And do it begins...

Anyone else think Bonds has played his last game?

On the other hand, it might lower his asking price and make other teams be willing to take a flyer on him with an incentive laden contract with a relatively low base salary and a clause making it clear that he won't be paid for games he misses due to court dates. We'll know soon just how much the feds have on him, and the degree to which he is clearly screwed will have an impact on the offers.

Unfortunately 4 months too late...

He brings far too little to the table, at this stage, to make an acceptable offer worthwhile.

Yes, that four digit OPS is far too little to be worth a flier.

Dan -

Spoken like a sabermetric fool who forgot that these players aren't just machines, that they exist within the context of the real world. Four digit OPS or not, no team would want to touch Bonds now. Indictment? Steroids positive? Maybe the Giants, but they already bowed out.

Forget productivity. How does a franchise look their fans in the eyes if they sign Bonds? It would be a PR disaster.

This indictment doesn't prove anything (yet), but it's certainly looking as though Bonds supporters are going to have a harder and harder time staying in their fantasy world.

Signing Bonds would be bad PR even if he beats the rap, which he probably will, but he's going to need an army of lawyers. That's going to cost him a lot of money. No team's going to go for that.

People forget that nobody wanted Bonds after 2001 at the height of PED fueled powers. That's why he resigned with the Giants.

It's unlikely any team going to want the indicted broken-down Bonds now.

Perricone rushes to his word processor, and proceeds to concoct more baloney. His Amen Corner of commenters now start their slurs against the feds. Stay tuned.

I know exactly what you guys mean. I mean, look at how badly Cleveland has been ripped for extending Byrd right after riding Betancourt's amazing season. Look at how the Mets were reviled for signing Mota. Look at how the Tigers can't draw because of contempt for Sheffield.

Shall I go on? There's only about two dozen other examples...

Dan, if you seriously can't understand the difference between those guys and BARRY BONDS (HR record, Game Of Shadows, federal indictments, tax evasion, notorious anti-social behavior, massive media attention, etc.) then you're pretty dense. Betancourt? Nobody even knows who he is. Same for Byrd, pretty much. Sheffield? Give me a break.

Again, I'm amazed at your inability to see that Bonds is in a remarkably different class.

I'm not dense; I'm a realist. As much as sportswriters and talking heads rant and rave, when it comes down to it, the average fan forgives. And they forgive in direct proportion to production.

Someone will sign Bonds on the cheap. The local beat writers will assure everyone that hell has indeed come to earth. Someone will start a local anti-Bonds campaign that will get more national stories than it has members. The season will start. Bonds will perform. The fans will cheer.

And the rest of the country will see this "new San Francisco" and tell themselves their town would never react that way.

And what happens when he's convicted and taken away in handcuffs? That team that signed him will look like they were an accessory to a crime. Do you want your team involved in that kind of crap? I don't. Do you want your son rooting for an unrepentant criminal? I don't.

Even stupid owners understand this.

No, Dan, they will not sign him. He will not play cheap enough to justify the investment. Barry is not going to finish his career DH'ing and stumbling around the bases for 4 or 5m. And that's the high end of the offers he might see. Limited market for enfeebled, indicted, embittered players, less so when you factor in the circus that would accompany the player.
Greg Anderson has been released, if he is rolling Barry gets 5 years if he is lucky. Silly to expect he beats it, feds got Libby on he said/she said disagreements. They have blood tests, witnesses, and barry's testimony. Knowing the well financed, scorched earth defense they will face, the government is convinced they have a conviction in hand. Only an OJ jury can save him now.

Agree with dan. I have no doubt that Bonds Knowingly took steroids and anything else he could get his hands on. Despite the histrionics from sports writers and impassioned fanboys in other cities, I have no faith in the fanbase of any city to do anything of any note to protest or boycott the signing of B. Lamar B.

When the games are played, the fans will fill the seats and they may even boo but they'll dump their paychecks down Bud's pants as he gleefully refuses to take any real action to clean up the sport and its tarnished legacy.

Abe's comment is on a different note entirely: whether Bonds will sign for the offers he'll get has nothing to do with whether he's worth making an offer to.

And geb4000's just opens up the literally hundreds of criminals and ne'er-do-wells that baseball, much less sport, has seen come, go, and be celebrated. We can pretend he's the first; we can pretend he's the worst. But at the end of the day, that's all it is: pretend.

"Only an OJ jury can save him now."

He has a good chance of scoring one of those.

Just a quick point, the "failed tests" were already know and reported by the Chronicle writers in both their Chronicle articles and in the "Game of Shadows". These tests are tests that Anderson and Balco arranged that the Feds claim were tests of Barry's urine. What evidance the Feds have that these tests were actually of Barry's urine and that the chain of custody did not expose them to contamination is not known.

The opinion of Bonds has got to be so low right now that I'd think signing him might cause a decline in attendance for the team that would. Teams are still in the throws of their season-ticket drives. It think it would be a financial disaster to sign him at any price right now. You've got to look at this beyond what he might do on the field - which of course could also be nothing. And even if it is something, the risk is far larger than the reward. Rafael Palmeiro may have had a decent year or two left in him. You sure didn't see anyone beating on his door with a contract.

Anderson didn't roll over on Bonds for two years and probably won't now. The positive test (2003?) sounds big, assuming it's provably accurate, but Bonds isn't charged with using steroids, he's charged with falsely stating that he never knowingly used them. So the test may have limited value re: perjury -- especially if Anderson testifies that he told Bonds the substances were flaxseed oil, never mentioned steroids or HGH, and didn't inject him with anything. The best part of the indictment the transcript is where Bonds keeps suggesting different years for when he thinks he started using the "flaxseed oil" -- but that will certainly be framed by the defense, and possibly accepted by the jury, as frank and admitted imprecision, not misrepresentation. My early money is on hung jury at worst, with outright acquittal on all counts quite feasible -- especially after Novitsky spews and the multiple prosecutorial legal and ethical violations are in evidence.

"especially after Novitsky spews and the multiple prosecutorial legal and ethical violations are in evidence."
Except he won't, not to a jury. He can tell the press until a judge muzzles him. He can go to the Bar. However the jury will never hear this nonsense.
Barry will get an awesome defense, the best money can buy. But the Government knew that and charged him anyway. That means they think he's done, no way they throw the dice in a case of this profile. Should be fun.

Is Bonds being indicted by the same federal organization that indicted Vick? If so, I remember they had like a 97% conviction rate.