Haiti

[[switching to first person]]

I have to confess something. And it isn't easy to confess. I think I am a product of the television generation. We've seen so much on television, that nothing seems to phase people like me. Or maybe I shouldn't include any generalizations and just talk about me.

The first night I heard about the earthquake, I felt a little pang of regret for those poor people. But after? I have to confess that I am ashamed that I feel so little. After years of watching CSI and going through Vietnam and 9/11 and the Tsunami a few years ago and Hurricane Katrina and all we have been through in this world, perhaps I am desensitized. Perhaps a part of my soul has been swept clean of compassion. Perhaps there is so much suffering in the world that I am feeling hopeless to help and that hopelessness turns to the defense mechanism of non-caring.

It's not with pride that I make this confession. It's with regret and guilt. There is so much suffering in the world. What can we do? Okay, this week we pour resources into Haiti. Meanwhile, some African nation still has half its population starving. For each death we hear about in Haiti, there are the same number or more in this country in cancer deaths, car accidents, fires, senseless violence and family squabbles. We don't hear about each one of those and yet those families suffer too.

Someone once asked Jesus about the poor. I remember his answer: "The poor will always be among you." Isn't that the truth. There is just no way to help them all. You can't go to a store today without five or six jars vying for your attention for this poor family with a child needing medical care or this family that lost their home to a fire. Everyone wants help and I am not saying they don't need it. All I am saying is that it is overwhelming.

Perhaps it has to do with that Hierarchy of Needs chart I remember from Psychology 101 in college. Since my job was eliminated and moved to Georgia, I have been in survival mode myself for the past year and a half. Mercifully, we are hanging in there. But right now, I have to care for me and my own before I can care about anyone else. Perhaps I am just selfish.

All I know is that hundreds of thousands of people are suffering in Haiti and around the world. I applaud you if your conscious dictates you to help. I applaud you if you dial that text number to help. I applaud you and admire you if your heart aches for what you have seen and heard about. I'm just not there right now. And that's doesn't make me feel very good.

Both Hairstons Banished to San Diego

Anyone who has been a long-time reader of this site knows that the Hairston brothers are not Fan favorites. And not that the Padres are unloved here either, but they are in sort of a holding or rebuilding pattern of late and so a good dumping ground for the pair. Scott Hairston was traded there and now Jerry Hairston Jr. was signed there as a free agent according to this news story.

Being a Fan means that some judgements are irrational. The dislike of the Hairston brothers has been going on for quite a while and there really isn't a rational explanation. Sure, it makes no sense that they have played in the major leagues for so long. Jerry has a lifetime OPS of .701. Eww. How is it that fringe players like him can have such long careers and other, more talented players (like Josh Whitesell) never get a shot? Sure, Scott is the better hitter, but come on! He has 58 career homers in his 40 year career. Well, it seems like 40 years.

This Fan has the perception that some managers just like guys who will hustle and have a good attitude no matter the circumstances. A Hairston who sits on the bench for two straight weeks, but smiles a lot and say, "Good morning, Skip," to the manager every day gets to hang around maybe.

It was an ironic twist when Jerry Hairston Jr. was traded to the Yankees last year toward the end of the season. Poetic justice maybe? And all indications seemed to be that he would sign there again this year. Well, that proved inaccurate and all is well with the world.

The Fan is sure that the Yankees can find any old weak hitting utility player for a lot cheaper than $1.5 million. Seems like they had one last year from their own organization. They are a dime a dozen, even more so than back-end relievers. For every Hairston, Miguel Cairo and others, there has to be dozens of cheap options in the minors that can actually...you know...hit just a little bit?

Why do all these guys hang around so long? Bruntlett? Does being a good guy average out an 82 OPS+? Does being a glad-hander who is willing to play any position and do the laundry worth over a million dollars? Doesn't seem like it.

But the FanDome's favorite whipping boys, the Hairstons, are now together in San Diego. Besides Hawaii, that's the farthest you can be from northern Maine and still be on the same continent. Which is probably a good thing. The Padres need to become a winner again as they have a nice market and run a good ship. But right now, they are on the bottom looking up. And now they have the corner on the Hairston market. God help them.

Martin Luther King Column Gone Awry

Have you ever spent a bunch of time looking for something without finding much? For example, you searched through every pair of pants you own along with your shirts, jackets, coats, purses and others and could only come up with a few pennies and maybe a nickel? Yeah, that's what this post is like. This post was supposed to be some kind of fun tribute to Martin Luther King for his holiday. The only trouble is, the search was basically fruitless.

For example, after a bleary-eyed search, only one player in major league history has ever shared the MLK initials? What was he? The immortal, one and only, Matt (Matthew Lon) Keough. You might remember him. He pitched for the A's, Yankees, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Cubs and Astros between 1977 and 1986. He was actually a very good pitcher when he first came up. He had a big year for the A's in 1980. But he had the misfortune of playing for Billy Martin, who didn't believe in limiting young pitchers. Keough was in his early playing days and Martin left him out there for 250+ innings. He was never the same pitcher again.

Another example? There were seventeen "King" major leaguers in history: Chick, Clyde, Curtis, Eric, Hal, Jeff, Jim, Kevin, Lee, Lee, Lynn, Mart, Nellie, Ray, Sam, Silver and Steve. You may remember Ray or Jeff and maybe even Eric, all three played not that long ago. That Mart King was indeed a Martin King. He played one season: 1876! Whoa, that was a long time ago.

So...the Fan's attempt to bring you an entertaining post to help celebrate the day has fallen short. But remember the man today anyway. Not because he was perfect. He wasn't. Not because he was famous. Not because he was assassinated. No, remember what he fought for and how we can teach our children to get closer to his dream. Remember one of the greatest orations of modern times (look for it on YouTube--it's worth listening to all these years later). His cause was right and just. His message pure and clear and just as important today as it was then.

The Marlins Ink Josh Johnson Long Term

It's probably only a coincidence that a few days after being scolded by MLB and the players' union for not spending the money the Yankees are giving them in payroll penalties, the Marlins have wrapped up Josh Johnson for four years at $39 million. Johnson is certainly worth the exception to what has been the rule for the Marlins. Johnson, of course is quite happy and perhaps Dan Uggla now has someone else to be jealous about.

Johnson joins Hanley Ramirez as young, extremely talented players tied up through their arbitration-eligible years and through the first couple of years of free agent eligibility. That has to be exciting for fans of the Marlins that they will be able to watch these amazing talents through the peak years of their careers.

Johnson is certainly worth the money. He was quietly among the best pitchers of the National League last year. His sparkling 15-5 record was not a fluke. If you look at his BABIP for 2009, it was right around .300, right where it should have been (despite a poor fielding team). But he was 7-1 the year before after returning from Tommy John surgery despite a BABIP way high in the upper .300s. That 22-6 record is pretty sweet since his surgery.

He gets little love from the PECOTA system from Baseball Prospectus. But they haven't revised their projections yet to account for 2009 results. And thus, the projections were based on a pitcher that struggled with elbow problems the years before. It seems a given that his projections will improve. Last year was his first as a starter with more than 200 innings pitched and he posted a 3.29 K/BB ratio, which is much higher than his career level of 2.42.

Johnson keeps the ball in the park, strikes out his share of batters, has improved his walk allowed and seems to be on the cusp of being a great pitcher for quite a few years. Of course these things always have to play out to see if he stays healthy. But the risk seems like a good one.

The other thing nice about this deal is that Johnson really wanted to stay with the Marlins. The linked post from MLB.com mentions it several times. So it seems like a perfect deal for everyone involved. Johnson gets to stay where he wanted to stay, the Marlins tie up a budding superstar and Marlins' fans get a little hope that the Marlins are more serious about fielding a good team for a number of years.

Glad Vlad Landed in Texas

The Angels came within a whisker of getting into the World Series despite a hobbled Vladimir Guerrero having his worst year of a great career. It has become painful to watch Vlad play. It is obvious that he can barely walk, never mind run. 2009 was only the second time in the last twelve years that Guerrero did not reach 600 plate appearances. It was the first time in 12 years that he did not hit at least 25 homers. He had his lowest OBP and Slugging Percentage of his career. The Angels felt they needed a change, so they exchanged one creaky hitter with another and Hideki Matsui.

One can hardly blame the Angels. But don't count on Vladimir Guerrero being done hitting the ball with authority. He now goes to a Texas Rangers club that hits half the time in a very hitter-friendly park. He goes to a club that is the underdog and he won't have the pressure to be the "top dog" for a team that goes to the playoffs every year. He may thrive in Texas and put up good numbers there as the DH.

Watching Guerrero now reminds the viewer of past greats who faced the same wheel troubles. Tony Oliva, Andre Dawson and Orlando Cepeda come to mind. And Guerrero might be a better hitter than all of them. Oliva had one of the sweetest swings in history and won a batting title in his rookie year. He had less power though. Andre Dawson had better speed, but Guerrero beats him on everything else. Cepeda is in the Hall of Fame and Guerrero has better power, a higher batting average, higher on-base percentage and is clearly the better of the two.

All those guys had useful and productive years far after they started walking with a pronounced limp. If two of the three of those guys are in the HOF, then Guerrero needs to be in that discussion when he is done, especially if he can play productively for another three or four years.

Vladimir Guerrero has probably not gotten his due over the years for his excellence. Credit that mainly to playing all those years in Montreal when nobody was watching. But his career OPS of 954 and his career batting average of .321 tell a huge story. He is over 400 homers now and few people know what a great fielder he was before his wheels left him. His 125 career assists from the outfield give a good story of how great he was and despite the last few years when he couldn't run, his Runs over League Average as a fielder are still in the positive numbers for his career.

It's too bad really, that Vlad the Impaler only got national attention and regular television coverage after his best years. All today's fans will remember are the gimpy gate of what used to be a thoroughbred. If you were to poll the average baseball fan and ask them about Guerrero, they will probably remember his reputation of swinging at anything. But the guy has a .386 lifetime On Base Percentage with almost 700 walks. The guy never got to shine in the spotlight when he was at his best.

It is hoped that he has a great year in Texas and solid years for the remainder of what has been a wonderful career.

Reds Have Potential With Pitching

The Reds (of all people) outbid everyone for the right to sign Aroldis Chapman, the young (22) lefty fireballer from Cuba. Chapman is just the latest in an impressive collection of young arms the Reds have been stockpiling. Volquez should be back mid-summer from Tommy John surgery. He's already won 17 games in a season. Johnny Cueto has big-time talent and can be brilliant at times. Homer Bailey started living up to his hype in the second half of 2009 and Arroyo and Harang are still around.

The Reds are also stacked just below in the minors with Travis Wood, Matt Maloney, Brad Boxberger and Mike Leake. General Manager, Walt Jockety, who built the current Cardinals' empire seems to be focused narrowly on big time arms and has done an amazing job of collecting them. Chapman is just the latest.

If Cueto puts it together, Bailey grows from the second half, Volquez comes back strong and any two of those four prospects pan out, they could be scary good and scary bad for NL batters to face.

Have we finally seen the real Homer Bailey? His last nine starts of 2009 featured a 6-1 record with a 1.70 ERA. After two years of inconsistency that caused him to pinball back and forth to the minors, Bailey could be a stud. Cueto is hard to figure out. His strikeout per nine went down last year, but that could be explained by shoulder troubles that landed him on the disabled list. Even so, he went 11-11 with a 4.41 ERA. If he can pick up the strikeout rate and increase his K/BB ratio to 3 or so, then he could be dominant.

Harang has had two mediocre years in a row. He used to be a really good pitcher. It's hard to believe the last two years are the norm now, but unless he can prove otherwise, he's just a placeholder until the kids come up. Arroyo is a gritting fighter, with little else going for him. He finished fairly strong, but is at best, another placeholder.

Maloney was 13-5 in the minors and then came up and went 2-4 in late season starts with the Reds with a 4.87 ERA. But his K/BB was excellent at 3.5 as he has excellent control. He gave up too many homers, but that should correct itself. If he keeps the ball in the yard, he could win 15.

Reds' fans have a lot to look forward to. The future may or may not show up in 2010, but it won't be long beyond that if 2010 isn't the start of big things for the Reds. Just picture in your head a rotation of Volquez, Cueto, Chapman, Bailey and Maloney. Whoa. That could be fun to watch.

Mark McGwire Comes Clean

Mark McGwire confessed to what we always knew to be true. He took steroids. He admitted it and he put it all out there. And it's certainly ironic that many of the same people that said he had to do this before taking the hitting instructor job with the St. Louis Cardinals are now spewing venomous and self-righteous diatribes in his direction. Want proof? Try this one. Talk about asking a guy to walk the plank and then spanking him while he jumps in the water.

You want the Fan's take? You want it in the first person? I don't care. I'll say it again. I don't care. It doesn't change my opinion of Mark McGwire. It doesn't change the magic he performed in 1998. It doesn't change how he single-handedly helped me through my first Labor Day weekend after the end of my first marriage. He brought me joy in a dark time. He was majestic and heroic when I needed someone to root for. I needed a bridge to my long-lost father who would have enjoyed the moment as much as I had. He brought tears to my eyes when I was sitting all alone. None of that changes.

So how was Barry Bonds different? McGwire thought the stuff would get him back on the field and perhaps keep him there. Bonds started using out of jealousy for McGwire and Sosa and the accolades they were receiving. That's how it's different. But even all of that doesn't matter to me.

No one will convince me that steroids (or whatever PED was used) can help you hit a baseball. If 50 to 80 percent of major league players were using, how come nobody else hit that many homers and hit them that far? The same really goes for Bonds. He still had to hit those baseballs and that's still the hardest thing in sports to do.

I have to laugh at the outrage. I have to laugh at the statement from even my personal hero, Peter Gammons, that he won't vote for McGwire now that he has admitted "cheating." How exactly does Mr. Gammons or Mr. Brown know that Andre Dawson didn't take some things and that Roberto Alomar never used the stuff? They don't. Nobody does. With all we have come to know, the whole era is suspect. So we might as well continue to do what we've always done and that's vote the best players of their era into the Hall of Fame.

Soon, Jeff Bagwell will come up for his vote. Was he clean? How do we know? Was Mike Piazza? Who knows. Let's put those two up under the microscope like McGwire and see what happens. Let's hound them and tell them they can never work in baseball again unless they admit what they might have done. I am not accusing them. I'm just saying the whole generation is suspect.

There are two things I appreciated about today. First, Bud Selig took the high road and said that Mark McGwire did the right thing and that it was appreciated. Good for Bud. That's the right spirit of the thing. As has been written in this space ad nauseum, the past wasn't tested. The past wasn't legislated against. It should be left in the past and granted that the game was asleep at the wheel on the subject. Test now and crack down on those who fail the tests. But please, for heaven's sake, let's stop cracking the players of the PED era over the head.

The other thing I appreciate is the support McGwire is getting from the Cardinals and the organization. What a healthy thing that is. This guy was a product of his era. He did things we wish he didn't do. But he has admitted it and we want him to work for us. Good for them. And good for baseball. Because deep down, I believe Mark McGwire is a good guy. I believe he wanted to be a baseball player and toward that end, made choices that he now regrets.

Forgiveness is the most powerful tool given to us in this universe. It is the most wonderful ability once learned. It is humble and it is enriching. My ex-wife and I have both discovered this tool and we have made the best of our lots since. If I can be forgiven and she could, why can't Mark McGwire, or that guy that just cut you off in traffic?

I support Mark McGwire and I appreciate his candor. I actually wish he hadn't apologized. There really was no need for it since it can't be undone. And really, it's probably not all that sincere when it comes right down to it. If he had a life like Groundhog Day and lived his life over a hundred times, in the era and situations he was in, he'd probably make the same choice another hundred times. They all would have.

So thanks, Bud Selig. And thanks, Tony LaRussa. And Tim Brown? Get over yourself.

Saturday in the Tundra

Winter has returned to northern Maine and as the wind whips the snow around, not many cogent thoughts fill the brain. There are only wishes for warmer days and a longing for a warm breeze on a sunny day. There are also no complete thoughts in the head today. But there are fragments. We might as well get them out there in the open and let them breathe.

Mr. Neyer wrote today that Ken Rosenthal's call for Hall of Fame voter changes would ultimately mean more players voted into the Hall. While Mr. Neyer is a personal hero despite not being much more these days than someone who comments on other people's work, the Fan found this thought disrespectful to all who would love to have a vote. All of us who have passion for this sport would be more than respectful to this game that we love.

Adrian Beltre was a great pickup by the Red Sox. The Fan has been predicting for months that Beltre was going to have a bounce back year. The Red Sox saw it too and they are an intelligent bunch. Beltre is a huge addition.

Mr. Posnanski has a wonderful piece today about cherry picking stats to support Hall of Fame picks (or non-picks). As usual, he nails it. His exposition concerning the number of seasons Edgar Martinez played 150 or more games (only four) as being a ridiculous reason for keeping Martinez out of the Hall was dead on. Mickey Mantle had the same number of 150+ game seasons.

Eyebleaf and Josh Borenstein are terrific bloggers. Tao of Stieb is without a doubt, one of the best blog names of all time. The writing found there is as good as the name too.

Count the Fan among the many who would love to see Tony LaRussa follow through and get Mark McGwire to pinch hit a few times this year. Wouldn't that be awesome?

The Fan still wishes like heck that Roger Clemens had simply admitted what he took instead of going all "Nixon" on the thing. For those of you too young to understand the Nixon thing, just replace it with Clemens going all "Palmeiro" on the thing.

For some reason, Stan Bahnson just popped into the Fan's brain. Hadn't thought about him for a long time. Funny thing is that Al Downing soon followed. Weird.

This mall where the Fan conducts his business is dying a slow death. It's like watching a big bee whither and shiver after getting a dose of Raid. You know it's going to die, it's just a question of when. The record store (FYE) and the book store are closing their doors this month. Those were the only two really interesting stores in the mall to begin with. Tough times, my friends...

The Fan sells local interest calendars. They are proudly made in the Fan's basement and they are very pretty. But a customer looked at the $10 price tag and stated indignantly that you can buy a calendar in K-Mart for $4. This same person will complain to their senator when a local manufacturer closes because the jobs can be done cheaper overseas. Knowing of this buyer duplicity, the Fan looked the customer square in the eye and stated that the calendar selling for $10 wasn't made in China. The Fan should probably work on his people skills.

The Fan really wants to see Avatar, but will probably end up waiting until it comes out on video where it will be much less effective.

It will really suck if the commissioner is serious about a series with Japan AFTER the World Series is completed. As if the post season isn't long enough as it is. It all seems like a sacrilege. Hey, the Fan doesn't care if it doesn't include the entire world, the World Series is the World Series.

The Fan also hopes that intentional walks aren't done away with or made easier without throwing any actual pitches. That just seems artificial. The Fan sounds like Grouchy Smirf: "I HATE change." Yeah.

Why don't more smart players take advantage of lazy outfielders that absently "lollipop" the throw back to the infield after a single. That seems like an open invitation to take second base to this observer. But all too often, the lazy outfielder is often matched by a lazy base runner who lallygag to first.

Ken Rosenthal and others base most of their angst about the Hall of Fame vote on Roberto Alomar. While the Fan agrees that Alomar certainly belongs in the HOF, the real snubs go to Blyleven, Raines and McGwire. Those are worthy of angst.

The Fan would believe the Yankees are a 100-win team going into 2010 if Burnett wasn't still one of the counted on cogs of that happening. Burnett just doesn't inspire any kind of confidence. At least Lackey maximizes his talent. Burnett just can't quite believe he can throw a third strike anywhere near the plate. And thank goodness Molina won't be part of the Yankee lineup. He was the worst hitter since Miguel Cairo.

Tim Raines reached base 3943 times in his career. Tony Gwynn reached base 3965 times in his career. Just saying...

Warm Coca-Cola tastes better than cold Pepsi.

The Fan misses watching minor league baseball. If you ever want to spend a worthy $30, take the family to a minor league game this year. It sure is a lot of fun.

Which player will have a bounce back year in 2010? Will Soriano come back to something near what he was? Will Grady Sizemore? What about Wang?

Would you have guessed that the Marlins had a better winning percentage since the beginning of the 2000 season than the Cubs?

Why can't this country really commit to going all out to develop alternate power and put the Arab countries out of business? Would we really have to worry about terrorists if there was no oil money to fund them? Wouldn't that be energy (pun not intended) better spent than a moribund health care bill that isn't what anybody really wanted? Why not give every American home owner $15,000 to put up a windmill or solar panels for about the same cost as bailing out the crooked and spiteful banks who turn around and misuse the same taxpayers that helped bail them out? Tax breaks to install those things don't mean much if you can't afford to install them in the first place.

How can one spit define a person's entire life character?

Why do parents just dump their kids at the mall so they can walk around like zombies the entire day? What a waste and the height of lazy parenting.

Every day, the mentally handicapped are brought to the mall to walk around for exercise. Does it mean anything about life that those with lesser mental capacities seem easy to please and ultimately happier than most of us?

Does anyone have a list of players who blog and whose sites are really meaningful and insightful? And please don't include Schilling. Please.

Will Schilling and Randy Johnson be elected to the HOF the same year? And if so, will Johnson relieve Schilling in the bottom of Schilling's speech to save another day?

Other than convenience, why have we all been sold on using debit and credit cards instead of cash and checks? Did you know that it cost businesses 3 to 5 percent every time you use a card to purchase a product or service? If the customer is getting the convenience, why aren't they being charged the fee instead of the business? The Fan gladly accepts checks, they are cheaper.

Okay, the Fan has taken enough of your time and is starting to hear Andy Rooney in his head. Let's hope that if the next time you watch a game and the outfielder lobs the ball in an arch to second base, you all yell, "Why didn't he take second?" If so, then this will all be worth it.

Winning or Losing Cultures?

One of the thoughts that has percolated in the brain all winter long was Milton Bradley's comment about the Cubs' culture. Obviously, Bradley didn't make himself any friends with the comment, especially on his own team. The timing of the thing was obviously stupid as Bradley was in the midst of a season with those same Cubs. It is also obvious that Bradley was treated harshly by the media and by the fans during his sure tenure with the organization. So why then has his comments stuck so long in the Fan's subconsciousness? Could Bradley have been at least partically correct? Do some clubs have "winning cultures" and "losing cultures"?

The Fan supposes that the answer to the question relies on how broadly you define "culture." If you are talking about culture as a group of players that are tougher fighters than the next team, you know...guttier, grittier, determined, battle tested and all of those time worn expressions, then you are probably buying into someone's propaganda. For every gritty Paul O'Neal reference to the late 90's Yankees, the Fan could give you a statistic on why the Yankees won. So that definition of culture doesn't thrill this writer.

If you broaden the definition to include the quality of leadership in the dugout and front office, the leadership of ownership, serious committment to player development and evaluation and a long term expectation of excellence, than you might be on to something.

Thanks to wonderful data collectors like baseball-reference.com, we have access to information at our fingertips. Sometimes you have to do a bit of spreadsheet work to use it, but no problem there. The Fan has included some data that seems to show teams that have good cultures, teams that have bad ones and those that settle on mediocrity (defined as .500).

Some teams have cultures that have remained consistent over long periods of time. The Rockies, as the data shows, have always been around the .474 mark for its entire history. Sure they have an up and down here and there, but overall, their long term results remain the same. Other teams seem to change their culture for the better. The White Sox, Twins, Angels, Athletics, Phillies and Athletics are all examples of teams that have fared better in the last ten and twenty year timesets than historically.

Other teams' cultures seem to take dramatic downshifts. The Pirates are one of the successful franchises historically. Their historic winning percentage is over .500. Many of us can remember when the Pirates were a force to be reckoned with. But the last twenty years have been painful, particularly the last ten years. The Royals have taken a bad culture to the maximum. Their last twenty years have been awful. But the Orioles and Nationals aren't too far behind those two.

Then you have a culture of what the Fan calls, "Small Man Syndrome." These teams like the Indians, Blue Jays, Tigers and others seem to behave like they can succeed once in a while, but it all gets torn down until they rise again once or twice a decade. You can see this in the fluxuation of their data. Up and down, up and down.

Then you have long-term elite teams. These teams have historic success and success over the last twenty years and the last decade. These teams may fall off now and then, but the fall is never that far and the successes come in more clusters and more often. The Cardinals, Yankees, Dodgers, Giants and for the last twenty years, the Red Sox. Sure money may be a part of that "culture," but it has to go beyond that. The Orioles have spent a lot of money as have the Mets without significant benefit to the culture.

The Fan isn't a math wiz. So others may be able to see patterns in the data that are missing from this text. But it's all interesting. Click on the enclosed charts to see them better.

Hall of Fame Hangover

Yeah, yeah, the subject has been beaten to death. But still. Spent the morning reading all the comments from around the Web. Read about different writers' votes and their justifications. It's just all sour grapes as nothing can be done about the injustices inflicted on guys like McGwire and Raines, Blyleven and maybe even Trammell. Not feeling too bad for Alomar because he is a shoe in for next year. But still. Still reading about the spitting incident. Yeah, that Ty Cobb character was a peach too, right?

The trouble is that it is currently not fixable. Bud Selig isn't going to do anything. The writers aren't going to do anything. So we are stuck with this. We can't make it a fan's vote. That would be even worse. Look at the All Star picks as an example of how stupid that can be.

Here is how it should work. The writers get their votes. They you open up the voting process to the thousands of dedicated baseball bloggers who write consistently about their passion. Hey, we're out there. We're easy to find. We don't get paid (most of us) so there are no axes to grind. Yes, many bloggers are "homers" who write about their favorite teams. But so what? If they are writing regularly, they have knowledge about the game just as intimate as those who get paid to write (who many times are "homers" too). Perhaps we should not include those who swear too much and those that like hockey just as much as baseball (ducking from the inevitable swipe from eyebleaf). heh. All kidding aside, we couldn't do much worse than the average writer with credentials.

But it won't happen. We all get labeled as stat heads, tweet geeks or as amateurs. We aren't the real thing. The Fan disagrees. We are just as real as anyone who writes for ESPN or SI or MLB.com. We are a force and we know what we are talking about.

It's time for a new world order. The glory days of The Sporting News and the L. A. Times are never coming back. That's a shame, but that's a world as it evolves. It's tough to accept change. But after all, you have to turn the soil over once in a while if you want a better crop to grow. When it is obvious that the current crop isn't growing much that's ripe, it's time for a change.

The last two HOF votes prove it's time. Get over it.

Holy Horse Poop - Only Dawson Gets In

The results are in and man, were they disappointing. The only player voted into the Hall of Fame was Andre Dawson. Andre Dawson!? Well...congratulations to him. He was a marginal pick at best, but he's in there. He follows Jim Rice as two marginal HOF recipients in two years.

Tim Raines only received 51% of the vote. What!? Preposterous. Roberto Alomar will have to wait for his second year of eligibility. He got close and just missed. Mark McGwire still only received 23% of the votes. What a travesty. And poor Bert Blyleven received 74.2% of the votes. He missed out by five votes and will have to wait again until his fourteenth year of torture.

MLB.com reported that five ballots came in blank. Those knuckleheads should lose their votes. Tim Brown only voted for Alomar. That's a good vote, but if that's all he voted for, he's a sad sack of a picker. Alomar probably fell victim to the "sanctity" of the first year of eligibility. That's a joke and idiotic. Don't feel too bad for him because he'll get in. But for Raines and Blyleven and McGwire, only Blyleven has a chance next year and that's pathetic.

They say youth is wasted on the young. The last two HOF votes prove that writing talent is wasted all too often on the brainless.

Randy Johnson Retires

Randy Johnson has one of those resumes that just numbs the senses. Whether you liked the guy or not--and this Fan never really did--the guy had a career that is the stuff of dreams when it comes to the back of a baseball card. After 22 seasons, the 46 year old pitcher retired on Tuesday. The announcement is a relief. No one wanted to watch Johnson continue to push himself as a relief pitcher, not even those of us who didn't like him. He made it to 300 wins (303 to be precise) and it's good enough. Good enough? Gracious, is that an understatement.

Randy Johnson is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Anyone who doesn't vote for him in five years should lose the right to vote. 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings for a career? A career WHIP of 1.171? A career ERA+ of 136? A .646 winning percentage? Second all time in strikeouts? The most strikeouts in a career for a lefty? Two no-hitters? A 3-0 World Series record with a 1.13 ERA? Okay, he wasn't so good in division or league championship series, but come on! Perhaps his greatest statistic? He gave up less than seven hits per nine innings for the season for eleven different seasons. Eleven.

Perhaps if all that isn't enough, Johnson arguably (Gammons-speak) had five seasons that could be considered among the 50 best seasons by any pitcher in the modern baseball era. In those five seasons (1995, 1997 and 1999-2002) he went 119-28! He struck out over 300 batters seven times including a remarkable run of six seasons in a row. He had 100 complete games and 37 career shutouts.

This Fan hopes Bert Blyleven gets in the Hall of Fame because he deserves it. But a pitcher like Randy Johnson makes him look sick. He was that good. Randy Johnson may have been better than Roger Clemens. Randy Johnson was nearly as good as Pedro Martinez in Pedro's most spectacular seasons, but Johnson did it longer.

Not many people love Randy Johnson. Maybe it's because he was one of the ugliest fellows that ever graced our television screens. Handsome, he was not. Plus he scowled a lot and looked mad a lot and seemed like a bit of a crank. Perhaps we are just biased against those who don't look like our ideals. It's too bad really, because perhaps we didn't appreciate one of the most amazing baseball players of our era.

Cardinals Severely Overpay Holliday

The Cardinals had to have Matt Holliday. There seems to be no doubt about that. Hitting behind Albert Pujols seemed to lift Holliday into the stratosphere as a hitter and he afforded protection to the Cardinals' and baseball's best hitter. But that protection came at a steep price. The figures being bandied around come to $120 million over seven years with an option year for the eighth.

According to PECOTA projections, Holliday will be worth around $38 million for those seven years. He isn't a very good fielder and doesn't figure to be getting much better in left field now that he's 30 years old. So the Cardinals basically paid Holliday three times what he is worth. Ouch.

Perhaps Holliday has found the sweet spot in St. Louis. Perhaps his second half there wasn't a fluke. But even if that lifts his valuation over the next seven years, he still won't come close to being worth what he is going to be paid.

So what is Pujols going to be worth for the next seven years? Again, according to PECOTA, that figure will be around $143 million. Which isn't that much more than what Holliday is making. So when Pujols' current contract is up and the Cardinals paid a $38 million player $120 million, what should Pujols ask for? The Fan's guess would be oh, around $420 million or so.

A Non-Baseball Post About the Colts

The Fan has been irked all week by a team that he hates anyway. Okay, let the Fan paint this picture for you. Say C. C. Sabathia is pitching for the Yankees on the fourth to last game of the season. The Yankees have already won the division and the best record in the American League is in the bag. Sabathia is your big stud for the playoffs. So he starts this game and your plan as a manager is to let him pitch five innings to get his work in and then get him out of there. But Sabathia does the unthinkable and pitches five perfect innings. Perhaps he has even struck out fourteen of the fifteen batters he's faced. He has a perfect game going and a chance to break the all time strikeout record in a game. Do you still take him out after five innings?

Heck no! It's history! He goes for the perfect game and stays in there to see if he can get history. Taking him out of there is what the Colts did to Peyton Manning and his team. The guys had thrown a perfect game to that point. They were 14-0. Do you think the Patriots would rest Tom Brady? Heck no. History is on the line here.

If a player is going to lose history, you let him do it himself with his own effort. If Manning went on to lose the game. Fine. At least he had his own shot at it and came up short. Everyone would have patted him on the back and said, "Nice try." But to take his shot at history away from him was criminal.

The Fan has always....ALWAYS rooted against Peyton Manning. Not because the guy isn't likable. All of his commercials seem like he is a fun guy. His work with his brother with young kids in Louisiana in the off season seems admirable. But the guy is a thorn in the Fan's favorite team's side. You just know the Colts are going to be there at the end and that they have to be beaten to get where a team wants to go. That's how good he is. That's how good he has been.

But Manning has been like Greg Maddux on the Braves. As good as he was, they only won the big prize once. The Colts have only won the big prize once during Manning's amazing career. But this year was a chance for magic. For history. This year was an opportunity for Manning to put a rubber stamp on the title of best quarterback ever. This year was his chance to shine brighter than Brady or Unitis or all the other great quarterbacks in history. And it was taken away from him. For what exactly? To keep him safe?

Please. The guy gets sacked and hit fewer times than any quarterback in history. He consistently has the best offensive line in football. There is a reason for that. If you give the best quarterback in the world time to go to work, he will kill you.

And there is a mind game at work here as well. The Fan used to be a really good bowler. Don't laugh, it was a lot of fun and very profitable. The Fan made enough money bowling to buy his first computer and a washer and dryer. The Fan had several runs at a perfect game (300 or twelve straight strikes). The Fan had started the game several times with ten straight strikes and was within two of getting there. By then the match is over, right? The other guy is just shaking his head knowing he is beat, so that isn't the issue. Since the match is over, should the Fan just throw the thing in the gutter?

Man, no way, the Fan felt like he could do no wrong. He felt on top of the universe. He felt like all the planets were aligned and all the practice and hard work had led to this. The Fan went for it. Never got there. Had several 279s which means that one pin didn't go down on the eleventh shot. But there was no way anyone was going to take that moment away.

The Colts took that moment away from their players. They took it away from their fans. They took it away from their opponents who saw them as unbeatable before the loss. The bottom line is that every participant in sports wants to control their own destiny and have a chance to make history. If things fall short, well that's sports. But Manning and company were denied destiny and it's terrible. For a team the Fan loves to root against, the Fan sure feels awful for them. It's not just a shame. It's a crime against sports.

Baseball is a Sport of Names

Football is king right now. The sport is at the epicenter of its season and it deservedly has our attention and our devotion. It's a great sport. There is nothing better than flipping on the television on a Sunday and watching a couple of great games. But again, football is a game of now. Its past does not resonate like baseball's past. Think that statement is wrong? Go to sportsblog.org or ballhype.com and count how many baseball blogs there are compared to football blogs. Perhaps that will change in the future. Baseball has always been a passed down love. Fathers and sons (and daughters too). The popularity of football may overtake that passing down effect. But for now, it is baseball's past that resonates with fans just as much as the present: much more so than football. One test of that theory is to think about names. Where is the Babe Ruth of football? The Lou Gehrig? Sure there is Johnny Unitis (isn't it telling that this writer isn't sure how his name is spelled?). Other than Bronco Nogorski (if even that is spelled right), the names of the football past don't bring smiles of recognition like baseball's past names.

That incredibly long and irksome opening paragraph was supposed to lead into a fond look at some old baseball names. Perhaps if you made it beyond that paragraph, you'll still enjoy this little journey. The Fan loves the game of baseball and this off season has already been fun to watch and the new season is out there beckoning like a spring basket for Easter. But let's take a little trip through some names that come to mind in stream of conscious fashion.

One of the all-time favorites is Harmon Killebrew. First, those of you who enjoy a brew now and then would love to kill a few here and there. But the guy was this big burly bruiser who could crush a baseball. So the guy could Harm you or Kill you or both. He was a killer. On the other end of the scale was Mike Pagliarulo. Of course, you just called him, "Pags." Pags had a couple of decent years, but his career was just like his name sounds--workman-like. Born in Medford, Massachusetts, Pags was just an every day joe who made us proud once in a while.

Who could forget the tandom of Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek? It was Kirby and Herby, remember? Puckett is remembered more because of his flamboyance, but Hrbek was a good player with a career 128 OPS+ and a career fielder with 15.7 runs above average. They were great and their team won the World Series.

How about Sandy Koufax? Sandy didn't seem to fit, but it came from his, "Sanford," first name. But what a name and what memories! And the legend goes on and on. How many Hall of Famers finished their careers with their best season?

All this writer needs to type is: "Dave Henderson," and many of you can picture him, right? That slouchy kind of run? That walk-off homer to win the playoff series? The way he flipped the ball after the last out of an inning? Ah yes.

Nothing else needs to be said after typing, "Yogi Berra," or "The Splendid Splinter," or "Ducky Medwick," or "Dizzy Dean," but how about Jerry Koosman or Ron Kittle or La Marr Hoyt? You can still picture them if you are over 35 years of age, right? If you are little older, the lights will go on if the names Jimmy Wynn, Denis Menke and John Mayberry are mentioned too.

The Fan knows you'll remember Dan Quisenberry and his submarine pitching. He used to pitch 140 innings a season when he was a closer. A career 140 ERA+ isn't shabby either. And all the Fan had to say was, "Quiz," and you would have known.

Of course, if you are as old as the Fan, you'll have a smile of a memory with the names of Manny Mota or Bob Veale. And all the Fan would have to say would be, "Jesus, Felipe and Matty," and you would know those three brothers, right? Isn't it great remembering they all played in the same outfield for the Giants?

If you are a little younger, you'll remember the great Brewers' team with Pete Vuckovich, Randy Lerch and Cecil Cooper along with Robin Yount of course. You might even remember Rollie Fingers as their closer. You might even remember the Toronto team of 1989 that came within a whisker of glory with Ernie Whitt, Fred McGriff (the Crime Dog), Tony Fernandez, Kelly Gruber, Dave Stieb and George Bell. And if you do, you'll also remember John Cerutti!

The Fan could go on and on. The point is that the past is alive for those of us who love this game. The present is a gas, but looking back is full of smiles and recognition. Yeah, the Fan can remember Bullet Bob Hayes and Raymond Berry and other football names. But they don't strike a chord quite like Mookie Wilson can.

Happy New Year everyone.

Holiday "Wishes"

It's probably too late to be making this list since it is Christmas Eve. You've got to give Santa a little more time than this. So let's instead make this a New Years wish list which better suits those of my readers that do not celebrate Christmas anyway. What follows then is a list of wishes for the new year.

The Fan wishes:

• That Bobby Cox can finish out his Atlanta career with a playoff appearance.
• The Cubs would make a managerial and general manager change because they are way off course.
• The Blue Jays have a breakout season from one of their new prospects to take the sting away from Halladay.
• The Royals make a leadership change because what they have isn't working.
• Zack Greinke has another outstanding year.
• Derek Jeter would get 200 more hits.
• Matt Holliday stays with the Cardinals so Pujols get something to hit once in a while.
• Hideki Matsui has a very good year. Thanks again, Godzilla.
• The Bay Rays finish higher in the standings than the Red Sox.
• Junior Griffey hits higher than .270
• Adrian Beltre has a terrific year. He played gamely with no shoulder for half a season and deserves it.
• David Wright would have a bounce back season power-wise.
• The Rangers or Mariners win the AL West.
• The Pirates or someone like them has a breakout season with more than 81 wins.
• Barry Zito would win 20 games and put an end to the miserable sniping about his contract.
• Someone would hit 75 homers in the post-PED era (supposedly).
• Strasberg would turn out to be the real deal for the Nationals.
• Kerry Wood has a good season.
• Matt Wieters becomes the player the hype predicted.
• Francisco Cervelli gets a chance to be the next Posada at the plate (he's already better behind it).
• Some old veteran would come out of the woodwork and put up an amazing season. Dontrelle?
• Joe Torre would get to one more World Series.
• Jason Marquis wins 15 or more games with the Nats.
• Scott Feldman would prove that 2009 wasn't a fluke.
• Josh Hamilton would come back strong professionally and personally.
• Burt Blyleven would get elected to the Hall of Fame.
• Mark McGwire would get elected to the Hall of Fame
• Fred McGriff would get elected to the Hall of Fame.
• Tim Raines would get elected to the Hall of Fame.
• Roberto Alomar would get elected to the Hall of Fame.
• Grady Sizemore has a strong comeback season.
• Mariano Rivera has one more good year. Couldn't bear to see him finally show his age.
• Peter Gammons is more accessible on MLB than he was on ESPN.
• The Brewers would have a monster year so we could see Fielder and Braun on national television more often.
• Dan Uggla is traded and forced to move off of second base.
• Joey Votto has another good year with no emotional issues.
• Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto can finally figure out how to be consistently awesome.
• Ozzie Guillen would have one meltdown too many.
• Adam Lind would has another great season.
• Wandy Rodriguez wins 20 games this coming season.
• Both Joba and Phil Hughes have good seasons.
• All of New York falls in love with Granderson's smile.
• Roy Halladay wins 25 games.

Here's hoping all of your wishes come true this holiday season. Enjoy and be safe.

Catching Up to the Hot Stove

A loyal reader told the Fan he was disappointed not to get a FanDome opinion of the latest moves in the Hot Stove season. Well...the Fan did point out that posts would be a bit sporadic until after Christmas due to company concerns. But, the statement is a bit flattering just the same. After all, when someone cares about what a writer says about anything is a good thing. So, okay, let's catch up a bit with some of the moves we've seen, starting with most recent to those further back.

This Fan is not thrilled with the recent Yankee deal netting Javier Vazquez for Melky Cabrera and prospects. It's not losing Cabrera that is a problem here. He became expendable ("fungable" in Rob Neyer's words) with the addition of Curtis Granderson. What is disappointing here is that the Yankees are back to trading good prospects for old players. Vazquez is 34. His best years have been in the National League. He already pitched unsuccessfully for the Yankees. He has a 12+ ERA in the post season. He just doesn't seem to fare well in high pressure situations. And, did the Fan mention that he is 34? This seems more like a 2003 Yankee move and we all know how those turned out.

The Cubs traded troublesome Milton Bradley to the Mariners for Carlos Silva. As usual, the Cubs got the worst end of this deal. Don't they always? Bradley at least has some recent history of success. Silva has been Illva for a long, long time. Way to go, Cubbies.

The big winner in the big trade was the Phillies. The Blue Jays lost an icon, and not a false one. He was a true hero and much loved in Toronto. Plus, by the way, he's been the best pitcher in baseball for eight years now. The Fan isn't a big fan of Cliff Lee. He has some dazzling moments and he has some clunkers. That goes for games during a season and for years in his career. Yeah, he was great in the post season. Yeah, he's a lefty. But if the Fan is a captain on CBS's Survivor, the Fan would always choose Halladay over Lee. Always. Let's hope for Toronto's fans' sake that the prospects turn out great.

The Yankees spurn Damon and sign Nick Johnson. Can Johnson play any outfield? Damon has never been a player to feel all gooey about. He swings and throws...ahem...like a girl. Apologies, but he does. But he's been an effective player for a long time. Johnson can't be depended upon. Then again, Damon seems to come up with a lame calf every other week these days, so maybe he was near done anyway.

Not since the Yankees traded for Goose Gossage the year after Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young has a situation occurred where a guy who wins the World Series MVP is allowed to walk away so easily. Where Greg Nettles once said that Lyle went from Cy Young to Syonara has a player gone from MVP (most valuable player) to MVP (moving van player). Hideki? Thanks for the World Series. Maybe you can get a better hairstyle in Los Angeles. Golly, you sure need one.

Speaking of the Angels, Bobby Abreu was worth only $5 million to them last year and is now worth $10 million per season for two more seasons? Good luck with that one.

Jason Marquis signed with the Nationals for two seasons. Say what!? Why would he do that? Didn't any contender want him? The guy has been solid for a long time. What gives there? Maybe the Nationals are on the rise. Who knows. Maybe Marquis knows something we don't.

The Braves signed Billy Wagner? Wasn't he retiring after last season? That's what all the stories about him said. Guess he went all Favre on us. Wagner might not be better than Soriano, who the Braves traded to Tampa Bay. At least not the Wagner in this stage of his career.

Meanwhile, the Mets have done diddly.

The Red Sox got Lackey. Is it okay of the Fan isn't overly impressed with that one? Lackey is decent, but he can be had and they way overpaid for him for way too long a period.

Coco Crisp signed a good contract with the Oakland A's. Why? The A's already have a good outfield. Crisp always seemed better than his results. Maybe this is the year he breaks
out.

Jason Bay hasn't signed yet. Is it the Fan or does it seem that most fans are hoping their own team doesn't sign him? The Fan thinks Bay is the Richie Sexson/Ron Kittle of this generation. The Cardinals, however, would be real disappointed if they can't get the Holliday deal done.

Oops. Got a customer. Talk to you soon.

One More Pitch for Burt Blyleven

Every year, Burt Blyleven is overlooked for the Hall of Fame. Jack Morris gets more buzz, but Blyleven was the better pitcher. The only knock on the guy seems to be that he didn't win any Cy Young Awards and he didn't get to 300 wins. But here is how Blyleven stacks up to some of the pitchers from the recent era who are in the Hall of Fame:

Don Sutton 324 wins, .539 WP, 3.26 ERA, 108 ERA+, 1 20-win season, 58 shutouts, 178 CG 1.142 WHIP 2.66 K/BB 6.1 K/9 2.3 BB/9 Led league in ERA once, Led in WHIP 4 times

Phil Neikro 318 wins, .537 WP, 3.35 ERA, 115 ERA+, 3 20-win seasons, 45 shoutouts, 245 CG, 1.268 WHIP, 1.85 K/BB, 5.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, Led league strikeouts once, ERA+ once, cg 4 times

Fergie Jenkins 284 wins, .557 WP, 3.34 ERA, 115 ERA+, 7 20-win seasons 49 Shutouts, 267 Cg, 1.142 WHIP, 3.20 K/bb, 6.4 k/9, 2.0 BB/9, Led league in victories twice CG 4 times WHIP once K/bb 5 times Cy Young 197

Gaylord Perry 314 wins, .542 WP, 3.11 ERA, 117 ERA+, 5 20-win seasons, 53 Shutouts, 303 Cg, 1.181 WHIP, 2.56 K/bb, 5.9 k/9, 2.3 bb/9, led league in wins three times, ERA+ once cg 2, IP 2, 2 Cy young

Burt Blyleven 287 wins, .534 WP, 3.31 ERA, 118 ERA+, 1 20-win season, 60 shutouts, 242 cg 1.198 WHIP, 2.80 k/bb, 6.7 k/9, 2.4 bb/9, Led league in WHIP once, Cg once, ERA+ once, K's once

Analysis: Blyleven is in the ball park in Winning Percentage with all of them. His ERA+ is higher than all of them. His Strikeouts Per Nine Innings is higher than all of them. He had more shutouts then all of them. His Walks per Nine Innings and WHIP are right there with them. Only Jenkins had a better Strikeout to Walk Ratio. Fergie Jenkins had a superior stretch of dominance, but less total wins. His Complete Games are in the same ballpark.

Some would say that Sutton and those would be marginal Hall of Famers. This writer says that they are in the Hall of Fame and as such are benchmarks. Blyleven deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. If those guys are in there, he should be in there.

The Twenty Best Seasons of the Past Ten Years

It's funny how us humans view time. Since it is 2009 and we are twelve days from the calendar turning to 2010, many writers across the land are creating lists covering the past decade. You'll see the Top 100 Plays, the Top 100 Athletes, the Top 100 Movies, etc, etc. We seem to be a decadal people who think in terms of tens. You won't see a list of the Top 100 Plays in 2013, for example. But you will again in 2019. Strange. But, as a writer, you go with the flow. So, in honor of the weird human race that goes for such lists at the end of each decade, here are Major League Baseball's twenty best individual seasons for the decade of 2000-2009.

Batting:

1. Barry Bonds - 2001: Obviously, Bonds is going to be on this list at least five times. It's still a sad fact that Bonds entered the decade with eight straight seasons with an OPS over 1.000 and still felt he needed to do what he did. If he had just stayed the course of his already magnificent career, he wouldn't be the pariah he is now. Between 2000 and 2004, Bonds put together five of the greatest seasons in the history of baseball. Color them how you will. Deflate them how you want. But the numbers speak for themselves. The real tragedy of the entire run? That National League managers were allowed to walk Bonds intentionally 284 times in those five seasons. That act of cowardice is almost as big a blight on the game of baseball as what Bonds allegedly did to get the numbers he put together. Of the five season run, 2001 was the record breaking home run year. His OPS and OPS+ were higher other years, but 2001 was the year he was allowed to do the most damage, and damage he did.

2. Barry Bonds - 2004: He led the league in batting at .362. His OBP was over .600 (Egads!) and his slugging percentage was over .800. The numbers are unbelievable.

3. Barry Bonds - 2002: Led the league in batting at .370. His 268 OPS+ was the highest of his career.

4. Barry Bonds - 2003: Limited to only 130 games with injuries, Bonds still finished with an OPS+ of 231.

5. Albert Pujols - 2008: We interrupt this Barry Bonds run to give you the other great player of the decade. Pujols was unbelievable the entire time, but 2008 was the best when he finished with a 190 OPS+ as he went an incredible: .357/.462/.653. It might be the best untainted season since Ted Williams.

6. Barry Bonds - 2000: The first year of the great run started with 49 homers. Was it his last clean year or his first dirty one?

7. Albert Pujols - 2009: As good a year as Bonds in 2000.

8. Albert Pujols - 2003: Pujols had 212 hits (before he started getting walked a lot), hit over .350.

9. Travis Hafner - 2006: Many today forget what an offensive force Hafner was in the middle of the decade. He is an afterthought now, but in 2006, his numbers were huge: .308/.439/.659 all adding up to a 181 OPS+. Remarkable season.

10. Alex Rodriguez - 2007: A-Rod was sick for the Yankees that year. He hit 54 homers, drove in 156 while scoring 143. He hit .314 and had an unbelievable .645 slugging percentage.


Pitching

1. Pedro Martinez - 2000: Looking back at Pedro's best season, it seems impossible that he lost six games. The numbers are eye-popping. His strikeout to walk ratio was 8.88/1. His WHIP was .737. He walked 32 batters in 29 starts. In an offensive era, it might be the best pitching performance ever.

2. Roger Clemens - 2005: Pitching in Houston, Clemens had a season that is totally incongruous with his Win/Loss record. He finished at 13-8 but led the majors in ERA and ERA+. How good was Clemens that year? He gave up only 151 hits in 211 innings and gave up only 11 homers the entire season.

3. Pedro Martinez - 2003: He was much better than his 14-4 record. He led the league in ERA, strikeouts per nine innings, WHIP and Hits per Nine Innings. His most unbelievable stat that season? He gave up only seven homers the entire season.

4. Zack Greinke - 2009: If ever a pitcher deserved a Cy Young, it was Greinke in 2009. He led the league in ERA, WHIP and Home Runs per Nine Innings. It was a phenomenal season.

5. Pedro Martinez - 2002: Yeah, it's hard to argue with a record of 20-4. He led the league in WHIP, Strikeouts, Hits per Nine innings and Strikeout to Walk Ratio. He also had the league's best ERA that season. Naturally.

6. Randy Johnson - 2002: Johnson was amazing in 2002. his 24-5 record is only the starting point. He pitched more innings, struck out more batters and faced more batters than anyone else in the decade that season. His run from 1999 to 2002 rivals only Pedro as one of the greatest pitching runs in history.

7. Randy Johnson - 2001: The Diamondbacks owe a large part of their World Championship on Johnson's shoulders. Only Nolan Ryan struck out more batters than Johnson's 374 that season. He also led the league that season in ERA and WHIP.

8. Johan Santana - 2004: In his only twenty win season, Santana led the league in ERA, Strikeouts and WHIP.

9. Chris Carpenter - 2009: After not pitching for two years due to injury, Carpenter came back and put together an incredible season. He went 17-4 and gave up only seven homers all season. He also led the league in ERA and ERA+. He should have won the Cy Young award.

10. Randy Johnson - 2000: Johnson struck out 347 batters while compiling a 19-7 record. He pitched eight complete games and led the league in ERA+.

Grabbing a Tiger By the Tale

The other day, the Fan's beautiful and sweet daughter told her daddy, "I'm sorry about Tiger. I know he's your favorite." After she was given a hug for her concern, she was told that it was the Fan's own fault. Our American penchant for setting up heroes is our downfall. People are people. They are unfailingly and unflinchingly imperfect. And yet, if you are like this writer, you buy the Nike Sumo driver and the Nike irons and a Tiger lob wedge and a Nike bag and shoes (the same ones Tiger wears) because you buy into the hero worship that goes along with our obsession with sports and movies and politics.

And really, the Fan should know better. It's not like there isn't a lot of history that has come before this little fiasco. Growing up, some of the most exciting sport events in history were the exploits of O. J. Simpson. The Fan idolized the guy and watched every game and bit of footage available. The man was the most beautiful and dynamic runner ever witnessed in the game of football. Then one day, the television was turned on and the police were in this odd, slow-motion chase with this white Ford Bronco. And we all found out that O. J. Simpson was the best running back in history, but not the best person.

The Fan spent nearly twenty years idolizing Roger Clemens and watching him grunt and grind his way into being the most dominant pitcher of his era. Pedro was better for a few years, but over the long haul, it was Rocket Roger. But he ultimately fell too with the PEDs and infidelity and the lies and everything else.

And those were not isolated incidents. Early hero, Mickey Mantle was very flawed as was John F. Kennedy and Wade Boggs and Joe Namath and Joe Pepitone and Rock Hudson and Rickey Nelson and a host of others.

Our problem is that we go beyond appreciating these people for their particular talents. We go beyond appreciating Tiger as the best golfer we've ever seen. We set them up as paragons of what we would like to be ourselves. That's the gist of it, isn't it? Wouldn't we have all wanted to be Tiger? Or Jeter? Or Simpson? Or Mantle? Or Marilyn Monroe? Or anyone else we have built up beyond their own humanity?

Instead, we buy into the pictures we are painted by a similarly rose-colored media and see an image that appeals to our senses of self-dreaming. The trouble is, nobody can live up to that except a few saints each generation that seem to overcome their troubled humanity. Mother Theresa comes to mind. But other than those few saints, we go beyond what we appreciate about the subject's skill level and we take it up to a hero worship.

And then our heroes turn out to be flawed, chipped and well...human. The media that spent so much effort making these people our darlings, suddenly turns into this snarling, self-righteous mass of buzzards swirling to take the very skin off of our fallen idols. And we read it all up in horror and yet fascination and our hearts sink on one level, but on another level glory in the fact that these people that we thought were so much better than us were really not.

And so we end up being wrong on both ends. First, our need to idolize a symbol of what we want to be sets us up for the disappointment. And then when the inevitable disappointment comes, we get all indignant about what has happened. Look, obviously what Tiger has done is wrong on many levels of our society. You don't get married, have kids and act like you are all gooey-family oriented and then run around with every woman you can afford. But how many of us, if we had that kind of opportunity and money and the lack of restraints would do the same thing?

But there is another funny thing that happens. Say you're Michael Jackson and you reach idol status and your nose falls off and you get caught (allegedly) playing with little boys. Then you fall from your pedestal and are reviled and ridiculed...until you die. Then, once you die, the Elvis, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mantle hero machine starts back up and the humans become idols again, this time dead ones. All Tiger has to do to beat this thing is to die, right? Let's hope and pray that he doesn't, but isn't the Fan right on this?

It's not like we need to by cynical. We just need to be practical. We can and should appreciate the skills our favorite players play with. We should admire the looks of our models along with the skills of our actors. But we need to keep in mind that they are mortals just like the rest of us. We don't need to be skeptical and think the worst of everyone. We just need to reign in our hero-building engines and simply be awed by what we see and watch without transferring that awesome ability to the person him/herself.

And when the media gets a hold of a story like this and glories in the feast of the ashes of our fallen hero's life, turn the other way. Turn it off. It serves no purpose but to make us all a little bit smaller, a little more petty and at worst, a people of hypocrites. After all, deep down, we knew they were human. Admit it.

Post Number 1000

Today, the FanDome celebrates its 1000th post. While that number has no significance in the world at large, it's still a milestone of sorts for this here Fan. In honor of the milestone, here are some facts concerning Major League Baseball that center around the 1000 number. Enjoy.

OPS and OPS+ seem to be the new benchmarks for stat-oriented people. While OPS+ has its detractors, OPS is pretty straightforward and it's simply a combination of On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage. It's funny how baseball stats get into language. For example, a person's batting average, if at .310, is always spoken as, "Three-ten." Nobody says that the batter is hitting 31% or, "Point three one zero." We say "Three-ten." The same goes for OPS. Barry Bonds has the highest OPS ever recorded when he posted a 1.4217 in 2004. Say what you want about how he got there, but that's a pretty incredible number. But we don't say that Bonds posted an OPS of, "One point four two one seven." We say that his OPS was "one thousand four two one seven." And so the stat fits the Fan's purposes and will work. There have been 389 seasons for players who finished with an OPS higher than 1.0000. Gary Sheffield is the only player ever to finish with an OPS of exactly 1.0000. He pulled off that rare feat in 2001. Of the top twelve OPS seasons ever, all of them belong to Bonds, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Bonds had four of the top twelve. Ruth had six of the top twelve and Ted Williams had the other two. The interesting thing about Ted Williams' two best OPS seasons? The first one was at age 22 and the second at age 38.

Okay, here is quiz #1: Which two players had a season in the top 20 OPS seasons of all time: Mark McGwire, Mickey Mantle and Jeff Bagwell? Answer at the bottom of the post.

There have been 220 players in MLB who have walked a thousand or more times in their career. Bonds holds the record followed by Rickey Henderson. Eddie Stanky just missed with 996.

Quiz #2: Which current player (defined as active in 2009) is in the top ten in career walks? Answer below.

254 players in major league history have struck out more than 1000 times. Shawon Dunston and Jeffrey Leonard ended their careers with exactly 1000. Four players have topped the 2000 strikeout mark: Reggie Jackson (2597), Jim Thome (2313), Sammy Sosa and Andres Galaragga (2003). If Mike Cameron plays regularly for two more years, he'll get there as will Manny Ramirez if he keeps playing. Alex Rodriguez is currently 18th on the list and sits at 1736. If he plays seven or eight more seasons, he has an outside shot of setting this record.

Quiz #3: Of the Top Ten in all time strikeouts, how many of the ten were true first basemen? How many of the others in the Top Ten played significant time at first base? Answers below.

Thirty-five players in MLB history have totaled 1000 or more extra base hits with Hank Aaron on top of the list with 1477. Jim Thome goes into the 2010 season with exactly 1000 extra base hits.

Quiz #4: What Hall of Famer is Ken Griffey Jr. currently tied with for extra base hits (seventh on the all time list)? Answer below.

Only one player in history has stolen more than 1000 bases. Of course it's Rickey Henderson. His 1406 stolen bases is a record that may stand forever.

Only four players in history have a career total of Adjusted Batting Runs over 1000: Babe Ruth (1388), Barry Bonds (1301), Ted Williams (1137) and Ty Cobb (1037). The only current MLB ball player capable of beating Ruth is Albert Pujols, who sits at 580 at the age of 29.

Only fourteen pitchers have made over 1000 appearances. Jesse Orosco is the record holder with 1252. Of these 14, only one, Hoyt Wilhelm, was not from the recent era. Just goes to show how the bullpen usage has changed over the years. Trevor Hoffman should hit the 1000 mark this coming season with David Weathers a good bet to get there as well.

Quz #5: The top three pitchers in appearances for all time are lefties. Of the following eleven on the list, how many pitched left-handed? Answer below.

121 pitchers compiled a thousand or more walks in their career with Nolan Ryan the all time leader with 2795. That's another record that may never be broken. Jim Bunning finished with exactly 1000 walks. No current pitcher has even the remotest chance of finishing in the Top Ten. Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson are 12th and 13th respectively, but don't figure to crack the Top Ten in the little time (if any) they have left.

Well, that's our celebratory list. And below you will find the quiz answers.

Quiz #1: Bagwell and McGwire
Quiz #2: Jim Thome (tenth place)
Quiz #3: Three - Five.
Quiz #4: Lou Gehrig.
Quiz #5: One. The rest were all right-handed.

Robert Leo Sheppard

[[switching to first person]] As many long-time readers may know, the Yankees were a big part of my childhood. From the dark years of the 1960s until I left New Jersey for New England in 1975, I spent many happy days at Yankee Stadium or watching the Yankees on WPIX Channel 11 on television or listening to the team on my transistor radio. The radio was a gift from one of my sister's boyfriends, a mechanic named Guy Grease (no lie, is that an ironic name or what?). The radio had the logo of the gas station and was shaped like their gas pump. I took that thing everywhere and loved listening to Phil Rizzuto, the wonderful Yankee announcer, and also gloried in the Knicks' championship years with Walt Frazier, Willis Reed and company. I loved that radio.

One of the constants through all those years, whether at the stadium, watching the game or listening to the radio was the imperious tones of the Yankees' PA announcer, Bob Sheppard. The guy did his job from 1951 to just a few years ago. That era spanned 4500 MLB games, 22 Yankee pennants and 13 World Series titles. Reggie Jackson once dubbed him, "The Voice of God," and it was an apt moniker. He was in a class of his own.

The thing about Sheppard is that he wasn't like many of the PA announcers over the years who gave an extra padding of excitement when they announced the home team players. Who can ever forget the way Kirby Puckett was announced in Minnesota? But Sheppard was imperious and mono-tonal and announced each player on each team the same. He truly was in a class by himself.

I could go in more detail about the man's life, but you can always find that here. The main point in writing this post was to just tip a Fan's cap at the life and career of a guy who never played a game, but who was as much a Yankee as any other legend that ever played in New York. We loved the guy, absolutely loved him. And what made him so grand was that once he started speaking, you just knew you were observing or listening to a Yankee game. Personally, Derek Jeter is the soul of the Yankees and their fans. He gets the heritage he is involved in and he gets the mystique of his uniform. It says volumes that whenever Jeter comes to bat, he insists on being announced by a recording of Bob Sheppard announcing his name. You've got that right, Jeter. Absolutely.

Bob Sheppard will turn 100 in 2010. He's lived a full and wonderful life and for an a guy who is a little more than half Sheppard's age, the "Voice of God" will forever be ingrained in the memory bank. He was first rate and pure class. And no matter what kind of team the Yankees threw out there and no matter what ugliness may have been in the clubhouse or in the front office, Sheppard made it inconsequential. Once he spoke, it was the Yankees and it was official.

Pettitte Gets a New Deal

Andy Pettitte will wear the pinstripes for one more season at least. He and the Yankees agreed on a one year contract worth $11.75 million. That's a raise over last year when he proved this writer and others wrong by having a great season and a great post season. Pettitte set the all time record for post season wins and won the clinching game in all three of the Yankees' post season series. Not bad for a pitcher this writer called mediocre a year ago. He was so mediocre that he saved the Yankees high paid buttocks.

The Fan is also warming up to the Granderson idea. He is a tremendous guy and should fit right in with a winning team. Last year could have been a one-fer and he could bounce back to the outstanding player he was three seasons ago. It still doesn't seem like a good idea to give up a top prospect like Austin Jackson (isn't that a great baseball name too?). And you have to feel bad for guys like Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner who will not ever get the chance to work centerfield for the Yankees. Gardner still seems to have promise, though he is not aggressive enough on fastballs in the strike zone. But man, can that guy run and play centerfield!

In the Fan's perfect world, Granderson would play left and Gardner would play center, but that will never happen. Gardner doesn't have enough buzz and probably not enough upside for the Yankees to give him 500 at bats.

Yankee fans should feel good about Pettitte coming back to their team and providing those 200 or so solid innings as the third guy in the rotation. It's a comforting thing, you know?

Brewers Get a Wolf in Sheets Clothing

The Brewers found out the hard way last year that losing your two best starters (Sabathia and Sheets) at the same time is a good way to kill a season. Determined to do better this time around in that department, the Brewers are said to have signed Randy Wolf (recently of the Dodgers) to a three year contract. For those of you who think this may be another Suppan-type boondoggle, the two pitchers (those similar in age) are nothing alike.

Wolf has a 108 career ERA+. He averages 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings good for a 2.29 K/BB ratio. Suppon has a 98 career ERA+, a 5.2 strikeouts per nine rate and a 1.62 K/BB ratio. Plus, Wolf seems to be getting better while Suppan has been regressing year by year. Of course, Wolf could get hurt or he could fall apart, but for now, this deal looks good on paper.

Plus, if you think Wolf had a great season because he pitched half his games in Dodger Stadium, he also pitched great in the little bandbox in Houston the year before. Wolf is an underrated performer and the Brewers did the right thing.

Does McGwire Really Need to Talk?

Whitey Herzog became the latest public figure to state that if Mark McGwire is going to be a coach of the Cardinals, he needs to be open about the past about McGwire's involvement with performance enhancing drugs. Jeff Passan wrote a column a couple of weeks ago about the same topic as have others. But does McGwire owe us anything? Heck no.

Look, we all know that McGwire was a part of that story. We also know that McGwire was using an at-that-time legal supplement during his historic home run year. The story was all over the place at the time. That substance has since been banned. We also know that McGwire refused to "talk about the past" when summoned to Congress during that body's hearings on the subject. All of those things are established facts. The much (and deservedly so) maligned Jose Canseco states unequivocally that McGwire was a user and we now know that Canseco was right about nearly everything he said. But does McGwire have to come clean to be a coach?

Why? What good would it do? He's already paid the price for his past by his Hall of Fame snub the past few years. He's already got a black mark next to his name. What will change by talking about what he did and why? He can't change the past. He can't change how he is perceived. He can't change his standing among the HOF voters. He can't change the minds of fans that are forever not in his corner. So, tell this writer what could be accomplished by him facing all that scrutiny? Nothing.

McGwire will be a coach if he is willing and he will probably be a pretty darn good one. Hey, at least he didn't perjure himself like Tejada, Clemens and Palmeiro did. He didn't lie. He just refused to incriminate himself. Last the Fan looked, that's a fifth amendment right in this country.

Look, Mark McGwire was one of this Fan's favorite players of all time. He personally helped this writer through a tough personal tragedy that historic year. That year is now suspect like all of the accomplishments of Barry Bonds in subsequent years. Those stains are hard to take and they are hard to forget. Baseball has moved on with tougher testing and more stringent investigating. We don't know if things are cleaner now, but they seem to be. Let's leave it all alone. Baseball seems to have learned its lesson. Isn't that enough?

When Whitey Herzog, Jeff Passan, Tim Brown and others have a press conference and admit to the affairs they may have had or the times they cheated on their taxes, then maybe McGwire can have a press conference to admit his sins. McGwire doesn't owe anybody anything just like Tiger Woods doesn't. Hey, people pay for their "sins" in many ways. Nothing comes for free and there are consequences for every decision. McGwire's career was cut short by his own enhanced muscles giving up under the extra strain. Isn't that a consequence? His usage maybe made him millions, but in the end cost him millions too.

All this talk about what national figures owe us as for explanations is frivolous. It is a public rubbernecking that we all need to look in the mirror about. This Fan doesn't care whether McGwire ever says anything. The Fan doesn't care if Barry Bonds ever says anything. The Fan doesn't care if Sammy Sosa ever says anything. The Fan only cares about making sure the sport is cleaner from here on out. That's it in a nutshell.

Granderson Going to the Yankees?

In what would seem to be a step in a backwards progression, a three-way deal has been rumored between the Yankees, Tigers and Diamondbacks. If the deal comes to fruition, the Tigers would get Austin Jackson from the Yankees and Matt Scherzer from the Diamondbacks The Diamondbacks would get Ian Kennedy from the Yankees along with Phil Coke and Michael Dunn. They would also get Edwin Jackson from the Tigers. The Yankees would get Curtis Granderson and prospects. While Granderson's stock has come down some from a pretty sub-standard 2009, Austin Jackson seems too high a loss for the deal. It would also break away from the Yankees' plan to build more from within. Jackson is by far their most prized prospect.

The Yankees refused to deal Jackson last year when they were looking for pitching help. Why change the mindset now to basically trade him even up for Granderson? Granderson is a fine young man and has had some really good seasons. But Jackson is a five-tool prospect and could be a star for years to come. Plus, for a good chunk of years to come, Jackson would be cheaper than Granderson.

And if you are the Tigers, why would you trade Edwin Jackson for Matt Scherzer? Granted, Jackson is expensive and the team could be cutting costs. But Edwin Jackson is a proven pitcher with an excellent arm. Scherzer had a good debut season with the Diamondbacks but is not a power pitcher and relies on control to stay in the game.

Austin Jackson hit over .300 last year in the minors and appears ready for a big league assignment. Again, the guy has five tools and could be great. Granderson shows occasional flashes of brilliance in between a bunch of so-so-ness. He can't hit left-handers.

The deal would make sense if Austin Jackson were not part of it. The Yankees feel they need a center fielder. Though this Fan believes that either Jackson, Gardner or Melky could get the job done. It would seem that any option of one of those three would be cheaper over the long run than Granderson and could potentially be more useful than the Tigers' center fielder for the past few seasons. Granderson would be a nice fit in a Yankee uniform, but that's not the point.

The point is that the Yankees said they wanted to develop their own talent and that their gutting of prospects for veterans was over. But not so fast. It's Deja Vu all over again. If Austin Jackson projects to be a star, why not put him out there in centerfold and see if he can make it as a major leaguer?

Post Script: The Fan was really wrong about Scherzer. Looked up his stats and he struck out more than nine batters per nine innings. That's a whole different kettle of fish and now the Fan knows that the Tigers got a steal and the Diamondbacks are nuts.

Polanco Not a Significant Upgrade for Phillies

Sometimes a player has a reputation that translates into a contract that is out of balance with his value. Such is the case with Polanco. Baseball Prospectus rates Polanco somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million but the Phillies will pay him over $5 million to replace Pedro Feliz at third base. While the Feliz non-tender was a good decision as he would have made a poor financial decision for 2009 under his old contract, the Phillies went ahead and replaced him over value.

Polanco is going to be 35 in 2010. The Fan is a bit hesitant to write this deal off after being so wrong about Ibanez's contribution last year. But this doesn't seem like a good idea for the Phillies. They may have been better served by waiting out the Adrian Beltre situation in Seattle. Beltre would have been a better fit.

Polanco showed signs of slowing down last year. His OPS+ was 88 or well south of league average. His batting average at .285 was his worst since 2003 and his OBP was his worst since 2002. He doesn't strike out very much, in fact, he is one of the hardest players to strike out in the league. The trouble is, he's also one of the hardest players to walk. He walked only 36 times in 675 plate appearances last year with translates to a puny 5.3 percent. Plus, he is shifting from second base, where he was one of the better fielders of that position, to third, which he hasn't played significantly for a decade.

Raul Ibanez made a lot of writers look silly this past year as he (particularly early in the season) gave the Phillies a spark after coming over from the American League. Perhaps this is a formula that can work for the Phillies to get an older player from the American League and find one more golden season out of that player before the inevitable slide into retirement. Perhaps the Polanco deal will prove out in the same mold as he is coming over from the Tigers. Lightening can strike twice. We'll see. But overall, this deal seems like a real gamble and the odds are against the Phillies getting their money's worth.

Brad Penny Takes A Risk

Maybe Brad Penny knows what he is doing. Maybe he'll get a multi-year offer from somebody for more than he's worth. But it seemed like he was in a good spot in San Francisco after a disastrous stay in Boston which followed a disastrous 2008 in Los Angeles. The Giants offered Penny a one year deal with incentives (according to this story), but he turned them down. It seems to this writer that having a good year with the Giants following his successful stint with them down the stretch would have re-established his value and would set him up for a better offer in 2011.

But that's not the way Penny played it. He turned the Giants' offer down which means he must feel there are greener pastures out there. Of course it is conceivable that desperate teams like the Astros, Brewers and others might get jiggy with it and offer him above-market value money and time. But that's a big hope. It didn't work out so well for Bobby Abreu last year. But Penny is a pitcher with some life left in his arm and that puts him in a different situation than just another corner outfielder.

But still, Penny went 4-1 with the Giants pitching in a pitchers' ballpark and finished his stint there with a 2.56 ERA. Those are great numbers. If he found a home there and a comfort level, there is no reason why he couldn't have built on that success and won sixteen games for the Giants. There would be no pressure on him as there are two great pitchers there ahead of him on the depth chart. If Penny could have won those 16 games building on his San Fran stint of 2009, then he would have been perfectly set up for a 2011 free agency run.

Penny is probably right that somebody will sign him for a couple of years with a hope and a prayer. Maybe Penny has parlayed this correctly. But the Fan doubts it will work out as well as it could have in the city by the bay.

Mariners Ink Chone Figgins

In a development that could seriously weaken the California Angels, Chone Figgins has apparently decided to sign with the Seattle Mariners in a deal worth about $9 million per year. The Mariners have not yet announced there intentions concerning Adrian Beltre who is in his option year with that team. The Mariners could still pick up Beltre's option, decline it or Beltre can also do either. Both Beltre and Figgins are fine fielding third baseman. Beltre is the more spectacular of the two. Figgins has some flexibility so if Beltre stays, Figgins can play elsewhere.

If in fact the Mariners are "replacing" Beltre with Figgins, the trade off isn't as positive as you would think. Would you guess, for example, that Beltre has the higher career OPS+? Would you also guess that Beltre is younger than Figgins? But Figgins is an excellent lead off man. But wait, the Mariners already have one of those. His name is Ichiro Suzuki. What are the chances that Suzuki will not bat lead off? Uh. None. So that takes away one of Figgins' strengths. He then becomes a powerless Number 2 hitter who will have Ichiro on base in front of him. The two can create havoc of course with the stolen base threat. But until 2009 when Beltre suffered from a painful shoulder injury that eventually required surgery, Beltre produced good power numbers over his career which the Mariners will miss.

The Fan thinks that Beltre is poised for a bounce back year, especially if he signs in the National League where he had some great years. Figgins is useful as on on base threat with good speed (his caught stealing rate did increase this past year) and can play a handful of positions. But there is a strong possibility that Beltran could be the more valuable player overall this coming year, especially if his shoulder is healed and he is again healthy.

The biggest thing this signing does is weaken what the Angels do. They rely on aggressive base running and good defense to keep them in the hunt in the AL West. Figgins provided both of those things the past few years for the Angels and was a big part of their success. Of course, it cannot be forgotten that he utterly tanked in the past few post seasons, but you have to get to the post season before you can think about who does well once they get there.

The Fan isn't sure if this is a good deal for the Mariners or not. Beltre is a good player, much better than he's given credit for. But he was expensive and he's had some injury in his history. Figgins should help clog the bases along with Ichiro. But what will the Mariners have behind them to drive the pair in?

Desmond DeChone Figgins is a fun player that can really spark a team. He is also 31 and should see his speed diminish over the length of this contract. Once his speed is gone, what else does he have to offer? Well, he should get on base his share of times, and that is always a good thing.

Scutaro to Sign with Red Sox?

According to the Boston Herald, the Red Sox have agreed to a two year deal with former Blue Jays' shortstop, Marco Scutaro, with an option for a third year. The cost of the deal hasn't been announced. Of course, with the Red Sox, the cost is irreverent as they have the money to spend. But this is a good deal for the right amount of length for the Boston team.

Scutaro might have had a career year in 2009. He had the most At Bats of his career. The Blue Jays put Scutaro at the top of the lineup and he responded with 90 walks, good for a .379 OBP. He scored 100 runs and played exceptional shortstop. He played so good at short, that he probably should have won the gold glove, with only ten errors and a RTOT well above league average. Scutaro also brings some flexibility as he can play the outfield and third. In fact, he's probably even more exceptional at third than he is at short (see his 39 RTOT at third in 2008).

There are two troubling things about the deal. Well, make that three. First, he is 34 and it seems unlikely that he is going to get better than he is. Secondly, he DID have a career year. His .282 batting average was far over his career .265 mark. Was 2009 an anomaly or can he repeat it this coming year. It certainly appears that he made a vast improvement in his pitch selection and it seems unlikely that this new found skill would diminish.

The third troubling part of this deal is that he couldn't have been terribly expensive, which makes one wonder why the Blue Jays wouldn't have wanted to sign him for a couple more years anyway. But you also have to wonder if the Blue Jays had any chance at signing him to begin with. First, Scutaro gets to go to one of the blue chip teams. Secondly, he gets a much better chance to participate in the post season. Lastly, he goes to a proven organization that just seems to be smarter than their counterparts. And also consider that if the money was about the same, the U. S. dollars are worth more (at least for the moment anyway).

The deal also brings up two other debates. First, Scutaro is a better player than any of the Red Sox' current shortstops, so forget the first debate. Forget the Fan mentioned it. But the other debate is where in the order Scutaro bats. The signing will bring up the age-old debate of if you'd rather have a high on base guy at the top of the batting order despite whether he has speed or not (Scutaro had 14 stolen bases in nineteen attempts). Scutaro isn't a catcher, and runs decently, but Jacobe Ellsbury stole 70 bases, but had an OBP 24 points lower than Scutaro. In the Fan's opinion, Wade Boggs was the second best lead off man in history behind Henderson and Henderson could run faster going backwards than Boggs could going forward. But, man, Boggs scored a lot of runs.

A player who gets on base is today's baseball nirvana. Everyone wants that and covets it. But it's hard to break out of the thinking that the lead off guy has to run like a deer. Ellsbury figures to get better plate discipline as he gets more experienced, but his walk rate did not increase dramatically this past year (7.0 percent compared to 2008's 6.7), so it does not appear that he grew any more likely to take a walk in his third full year. The Fan would start Scutaro at lead off and bat Ellsbury second.

This deal will give Blue Jay fans more reason to believe that the rich get richer in the AL East and it would be hard to blame them. But the Fan isn't convinced that Scutaro (not counting defense, where he is superb) will be able to duplicate his 2009 stats. History is not on his side.