According to one projection system, the Rays are a 92win team with Bonds… A few weeks ago, news broke that the Rays had of available free agents. At the time we made it clear that it was the alltime home run king. We cited the recent clubhouse headache castoffs, Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes as well as the overall imageconscious nature of the Rays front office. While we argued that the Rays wouldn’t sign Bonds, we never said whether or not the Rays should sign Bonds. The truth is we truly understand both sides of the argument. We loathed Keyshawn Johnson but we were sure glad he was around to help the Bucs win the Super Bowl. Would we feel the same about Bonds? If he helped the Rays make the playoffs, then ‘hell yes’,jones jersey;. And now that we know that Rocco Baldelli will start the season on the DL and his career is in jeopardy, signing Bonds may no longer be a luxury item, he might be a necessity. And as they say, ‘necessity is the mother of Barry’s Barcalounger’ (or something like that). Many argue that Bonds is a differencemaker. They argue he is the type of impact player that could help put the Rays overthetop and into the playoffs. But what isn’,packers jerseys;t clear, is exactly how much of an impact one team could truly expect from adding Bonds to the lineup. To answer this question, we contacted Chone Smith of . Smith is the creator of the CHONE projection system. Smith uses to run a full simulation of the 2008 season. In those projections, the and finish in third place, 3 games behind the Yankees and the Red Sox. They noted that the vast improvement was do in most part to . So we asked Smith to insert Bonds into the Rays lineup and rerun the projections. He obliged, removing Baldelli from the roster and making Bonds the mostdays DH. According to the CHONE projection system, the Rays would score 36 more runs in 2008 with Bonds in the lineup. In the field the Rays would surrender 7 more runs on defense due to increased playing time for Gomes and Floyd in right field. Overall the Rays would be projected to win 3 more games which ups their win total to 92…smack dab in the middle of the playoff hunt. As a point of comparison, we also asked Smith to run the same projection if Bonds were signed by the Mets, another team in need of outfield help. In this case, he removed Moises Alou and inserted Bonds. The change meant 30 more runs for the Mets and an increase from 92 to 95 wins in the standings. This seems to indicate that even though he will be 43 years old and has two bad knees, Barry Bonds is still worth at least 3 wins over the course of an entire season over an aboveaverage player. That number may be more like 57 wins over a replacementlevel player. , Bonds was worth 6.2 wins in 2007 over a replacementlevel player. In only 126 games, the 42 year old Bonds hit .2762866 with a ,Cheap Frank Gore Jersey.480 OBP. His 170 OPS+ would have led the NL had he not come up about 30 plate appearances short of qualifying. Should the Rays attempt to sign Bonds if they can get him at a discount rate? If you think that the Rays are indeed an 8889 win team, then the answer should be ‘,Browner returns; Hill to practice today Seahawks Insider - The News Tribune;Yes’, because Bonds might indeed be the difference between the 2007 Brewers (just missed) and the 2007 Rockies (World Series). [Ed. note: An excellent question was brought up in the comments that we don't have the answer for, but raises a good point. The Rays were an 89win team (projected) with Rocco. They are probably more like an 8687 win team with Jon Weber or John Rodriguez,Thursday practice report Cobb and Nelson return Packersnews packersnews.com. So right now, Bonds would actually be worth approximately 56 wins if you consider that he is in reality replacing Weber or Rodriguez.] Marc Topkin Wants You To Believe That It Is Possible For Barry Bonds To Sign With The Rays [] Signing Barry Bonds Would Go Against Everything The Rays Have Done The Past Two Years [] Finally, the hitter projections [] AL projected standings [] The Devil Rays, how they will go from the cellar to contenders [] Barry Bonds []