Nope, never argued that they were a good team. Only said that the middle of their line-up that year was likely better than what the Rangers will be trotting out this season (which isn't really arguable unless you want to completely ignore numbers). Although, I re-iterate that line-up protection is irrelevant because nobody has pitched around Sosa since his second to last year in Chicago.
And Sosa was as big a part of the birds' failure in 2005 as anybody. Certainly there were others, but with the possible exception of Sidney Ponson, it is impossible to argue that anybody on that team had a worse season than he did.
The good start he got off to that year was a .780 OPS in April (still well below the league average for RFers). It was down to .620 overall by the end of May. (And his 35 HRs were 3 years ago, not 2).
With a minor league deal, it's absolutely no risk to the rangers, so I don't fault them unless they actually put him on the team. I just see it as a low risk/low reward. Aging players with slowing hands don't magically start turning on big league fastballs again.

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