On a Sunday afternoon when college basketball is not on my list of exciting things to watch, I flipped through the channels and came to ESPN Classic's telecast of a 1997 game between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays. Watching old games that already happened and Spring Training games are boring to me because they don't mean anything. Only the new season's games will mean anything at this point. But Toronto had Roger Clemens pitching against his old team which kept my interest for about ten minutes. After those ten minutes were up and much later after I had moved to the golf telecast, for some reason, I couldn't get Tilson Brito out of my head.

Okay, you probably think the Fan has lost it. Who the heck is Tilson Brito? I know, I asked the same question. Who the heck is Tilson Brito? The reason Mr. Brito stuck in my head was because I never heard of him. I'm a huge fan of the game and follow the box scores faithfully and have for thirty years. There are very few players that I've never heard of. That's why Tilson Brito stuck in my head. Because he never did before. How did I miss this guy?

I could use the excuse that he only played in MLB for two years (1996, 1997) but those were the dark years before cable and all I had to watch were the Toronto Blue Jay games on Canadian television (which comes in remarkably clear in the state of Maine). But this guy played for the Blue Jays!! How did I miss him?

I could use the excuse that he only batted 252 times in his career and ended up with a lackluster .238 batting average. I could say that it was a dark time in my life and I don't remember much of anything during that period. But I don't forget players and this guy just found a way to escape my notice completely.

Tilson Brito. I had to know more about this guy. It's sort of like when you are watching Survivor and Jeff doesn't show you the last vote because somebody already got voted out. I had to know what else was in that container. So here is what I found out about Tilson Brito.

First off, his full name is Tilson Brito Jimenez and he was born in the Dominican Republic in 1972. In 1990, the Toronto Blue Jays signed him as an undrafted free agent (when he was 18) and he rose steadily through their system until he made the big club in 1996. He only had eighty at bats that year and batted .238 but had a respectable OBP of .344. One of his few highlights of that year was when he had a bloop single off of Randy Johnson in one of Johnson's spectacular two-hitters on June 2nd.

Brito started the 1997 season with Toronto but only batted .222 although he did have one four-hit game. The Blue Jays released him on August 10. The Oakland A's picked him right up and he took Jose Canseco's spot on the A's roster when Canseco went down with an injury. Brito did well for the A's that last month of the season and batted .283 with a couple of homers.

1997 was Brito's swan song in Major League Baseball. It was his second season and his last. For his two year experience, Brito made $266,000. Heck, in 1997, Brito made $160,000, the same as Jason Giambi did that year for the A's. Of course, Giambi has added two zeroes to that number since and Brito has continued his professional career--wherever he could find a place to play.

By 1999, Tilson Brito was playing for the Charlotte Knights in the International League. He batted .318 for the Knights with eleven homers and fifty-eight RBI. He batted .330 for most of the year but tailed off at the end of the season. The season was good enough for Brito to be given a chance by the Detroit Tigers in the 2000 season.

Brito had a good Spring Training for the Tigers and was one of the last cuts the team made. In fact, he was sent to the minors two days after going two for four with four RBI in his last game for the team.

Brito played third base for the Toledo Mud Hens that season because the shortstop was a kid named Alfonso Soriano. But Brito's season didn't end with the Mud Hens. He played in the Pan American games with the Dominican Republic team and then found time to play in the Korean league where he batted .349.

Brito surfaced again in 2002 during Spring Training for the Chicago White Sox. Again, Brito had a great spring and was one of the last three cuts that season for the White Sox.

In 2003, Tilson Brito played for the Samsung Lions in the Japanese major leagues. Word is still out what the now thirty-two year old will be doing this year.

Okay, now the Fan knows a little more about Tilson Brito but why is there any story here at all? Well, the lame story that started this post was about a player that a lifelong box score junkie missed. But the story that comes through from following Brito's history is that most of us follow the stories about players we see on ESPN or at most, those players who play for our favorite team this year. But baseball is a dream that doesn't end with a two year shot at Major League Baseball.

The game of baseball is really about a men who probably don't know too much else in life besides batting, throwing and catching a baseball. Here was another kid from the dusty ballparks of the Dominican Republic. As a teenager, he followed so many others from his country and earned a shot at the big time. Since those two years, that shot has passed some six years now and time is getting short for any others.

But Brito played on and he played anywhere he could get paid to play. Tilson Brito is a baseball player and that's what he'll do until there is nobody else will pay him to do so. There is a bittersweet tale in that telling. So who is Tilson Brito? Well...now we know.

The Fan is back from his self-imposed vacation. I wrote nearly every day for a year and needed the break. But that doesn't mean my lips haven't been getting licked with the season approaching. Pretty soon, we will be following box scores and poring over the stats. Pretty soon, this seasons surprises will show us why we love this game. Pretty soon the new team of destiny will begin its run. Pretty soon, the umpire will say play ball and the season will start and we'll have something to talk about besides steroids. I can't wait. Are you ready?

There are a couple of things to talk about tonight before making the yearly predictions. First, I will repeat that this Fan doesn't care about steroids. If the players and owners want to find a way to test to get it out of the game, fine. But it doesn't mean anything to me. You still have to hit the ball. You still have that split second to make a decision. No drugs can aid that. It just doesn't matter. Let's play ball and work something out in the background. Okay?

This Fan does not like this trend of playing MLB games outside of the continental United States (okay, I'll tolerate Toronto). Starting the season in Japan is not only silly, but it's also dangerous for the players and it puts the participating teams at a disadvantage from all that travel. Babe Ruth and players like that "barnstormed" in Japan and other places AFTER the season.

And the continuing saga of the Expos is shameful. It's great for baseball fans in Puerto Rico and Mexico to see MLB, but find them a home for crying out loud. We are turning them into the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Fix it, Baseball!


Some of the most interesting stories of the season will be (in no particular order):

- Clemens and Pettitte in Houston. These two guys will drive that team into another way of approaching the game. They are proven winners and even if their stats don't show it, they will lead this team to a new place.

- All reports are that Pat Burrell has abandoned his pull-everything-power-swing and has returned to the stroke that got him to the big leagues. It is unfair to say that last year was something that has never happened before with a player. I remember Mike Schmidt batting .198 and the Philly Faithful were ready to run him out of town. Mark McGwire hit .201 in 1991 and went back to having a pretty fair career. You have to root for Burrell to come back big this year.

- Kazuo Matsui will play shortstop for the New York Mets. Of course, it's crazy to move Jose Reyes, but what are you going to do? Matsui is the latest Japanese superstar to try to make the leap to American baseball and it will be interesting to see what he does...and exciting.

- Can Ken Griffey Jr. make it back this year after a string of injury plagued years? I really hope so. The next question is where he will be playing as it is obvious that the Reds do not want him.

- Just how good will the Red Sox be with Curt Schilling on board? They could be spectacular but that's why they play the games.

- Will San Diego and others rise off the mat with some great new talent and older talent coming back from injuries? The Dodgers and Diamondbacks don't look solid and it could be an excellent opportunity for a new team to come along and take the division. Speaking of the Diamondbacks:

- Randy Johnson appears to be his old self again and has dominated Spring Training. Is he really back? Will he hold up? It would be great to have Johnson have a great career type year to put an exclamation mark on what has been an amazing career.

- Will the Braves really lose their division? The time never seemed so right for the Phillies or someone else to break the strangle hold the Braves have enjoyed on the division for the last dozen years. And you wonder why I'm licking my lips?

- How close will Barry Bonds get to Aaron this year? How much will all this steroid talk distract him? How much does he have left?

- How good will Josh Beckett be? Can he capture what he did in the World Series for an entire season? Will Dontrelle Willis be Vida Blue and have a productive career or will he be another Mark Fidrych? He sure did seem to lose steam at the end of last season.

- Will the Tigers, Devil Rays, Reds, Pirates, Rangers and Brewers be any better this year? The Tigers can't be any worse. The Devil Rays and Rangers should be better. The Pirates are even money and the Reds and Brewers have no chance. But that's what they said about Kansas City last year.

- Will the Orioles and Blue Jays make a big leap this year? They certainly seem to have improved themselves.

- What kind of year will Garciaparra have this year? And the same for A-Rod? How much will the distractions of this past off-season affect them? Will Garciaparra get off swinging at the first pitch and grounding to the shortstop?

- Will Buck Showalter be as patient with Alfonso Soriano as Joe Torre was? Will Showalter put up with those periods where Soriano can't stop swinging at any pitch that doesn't fly into the seats?

- How much will Mike Piazza hurt the Mets at first base? This underrated position could be a big factor in what kind of year the Mets have.

There is so much to talk about. I'm glad to be back and I'm ready to go. I hope you come along with me for a great season.

The Fan's juices are starting to flow. Spring Training is here. The Alex Rodriguez trade and Greg Maddux signing have kept baseball in the news. Gammons is writing again and some genuine controversy swirls around the game. Ah! Isn't Spring a wonderful thing?

Let's start with the controversies. First, talk of steroids blew up further today as Turk Wendell and teammate Denny Neagle accused Barry Bonds of taking steroids. Bonds of course responded that those pitchers should accuse him to his face. Bonds has a point as in most arenas in life, such accusations would be grounds for slander. Jason Giambi's name also came up. What good do those pitchers do the game by coming out with such statements?

Dusty Baker makes a good point in that such speculation leads to a kind of McCarthyism where accusations become more viable than actual proof. There is still the ideal that a player is innocent until proven guilty floating around in the air somewhere. Unfortunately, it is not floating in the thin Colorado air where Neagle and Wendell pitch.

The accusations made by Neagle and Wendell also smell a bit since they were made by pitchers about batters. The two are already anathema to each other. The pitchers point out that Giambi and Bonds now have super human bodies. It is possible to work hard in the gym and get that kind of body. But why didn't they point at a pitcher? Schilling is much more buff than he used to be. Would that make him a suspect? The whole thing smells until proof is offered concretely. Until then, this is a non-story until someone can explain how much difference steroids can make hitting a 99 mile per hour fastball.

The other scandal that broke today was reports that the Seligs raked in high salaries while crying poverty and begging for funds for a new stadium. The Fan is the biggest anti-fan of Bud Selig on earth. The man is the anti-Christ of baseball. Yet, this, along with the steroid flap is a non-story. So what if the owners and executives made money? How is that different than what goes on in business? What does Steinbrenner make?

Justice in business is determined by the investors and customers of that business. The Seligs haven't a clue on how to bring a winner to Milwaukee. That lack of baseball savvy will lead to a lower price for the team when they manage to find a buyer. Until then, their losing ways lead to less fans in the seats and less demand for their televised product. Let them make what they want. Their payment is lost investment and huge losses while countless fans stay away in disgust.

By the way, have you ever noticed how much Bud Selig looks like Bill Gates? Have you ever seen them together?

There is a lot of other baseball stuff to talk about. A post is building on how intelligent it is for the Cubs to invest three years in Greg Maddux or the Tigers to invest four years in Ivan Rodriguez. There will be a lot to talk about the divisions and how the teams shake out this year. All of the teams are currently tied for first place. Over three hundred players are with new teams. Spring is the best! And I can't wait to share it with you.

The Fan was taking a little break before Spring Training and during a heavy work schedule. But, the blockbuster deal between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers shortened that vacation. In an out of the blue and amazing development, Alex Rodriguez is going to play third base for the Yankees and Alfonso Soriano will play for the Texas Rangers.

The trade comes as a complete surprise to the baseball world as the Rangers just announced A-Rod as their team captain a couple of weeks ago. A sure sign that the team was resigned to playing Rodriguez the rest of his contract life. The trade is such a good one for the Yankees that no one is yet asking who will play second base for the Yankees.

Soriano was great in flashes. In fact, his flashes were spectacular. But his flashes created a hit or miss situation. And his missed the entire post-season for the Yankees last year. In what had to be demoralizing for his teammates, Soriano would swing at anything with runners on base in the World Series and the Marlins pitchers made him look stupid. A-Rod has much more control in his game and will be a better fielder too.

Alex Rodriguez has averaged 124 runs scored, 121 RBI, 42 homers, 34 doubles and 186 hits in his last eight years. That's as close to a hitting machine as you can find. Will Yankee Stadium be a hindrance for him with its big outfield gaps? It didn't seem to in Seattle where it was even harder to hit homeruns.

The only negative to this deal is the very real perception problem baseball continues to have where teams with money can gather the best players and those without have to scramble to make it. But the Angels and Marlins proved it can be done. Even so, the Yankees will continue to be the behemoth that the rest of America hates almost as much as the world hates America itself.

Wow. What a baseball day!

Ellis Burks is coming home where he belongs. The former Red Sox player rejoined that team today after ten years away. Burks is 39 now and well past his peak playing time but he could still be an effective hitter off the bench for the Red Sox. It was just one more great signing by a front office that seems to get this kind of thing right.

Ellis Burks was as sweet as they came when he first came up to the Red Sox in 1987. His easy gait in centerfield tracked down nearly everything hit his way. In his six years with Boston, he had three full seasons and three years of injury. The injuries soured the Red Sox who let him go his way in 1993. Red Sox fans were heartbroken.

Burks continued a career of great highlights and injury woes. But in seventeen years, he did manage to hit 351 homers and drive in 1205 runs. He also scored 1247 runs, hit 402 doubles and has a lifetime on base percentage of .364. That's a pretty good career.

Burks return to the Red Sox reminds me of Bobby Murcer's return to the Yankees at the end of his career. Murcer, like Burks was a fan favorite who when traded, broke a lot of young hearts. Murcer finished his career coming off the bench and hit a few key homers before moving up to the Yankee broadcast booth.

The similarities go further as Murcer was supposed to be the next Mickey Mantle and Burks was the next Willie Mays. But those are hard hopes to live up to and both had decent careers. Their careers didn't live up to those lofty comparisons, but they were appreciated by those who watched them play.

It's right for Ellis to come home because Ellis Burks never should have been anywhere else but Fenway Park.

The more I consider the off-season moves that have occurred so far, the one that feels the worst is the Yankees giving up Nick Johnson for Vasquez. Don't misunderstand me, the Yankees got a great pitcher. But Johnson was an important player for the Yankees.

First, Johnson is a great first baseman. I have discussed in this space many times how important a first baseman is for an infield. Secondly, there is no way in baseball heaven that Giambi will be able to play first base every day for the Yankees. As also mentioned in this column, Giambi is in that danger zone of being a big player in a time bomb of a body. Coming into his ninth season, Giambi is entering borrowed time for a big man playing a wear and tear kind of game.

Secondly, Johnson was rare in the Yankee lineup as someone who could put the ball in play and take a hundred walks. It takes baserunners clogging the bases to cause pitchers trouble. The Yankees have a great lineup on paper, but they strike out too much. Jeter struck out 88 times in less than 500 at bats. Soriano struck out 130 times. Giambi struck you 140 times. Posada struck out 110 times. This is a team that needs baserunner to force a pitcher to throw strikes.

The Yankees would have been much better off trading Soriano who gets into funks where he will swing at anything and is an easy out. Johnson had more discipline and if he stays healthy will have a break out year with Montreal.

And have you looked at the Yankees roster? Their bench is dreadful. Tony Clark? Enrique Wilson? Miguel Cairo? *Patooey* And I don't like Kenny Lofton on this team at all. He's never been the same since hurting his shoulder in the post season a few years ago. He's a 37 year old "speedster" who doesn't fit.

The Yankees have made a mistake the past few years trading all of their good young talent. A team needs to replenish a part of itself from within as much as without and their farm system has nothing left. Their mid-season acquisitions will be much harder from here on out.

The Red Sox had the right formula for building a team last year and a bit more pitching and they would have won it all. A long season needs a bench full of players that can get the job done. I don't see that with the Yankees. It could be a bumpy year in the Bronx.

Sometimes in life, you just make the wrong decision. I should have said, "Yes," when Julie's friend asked me if I liked her in the 7th Grade. I should have trusted my talent and tried out for sports in High School. Decisions change a life completely sometimes. Such a decision was made by Drew Henson when he left his senior year as the Michigan Wolverine's star quarterback to grab a big bonus by the Yankees as their next superstar.

Of course, Drew still got the money, but he wasn't cut out for baseball. He struggled in three years of minor league ball and went one for eight in his only major league experience. That one hit was the most expensive in Yankee history. But even though Henson got the money, he didn't get the fame and who knows what would have happened in the NFL.

Drew Henson was an automatic first round choice in the NFL if he had stayed his senior year. After all, Tom Brady was his backup! That's how good a quarterback he was. Now after three years of banging around in the minors, he gets to try out in the Houston Texans camp (they hold his football rights but have another quarterback named Carr). Will his skills still be there? It's definitely and iffy proposition after being away for three years. Look at all that seasoning he missed.

Henson's decision shows just how difficult it is to be a major league baseball player. He had all the tools. Joe Torre said he was going to be a superstar. But you have to go out and do it and he never could. In his last minor league season, he struck out 122 times and made 28 errors at third base. That's what I call stinking up the place.

Dion Sanders tried baseball with small success in brief flashes, but ultimately, he was ordinary at best. Bo Jackson came the closest to being a star in baseball as he was in football. But then, Bo was the best athlete I ever saw. He could do everything. A hip replacement slowed him down and then soon out.

Henson wasn't nearly as good as Dion and he was about as bad or worse than Michael Jordan in Jordan's aborted attempt to play baseball. A commercial during the Super Bowl last night made fun of baseball as a boring game. Of course, we fans know that's a cheap shot. It's a different game than football. We'll give you that.

Baseball, more than any other big time sport is about doing a bunch of small things well. It's not about being the fastest or strongest. It's about a thousand motor skills done to perfection. Some people like Derek Jeter do them all well. The Drew Hensons, Dion Sanders and Michael Jordans of the world found out how hard it was to do even a few of them.

Drew Henson had a decision to make and he made it. He followed his heart. You can't blame him for that. He made some good money doing it. But did he give up a chance at football superstardom? Time will tell. But if so, he's lost three years that he'll never get back. Hey, at least he got eight at bats in the big leagues.

Dean Palmer Retires

Dean Palmer retired today. Who? The Tigers' third baseman who had only played 87 games in the past three years due to injury, used to be a pretty good slugger and a good third baseman. Palmer hurt his neck again and just came to the conclusion that he couldn't stay healthy enough to play anymore. Palmer is 35.

Palmer had some very good years with pretty bad teams in his career with Texas, Kansas City and Detroit. Palmer hit over 25 homers six times in his career and over thirty four times. In his best years, he hit 38 homers twice. He also drove in over a hundred runs four times in his career and just missed it another year.

Dean Palmer's two weaknesses were strikeouts and injuries. Palmer struck out 1332 times in 1357 games and his strikeout average was higher than his lifetime batting average (.271 to .251). Injuries also took a toll as he missed most of the '94, '95, '97, '01, '02 and 2003 seasons limiting his overall value as a player.

He did seem to kill the Red Sox and the Yankees but he will be another one of those players who will fade out of the game without much notice and fanfare. Few will remember. That has been baseball throughout its history. The only difference now is that a player like Palmer fades away a mult-millionaire.

The Orioles Sign Mora to Multi-Year Contract

It was nice to see that the Orioles signed Melvin Mora to a multi-year deal. Mora came into his own last year and for half a year--before he came down with an injury--he was one of the best players in baseball and spent a long time at the top of the batting charts.

The only downside for Mora is that it took him a long time to put it together. He showed flashes of brilliance with the Mets but never with consistency. Now he is 32 and could be another Alex Gonzalez--a late bloomer.

In a very interesting move, the Texas Rangers made Alex Rodriguez their team captain. Only a month after the team tried to unload him in the most talked about non-trade in history, they have now asked him to lead their players on and off the field. The move seems tinged with public relations butt-covering except that Buck Showalter's last captain was Don Mattingly--a pretty good track record.

What we will never know is how the move will be perceived by his fellow players, some of whom it was reported wanted him to go. There is always a fine line the best athlete on campus walks. Most envy him and the others fawn on him. Rodriguez has probably experienced both in spades. Neither typical reaction makes you a lot of friends.

The one thing on the side of Alex Rogriguez: He plays hard every day and he is consistent in his efforts on the field. He is not only the best hitting shortstop in the league, he has also made himself the best fielder. That takes hard work and dedication to your craft which has to impress even his most jaded teammate.

It will be interesting, but not for us. We only look from the outside in and have to decide after it's all over on whether or not to believe the inevitable auto-biography.


In another interesting story, a Cleveland Indians' minor league player from Japan, who has a good chance to make the majors this season, admitted to appearing in a gay porn video while in college in Japan. First, it's still too bad that we have to qualify the porn video by its category and second, it's sad that teams in his own country shunned him after it was known what he had done.

The refreshing part of this story is that the young man has been up front about his "acting" and acknowledges it to be a mistake. What is also refreshing is that the Indians have given him a chance and that players on his minor league teams have been supportive and accepting of him. Maybe we are making some strides in America yet.

The player says he is straight and made the movie for money. Well, that's been done before. He didn't hurt anyone and the one movie shouldn't have any bearing on what type of player or chance he will be given in the major leagues. I'm going to root for the kid and this Fan doesn't envy the abuse he will suffer at the hand of some fans.

Yes, middle-aged baseball fans, it's a sad day. Jesse Orosco retired today after 24 years in MLB. The career appearance leader is 46 years old and just couldn't get himself to put in the work needed to go for one more year. Who can blame him? A quarter of a century is a long time to pitch in the best baseball game on the planet.

Jesse Orosco is the last of my peers to go in baseball. It is official now that I am older than all the players that play baseball. As long as Orosco and Rickey Henderson before him hung in there, I could still claim some peerage with the players. After all, Orosco was born one year after me. The game now is about players who were born after Orosco started pitching in the majors in 1979. Most players now were born after I grew up.

There are stages in being a Fan of this great game. As a youngster, you play little league or PAL and dream of growing up to play in the majors. You may be lucky enough as I was to go to a half a dozen games a year at Yankee Stadium. You can smell the grass, you can see the players doing a more grown up version of what you do in little league and you dream.

You put your oiled glove--tied with string caressed around a baseball--under your mattress to create the perfect pocket. Your baseball glove is the most important thing you own. You bang the mud out of your kid cleats like the big boys do. You imitate their baseball stance.

Mine was just like Bobby Murcer when I batted left-handed, Brooks Robinson when I batted right handed. I could mimic Willie McCovey's preparatory swings. I ran the bases like the wind.

Then you grow up and play softball and you make the occasional diving catch or hit the game winning hit and you feel a kinship with those on the field. That could have been me if I worked harder and wanted it more. That could have been me hitting a baseball over the Green Monster.

The players you root for are your age and came from the same places you did. You might have gone to high school or college with one of them. You can relate to them and have empathy. You know what it's like to bail out on a big curveball. Your muscles still have those memories. But you expect more because they became what you dreamed about and you didn't.

Money news creeps into the game and you get angry because they have the dream and you're working in a factory or going to church in a Ford Tempo. Just play the game you spoiled little tripe! You expect them to hustle, care, succeed and then give back to the next generation of kids. You don't like it when you hear of a player snubbing the autographs or beat writers.

And then you hit the next level when people like Jesse Orosco retire. For the generation just preceding mine, their level began when Nolan Ryan retired. The game has passed you by. Your muscles no longer have memories. My son is as old as Orosco's career and I haven't played catch with him in six years. I haven't thrown a baseball in six years. Even the random snowballs shoot twenty feet off target. I used to be able to hit the first baseman's mitt from any angle at second, short or third. I could pick it and I could throw it accurately. Now I can't hit a stop sign with a snowball.

Ah Jesse! Why did you have two quit? You were all we had left. Now I am a post generational fan. My career is making me more comfortable so I can buy a car like the kid who just signed the bonus after being drafted. I just made in my career of two dozen and more years what Soriano signed for yesterday for one year.

It is an edgier fandom. It is a frustrated time of watching and rooting. The players that really love the game like Jeter and Jason Varitek are what still make it worth watching and rooting. Besides, it's in my blood. After strikes and stupidity and a decade of Bumbling Bud Selig, I love this game more than ever. But it was still a little sweeter before Jesse Orosco retired and a little more bittersweet now. Adios, Jesse. I still wish you hadn't beat the Red Sox in 1986.

Are the Tigers crazy? Ivan Rodriguez for four years at $40 million? Sure, Rodriguez has maybe two top years in him--unless he gets hurt again like he was in his last couple of years in Texas. But to seriously consider Rodriguez at four years is stretching history. Rodriguez is right at that age when great catchers start to fade from glory. Johnny Bench comes to my mind as a prime example.

It's great that Detroit is serious about turning their franchise around and if they threw $20 million at one of the best catchers who has ever played, great. But four years is financial suicide as there is no way that Rodriguez will last that long as a prime catcher. And do you want to pay $20 million for two years of a gap hitting first baseman? Maybe, but not with my money.

Greg Maddux is in the same category. He wants one more long term deal. But why is there any hope that he has more than one or two decent seasons left in him? Be smart, Greg. Take a one year deal and the $10 million and run with it.

Recent signings show a more stable reality as the highly talented Derrek Lee signed with the Cubs for $6.9 million. As the Fan has stated here before, good defense needs a good first baseman. Lee is one of the best so don't be surprised with the infield defense in Chicaco and a downgrade in the fielding and higher ERAs in Florida.

The Dodgers signed Adrian Beltre for one year at $5 million, a modest $1.3 million dollar raise. Beltre is only 24 and is still a big talent potential, but his average has dipped every year and he doesn't seem to be taking it to the next level. The Dodgers were smart to only offer a year's contract.

Kazuhiro Sasaki, the Mariner's closer announced that he will return to Japan and not pitch for Seattle this season. Although a surprise, you have to wonder how many more oriental players will follow him. It has to be terribly hard to move to a foreign culture, not knowing the language and trying to play in those circumstances. Much respect should go to him as he turned down $9.5 million to go back home and stay with his family. Good luck to you Kaz and thanks for the good memories.

Symmetry is always a beautiful thing. When life comes full circle or wrongs get righted, a sense of peace tends to invade a little of our chaotic lives. Today's headlines include two pitchers who may come full circle and come home.

One is in the bag. Sidney Ponson came home to the Orioles and signed a three year contract to pitch for the team. The Orioles have done much to strengthen their lineup and now they have made a great step to address pitching. And Ponson is just coming into his own.

Only twenty-seven years old, Ponson was never drafted and is still learning his craft. He made great strides and had his best year so far this past season. The Giants made the right deal and borrowed him for a few months, but now that Ponson had a choice to go anywhere he wanted, he came home. That speaks well of him and the team for signing him.

The other headline isn't a done deal, but as a Fan, I hope it happens. The Cubs are wining and dining Greg Maddux and offered him a two year contract to come home. What a perfect place for Maddux to pick up his three hundredth win--where he started to become the Hall of Fame pitcher that he is.

Maddux was drafted by the Cubs and they developed him. In his seven years with the Cubs, Maddux had a 92-75 record for some really bad teams. Cub fans were crushed when their star left and ended up in Atlanta. There must have been a lot of teeth gnashing as their former star had great year after year for the Braves.

And now Maddux may go home and finish his career there. I hope he does. Symmetry. It's a beautiful thing.

If you have been a regular reader at the Fan's place, then you would know the twenty year fan relationship I have had with Roger Clemens. As a transplanted Yankee fan from New Jersey who moved to first New Hampshire and then Maine, Clemens started his career with the Red Sox at that same time. His early career coincided with the Fan becoming the world's only Yankee AND Red Sox fan.

Then Clemens moved on to Toronto and that was okay too. Living in New England, our cable providers carry Canadian channels so I got to watch Roger pitch up north for the dreaded Blue Jays. All New Englanders hate the Blue Jays almost as much as they do the Yankees. But I was angry when the Red Sox gave up on Clemens and said he was past his prime. And I cheered every time he went in to Boston to win another game on those great back-to-back Cy Young Award, twenty-win seasons.

And then one of the best pitchers that ever lived went to the Yankees. Certainly, I was excited by that. One never knew whether or not he would hold up, but he had a great Yankee career and it was an emotional moment for me when Clemens reached his milestones.

I was ready to say goodbye at the end of last season. 310 wins, over 4000 strikeouts, he finished his twentieth season at 17-9! How good is that. And he was great in the playoffs and World Series. But the Yankees didn't win it and the Marlins did. Still, it was a great way to end a career.

Somehow, when Andy Pettitte signed with the Astros (A terrible blow to the Bronx cheering section), the thoughts first appeared that maybe Clemens would join his friend there. And you know what? It's okay. He reached his milestones as a Yankee. One of the greatest pitchers of all time pitched his last Yankee game to a gem and I cried when he got the standing ovation (even from his opposing players).

He did all that with the Yankees. He won his last Cy Young with the Yankees. He reached 300 wins with the Yankees. His last game in that great uniform was brilliant and a fitting farewell. And that was okay.

Now he is home and can spend time with his family and pitch one more year with his friend Andy. Good for him and good for baseball. I just hope he doesn't get rapped around in that band box of a stadium. I hope you win twenty, Roger, and lead your team to the World Series. I'll be watching just like always.

The California Angels are clearly not going to be out done by the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Phillies this post season. Today they signed Vladimir Guerrero to a five year contract (contingent on him passing a physical) for a reported $70 million. Guerrero is only twenty-seven years old and was the most talented player on the free agent market.

There is some risk to the deal as Guerrero missed time last year for the first time in his career with back problems. Having watched a bad back end Don Mattingly's great seasons (and his career), it's always something to think about. However, Mattingly's problems were back spasms and not a herniated disc, which can be dealt with.

Guerrero never really received the press he deserved because he played for the Expos and was watched by no one. But the stats in his young career are impressive. Here are his averages for the past six years, and keep in mind that he only played 112 games last year:

Average: .327
OBP: .400
Hits: 195
Homers: 37
RBI: 110
Runs: 99
Doubles: 37
Stolen Bases: 20
Outfield Assists: 13

Vladimir can do it all and now that he will be on natural grass and in a stable environment, he could blossom even further as he is entering the peak years of his career. This is a great pickup for the Angels IF the outfielder is healthy.

The Angels have not been shy this off season and Guerrero caps the signings of Bartolo Colon, Jose Guillen (who had a "coming of age" year last year) and Kelvim Escobar. If all goes as expected, the Angel outfield of Guerrero, Garrett Anderson and Guillen is powerful, athletic and still fairly young.

How about this lineup? Eckstein, Erstad, Guerrero, Anderson, Glaus, Guillen, Salmon, Molina and Adam Kennedy. Whoah! That's a great lineup. The Angels starters? Ramon Ortiz, Bartolo Colon, Jarred Washburn, Kelvim Escobar and then John Lackey or Aaron Sele. The Bullpen? Percival, Weber, Shields and Rodriguez. Wow! On paper, this team becomes the team to beat in the AL West next year.


Leave it to my wife to come up with some players I missed on my Mo Vaughn post:

Mark McGwire: Eleven healthy seasons
Jason Giambi: Coming into his ninth season

Both the above players have had similar knee tendonitis. McGwire's finished his career. What will happen with Giambi? According to my formula, Giambi is coming up on borrowed time.

It was great to read about two old guys finding a home this past week--one, old by baseball standards, and one by any standard. Rafael Palmeiro will bring back his Hall of Fame career to the Baltimore Orioles and Don Zimmer landed with the Devil Rays as an advisor. Good for them and good for baseball!

Speaking of the Orioles and lineups, check this one out: Brian Roberts, Luis Matos, Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, Melvin Mora, Jay Gibbons, Rafael Palmeiro, David Segui and Larry Bigbee. That's a great lineup. Now, if they can get Ponson back and get some pitching?

Mo Vaughn announced today that he would not play in 2004 and probably not 2005 either. The first base slugger fell victim to an arthritic knee. The announcement, while short of a retirement statement, could mean the end for Vaughn's career. Vaughn had a terrific and productive career and cut a huge and imposing figure at the plate. The Fan would like to propose in a mini-thesis that there have been many Vaughn-like players in baseball history and unfortunately, they have a short shelf life.

The list presented here should give pause to all General Managers who seek to sign future Mo Vaughns to long term contracts. First, let's define "short shelf life": These are good or great players whose effectiveness lasted from ten to thirteen years:

Mo Vaughn - Ten effective to great years
Kent Hrbek - Twelve effective to great years
Willie Horton - Thirteen effective years (and one great one)
John Mayberry - Ten effective to very good years
George Scott - Twelve effective to very good years
Frank Howard - Twelve very good to great years
Boog Powell - Eleven effective to good years
Cecil Fielder - Eleven pro seasons until he declined (counting both Japan and USA)
Jose Canseco - Thirteen effective to good to great seasons
John Kruk - Eight effective to very good years

My thesis also considers that the ponderous size of these players limited their bodies the ability to maintain an effective level for a long period of time. The effect shortened their careers and though some of these players were among the best in their times for a short season, they lacked the ability to last long enough to give them Hall of Fame careers.

And of the Hall of Famers, the interesting pattern persists:
- Harmon Killebrew stayed in baseball for a long time, but he had thirteen great years. After those years, his skills and statistics diminished.
- Frank Robinson was imposing at the plate and had a long Hall of Fame career, but his stats sharply decline after fourteen excellent seasons.

Now I will be the first to admit that the flaw in my thesis is that I can't tell you what age the above players made it to the majors, which would of course affect how long they stayed around. But it seems to me that big, talented, imposing players tend to make it to the majors earlier than some others. I don't remember any of the above players being the "bang around the minors" type of player.

What about big imposing pitchers? Lee Smith? Fourteen seasons. Don Drysdale? Twelve seasons. Bob Veale? Seven seasons. Jose Mesa? Thirteen good seasons. There are more examples I'm sure, but CSI will be on soon.

What the history above would tell me is that if I was considering free agents or a trade to make and it was a big, raw-boned type of player, I would go for it up until the eighth season and then start making one year offers with incentives. It's a shame that these very good to excellent players don't hold up for very long, but their bodies just aren't made to take that many years of wear and tear.

Just ask the Mets.

Two interesting deals went down this week in Major League Baseball. First, the Arizona Diamondbacks signed Roberto Alomar for one year at $1 million. Next, the Kansas City Royals signed Juan Gonzalez for one year at $4.5 million. The deals are interesting because they begin to show the new reality in free agent signings.

Roberto Alomar has burned his two former teams (the Mets and White Sox) the past two seasons with terrible years. In a Yahoo article that describes the deal, Alomar mentions that he is in better shape than in the previous two seasons. Of course, the hidden admission in Alomar's words are that he showed up the past two season in less than great shape.

Alomar, to me, typifies the type of player who got comfortable after years of making big money. Probably the most talented second basemen to ever play the game, Alomar could use a great year to cement his Hall of Fame status. He needs 321 hits for 3000 and could be a terrific pickup for the Diamondbacks who now have a very interesting team.

Juan Gonzalez has always been an enigma. A hugely talented player, Gonzalez has earned a reputation for lack of effort and a penchant for injuries. Personally, I think Juan has had a bad rap, but Kansas City basically commits what is small change today for one of the best hitters of our times. Gonzalez is only 34 and already has 421 homers in his career. Gonzalez could really blossom again playing for Tony Pena and I think this is a great deal for Pena's team.

The two signings show that major league teams are starting to consider their signings carefully. And some former marquee players are starting to realize that you have to play hard and put up the numbers if you want to continue to earn big paychecks. Both of those realities are very good signs for Major League Baseball and I will be rooting for those teams and those two formerly great ballplayers.

Pete Rose finally admitted to betting on baseball. The collective people of the world look at each other and say, "Well, duh." The only person who never seemed to get the truth was Pete Rose. We all knew he bet on baseball. We all knew he was addicted to gambling and that the addiction ruined his life in baseball. Now he has said the magic words. Should it matter that he did so?

I have stated before in this space my opinion of Pete Rose and my opinion hasn't changed with his new-found emotional strength to admit what he did. Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame. His actions on the field speak louder than all that's happened off the field. But Pete Rose should never step on the MLB field again in any kind of official manner.

What Pete Rose has done is spend years lying to us. But he wasn't just lying to us, he was lying to himself and all the other players he played with, coached and managed. He thought for years that the big lie would wear us down and that after a while, we would soften our stance and forgive him what he never gave us a chance to forgive. Even now, he isn't asking for forgiveness or showing contriteness. He is simply saying, "Yeah, okay...so I bet on some games."

His new book is called "Prison Without Bars." Even the name of the book pushes for our forgiveness. The truth he doesn't get is that he fastened each one of those prison walls and locked his own key. Can anyone tell me what is different between Pete Rose and Art Schlichter? You remember Art Schlichter? He was the Colts quarterback who threw his life away because of his gambling addiction. The only difference between the two is that Rose's career was over before people knew what he was doing. Schlichter's career was just starting.

But Schlichter's sad case demonstrates that gambling addictions don't go away. The ex-quarterback's life has been like a bad B-movie since he left football. Can anyone prove that Pete Rose hasn't placed a bet in the years since he's been away from baseball? Can anyone unconvince me that the only reason he is admitting this now is because he only has two more years to be eligible for the Hall of Fame?

I stand where I stood before the admission. Let him into the Hall of Fame, but never again on the baseball fields in this great sport. And one more thing, if Bud Selig allows Rose to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, he should also reinstate "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who has a much more compelling reason to be there than Rose.

The two men who should gain election in the Hall of Fame, without all the hoopla are Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor. Some will downplay Eckersley's career, but his career did two things. First, he put up the numbers: He won 197 games (three less than David Wells) and he saved 390 games. By my math, that means that Eckersley had a hand in 594 wins in his career.

Secondly, Eckersley changed the game and that alone should put him in the Hall of Fame. Before Eckersley, pitchers like Sutter and Gossage and Rollie Fingers pitched several innings a game and played their whole careers as relievers. By the way, all three of those pitchers should be in the Hall of Fame and only one is.

Since the Eckersley years, the closer is a one inning specialist and his career led to relievers like Tom Gordan, John Smoltz, Kevin Foulke, Jason Isringhausen and before them, Dave Righetti and Tom Henke. Anyone who changes the game belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Molitor should be a no-brainer. The lame argument that he spent a lot of time as a DH doesn't hold up in that he wasn't a lumbering guy at the end of his career banging homeruns and limping around the diamond. He stole fifty bases after the age of forty. Molitor didn't go out with a whimper. He batted .341, .305 and .281 the last three years of his career. He stole 504 bases in his career. He hit 605 doubles, 114 triples and 234 homers to go along with his 3319 hits and .306 lifetime batting average. My case rests.

David Wells decided to go home to San Diego. Getting the final word on George Steinbrenner, Wells said that now he expected never to hear from his former Boss again. But did Wells make the right decision?

To weigh the evidence takes looking at all sides of the decision. Wells is forty years old. He's already had a great career with 200 wins and World Championships. He's not the first player to go home. He's not even the first Yankee this winter to do so. And so going home seems to make sense.

To look at the other side, David's success as a Yankee far out distances his career anywhere else. With the Yankees, Wells was 68-28 which means he won as a Yankee 71 percent of the time. With everyone else, Wells is 132-100 or a 57% success rate.

Surely, you can make the arguments that the Yankees are a perennial winner and that it's easier to be a big winner there than anywhere else. Tell that to Jeff Weaver. Also consider that Mike Mussina won 64% of his games with the mostly lowly Orioles and in three years with the Yankees has won...64% of his games. Yup. Look it up.

Sometimes there is just a relationship to a man and a place. Wells was built to pitch for the Yankees. He pitched for the team for two years, left for three and came back to pitch two more years. His record in both of those stints was an identical 34-14. To look at some more of David's statistics with the Yankees, see the comparison chart below:

1st two years 2nd two years
Innings 432.1 419.1
Hits allowed 434 452
Walks 74 65
Strikeouts 319 238
Homers allowed 61 45
ERA 3.83 3.93

Wells gave up more hits this time around, but fewer walks and kept the ball in the yard more often. Other than that, you see the picture of Yankee consistency. But what is truly remarkable is that he won 71% of his games the first two years and 71% of this games the second pair. Wells was one of the best Yankee pitchers of all times.

It's hard to blame the Yankees for not being serious about signing Wells. They offered him a minor league contract. Who can forget that he couldn't go in one of the biggest games of his career? Who knows how that series would have gone if he could have pitched? And who knows if the Padres will get what they pay for? Wells just had his second back surgery and is forty years old.

The Padres will be happy to get 200 innings out of Wells with that 56% chance of winning so who can blame them either? The Fan and all fans can't blame him Wells. Guaranteed money and being home sounds like a good deal to me. But another season at 71% might have helped a Hall of Fame consideration, no?

Yankee fans won't forget Mr. Wells. With his top button open and pitch after pitch in the strike zone, he was a favorite and memories of his perfect game and World Series triumph will last a long time.

It has been a quiet week in the baseball off season, but that is to be expected with the holiday week. When the big news of the week is that an owner fainted, it's a slow week.

The Boss did faint this week, but have no fear Yankee haters. Mr. Steinbrenner will not fade from your gun sights just yet. The big man just had too much sun or something but he's in good health. When it happened, the natural thought for fans was what impact the loss of King George would mean to the Yankees. If the Yankees could keep his money, I think the team would really take off and become the best baseball organization there is. For all his money and efforts, he short circuits his baseball men and strips them of prospects and continuity.

Isn't it amazing how the Tony Batistas of the world always seem to find a job until everyone smartens up and sees that he takes more away from a team than he adds in. Batista has hit under .250 four times in his career. He has a horrible .302 on base average for his career. He has a hundred more strikeouts in his career than homeruns. And he's never been much of a third baseman either.

But the Expos were fooled again, just like the Orioles, the Diamondbacks and the Blue Jays. Batista is a weird player who doesn't seem to try sometimes and I can't understand why anyone would want him.

On the other hand, Brian Jordan is a nice pickup for the Rangers. Jordan is a guy who has been held back by injuries in his career because he plays like a madman. But his play is inspirational and seems just the ticket for the Rangers who have been through some much surrealism this season.

I like the Red Sox pickup of Pokey Reese. The man is a wizard at second base and if he can have a career year and hit .300, look out A.L. East!

One more note from the perspective of a fan. I don't want Kenny Lofton to win the centerfield job in New York. He has always seemed like another player who turns it on and off at will and I don't think he adds as much as he detracts. There is a reason why his teams have never received the championship ring. And to throw six million at a guy who is at the end of his career is just plain stupid. Give me a gimpy Bernie Williams over Lofton any day of the week.

The Baltimore Orioles are giving their fans a present for Christmas: Hope. After signing Miguel Tejada and now Javy Lopez, the Orioles are tooling for success. Now they are setting their sights for Vladimir Guerrero.

The Orioles finished in fourth place in the AL East for six straight seasons. They brought in Mike Hargrove and the human rain delay was to be the team's salvation. But that salvation was delayed as well by bad personnel decisions and worse pitching. The first thing that the Orioles did was to bring in Lee Mazzilli. Mazzilli should be a breath of fresh air. But nice air is nothing without the horses.

General Manager, Mike Flanagan has brought in the horses. When you add Tejada and Lopez to Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora, Jay Gibbons and Luis Matos, you've got a pretty serious lineup. The only question with Javy Lopez is his health and whether or not 2003 was a career season for the slugging catcher. $22.5 million is a lot to invest in a 33 year old catcher.

So far, Flanagan hasn't addressed the starting pitching. In fact, the pitching has seemed to step backwards with the release of Jason Johnson and Damion Moss, who was the big part of the Sidney Ponson deal with San Francisco last year. I look at the team's roster and see a bunch of nobodies. Clearly, Flanagan needs at least two stud pitchers.

It is also clear that every team in the AL East has improved from the Yankees on down to Tampa Bay. Can the Orioles climb any higher than the top three this year?

In either case, Oriole fans have been quiet in their wait for some progress and continue to support their team well. It should be a happy holiday as there should be some more balls flying around Camden Yards.

So the A-Rod for Manny trade is dead. For now. When the trade was just speculation, we could all pass it off as a rumor. But now that it's been revealed that the union got involved and killed the deal, we all know it was very real and close to happening. Now what happens to the teams and the players involved in the non-trade?

Actually, it was Bud Selig who killed the deal. He set a deadline for the madness to happen and when the union stepped in, he said that it was over. This was one time where I actually agreed with the commissioner, which proves that there is a first time for everything.

But now that the deal is dead, what happens to those players involved. A-Rod has been unseemly in his attempts to get out of Texas. The players there are tired of it and want him out of there. The Rangers can't go out and get great pitching because too much money is tied up in a player who doesn't want to be there. How chilly is that locker room going to be?

Manny Ramirez is just as unwanted as A-Rod by his team. The Red Sox tried earlier this season to give him away and no one would take him. This is a guy with a .300+ batting average, a gazillion homers and RBI and nobody wants him. How are the Red Sox players and management going to deal with him now that he is staying? How is he going to deal with them? Manny just doesn't seem like that bad a guy. Maybe if he can commit to playing 100% all the time things would change.

What about Nomar Garciaparra. He is a superstar. He is the local hero. This is the team he wants to play for. He is always compared in the top four with A-Rod, Jeter and Tejada. Now his team attempted to discard him as the Red Sox tried to go with who they thought was better. Why did that happen? Was it really because Garciaparra turned down an offer that the Red Sox thought was fair? My gut tells me know. My gut tells me it was all those lame at bats in the post season this past year when he popped up more than Yaz with runners on base.

I don't buy the statements by the Red Sox that Garciaparra blew it by not signing that contract. I think they see him as a batting champ who used to hit the ball all ways to every field in every clutch situation to a player who feels the need to pull everything. And why would he do that? Maybe because A-Rod hits homers and made the huge contract and the Red Sox offered him $8 million a year less?

This is ugly. This is very ugly indeed. The stomachs of Red Sox Nation must be churning right about now. At least they have the Patriots at 12-2 to keep their minds off the whole mess.

With the news of the capture of Saddam Hussein and one of the final weeks of the NFL season going on in the front pages, the MLB off season continues to percolate along. It's been a busy week and many moves occurred that will move money and talent around.

The Yankees finalized their deal basically swapping the Dodger's Kevin Brown for Jeff Weaver. Brown is a battler who knows how to pitch. But he's also 39 years old. Weaver was never going to make it in New York where he admitted to being overwhelmed. A fresh start in Los Angeles could help return him to the road to success that he seemed so certain to be on when he first came to the Yankees.

With the Dodgers' home park favoring pitchers, and with every ninth batter being the pitcher, Weaver has the chance still to be a big winner. He is still fairly young and the Dodgers certainly see something in him. New York always did too, but there was always one stupid hanging slider that followed three brilliant pitches.

The Marlins leaked a little more talent over the weekend when they traded Juan Encarnacion to the Dodgers for basically nothing. Encarnacion drove in 94 runs last year, his first full-time season. But he was a free swinger with only a .313 on base percentage. With Cabrera available for the outfield, Encarnacion should not be that big a loss to the team. Certainly, the trade is less of a loss than Ivan Rodriguez.

One of the biggest stories of the weekend was the free agent signing of Miguel Tejada by the Baltimore Orioles. The signing is a great one for the Orioles as Tejada is one of the top four shortstops in the American League. He can field, hit for power and he's driven in over a hundred runs for the last four seasons. The Orioles are going to be an impressive team this coming year. For the first half of the season last year, the Orioles were among the leaders in all offensive categories. Injuries ended that, but Tejada can't help but make them better. He is a superstar.

The Red Sox continued to strengthen themselves by signing Keith Foulke to be their closer. Acquiring Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke in one off season has to feel good for the Red Sox fans. Foulke give the Sox a real closer who saved 43 games last year and also sported a 9-1 record. That means he had a hand in 52, or half, of the team's wins. His WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched, ERA and batting average against were outstanding the last three seasons and his strikeouts per innings pitched last year was the best of his career. Now if only the Red Sox don't do something stupid like losing Garciaparra.

Two management decisions also happened this weekend--one that was good and one that was bad. George Steinbrenner signed General Manager, Brian Cashman, for another two years. Cashman is one of the best there is and has spent the Steinbrenner's money wisely.

The other was the exercising of Larry Bowa's contract by the Philidelphia Phillies. That is a terrible decision and the Fan can't understand just what the Phillies brass sees in Bowa that the rest of MLB fandom cannot. The man is a bad Billy Martin and is poison to that team. What's going to happen this year if the Phillies don't win despite having a very successful off-season.

And the surprise team of the weekend? The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The 'Rays have been busy! In separate trades, the Devil Rays acquired Jose Cruz, Jr., Geoff Blum, Rey Sanchez and Mark Hendrickson. Hendrickson could be the most exciting addition as the pitcher had a fair rookie season after leaving the NBA. The Devil Rays have finally learned from history and are filling their roster with very useful, but not expensive players.

And finally, the Mets finished a successful off season week by signing Seattle's Mike Cameron. Cameron is only thirty and now that he is out of Seattle, might revive a career of great defense and great offensive potential.

Excuse the Fan a moment while he mourns the passing of a great Yankee.



Okay. I can go on now. Andy Pettitte agreed to a three year deal with the Houston Astros today. The 31 year old, 21 game winner took less money to go to Houston. Less money means $7 million less. Knowing how much the Yankees meant to Pettitte and how much he wanted to go home, it sounds like Pettitte did what was right for him and his family.

For Yankee fans, it hurts to lose such a valuable pitcher who was a part of the great teams from 1996 on. Pettitte is a great competitor, is still in his prime and should do very well for a number of years to come. The only worry for him is that he is a fly ball pitcher in Houston's little band box. Unless Pettitte can keep hitters up the middle in the air, he could have trouble.

The Yankees are trying to answer their need with Pettitte's loss by trading for Kevin Brown. Again, the Yankees go for a star over 35. Brown had a great year and finally appeared over two years of injury. But the man is 39 years old. The only good thing for the Yankees is that it would give them a chance to end the torture that was Jeff Weaver. The man has talent, but man oh man did he stink in New York.

The worst part of the stories about Pettitte was him mentioning that he is working on his good friend, Roger Clemens to pitch one more year in Houston. I hope that doesn't happen. Clemens went out in style and on top of his game. He should leave it there. Pettitte should leave it there.

In other news, the White Sox didn't lose all their good pitchers. They signed left-hander, Mark Buehrle. Buerhrle is only 24 and already has 53 major league wins. He had an off year, but there is no reason he won't bounce back and get back to his 19 win season in 2002.

Last night was one of those nights. I was excited to report on my take of the deadline that passed Sunday and the consequences the deadline had for three great Atlanta Braves players, the Phillies and the Florida Marlins. After writing a long post, I went to post it and Blogger burped. I lost the whole thing. Disgustedly, I shut the thing down and went to bed. I'll try to keep my composure tonight.

Sunday marked the deadline for teams to offer their free agents arbitration. If the teams failed to do so, those teams cannot sign the free agents until May 1. Failing to offer arbitration usually means the teams have no intention of signing the player. The Braves made such a statement to Greg Maddux, Gary Sheffield and Javey Lopez.

Greg Maddux pitched for the Braves for eleven years. During that time, his average seasonal record was 18-8 with a 2.60 ERA. That's a pretty good run. The Braves gave up a chance to have their long time fans see Maddux reach the magical 300 win milestone in a Braves uniform. The Braves have to cut $20 million in payroll which just doesn't sound right considering their nationwide audience and long run atop the National League East.

The Braves also said goodbye to Javey Lopez and Gary Sheffield. That's 82 homers and 241 RBI of production gone from their lineup. I'm sure the Braves will remain competitive, but their reign on the NL East could come to an end. Especially with what's going on with the Phillies.

The Phillies did offer arbitration to Kevin Millwood. That means they have until December to sign him or let him go through the arbitration process. They would like to keep him at least one more year but do not want to commit to him long term. That makes sense these days where markets change. It doesn't make sense to sign a player for three years knowing that salaries have come down for two years and that player could be over priced by the end of the contract. Millwood hasn't exactly been the rock of health over his career either.

The Phillies did sign Tim Worrell who did a great job for the Giants last year closing games for their injured Robb Nen. Worrell had never been a closer and saved 38 games for the Giants. He should be a great tandem with Billy Wagner.

Bartolo Colon immediately improved the Angels' pitching staff by signing with that club. Who knows, if Colon ever gets in shape over the off season, he could become the lights out superstar that he's had the potential for his entire career. It's a risk for the Angels as there has to be a reason why Colon has bounced from team to team.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays continue their history of pursuing players nobody else wants. They offered a deal to Carl Everett today.

Everyday Eddie Guardado will no longer pitch every day for the Minnesota Twins. Guardado signed with the Mariners and should improve an already good bullpen there.


The Red Sox relationship with Nomar Garciaparra continues to get uglier. Nomar phoned in from his honeymoon with Mia Hamm to say how the trade talks rumored between the Rangers and Red Sox to swap A-Rod for Manny Ramirez. Garciaparra wants to play his whole career with the Red Sox.

It would be a big mistake for the Sox to lose Nomar and I don't know why one of the two shortstop can't play third base. Yesterday, Nomar's agent said that the trade talks are a slap in his client's face. Red Sox owner John Henry lashed back and called the agent's comments hypocritical. The agent has already turned down one high priced three year deal for Garciaparra.

This is stupid folks. Get a deal done. Too few teams have players left who started in their systems and became superstars. Nomar is one of the rare ones and should be kept at all cost--well...at a reasonable cost anyway.

Does the average Fan care much about Barry Bonds testifying before the grand jury in the BALCO case? If I am an average fan, the answer would be no. Oh sure, most of us--if not all of us--believe baseball should be protected from steroid abuse. But it's not a concern that is about the best interest of the game, it's about the best interest of the players. In a sport where so much money is involved, an athlete is not always going to make the right choice. MLB should help those players only have the right choice.

Why doesn't the average fan have much concern for the welfare and integrity of the game? Because most of us played the game at some level and understand that a hormonal boost, artificial or not, is not going to help a player hit a little white blur in a fraction of a second. Nor will it help that pitcher train his body to hit that little white rectangle called a strike zone.

The enhancements probably help in the training process and players are probably stronger, but I still don't buy that the increase of homers is a result of steroids or other enhancements. The extra homers are a result of too many mediocre sliders thrown by a thinner pitching pool. Anyone who watched the post season could see that good pitching still shuts down those artificially enhanced sluggers.

No, fans do not want steroids in baseball. But we don't want them because of Lyle Alzado and other athletes whose lives were cut short because of the price they were willing to pay to give them a perceived edge. But saying that, I am not aghast and mortified thinking the game is in mortal danger of scandal. Instead, I am appalled by the thought that some players are playing Russian Roulette with their health.


Lost in the big news of the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox moves, the Cincinnati Reds made Dave Miley their manager. Who? Miley has been in the Reds organization for twenty-four years and finished out the season last year after Boone was fired. This time he will have a chance to bring his own team into the season.

If Griffey comes back healthy along with the Reds core of other stars, he could look like a genius. More likely, the Reds will be also rans and Miley is on board to bring along young players. The Reds couldn't afford a high profile manager and instead promoted from within. Good for them and good for him. Anything has to be better than the Boone regime.

The Fan doesn't buy all the talk in the press of the Red Sox and Yankees competing against each other for headlines this off season. What you are seeing are two very good general managers who have the luxury of larger payrolls trying to better their teams. Both are after pitching first and will shore up their lineups next. But these two teams aren't the only ones working hard to improve their teams. The Phillies are also having an active off season.

The Red Sox did the expected and hired Terry Francona as the team's new manager. Francona was strongly plugged by Curt Schilling and it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that hiring Francona was part of the deal. Francona brings a lot of energy to the team and is a young former player who was a smart player. He didn't fare that well with the Phillies but a manager can't always help the deal he was dealt. Look how unsuccessful Joe Torre was before he came to the Yankees. Francona's stint with the Phillies probably taught him a lot that will now be the benefit of the Red Sox.

The other nice thing about the Francona selection is that a non-Caucasian is coming to a club with a spurious history of fighting enlightenment. His signing has to give hope that we are making slow progress in this country towards going beyond our cave man past.

In a blockbuster trade, the Montreal Expos traded their best pitcher, Javier Vazquez, to the Yankees for Juan Rivera, Randy Choate and Nick Johnson. The jury is still out on Rivera's potential and Choate was basically a throw in to the deal. The real prize for the Expos is Nick Johnson. The 25 year old first baseman was coming into his own with the Yankees and had the potential to be one of their better players for a long time.

Although injury prone so far in his career, Johnson has shown real discipline at the plate and his loss in the lineup will really hurt the Yankees who strike out too much. I really feel that Johnson had a brighter future with the Yankees than Soriano. But that's baseball and the fans can only sit back and see what happens. Vazquez is a horse and will really help the Yankees. But even with the addition of Gary Sheffield in the lineup, how many 3-2 games will the Yankees continue to lose?

The Phillies quietly continued their quest for excellence. They acquired Eric Milton from the Twins for basically nothing and have really strengthened their staff. Milton can be a big winner if he stays healthy. Although he isn't a flame thrower, he's a pitcher with a proven ability to win and can win 15 to 20 games with the Phillies. Will this be the year the Braves run ends?

A couple of blockbuster stories fed the off season water cooler set this week. First, Peter Gammons announced that Gary Sheffield has agreed to sign with the New York Yankees. Next, after the Schilling to Boston deal was finalized (Schilling had to pass a physical), the Diamondbacks and Brewers pulled off a nine player deal with Richie Sexson moving to Arizona.

Brewers fans are going to be upset as Sexson was one of the most popular players ever to play in Milwaukee--and for good reason. Sexson has become one of the steadiest sluggers in the game. Sexson has hit 180 homers in the last four year and drove in 458 runs in that same time period. Sexson has also increased his walk total and lowered his strikeouts. You can count on Sexson to hit in the .270s every year as he is very consistent.

There will be some teeth gnashing in Milwaukee tonight because the Brewers didn't get a lot of real value in return. Overbay, Moeller and Counsell are all useful players, but none in the star caliber of Sexson. The only possible stars are Junior Spivey, who slumped badly after a great rookie campaign, and Jorge La Rosa, the minor league pitcher the Red Sox sent to Arizona for Schilling. La Rosa has a big upside but it's all speculative. Spivey is 27 years old but could still have a very good career.

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, have really upgraded their lineup and have erased what has been a left-handed dominant lineup that could be pitched around. It's tough to lose Schilling, but Sexson should get a lot of folks in Arizona excited.


Okay, call the Fan cynical, but why can't the Yankees sign a superstar who is less than 35 years old? Carlos Beltran would have been a much better long term option. Sheffield is a great player. But why has he been on six teams? He is another player who has found a negative place in fans' hearts. It will be interesting how well he fits in with the Yankee team culture, which starts with Joe Torre. Sheffield has also never played for a man like Steinbrenner.

Again, Sheffield has been a great player. But he's 35 and he's been a bit troublesome. I'm not sure I like this deal for the Yankees. Beltran could have taken over centerfield, moving Williams to left and Matsui to right. Now Williams will have to go back to centerfield and he has slowed down in the past two years. The only other option is to move Soriano to center, but that leaves Bernie out and he's getting paid too much money and is too much a part of the clutch Yankees to put to pasture.

It will be an interesting year in Yankee Stadium this year.

The Red Sox Nation has held its collective breath since Monday to see whether Curt Schilling would accept the trade from the Diamondbacks to the Red Sox. Tonight, the Nation could breath again as Schilling agreed--with the help of a contract extension--to come to Boston and bring a championship to the Red Sox.

On paper, the deal does much to bolster what should be a good pitching staff. The tough part about paper is making it reality. Will Pedro hold up? How much does Schilling have left at 37. Will the real Derek Lowe stand up? On paper, who Boston gave up to get Schilling doesn't seem to hurt much. It is unclear whether Casey Fossum will ever be a successful MLB pitcher and Brandon Lyon shows promise but not exceptional promise.

For Red Sox fans, this will be a bold strike and will hearten even cynical fans. Schilling is considered a superstar and anytime your home town team gets a superstar, it's exciting.


Although the Marlins have promised their fans that the red tag sale that happened after their last championship won't happen this time, they do have to manage their money wisely. The Marlins' first attempt at that objective was to trade first baseman Derrek Lee to the Cubs for fellow first baseman, Hee Sheop Choi. I believe this trade hurts the Marlins.

Not only was Lee a pretty good hitter, he was one of the best fielding first baseman in baseball. The Fan has written in the past how much a good fielding first baseman improves total infield defense and pitching ERA. To repeat some of the points I made back then, look at how the Mets went from record setting defense with Jon Olerud to mediocrity the next year with Todd Zeile playing first. There is no coincidence that the Mets went from contenders to chumps in a short time after the Olerud trade.

Olerud is largely responsible for the great run the Mariners have had and he was a big part of the Blue Jays championship seasons because his defense allowed the Tony Fernandez and Bret Boones of the world range more freely and be more daring on the infield. The Marlins team defense will suffer without Lee and team defense is one of the reasons they were champions in the first place.

Indications are that the Marlins are far away from being able to keep catcher, Ivan Rodriguez. If they can't sign him, that will be two of the leagues best defenders lost in one off season. Yikes!

The Red Sox are on the cusp of making a blockbuster deal that would obtain Curt Schilling from the Diamondbacks for Casey Fossum, Brandon Lyon and two prospects. The deal hinges on whether the Red Sox hire Terry Francona as manager and agree to give Schilling an extension on his contract. But is he worth the risk.

Schilling’s career has a definite pattern. He pitched over 200 innings in 1992 and 1993 and broke down the next year. He combined for only 380+ innings in total for the following three years.

He repeated that pattern by pitching over 250 innings in 1997 and 1998. He broke down again in 1999 and only pitched 390+ innings over the next three years. The pattern isn’t a good one for the Red Sox as he pitched 250+ innings in 2001 and 2002 and broke down last year. Will history repeat itself? Would you want to risk $36 million over three years to a 37 year old pitcher to find out?

On the positive side, Schilling did strike out 194 batters in his 168 innings last year and kept his ERA under 3.00. It’s a gamble the Red Sox are probably willing to take.


The Angels made a great signing today in acquiring free agent Kelvim Escobar for three years at “only” $18.75 million. That’s not bad for a great arm that has big time potential for greatness with the Angels.


Warren Spahn died today. The lefthander with the most career wins had an astonishing thirteen twenty game winning seasons on the way to compiling 363 wins. He won 23 games in his 21st major league season! He then played three more years too long, but that did not diminish a sparkling career.

Spahn was a part of that great Braves refrain: “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.” A decorated WWII veteran, Spahn still pitched from the early forties until 1966. I saw him pitch in the last years of his career while struggling with the 1965 Mets. But he was still a lot of fun to watch and you could just tell that the man lived to play baseball and had a joy that made his smile just shine throughout the park.

Spahn was legendary, but his charm was that he was also ordinary. Baseball fans everywhere will mourn his passing today and also celebrate what he meant to baseball.

Two recent stories warmed the Fan's Yankee sensibilities. First, Derek Jeter will not need thumb surgery this off-season. That is a major breath of relief as the soul of the Yankees would have started on the bench. What Jeter has accomplished the past two seasons despite chronic pain and injuries is phenomenal. He is the Brett Favre of baseball.

The second story was the trade of Tino Martinez from the Cardinals to Tampa Bay. Martinez will join another ex-Yankee, Lou Piniella which is fitting because the two are major cogs in separate Yankee championship runs. Piniella was the crusty, professional hitter that kept the Yankees together many times during the early Steinbrenner years and Martinez was a prominent member of the Yankee, post-Mattingly teams that won four championships in five years.

Martinez has never had it easy. He followed a saint in Don Mattingly in New York and I remember my own negative feelings about him taking the place of a beloved first-basement who was adoringly called "Donnie Baseball." All Martinez did was come in with remarkable consistency in anchoring the Yankee attack through all their championships.

Where Paul O'Neill was the fiery leader of the team, Martinez was the rock who drove in runs and hit important homeruns. There is no coincidence that the Yankees haven't won since Martinez moved on and O'Neill retired. Martinez drove in 690 runs in his six years with the Yankees. Now that is the definition of a rock.

The Yankees then let Martinez go and he signed with the Cardinals. There he replaced Mark McGuire. Mattingly and McGuire...imagine replacing those two players? Tino never got going in St. Louis and his production dropped off. Perhaps a fresh start in Tampa will revive his career for at least one season. I hope so as Tino has never been given the credit for those great Yankee seasons that he deserves.

Today was one of those days that fans of MLB enjoy. There was a surprising trade, another award, a free agent signing and the culmination of another scandal. Let's look at the trade first.

Ted Lilly was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Bobby Kielty. The move was surprising as Lilly seemed to be coming into his own as a pitcher. There must be cash considerations involved as the A's consistently have to hold down their budget. The A's also have Rich Harden who showed promise in a few starts this past year. Lilly will be a big addition for the Blue Jays, especially in their multiple series against the lefty vulnerable Red Sox and Yankees.

Kielty also has a lot of promise and is excited about the opportunity to play in Oakland. He is a selective hitter and felt that the Twins wanted him to be more aggressive. The A's stress patience when hitting and he should fit right in. So this deal does both teams well, at least in foresight. Hindsight will have to wait.

Toronto also signed Pat Hentgen to come back home after four years away. Hentgen, who has won 129 games in his career, came back this past year from Tommy John surgery to post his best ERA since 1997. Hentgen was 6-3 in the second half with an ERA of 3.10 after the break. Toronto now boasts an effective starting staff with Lilly, Hentgen and Cy Young winner Halladay. If these moves work out, the Blue Jays could contend strongly this coming year.


Bobby Bonds won his third straight Most Valuable Player award. It's hard to argue with the selection as the Giants would have been a .500 ball club the last two years without him in the lineup. Pujols was also deserving but should have plenty more years to contend with the honor.

That leaves the AL MVP award as the only one of the year that seems arguable. There have been years where Alex Rodriguez could have won the award but played on non-contending teams. This year, he had a year that was less spectacular than past years but he wins the award. Carlos Delgado should have won the award as his batting average was higher and he drove in an amazing 145 runs.

A case could be made for David Ortiz, who carried the Red Sox into the post season. Ortiz had an amazing number of huge hits and provided an emotional core for the team. In my mind, he was the MVP.


And finally, Bill Singer paid for his stupid comments at the GM meetings with his job. Singer, who was just hired a few weeks ago, did not understand that these are a different time and world from the locker room he used to share with his fellow players. This is a world where our words are measured and an insensitive joke is going to blow up in your face. The man is probably a decent sort of guy who made a really stupid mistake. Gone. Thanks for playing.

The general managers meeting broke up with only one trade plus a faux pas from the Mets' Bill Singer. The one trade was a great one for the San Francisco Giants as they picked up the Twins' catcher, A.J. Pierzynski for Joe Nathan and two minor leaguers. At first, I was upset for Twins fans at this trade until I broke it down a bit.

Pierzynski is one of the true leaders on the Twins. He is a great defensive player with a lifetime batting average over .300. He has had clutch hits in big games and is in the same class--though he is rarely mentioned that way--with Jorge Posada and Jason Varitek. So why would the Twins trade him other than for money reasons?

First, the Twins have Matthew LeCroy who only caught twenty games last year, but between catching and at DH, LeCroy had 17 homeruns and 64 RBI in only 345 at bats. Pierzynski was great, but he wasn't a big power guy. But even more exciting for the Twins is the world's best catching prospect ready to step in: Joe Bouer. Bouer was the minor league player of the year last year and has all the tools and then some. He is considered "can't miss." That's why the Twins could expend the arbitration eligible Pierzynski.

And! The Twins received big time arm, Joe Nathan. Nathan has pitched through some injury but has a lifetime (four years) record of 24-10. This past year he had more strikeouts than innings pitched and can be downright nasty. Nathan, minor leaguers and the ability to plug in Joe Bouer makes this trade a good one for the Twins and the Giants as Pierzynski will give them a solid presence where few are available other than Bonds.


The most embarrassing moment of the general manager meetings had to be the Mets newly hired Bill Singer making stupid guttural noises to mimic oriental speech in response to meeting Kim Ng, the Dodgers assistant general manager. How childish and boorish can you be? It will be interesting to see if the Mets fire Singer for this really stupid act despite Singer's public apology.

Former players are former players and they all have had sheltered lives. Pampered, set apart and sheltered from the real world for most of their early lives, players can get away with asinine attitudes and be somewhat excused for their lack of exposure to more enlightened thought and experiences.

The trouble comes when a former player now has to act in the real world of business. Let's face it, MLB is a business and general managers are on the business end of things. Singer, a former 20 game winner, now has egg on his face as he has made a major transgression that probably would have generated guffaws in major league locker rooms.

Major League Baseball finally started down the correct path by deciding to test all players for steroids. Random testing found that five percent of players tested positive for steroid use. Though that percentage is better than expected, it is enough to cause the fan to wonder about the performance of MLB's players.

I don't believe this will go smoothly and some players will be sure to attempt legal action to stop what they will call a loss of privacy. If players knew the minds of the fans, they would know how important this issue is. I don't believe that steroids help a player any more than cork in a player's bat. But if the perception is there that the competition is unfair, then MLB needs to take this stance and this action.

Many fans of MLB point to the parity of the NFL and how the salary cap is responsible for that parity. MLB on the other hand tried to deal with the issue by issuing a luxury tax on teams that spent more than a set amount. Neither method would help the current state of team payroll levels in baseball. No team proves that point better than the Milwaukee Brewers.

Today it was announced that the board of directors of the Milwaukee Brewers recommended that the Brewers cut their payroll from $40 million to $30 million. The recommendation means that the Brewers will probably have to trade their two best players: Geoff Jenkins ($8 million) and Richie Sexson ($8 million).

The plight of the Brewers is complicated as the community put up a lot of money to build the Brewers a stadium. They have a right to expect the Brewers to be entertaining. Sexson and Jenkins play hard, play well and play exciting ball. Now with Podsednik and pitching starting to fall in place, the team had a chance to be much better. Will it be able to now?

One of the reasons given for the cut is the drop in attendance to 1.7 million. Geez, the Devil Rays would have a celebration for that kind of attendance. Even if the average ticket price was $10--and it has to be higher--that's $17 million. Add in the TV rights, MLB products and their results from the same luxury tax the Yankees are paying and you have to wonder why the team would need to cut payroll.

What's the answer? Put in a salary cap? Make the cap $80 million? The Brewers are still going to spend only $30 million. How is that going to help poorly run teams? There is no provision that the poor owners spend the luxury tax on their teams. Then what good is it? For every George Steinbrenner there will be a Carl Pohldad or Bud Selig's daughter. The Brewers story is a sad one and is a lightning rod of warning for the storm that baseball still faces.


So far, the awards seem to be going to the players that earned them. Berroa and Dontrelle Willis are the correct choices though I wouldn't have argued if Podsednik had won the award in the National League. Halladay won the AL Cy Young award. The National League will announce theirs on Thursday. If that decision follows the common sense winners to this point, Eric Gagne will win that award.

A fixture on the field at Yankee Stadium for half a decade has been hired to manage the Baltimore Orioles. Lee Mazzilli, the former outfielder for the Mets and Yankees had to be the underdog since he was competing for the job against former Orioles, Rick Dempsey and Eddie Murray as well as Grady Little and Terry Francona.

Mazzilli was a popular coach with the Yankees and he was frequently used by television crews to wear microphones during important games. He inherits what could be a very good team. The Orioles played half a season with an offense that was right up there with Boston and the Braves before injuries to Melvin Mora and others derailed their progress. Don't be surprised if they become a contender in the coming season.

In what I thought were classy moves, both Yankee owner, George Steinbrenner and manager, Joe Torre, praised Mazzilli and were excited and positive about Mazzilli's opportunity.


Speaking of underdogs, the Mexico team beat the United States team and knocked the defending country out of the Olympics in Athens. The stunning loss means that if the Olympics would have been one last way to see Roger Clemens pitch, that dream is over and his win in the World Series could be his last game ever.

Tommy Lasorda, who managed the gold medal winning American team in the last Olympics said it was a shock and a disgrace that the American team lost. That criticism won't sit very well with Hall of Famer, Frank Robinson, who managed this year's Olympic hopeful team.

Baseball news has been pretty quiet the last few days. 208 players have already filed for free agency including Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte of the Yankees. Clemens, of course, has said he is retiring. But if he changes his mind, he will have the right to talk to any team.

Andy Pettitte has said that he can't imagine pitching for any other team and who can blame him. He was drafted by the Yankees and has pitched for them since the 1995 season. His record of success is remarkable judging from his record as it's one of the best in winning percentage history. Add that to his post season success and he seems like a must sign for the Yankees.

The Mets did score a very good victory in landing Oakland A's pitching coach Rick Peterson. Peterson has developed the A's remarkable pitching story and his philosophy is used through the A's farm teams. The Mets were always famous for their development of pitching talent but that has not been the case in recent history. There hasn't been a Doc Gooden, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman or Nolan Ryan come out of their farm system in a long time.

Peterson will upgrade the entire Mets' system and the addition of Bill Singer to the Mets front office to find the talent to develop means that the Mets are doing all the right things to rebuild that franchise. But Bobby Valentine will be in Japan. Alas!

I have to wonder what will become of the Athletic's pitching with Peterson's departure. Will their big pitchers continue to develop without him? Will they continue to keep coming up with great arms from the minor leagues. Look what Peterson did for Ted Lilly in his first full year with the team. Lilly went 12-10 in his first full season and had a perfect ERA in the playoffs (0.00).


In the "I've-got-to-see-this" category, the San Diego Padres announced that they will have new uniforms this coming season. What a victory for that team! That's even better news than having a new stadium. The Padres have consistently had the worst looking uniforms in baseball. They went from those awful brown and yellow uniforms in the 80's to equally ugly blue uniforms in the 90's.

Have you ever seen pictures of Dave Winfield in those old Padres' uniforms. Yeesh! No wonder he wanted to get out of there. Speaking of Winfield, I remember watching him while he was with the Yankees. No one consistently hit the ball harder than Winfield. Infielders used to play in the short outfield when he came up. Anyway, he had this way of wiggling his butt when he was waiting for the pitch. That used to drive the women crazy. It didn't do much for me but I can imagine what they were looking at.

There wasn't a picture in the news reports about the uniforms but they were described as a tri-color pattern of sand, navy and sky blue. Hmm...sounds like an improvement.

The first big bombshell of the off season has exploded with the Astros trade of closer Billy Wagner to the Phillies for Brandon Duckworth and two minor leaguers. Wow!

The Phillies Achilles heel all last season was the bullpen, especially with Jose Mesa closing games. Mesa had an ERA over 6.00 well into the season and never looked effective or even scary. Wagner will come in with his 100 MPH fastball and his 44 saves in 47 chances and give the Phillies a legitimate shot at making the game a seven inning game.

Brandon Duckworth is a big potential pitcher who has shown short flashes of his capabilities in two seasons with the Phillies. Yet he has a losing career record and has given up more hits than innings, which isn't a good sign for a supposed power pitcher.

Houston has a lot of arms in the bullpen but they need every one of them as their manager is a bullpen killer. Houston also has a penchant for having their top arms come up injured in a similar way to the Marlins before Jack McKeon took over. Most likely, Houston will try Dotel as a closer and if that doesn't work out, go with another of their electric bullpen arms. But you have to ask the question: What does it tell the fans and your team to trade away a sure thing in what looks like a money deal?


Two managerial decisions came down today. Both were surprising. First, the Chicago White Sox made a great decision in choosing Ozzie Guillen as their new manager. Guillen will bring fun and enthusiasm to a team in sore need of it. In much the same way that Tony Pena brought a spark to the Royals, Guillen could do the same for the White Sox.

The move is also a big day for MLB as Chicago now has a former African American in charge of the Cubs and a former Hispanic player in charge of the White Sox. We've come a long way when one of the top cities in the country can boast such an alignment. Good for Chicago and good for baseball.

The second decision is somewhat sad in that Bobby Valentine decided to sign a three year deal to go back to Japan and manage over there. He said the money was flattering and that at this point in his life, it's important to him to feel needed and wanted. It's a shame that there wasn't a spot for Valentine on the American field as he is a creative and fiery competitor and manager.

Valentine also did a super job on Baseball Tonight for ESPN and always seemed on point and dead on with his commentary and analysis. He will be missed on that show and on this continent. I hope he comes back someday.


The Yankees made an excellent move in bringing Don Mattingly in as their batting instructor. Mattingly did wonders for Tino Martinez when Tino got in slumps. It is a good sign when the first move the Yankees make after their disappointing loss to the Marlins is a classy one that will please the fans. Mattingly is one of the most popular players to ever wear the pinstripes and should have the respect of his players.