• July 2008, Ben Sheets starts All-Star Game
• September 2008, Ben Sheets done for year with torn muscle in throwing arm
• January/February 2009, Ben Sheets agrees to two year deal with Texas pending a physical
• February 5, 2009, Ben Sheets needs surgery to repair torn flexor tendon in his elbow, likely missing all of the 2009 season

Well, that explains a lot, doesn’t it? I mean, we could all guess, from a distance, that there had to be SOMETHING precluding teams from taking a flier on him. Now, we get to watch Sheets try to stick the Brewers with the bill.

Really unfortunate.

From a new source, The Smoking Gun, comes a story tracing how the FBI managed to get their leads which eventually ensnared Kirk Radomski, the key source of the Mitchell Report.

For any of you reading here longer than a week surely knows, I have been openly discussing the next move of Derek Sanderson Jeter. His contract is up after next year. He will be 37 years old. He will likely be less than 100 hits from 3,000. He will no longer be even a mediocre defensive shortstop; he will be something worse. But no matter what he is as a player after the 2010 season, he still will be Cap’n Jetes, survivor from the Dynasty days, our Captain Clutch, #2. And moving on from that could be as painful and bitter an exercise as we’ll see, unless he initiates something.

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Jerry Crasnick has an interesting article about baseball’s “Madoff”, Scott Boras. It’s a few days stale but other than needing a minor update on Oliver Perez, it’s all factually intact. And worth reading, whether you hate Boras or simply don’t like Boras.

Not sure what to make of this. Big Red rightly praises the Sox management for beating Boras in the Varitek negotiations, getting Pedroia and Youk signed for long term and adding some reclamation projects like Penny, Smoltz and Baldelli. But at the end of this off-season, will the Sox fans feel good when looking at the gazillions the Yanks tossed at CC, Burnett and (Sox prime desire) Teixeira?

We are a couple of weeks away from pitchers and catchers, and the Red Sox offseason is difficult to grade. Seems like the Boston brass has racked up a lot of “wins” in the player payroll column. The Sox beat Jason Varitek and Scott Boras to a pulp. They locked up Dustin Pedroia for (‘scuse the expression) relatively short dough. They assured us that Youk is going to be here for a while. They took on reclamation projects – John Smoltz, Rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny – at safe prices. But is this prudent spending supposed to make fans feel better when the Yankees whip out almost a half-billion for Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett? The AL East (except for Baltimore) is going to come at Boston with killer starting staffs this year and the Sox seem to have a lot of easy outs in their lineup, especially if J.D. Drew drags down the middle with his annual two months of flat-line production.

…or something like that:

Tests that link Roger Clemens’ DNA to blood in syringes provided to investigators by Clemens’ personal trainer Brian McNamee could bolster prosecutors’ claim that Clemens lied about steroid use. But both legal and medical experts cautioned that the more difficult determination would be establishing the presence of performance-enhancing drugs in those syringes.
[...]
Craig Calcaterra, a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer who applies his expertise and baseball passion to a blog called “The Hardball Times,” said yesterday in a telephone interview: “There needs to be a second half to [testing] for it to mean anything. Since Clemens has admitted to taking B-12 shots from McNamee, unless they also can establish those needles were used for steroids or some other performing-enhancing drug, I’m not sure this advances the story.”

Nice work, Craig! For more on Craig’s take on this latest Clemens/McNamee slimefest, click here.

I’ve never been the biggest Wallace Matthews fan, but I think he’s spot on here:

Ya know what, Matthews is right. It’s time for Jeter to publicly support ARod, even if he has to grind his teeth flat to do so.

UPDATE (8:05am, 2/4/09): So Jeter’s now publicly supporting ARod. Good. It’s not exactly a warm and fuzzy call for a group hug, but it will have to do.

“We’ve been down this road before. Alex is a teammate. I support him. Our whole team is behind him. We all support him.”

“To be quite honest with you, it’s old hearing the same questions. It’s something that’s been addressed before in the past. Everyone’s moved beyond it. And it doesn’t really need to be addressed again.”

Something (amongst many others) that I just don’t understand, this time it’s Mets-ish.

Why would the Mets offer the maddening/inconsistent Oliver Perez $12 million a year for three years when they could take that same money and add BOTH Randy Wolf (or Ben Sheets) and Bobby Abreu (or Adam Dunn) for close to the same AAV?

I have to believe you can get either hitter on a one year deal for about $8m or so and the pitchers for about $5m (plus incentives). Even if each cost $8m, the Mets would be getting two values on short term committments and solving two problems, not one.

The Mets could use another OF in addition to the starting pitcher. Why not bust that $12m nut into two and solve two problems rather than get back into bed with Perez? I don’t get this. I’d MUCH rather have Wolf/Sheets and Abreu/Dunn than Perez. The Mets would be lauded as a great example of a team taking full advantage of the depressed market, getting two bargains for the price of one. And they’d STILL be well below their self-imposed luxury tax payroll threshold.

I don’t get it. But then again, that’s the Mets.

With Grisham moving on, Warrick dead and the miniature killer off the streets, the CSI gang is now devoting it’s time to testing Roger Clemens’ blood.

Of course, our favorite defense attorney, good ole boy Rusty Hardin, is already debunking the findings:

The Bonds stuff is bubbling back to the surface with the Giambi brothers testifying. Greeeaaatttt. Couldn’t be happier more sick of this stuff. Let’s hope that we can put it in our rear-view mirrors as soon as possible…at least until Bonds is HOF eligible.

From Jason Giambi’s previous testimony, pertinent to Bonds and his usage:

Giambi: “So I started to ask him: ‘Hey, what are the things you’re doing with Barry? He’s an incredible player. I want to still be able to work out at that age and keep playing. ” [But Anderson] didn’t ever talk about who he was dealing with, or what Barry was taking. He never explained anything.

“You know I assumed because he’s Barry’s trainer – you know, Barry – but he never said one time, ‘This is what Barry’s taking, this is what Barry’s doing.’ He never gave up another name that he was dealing with or doing anything with.”

We have a “presumed innocence” mandate in this wonderful country, but after all that we’ve read, heard, seen, I will forever believe that Bonds was only the biggest name of a huge swath of players who had been using some form of illegal PEDs to boost their performances.

I’m less concerned with the use of greenies as that upper has been used from the 50′s on thru today, by many of the players already enshrined in the HOF. That’s hypocritical but I don’t see that drug as a body-changing agent unlike steroids. I’m not suggesting that I am in favor of players going crazy on speed just to get up for the game, but it’s less egregious of an offense to me.

So when Clemens’ former trainer McNamee levied this charge (via the Dead Torre Scrolls), it came as no surprise and received little fanfare:

“I didn’t know one pitcher on Toronto’s team that wasn’t taking them when he pitched,” McNamee claims in the book. “it’s speed. Guys were ‘beaning up’ to play golf after workouts.”

There isn’t one name in the game over the last two decades who, if it came out he was using PEDs (steroids, HgH, etc.) that would surprise me. Not one name. I don’t think anyone is above getting sucked into the allure that these PEDs provided. I would be disappointed if some of the players who I admired turned out to be users, but no one would surprise me.

I just hope the Bonds and Clemens sagas quickly fade into the ether. I just know that won’t happen.

So who is that dastardly “scottboras.com” that Gammons was once complaining about? Well, if you believe Rich Lederer of the Baseball Analysts, it’s none other than Jon Heyman of SI.com.

If you’re wondering how Heyman got wind of the news before any of the Boston beat writers or columnists, be aware that he had Mark Teixeira going to the Yankees before anyone else and, according to his biography, also “broke the story of Barry Bonds going to the Giants in 1992…Alex Rodriguez going to the Yankees in 2004, A-Rod opting out of his $252-million contract in 2007 and Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers in 2008.“

Varitek. Teixeira. Manny. A-Rod 2x. Bonds, vintage 1992. Do you notice anything in common? Yes, all of these players are or were represented by Boras at the time of their signings. It is plainly obvious that Heyman, known among fellow writers as scottboras.com, is getting fed such stories by Scott himself, which is fine and dandy except there is more going on here than meets the eye.

You see, Boras throws Heyman a bone on a Tek or Tex signing but also uses him to spread rumors about the level of interest and terms in ongoing free agent negotiations to create a false sense of demand. Teams that fall for this trick wind up competing against themselves, which is exactly what Boras desires.

Rich goes on from there, analyzing seemingly every Heyman story, particularly the ones around Manny. Let’s just say it isn’t the kindest portrayal of the Heyman/Manny/Boras dryhumping reporting.

I had no idea that Selig had such a lucrative contract. And he has the stones to warn teams about spending too much when he’s collecting an $18.35 million salary? Good lordy.

According to tax filings obtained by the Sports Business Journal, Selig’s compensation climbed past $18 million for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2007. His $18.35 million salary in 2007 represented a 22 percent increase over the previous year, according to the trade journal.
[...]
In 2007, only four players (Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi) — all members of the New York Yankees — made more than Selig.

That’s absurd. I don’t even feel like making some “revenue sharing” joke. You can, though.

Still buried at work but I wanted to share these 10 reasons why baseball is better than football, from Richard Justice. Some are true, some are profoundly silly (ballparks, for example. He omitted the tailgate, which makes ANY event better). Have at it:

10 reasons baseball is better than football

1. Parity
   MLB has more parity than the NFL. This wasn’t always true. It is now. As the great Jayson Stark points out, since 2000, eight different MLB franchises have won the World Series. Meanwhile, seven NFL franchises have won the Super Bowl since 2000. Since 1970, 18 MLB franchises have won the World Series. Fifteen different NFL franchises have won championships in that span.
   
2. Skill level
   Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Throwing a baseball from 60 feet, 6 inches is the second-hardest thing. The NFL has some phenomenal athletes. None of them is as gifted as Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt.
   
3. Diamonds
   It’s still one of God’s greatest creations. It’s perfection on every level. Next time you walk into Minute Maid Park, take a moment to appreciate it. From the perfectly trimmed grass to the raked infield dirt to the chalked lines, it’s about the base place on earth to spend a few hours. No matter how bad a day I’ve had, stress flows from me when I see a big league diamond.
   
4. Ballparks
   Baseball’s worst parks are better than football’s best. If you’ve ever spent an evening at Dodger Stadium, you’d understand. It’s both tranquil and energizing if one place can be both. If you’re really lucky, you’ll someday stand on the right-field concourse at AT&T Park and admire the view of the bay, the odor of garlic fries, the majesty of the place.
   
5. Home runs
   Ever see Will Clark launch one? Or Junior Griffey? Lance Berkman? The home run is the greatest thing in sports. It combines a high skill level with amazing power. That instant when the ball is soaring out of the park is indescribable. Have you ever enjoyed anything more than Jeff Kent’s game-ending home run in Game 5 of the 2004 NLCS? Or Chris Burke’s 18th-inning shot that ended a 2005 NLDS series against the Braves?
   
6. Season
   A baseball season is perfect. As Bart Giamatti wrote, ”It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come out, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”
   
7. Cheerleaders
   Football has ‘em. Baseball doesn’t.
   
8. All-Star Game
   Baseball’s mid-summer classic is a celebration. Of great players. Of the game itself. Football has nothing even close. The Pro Bowl? Do they still have that?
   
9. MLBPA
   Baseball players have a union that has represented its members better than any other on earth. Baseball is better for having a strong, independent union. Pity the poor retired NFL players that have trouble having their gruesome conditions cared for.
   
10. Labor peace
    Thanks to Commissioner Selig, baseball has it. Football is headed for a shutdown in 2011.