ted Williams, you cannot carry a baseball team. I am sorry to everyone else who might delude themselves into thinking they have at one point or another, but it just doesn't happen. ESPN seems to think that Pudge is doing exactly that. Tell that to Nate Robertson, Carlos Guillen, Rondell White, or Brandon Inge, all having great years. Heck, even Omar Infante has improved significantly over his wretched 2003.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Pudge, he's having a great year. But lets not get all crazy over the .377 batting average without keeping it in context. Even in what looks to be his career year, Pudge is about as good as Jorge Posada with the bat. With the huge defensive advantage, of course, Pudge is much better, but dont be fooled. Pudge is very clearly the best catcher in the league right now, and he is in a small class of people in contention for the first half MVP (Bonds, Vlad, Manny, Rolen, Abreu, Thome, Pujols, I forget anybody?), but its definitely not as clear as the ESPN cartel would make you think. Without Carlos Guillen, this team isn't even sniffing .500.

Before, I stop this pointless ramble, can everyone stop referring to Pudge as going to Detroit to turn around a franchise. This is a man who has a statue of himself in his own palace. Pudge went to the only team that was prepared to drop that contract on a 32 year old catcher. Good for Detroit though, they realized a greedy bastard like Pudge might have a good year if they gave him (lightbulb) an incentive laden contract. Check out these incentives:

MVP:                     $500k

2nd (or more) MVP:       $1M

2-5th place MVP:         $200k

6-10th place MVP         $100k

All-star starter:        $100k

All-star reserve:        $50k

Hank Aaron Award:        $100k

Post-season All-star:    $100k

World Series MVP:        $200k

League Championship MVP: $150k

Gold Glove:              $100k

Silver Slugger:          $100k

Exhibit A on how to motivate a greedy bastard. Now excuse me, I have to go model for the marble statue of myself I am having sculpted.
Curt  ¶ 9:38 PM