Gee!

Rockies have 10 days to trade, release or outright Finley to minors
Associated Press

Updated: June 5, 2007, 1:26 PM ET


DENVER -- The Colorado Rockies designated outfielder Steve Finley for assignment and called up Sean Barker from Triple-A Colorado Springs.

The club said Barker, also an outfielder, could play Tuesday night when the Rockies play the Houston Astros at Coors Field.

Finley, 42, hit .181 with one home run and two RBIs in 43 games. He is a two-time All-Star (1997 and 2000) and five-time Gold Glove Award winner (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2004). He was the oldest player in Rockies history.

The club has 10 days to trade, release or outright Finley to the minors.

Barker, 27, hit .333 with five home runs for Colorado Springs. The Rockies chose him in the sixth round in 2002.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

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MaoTosiFanClub

Funny how Finley's career went in the crapper after they started testing for steroids.

Nasser22

And you don't think it has anything to do with him being 42? He only really started to struggle 2 years ago after that season he only played 58 games...injury? His home run numbers were all over the place too during his career. I don't see a connection.

coyoteshockeyfan

I'm sure his age has nothing to do with it.

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Ryanwb

He's a senior citizen for Yoda's sake

Nasser22

And to add on to his age, it's not like he really dropped off either. He had a few 30 homer run seasons, a few in the 20's and now has gradually dropped and he had some bad home run seasons in between.

MaoTosiFanClub

Finley didn't play 58 games in 2004, he played 162 as a member of the DBacks and Dodgers at the age of 39. Finley also hit 36 HR's that year, an amount at that age puts him in the company of exactly five players: Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Frank Thomas, and Hank Aaron. Who exactly of that handful of HOF's and known steroid users does not fit?

It's also worth noting that the following offseason Selig enacted the stiffer steroid testing and punishment policies and since then Finley played less than 140 games for the first time since 1994. And in one offseason he magically transformed from one of the best hiting CF's in baseball to one of if not the worst.

Nasser22

My mistake, but the years before he hit 14, 25, 22, and if he would've played more games the next year he would've hit around 28 or 29. Looking at his stats he's went up and down in his home runs a lot throughout his career. I don't think he took steroids unless it was for 1 year only. He may have though, it seems a lot of players did so I don't really care anymore. The shock after first finding out about it is gone.

coyoteshockeyfan

Steroids were tested for with penalties in 2004.

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