Getting Ahead of Ourselves

Dr. Phil trips all over himself to welcome back an old favorite:

Look for Sosa to turn up his production in June as he closes in on an unexpected trip to the All-Star Game. It would be his first since 2004 and eighth overall and might let us all enjoy—one more time—Sammy's biggest game of the season: The home run contest.

Sosa entered Texas' Monday night game at Oakland hitting .259. He was leading the Rangers with 37 RBIs, which put him on pace to produce 32 homers and 120 RBIs, his most in a season since 2001. If he can keep it up, he's a lock for the comeback player of the year award and most likely a multiyear contract, not bad for a guy who didn't want to play a year ago.

Sosa is certainly bashing the ball -- his .503 slugging average is good for 18th in the AL (35th overall), quite respectable for a guy who sat out a year.

But the scounts the Beane haters like to refer to say that Sosa is crushing mistakes, and looking bad on quality pitches.

I don't know it they're right. But I look at Sosa's .317 OBP and can't help but think that he's not quite the elite batter Dr. Phil seems to think, no matter how gaudy the home run and RBIs totals project to.

Besides, the last time Dr. Phil singled out an ex-Cub as being back on track after a good May, he was predicting stardom for this guy. So forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of the Doctor's prognosis...