HIs 2004 was an abberrational year. He's not good at baseball. No team with any sort of minor league system should ever sign a player like Erstad to sit on the bench. He's a waste of money and a roster spot for any team. That said, thanks are in order to Kenny Williams for taking a player I was afraid Hendry would target. i would have to say that anyone that makes it to the majors is "good at baseball". he has a career .756 ops and played very good defense before he was injured. williams signings & trades have done pretty well in the recent past (including podsenik whom you most likely put in the same catagory as erstad) and perhaps he knows a little more about baseball than we do. I love the whole "he knows more about baseball than we do" argument. It's probably the weakest argument ever used around here and elsewhere. Erstad is a 32 year old who hasn't had above a .750 OPS in 6 seasons. He hasn't been good at baseball since 2000. Just because he has a "hard nosed" reputation and a name people have heard of doesn't mean that he's any good anymore. i guess you know more about baseball than kenny williams and billy beane. http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070112&content_id=1778276&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak Again: Debunking an argument by attempting to belittle the posters knowledge of baseball when compared to GM's or people who "played the game" isn't an effective method of arguing your point. He's an injury prone, ineffective, overpaid baseball player who has gotten by for the past few years on the reputation of tenacity and toughness more than the quality of his play. He's not a good baseball player, and unless he signed for an incredibly low amount of money, will be vastly overpaid for what he brings to the table. Can you offer any supporting evidence to contradict my argument, other than the fact that I'm not a major league GM? ok. you win. erstad is bad because you say he is. he is guaranteed to have a bad season and be a complete waste of payroll. even if he hits .280 with a .745 ops he'll be horrible because he didnt reach .750. unless a player wins the gold glove and silver slugger they are just bad players with no chance to contribute. He hasn't even been league average once in the last five seasons. Most of them he was well below league average. Lose the attitude.