Damon Backwards

This is probably pointless, because the chances atos is actually going to sign Johnny Damon are somewhere between slim and none, but I don't like the logic I'm hearing. I can't figure out if I heard from atos himself or in opinion at djf that the plan would be to bring Damon in on a 1-year contract, but I'm all against it if it's only one year.

Damon can't help anything next season, he's only going to get in the way. All he can do is play left field or dh, and there is already a logjam at those positions. Why bring him in to jam it up even worse? If all the many options in the lf-1b-dh logjam can't play at the mlb level, than this team has more problems than what Damon can fix. I can see locking him up as a cheap option for the years after 2010, when he might actually help as a DH, and putting up with a way to make him fit next season. Don't be his springboard to a bigger contract next season, let somebody else do that.

If you really feel the need to add a veteran name player for a season to "fire up" the fans, why not look at Jermaine Dye? He can at least play a position where they need some help, RF.

More good news on the McGowan front

It's been a while, so I'll start with the good news. I just have to say that I continue to be happily proven wrong by his progress, and I hope to continue be proven wrong. When he first came up again in 2007 I was worried he would never get over his 100+ pitches to complete 5 innings problem, and he did, so I hope he proves I've got nothing to worry about again.

Good luck Dustin. And I don't care if the Jays somehow manage to screw this up and lose you because you're out of options, I'll keep cheering.

Sometimes it's not OK to just be looking

I don't want to be demeaning, because atos is pretty much doing exactly what I said he should, and at least representing that he's doing everything he can, but the "looking" at Eric Gagne thing is a little silly. I'm all over Ben Sheets, but this is giving up the game. What exactly are you going to do with him even if he's back to 2004 form? You aren't going to sign him for more than a year, and even if he somehow finds a way to prove that he's awesome again on your lousy 2010 team, your only chance to get any value for the endeavor is to trade him. While he's trying to prove his worth he's probably eating up innings for future players who will actually help you post 2010. As crowded as the potential starting picture looks, the bullpen might actually be worse (and if 3 or 4 of the starters can actually find a way to be decent early in the season, nothing is going to get accomplished). How do you see what all those guys can do if you're trying to get Gagne every opportunity he's going to want. Then against all that you have to add in the chance for some pretty big media disasters.

Hey if you want to pay Ben Sheets a lot of money to suck this season, I can see him still helping out 3 or 4 years from now. Even if Eric Gagne pays you money to pitch and is great, I can't see how it helps.

Other than that I'm fine with the long list of minor league signings/invitees. Who cares but them and their families who want them to be employed in the their doomed search for a mlb career. I mean if your 30 year old kid was determined to pursue their PhD in Medieval Theatre are you going to tell me you wouldn't want them to have that Barrista job at Starbucks so you didn't have to foot the whole bill. Minor League ball is a lot more lucrative than that. And I can try and dream big for Shawn Hill, he's from my hometown.

NFL Divisional Playoffs and the Conference Championships

So the Divisional Playoff games were all pretty lousy, even the Bolts-Jets which went to the end seemed to lack something. I couldn't watch Ravens-Colts (I still feel the pain), but following on my BB it definitely seemed like there wasn't any drama at all, though it looked like there were some great plays from the highlights. Vikes-Cowboys was only good because Dallas was embarrassed, thoroughly, but that wore off pretty quickly. I won't say anything about Cards-Saints, except it was obvious it was over when the Cards' 2nd Cornerback went out.

The best part of the weekend I think was all that awesome analysis where the Cowboys were proclaimed Super-Bowl champions by everybody before the game, and then they didn't even bother showing up for it. I think it would be history making TV if every pre-game show played those predictions back to the guys who made them and then asked them to justify it. If I knew that was going to happen I would probably tune in. But since I got to see just about every "expert" on those shows be 100% wrong, I think I actually have something beyond total disrespect for them. After a performance like that, if you were right about everything for a year, I probably still wouldn't trust you. Good show football experts, you make the banks and government institutions running the US economy look competent. That's saying something.

Anyways, Conference Championships.

I can't see how the Jets can beat the Colts, even thought the Karma is strong for it. The Jets already beat one team that laid down to get them into the playoffs, it would be fitting if they did it again. The Jets played the perfect game plan to kill SD's season last week, but the Colt's have seen that play, they were beating the Jets before they shut it down in week 16, and there's not any reason to believe they won't do it again. Miami tried to run out the clock on Manning early this season and still ended up losing. Revis is awesome, but he can't cover all of Manning's options, and if the Jets try that, the Colt's can run if they have to. Anyways I can cheer the fact that Jet's fans can keep rubbing Pat's fans noses in it.

Saints-Vikes, I have no idea. I believe it's going to be the Saints because of the home field, but I'm cheering the Vikes the whole way, they are my only remaining pick. Hopefully it will be a great game.

Good news is I get too watch both of these, it's already planned.

Well that makes perfect sense

The Mets are acquiring Gary Matthews Jr.

This will of course be a total disaster for the Mets. You would think they would learn. Just write down a list of things that you think are a good idea and then DON'T DO THEM. This would be top 5 on that list.

h/t mlbtraderumours.com

Hmm now if I was going to sign a possibly superfluous and cheap Free Agent...

I think I would make it Johnny Damon. Maybe for 2-3 years even. He could DH and play left field, and yeah his defense sucks but the team is going to suck so who cares. He could provide some of that "veteran leadership". He could bat 1st or 2nd. And if the team is going to be any good in 2011-12 he might just be valuable as the kind of part they may not be currently developing in the minors and may not be able to easily get in the fa market. This especially makes sense if Overbay gets traded.

And he just might be cheap even though he is a Boras client, especially if you do offer him a year deal. 2+ an easy to reach option? Just thinking out loud.

McGwire and Steroids

I didn't want to comment on the whole McGwire steroids statement thing going on. I haven't read his statement and I haven't really done anything more than skim over any articles I've seen. From the political blogs I follow it might have been something of a controversy, there have been a lot of "histories biggest monster" jokes.  Apparently one of the Big 3 network newscasters even made some kind of a statement about it.

I've never posted my thoughts on steroids before, and I should probably do a fuller explanation some day, but basically I throw it in with the opinion of "cheating" I've had ever since I was a little kid. So what, cheatings part of baseball, and as far as I can tell everybody does, and if you say you aren't that makes me just about sure that you are.

I'm sorry if that might seem cynical, but I'm pretty sure it's true. I have always believed that every hitters bat was corked, and every pitcher was doctoring the ball. Why wouldn't you? Do you know why ballplayer's pants have those ridiculously huge loops? Because when they were normal loops infielders would hook their fingers in them to slow up baserunners. And how the hell is stealing signs "cheating"? Signals intelligence is just smart. Why are there umpires at all?

I could go on, and maybe one day I will.

Anyways back to the statement. I haven't read it, and since it doesn't say as far as I can tell: "I took steroids, there were no rules against it, and you can't prove I didn't have a valid medical reason for it, so suck on it!" then I don't care, because it's a lie. That's about the most honest anybody in this situation can be. When the players association and or the MLB actually come out and make that statement then I'll be ready to believe they are ready to honestly deal with the situation. Anybody who thinks differently needs to take a long hard look at how sports, society, the law and the medical profession really views steroid use, and then justify their bubble world.