Afternoon Baseball

ESPN.com

Not a surprise. This doesn't mean they don't want Bernie back, it just means they don't want him for $15 million. But let's face it, he's pretty much done. His 2004 season wasn't terrible (22-70, 105 runs, 85 BB), but he benefited greatly from protection in the lineup. This year, he's just not had it except for occasional big games.

It's amazing how quickly he slipped -- although I think a lot of it has to do with his shoulders. At the end of 2002, Gammons was sure that Bernie would have a shot at 3,000 hits. His argument made sense, too (8 straight .300 seasons chief among the reasons). Now 2,500 hits looks very unlikely.

EDIT: Bumfromjersey chimes in on the comments with a good point:

Actually, I think it has more to do with his knees. A lot of Bernies numbers are predicated on his speed and he just does not have that anymore. I think Bernie could have reached 3000 hits but last year really took a lot from him. Agreed, he had good numbers but what I think was driving him was Lofton's goal of playing centerfield everyday. In order to prevent that Bernie came back from injury early and became an everyday player. Its one thing to come back from injury and play an occasional game (like Curt Schilling) but its quite another to do that and play everyday. Bernie didn't have a chance to heal and now he is paying the price.