It's Official---The Mets Are Unwatchable

• Mets 9-Nationals 7:

When Vinny Testaverde was playing in the NFL, his father was unable to watch the games

because he had a bad heart and got excited to the point that it was jeopardizing his health; I'm beginning to think that the Mets are going to be a proximate cause for some emergency room visits during the final week and a half of regular season play...*

*Did you know that former Van Halen frontman and failed radio talk show host David Lee Roth is an emergency medical technician? Can you imagine needing EMT assistance and seeing him standing over you?

This game was exhausting to watch and the players looked more relieved than happy that they managed to win a game over a team that's coming close to 100 losses. David Wright is a great player, but he sometimes gets into these gamelong funks in which he looks like he needs the jaws of life to extract his head from his posterior. In the top of the ninth inning, with runners at first and third and one out, he swung at a ball that was around neck high to strike out. Given that the score was 9-5 and the bullpen is in such disarray, wouldn't it have behooved Wright to choke up on the bat and try to smack the ball the other way for one at bat? I understand that's not the general job description for a number three hitter

and no one's asking him to move his hands up Jack Perconte-style six inches above the handle, but there's a time to try and whack one out of the park and there's a time to just make contact. Then he goes out on the field and, clearly thinking about and beating himself up over his failure at the plate the previous half inning, threw a ball in la-de-da fashion to first base on Lastings Milledge's routine grounder and gave the Nationals an opening that could very well have cost the Mets the game. Then there's Aaron Heilman...
It's at the point where manager Jerry Manuel can't put Heilman into any game unless the lead is eight runs or greater. This is not the time to be concerned about anyone's feelings and with the way he's performed in the bullpen over the past two seasons, the Mets are going to have to make a decision on whether to trade him or move him into the starting rotation; as for right now, he can only be used in an emergency or a major blowout. Al Reyes has been with the Mets for two weeks and hasn't gotten into a game; while I

understand that Heilman is above him on the totem pole, last night was a perfect game to put Reyes in and see what he's got. The same thing with Robert Parnell. I'll be stunned to see Heilman in another important game for the rest of the season.
This was an escape more than a win and the Mets are going to need Johan Santana to keep his pitch count low and go very deep into the game tonight not just to rest the bullpen, but because the majority of the bullpen's confidence is so shot that they can't be trusted to even hold the most comfortable of leads. They're facing a pitcher for the Nats in Tim Redding, whom they've had trouble with; but with Jose Reyes playing like he'd had a couple of Red Bulls and Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran hitting, the Mets are going to have to score early and often even with Santana pitching because they can't take any chances. (Incidentally, Delgado consciously altered his swing to try to drive an insurance run in the third inning, something Wright should take to heart.)

• Detroit 17-Texas 4:

Despite the unprecedented occurrences of two safeties to account for Texas's four points, Detroit executive Matt Millen celebrated the victory by saying, "See? Executiving isn't all that hard." Following the game, he was rewarded with a thirty-year contract extension.

• Brewers 6-Cubs 2:

Ben Sheets is a great talent, but what's his problem? In a game that the Brewers absolutely, positively had to win; with all the turmoil going on around the team after the managerial change amid a collapse; and with C.C. Sabathia having lost the night before, Sheets pulls himself out of the game after two innings with "forearm tightness"? He leaves a game that could possibly break the Brewers season if they lost it and lets their shaky bullpen bear the brunt of that pressure?
I'm not questioning someone else's injuries; nor am I saying that Sheets is imagining these maladies, but what must his teammates think of him after he pulls something like this only two weeks after yanking himself from a game against the Mets after five dominant innings in a game the Brewers eventually lost and served to start the current tailspin? What do the players

around the rest of the majors think when they watch SportsCenter or read the game recaps and see that Sheets pulled himself out of another game? It's going to be interesting to see who ponies up the cash to sign Sheets long-term after the season because with antics like this, he's a major risk to be the next Carl Pavano or Erik Bedard.
With all of this baggage, a team considering Sheets might be better off going after someone like Bronson Arroyo, who doesn't have half of Sheets's talent, but goes out there and pitches no matter what without complaint; teammates appreciate and respect that far more than they admire unused talent. If Sheets is begging out of games now as free agency is weeks away, what's going to

happen when he has an $80-120 million guaranteed contract to fall back on? Then how many injuries are going to crop up that are going to limit his innings and give him the excuse to pull himself from games? I said a couple of weeks ago that I'd risk signing Sheets with the idea that he'd find his groove and stay healthy with a different organization, but after this September display, I can't in good conscience recommend that any team risk such a huge amount of money on such a soft pitcher.

• Is this the time to be blogging?

I'm trying to imagine what none other than George Steinbrenner would be doing if one of his top baseball "experts" were sitting around blogging about his team as they're marching inexorably towards 100 losses, but then George would've fired the entire staff months ago. I

know what I would tell our old friend, Padres executive Paul DePodesta, regarding his blog, and it'd go something like this: "You have a choice, you can either work here in the baseball department trying to fix this mess you helped create, or you can sit around and write a blog; if you wanna work here, then work here and take that laptop and fling it out the window. Otherwise, beat it. Let me know by the morning what you wanna do."

• Sean Hannity's interview with Governor Sarah Palin:

I only saw bits and pieces of it, but from what I did see, Hannity looked as if he were seconds away from yanking Sarah's shoes off and giving her a foot massage.

Ah, The Brilliance

I posted the following statement in my blog entitled Ghosts Of 2007 Or Just A Late-Season

Slump? at 8:38 AM on September 17th:

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sheets pull himself out of the game somewhere between the third and fifth innings with one of his maladies.

And this was reported by ESPN this evening at 9:16 PM while the Brewers-Cubs game was still going on:

Milwaukee Brewers starter Ben Sheets left Wednesday night's game against the

Chicago Cubs after only two innings because of right forearm tightness.

With foresight of this kind, it's only a matter of time before I am no longer the Prince and am elevated to KING!!! I can't wait. It's good to be the King.

Will Ned Yost's Firing Save The Season For The Brewers?

*Truth be told, I had to delay commenting on this development because I had to finish cooking

a lasagna.
**Yes ladies, not only am I a writing genius and great lookin', but I can cook too. Drool at will.
***And if anyone's getting any ideas, my fiancee just started to learn kickboxing.

The Brewers must have felt as if they didn't have a choice and it's better late than never. Had they let Yost manage the rest of the season, it's highly unlikely that they would've been able to navigate their way out of this tailspin and Yost would've been fired after the season anyway, so it makes sense to do it now and try someone else to save the season.
It's water under the bridge to continually second-guess Brewers GM Doug Melvin for keeping Yost after last season (and signing him to an extension!) and not firing him earlier in

this season. In all fairness, Yost didn't build that bullpen, but he did allow the players to get away with fistfighting in the dugout and openly disrespecting him by challenging his handling of the players (that was August, 2007 after which it would have been a better idea to dump Yost). With the deal they made for C.C. Sabathia and the likely last two weeks in a Brewers uniform for not only Sabathia, but Ben Sheets as well, something had to be done. Bench coach Ted Simmons was re-assigned in the organization along with Yost's firing and I'm going to guess that Simmons (a quirky intellectual, and a very smart and loyal guy) was asked to take over as manager and refused, so that leaves them with Dale Sveum.
Sveum was a journeyman player for twelve seasons before managing in the minor leagues for the Pirates and accumulating a 213-211 record over three seasons. He coached third base for the Red Sox (I vaguely remember complaints being lodged about his penchant for

waving runners home to get thrown out and his lack of skill at the job); then left to be the bench coach and later third base coach for the Brewers. He's in a no-lose situation taking over for Yost because it's either going to work and the team is going to make the playoffs; or it won't. If the team makes the playoffs and Sveum doesn't make any egregious strategic gaffes, he'll get a contract to manage the team next season; if they don't make the playoffs, they're going to be looking for a new manager with a vastly different and weaker team next season.
Will this work? It's impossible to speculate. It's now on the players' shoulders because the manager they weren't playing for is gone. Yost had to go and twelve games remaining or not, the Brewers had to do it now; but will the players respond to Sveum and turn things around in this short time frame? It's convenient that Yost was fired now just as Sabathia is scheduled to pitch tomorrow night against the Cubs, but I don't believe that there was any pretense to the firing; it wouldn't have mattered who was pitching against whom after this non-competitive debacle that the past weekend was for the Brewers in Philadelphia against the Phillies. The players are either going to feel liberated from the constant speculation about Yost's managing skills, or they're going to continue to mail in the rest of the season playing as embarrassingly bad as they did over the weekend.
Their schedule has three games with the Cubs in Chicago starting tomorrow night; three

with the Reds in Cincinnati; then back home for three with the Pirates and the final three games of the regular season with the Cubs. This favors them after the next three days because the Reds----as dangerous as they are and even though they're still playing hard----are a team the Brewers should handle; then the Pirates are playing out the string and the Cubs will have clinched everything they can clinch by the final weekend; their manager Lou Piniella will be resting his regulars for the playoffs at that point. Worrying about what the Phillies and/or Mets are doing won't help the Brewers one way or the other if they don't take care of their own business and win some games. Even though it was six to twelve months too late, firing Yost was the correct move and the only chance the Brewers have to turn things around while there's still time. And they are tied for the Wild Card lead, so if they win, they'll get in. If not...

By Monday, Both The Mets And Phillies May Be Heading For The Playoffs

• Phillies 6-Brewers 3:

The one game the Brewers had to win was last night's; everything else for the rest of this

series was built on that. They had Ben Sheets going; they were facing a gutty, smart, but hittable pitcher in Jamie Moyer; and the Phillies were desperate and reeling knowing that they'd just lost two straight games to the Marlins and were in danger of falling five games behind the Mets in the loss column, which, last year aside, would have likely sealed their fate. Now it's official, the Brewers are in the midst of an implosion and they're going to miss the playoffs.
Despite the obvious flaws of the Phillies, they never quit. As was proven last year, they're going to fight until every last ounce of blood and sweat is left on the field; is the same true with a Brewers team that is taking on the same tight, petrified countenance of their manager, Ned Yost? After last night's favorable pitching matchup, the rest of the weekend is probably going to have at least two games in which the scores resemble something that would be analyzed on ESPN College GameDay instead of Baseball Tonight; and with the way the Brewers bullpen has detonated so many games, they're going to be in big trouble if it's close going past the seventh inning.
If Sheets wasn't able to hold down the Phillies lineup, what chance do the likes of Manny

Parra, Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan have in Citizens Bank Park? The Phillies pitching isn't all that much better, but with Cole Hamels going tonight, they have the advantage; and Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick aren't going to just give in to the Brewers bashers; plus this is a case where Phillies manager Charlie Manuel's quick hook and overuse of his bullpen will be an advantage because the Brewers won't be able to win a battle of the bullpens.
The Mets have a Braves team that doesn't have the manpower or wherewithal to be able to win more than one game this weekend; if both the Mets and Phillies take care of business, both are going to be ahead of the Brewers and both are going to be in great position to make the playoffs.
And what of the Brewers? They're going to have some tough questions to answer after the deadline deal for C.C. Sabathia; after they were rolling along and looking not only like a team that was going to make the playoffs, but a team that was primed to do serious damage in the

playoffs. I don't know any team that would want to have to deal with the prospect of Sabathia and Sheets in a short series as both are looking to pad their resumes to make even more money in free agency this winter. At this rate, with the Phillies and Astros right behind them and closing fast, they need their back of the rotation pitchers and powerful lineup to step up and carry them home; considering the way they're playing, it doesn't look like it's going to happen and this is to the advantage of both the Mets and Phillies, for whom the road to the playoffs may not have anything to do with one another after all.

• I got the skillz to pay the billz and Canada's Most Wanted:

I suppose I'll take it as a compliment that so many Blue Jays fans who've gotten all riled

up over my cold-blooded and accurate assessment of their team of the past and future think I'm an embittered Yankee fan. If anything's an indicator of my writing skills and an ability to stay neutral, it's that. To adjust a quote Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm (before it got really annoying), "I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish!"; I'm embittered, but it has nothing to do with being a Yankee fan; in fact, I'm a Mets fan, for which I think I have an ingrained right to be embittered. Good thing I didn't say anything about the Maple Leafs. (Be on the lookout for the man on the right, he's extremely dangerous and devastatingly good looking.)

• Governor Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson:

The interview hasn't played yet, but the main points are already out in the media. The objective truth about the interview and Gov. Palin herself is that the country is running the risk

of electing as the Vice President for a 72-year-old man what amounts to a pretty version of George W. Bush from the year 2000. Charming, likable and ingratiating herself to the religious right with conservative values, references to God and vague populist talking points, Gov. Palin stays on message to a remarkable degree while clearly knowing very little in depth of what she's talking about.
Those main points----war with Russia is an option to protect Georgia; she was quoting Abraham Lincoln during that speech in her church about God and the Iraq war; she hadn't the faintest idea what the "Bush Doctrine" is and what it entails----are frightening to those that are in stunned disbelief of the idea that she's capable of taking over as the President of the United States on a moment's notice.
Does she really believe that a war with Russia, which was avoided during all those years of the Cold War, is an option while this country's military is trapped in the Middle East? Is she suggesting military action to protect a small republic that is, in truth, of little import to the United States? Does John McCain believe that?
Is she expecting the public to think that she was studying the speeches of Abraham Lincoln to find quotes when referencing God as she discussed the Iraq war?
The sheer look of panic as her brain was searching for a way to stickhandle (let's use a hockey term for the hockey mom) her way around the question without having a viable answer or even a passing knowledge of what the "Bush Doctrine" is was frightening and painful to watch.
The slogan for the McCain/Palin ticket is "Country First". Is it in the country's interest to put a 72-year-old man into the oval office with another version of George Bush as his VP? As

Barack Obama says, it's enough. Enough with the bullet points; enough with the populist speeches designed to attract the masses; enough with someone who doesn't know what they're doing and tries to pass off being able to "see Russia" from the Alaskan soil as foreign policy experience. And for those that are ready to say that she has as much experience as Obama, she doesn't. Obama has been running for president for almost two years now and, with all due respect, I find it very difficult to believe that Gov. Palin is as smart and skilled as Obama. There's a very real possibility that she'll have to step in and be president very quickly and that is something that cannot be risked.
I'm very concerned that the Obama campaign is not hitting back as hard as they should against the republican campaign strategy for fear of being labeled as "sexist". If anything should awaken the voting public of the danger of having someone with no experience whatsoever as a possible commander-in-chief, it should be the anniversary of September 11th.
Amid all the remembrances should be the scene of President Bush, sitting in that school classroom for seven long minutes after being informed of the attacks and not having the faintest idea of what to do. As much as it's been spun with varying stories of the president not

wanting to alarm the children; of deliberating what to do next; of whatever reason they give for his lack of action and look on his face of sheer confusion and panic, does this country want to run the risk of putting another person of flimsy qualifications and questionable knowledge in that position? This has to be pointed out for what it is and the democrats have to take a page from the book of the republicans and point out these hard facts that the interview Gov. Palin hammered home.
The same mistake that the Gore campaign made against Bush cannot be made again. All along, I think the Gore people looked at then-Gov. Bush and thought that the public can't be taken in by this; they can't think that the Bush name recognition, support of the republican base and his likability will mask his complete

inadequacy and unpreparedness for the job. They were outhustled; they underestimated the message of Bush as it was presented in simple and easy to understand well-articulated bullet points that were designed to attract swing voters who were sick of the Clintons. They shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders and thought, "no one's gonna buy this crap", and they lost. The Obama campaign is still in a great position, but they can't repeat the mistakes of the past by being gentlemanly, because if Hillary Clinton were on the ticket, the republicans sure wouldn't.

The Mets-Phillies Day/Night Doubleheader May Help The Mets

• Phillies 6-Mets 2:

With post-traumatic memories dancing in the heads of Mets fans as the team lost their second

straight game to the Phillies, there are many differences between the collapse of 2007 and what's happening now in September of 2008. Last season, the Mets had been an average (at best) team from early June until they fell apart at season's end; this season they've played like men who were released from prison since the firing of Willie Randolph. (This isn't an overt reflection on Randolph; the questions about the manager's job security were just as stifling as Randolph's and pitching coach Rick Peterson's presence.) Last season, they'd spent just about the entire campaign in first place; this season, they've gone back and forth with the Phillies since getting their house in order with manager Jerry Manuel and pitching coach Dan Warthen. Most importantly, the Mets have Johan Santana pitching the second game of tonight's doubleheader----the exact type of game he was acquired to pitch.
The one thing missing from the Mets last season was that ace who they could give the ball and say, "carry us home". With Santana and his cachet, that is no longer an issue. Even with

John Maine and Oliver Perez winning 15 games apiece last year, there wasn't that one guy that the team could count on to give them a winning performance regardless of the circumstances.
Another issue that is an advantage for the Mets is that even though they've lost the first two games of this series and seem to have forgotten their bats in Milwaukee, losing the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday and trimming the lead to one game won't be seen as the panic-stricken tragedy that it would have been with the tightly wound Randolph at the helm; with the dearth of the one guy they could count on to go to the mound and deliver the goods; and without the newspapers, talk show imbeciles and everyone else going into conniptions at the mere thought of another September swoon. This may be the most important factor of all.
Part of the reason the team collapsed so completely last season, I think, was because the players heard the whispers of the fans, talk shows and newspapers wondering when the team was going to wake up. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy and everyone, from the front office on down through the entire organization, looked to someone else to get the job done and as a result, everyone played tight and tried not to screw up instead of doing their jobs. Even as they've lost the first two games of this series, the worst case scenario is that they and the Phillies will be all even with twenty games left; that would've looked pretty good early in the season given the way they played under Randolph until he was fired.
Having the break between games and not having to answer a million questions about why

the Phillies have the hex over the Mets in September; not having to go home and sleep with the feeling of impending doom that permeated the organization last season; not having to read the newspaper accounts of another Mets September stumble before heading back onto the field, and being able to get right back out with their ace on the mound is a huge advantage for those that are still seeing the nightmare of 2007 everywhere they look.
Mets fans are inherently pessimistic and paranoid (with good reason), but if they go out tonight and get what they're paying for from Santana, the combination of no remaining games against the Phillies (unless there's a one-game playoff or they both make the playoffs) should give the entire organization and fan base some breathing room to not worry about what happened in 2007 and move forward. All the pieces are in place to put 2007 to rest once and for all and it starts on the valuable left arm of Johan Santana and is being assisted by this day-night doubleheader.

• Whither Ben Sheets?

I've gone on about wondering where Ben Sheets is going to end up after this season ad nauseam, but after last night's performance in which he dismantled the Padres I have to keep

asking: which team is going to ante up the cash on Sheets's potential and not worry about his propensity for getting hurt with various injuries to just about every single part of his body. The most important question that the interested teams (and there will be many) is how high they're willing to go to get that potential and if they're confident that he's going to be able to get out on the mound on a regular basis.
Is Sheets going to become Chris Carpenter, who overcame injury after injury with the Blue Jays, got healthy with the Cardinals and won 36 games over two years and won the Cy Young Award in one season and finished in third place the next year? Will he become Jim Palmer, who went 15-10 in his first full year in the majors during the Orioles 1966 championship season then missed most of the 1967 season with injuries; spent 1968 rehabilitating and became a three-time Cy Young Award winner and a Hall of Famer upon returning to the majors in 1969? Or is he going to be another Carl Pavano, who received a giant contract and couldn't stay healthy? (It's very interesting how Pavano is now blaming the doctors for his woes----NY

Times Article, but I digress.) It's a big commitment that a team is going to make for Sheets with a massive risk/reward.
Sheets's teammate with the Brewers, C.C. Sabathia is putting himself into position to not only steal the National League Cy Young Award from Brandon Webb in just three months of work, but to make an even larger haul than Johan Santana got from the Mets. As for Sheets, the losers in the Sabathia sweepstakes will be calling him as a backup plan and he'd be smart to wait and see where Sabathia winds up before signing anywhere. If I were an executive for one of the teams that has the money to give Sheets the $110+ million he's going to want (and get), I'd possibly be staking my job on whether or not he's able to stay healthy for the 5-7 years of his contract.
If I were advising someone like Omar Minaya or Brian Cashman (if he's still with the Yankees), my recommendation would be to take the large chunks of cash that are coming off the books and invest it in Sheets; the change in scenery and different training staffs and medical teams might keep him healthy and he's one of the best pitchers in baseball when he's able to get out on the mound. My gut instinct is to take the risk because Sheets is Hall of Fame good when he's at his best and a 2009 Mets rotation, for example, with Santana, Sheets, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey would look very intimidating as they came into town. It's a big risk, but my gut feeling is that he's going to be worth it even with his aches and pains.

• Enough already with the moaning and complaining about C.C. Sabathia's lost no-hitter:

Buster Olney linked an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in which Tom Haudricourt suggests that Major League Baseball institute a fifth umpire to score the game so another incident as happened to C.C. Sabathia and the no-hitter that wasn't doesn't happen again----Article. This reminds me of the scene late in the movie Interview with the Vampire in which Lestat, the Tom Cruise character, hears a tape of Louis, the Brad Pitt character complaining

about his life as a vampire and asks interviewer Christian Slater:

Lestat: Oh Louis, Louis. Still whining Louis. Have you heard enough? I've had to listen to that for centuries.

It wasn't as if Sabathia had a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning and saw it snatched from his grasp by a bad call. It was a fifth inning judgment call that I've already said that I disagreed with; but what's done is done. All the Brewers have done since this happened is complain about it. They petitioned the league for a scoring change and were rejected. Now, these articles that are being written about it and it's enough. Sabathia wasn't all that bothered about it, so why can't everyone just stop whining and let it go. Can everyone move on with their lives please?
Am I alone in not wanting to hear about it anymore? A drastic change has just been made to the way umpires call the game with the installation of instant replay, are they supposed to add an umpire just so an official scorer won't be able to "steal" a no-hitter that may not have happened anyway? Baseball scoring has been done this way pretty much since the game began and a change isn't necessary because of one call that didn't go the way people with a vested interest in the outcome wanted it. I just don't want to hear about it anymore. (That being said, I might be swayed if the Brewers continue to whine, moan and complain because anything that puts a stop to this silliness is good enough for me.)

The Greatness Of Ben Sheets/The Risk Of Ben Sheets

• Mets 4-Brewers 2; why Ben Sheets is baseball's biggest free agent prize/risk:

The biggest risk this off-season won't be made by whichever team signs the likes of C.C.

Sabathia or the likely free agent A.J. Burnett; the biggest risk/reward will be made by the team that signs Ben Sheets of the Brewers. Yesterday's game was a microcosm of Sheets's career as he was unhittable for five innings against the Mets, using his Greg Maddux-level control along with a mid-90s fastball and a wicked curve to make the Mets look like they were an inning away from waving their hands at the field, shaking their heads, putting their bats away and going back to the hotel. Then after the fifth inning, Sheets was removed for a pinch-hitter because of tightness in his groin, the latest in a long line of injuries to just about every single part of his body going back the entire length of his career. The Mets eventually capitalized on the Brewers bullpen weakness to win the game.
Teams that are in the market for a starting pitcher after this season and have the money to pay for a pitcher of Sheets's caliber are going to have to think long and hard about whether or not to take the risk of $100+ million on a pitcher who has that ability but medical history. It's a positive that Sheets has made 27 starts this season after making a maximum of 24 in the past three years, but that can be accounted for by his impending free agency and a desire to prove that he's durable enough to make such a massive investment.
Are the Yankees going to be willing to roll the dice on another high-end talent just as they're getting out from under Carl Pavano's contract? Are the Mets going to want another $100 million pitcher in their rotation? There's been talk of Roy Oswalt openly recruiting Sheets to come to the Astros; and there are always the Angels, Red Sox and Dodgers who have the money to spend. The teams to watch are the ones who lose out on Sabathia because it would drastically increase Sheets's paycheck if a team is desperate to add starting pitching and Sheets is the only big name left on the market.
The biggest problem with Sheets is that he's got that incredible potential and is only thirty-years old, so if he goes to that new team and suddenly finds some durability, he could be a perennial Cy Young Award contender, but again it goes back to the historical problems with his entire musculature. The reason he's so tough to hit is that he has that great control

with all of his pitches; the hitters have to start hacking at the first thing upon which they think they have a chance of making solid contact, but it's still a pitcher's pitch; then they're going to keep Sheets's pitch count down because they can't take pitches because he's not going to walk anyone. When he was removed from yesterday's game, he'd only thrown 54 pitches in five innings, so he was going to go at least until the eighth inning and would likely have pitched a complete game (that's if the Mets didn't just go back to the hotel). Someone's going to write Sheets a big check after this season, then they're going to hold their breath to see if they're going to get a Cy Young contender or a guy that's going to spend a chunk of that multi-year deal on the disabled list.

• Yankees 13-Tigers 9:

The Yankees problems this year in a nutshell: they scored thirteen runs yesterday and were about one or two Tigers hits from having to use Mariano Rivera to close the game.

• John McCain's VP pick goes from bad to worse:

Since John McCain referenced Gov. Sarah Palin's experience as a member of the Alaska

PTA as a reason for her being qualified to be vice president, it made me think that my mother is also qualified to be vice president. In fact, she was president of the PTA, which, common sense dictates would mean executive experience. It's somewhat frightening that Gov. Palin is running a state whose population is roughly one-quarter the size of Brooklyn and was picked to be the running mate of a man who's 72-years-old and is looking increasingly detached by the day. Just looking at the way the job of the presidency aged both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush should give people pause from taking the gamble of voting for McCain, but his VP pick should make it out of the question. The argument being proffered that people "don't vote for vice presidents" makes sense if the president isn't someone who's at an age where he could, let's be blunt, get sick or drop dead at any moment. This is not a normal year in presidential elections. Even with all of that, the new revelations are adding to the confounding nature of the pick.
Gov. Palin was chosen to placate the evangelical base of the Republican party, but what does it say about her qualifications as a "family values" candidate as she has a 17-year-old

daughter who got pregnant outside of marriage? I'm not going to comment on the personal life Gov. Palin and her family, but the fact that they made it a point to cover her daughter with a blanket holding her baby sister to keep the pregnancy a secret makes me wonder what they were thinking about. It was like they were going day-by-day with the pick and would worry about what happened when the story leaked (it got out three days later) and try to spin their way out of it.
The reactions of the conservative commentators were laughable. Imagine if it were one of Barack Obama's daughters who got pregnant; what would have been said in public (condescending and insulting) and in private (overtly racist) about him and his family? Just as much of the conservatives were trying to find ways to tout Gov. Palin's qualifications while backtracking or twisting their comments on Sen. Obama's lack of experience, they're hit with this scandal. The Christian right would have had a field day if it were a candidate that wasn't someone who they deemed appropriate and she's still the choice of a man who's 72-years-old.
The selection of Sarah Palin appeared to have been done without much thought and based

on little more than a "gut feeling" on the part of Sen. McCain, which should add more questions about his judgment than to his reputation as a maverick who does things his own way. The obvious and smart pick for McCain was Mitt Romney despite any personal enmity between the two (even though those feelings seem to have cooled). Romney, despite his flip-flopping on issues is: the Republican former governor of a large, liberal state; has experience and grand success in business; and has run an almost impossible entity in the Olympic Games. Despite the contentious campaign, Romney is clearly a decent man who would be able to handle taking over as president if necessary. This isn't to imply that there's anything wrong with Sarah Palin or her family because her daughter made a mistake, but how was this not seen to be a problem when she was selected specifically because of her family values and beliefs?
The hypocrisy of the right wingers is absurd because the same people who would be lambasting Sen. Obama were he in the same position; and wanted Bill Clinton thrown out of office and into jail for perjury are defending the subterfuge of the blanket at the introductory press conference and are saying that it's a "private family matter; they were also the ones who said that Scooter Libby shouldn't have gotten any jail time for committing what was the same crime as Clinton was accused of committing. They leave out that it's a bit different to out an undercover CIA operative based on political motives and a guy lying about a sexual liaison; that it's a bit different when the conservative governor of a very small state is having the problems that a churchgoing, religious family is designed to avoid.
I'm no leftist loon either; I've voted for republicans and democrats. In fact, I was decidedly not a part of the 70% of New York State residents who voted for Gov. Eliot Spitzer; I couldn't

tell you the name of the republican candidate, nor do I know anything about his platform or beliefs and I knew he was going to lose. Technically, I voted for the candidate, but in reality I was voting against Spitzer because I thought there was something creepy and disingenuous about him; and personally I don't care if he goes to hookers, but it's the smug sanctimoniousness and creepiness that I can't abide. After the Black Sox scandal of his own making, it turns out my instincts about him were right and I believe that they're right about this republican ticket. Vote for it at your and the United States' own peril.

C.C. Sabathia Traded To The Brewers

The Brewers and Indians have agreed on a deal (*patent pending) that would send C.C.

Sabathia to the Brewers for Double A outfielder Matt LaPorta (minor league stats) and other

youngsters. LaPorta has shown big time power, on base potential and ability to make consistent contact for a power hitter. The question about this becomes: does this make the Brewers a likely playoff team this year?
Sabathia fills a giant hole in the Brewers starting rotation and he slides in right next to Ben Sheets as a devastating 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation (if Sheets stays off the disabled list); as good as Sabathia was last year and as brilliantly as he's pitched recently, the only way he's going to help the Brewers win the majority of the games he pitches is if he prevents the team from having to rely on that awful bullpen. It does the team no good to get seven innings out of Sabathia, have him leave

the game and then see the likes of Guillermo Mota and Eric Gagne throw a stick of dynamite on everything Sabathia did previously.
As self-serving as this sounds, the Brewers don't have to hold anything back with either Sabathia and Sheets. The advantage a team like the Brewers has with both impending free agents is that they're not going to keep either of them; Sheets has expressed his desire to test the market and Sabathia is looking for a Johan Santana/Barry Zito-type contract which is something that the Brewers aren't going to do. With that in mind, there's no reason to worry about the future of either pitcher; the Brewers

can just throw them out there for 115-120 pitches if necessary and not worry about their health because if they get hurt, it won't be the Brewers paying them anyway.
The agents for the two pitchers are probably going to run interference if the Brewers head in this direction, but what are they going to do about it? Sabathia isn't the type to beg out of games and let his teammates down and, with the way the giant contracts for pitchers is such a crapshoot anyway, he's going to want to get out on the mound and prove that he's going to be worth the money in both durability and performance. If this deal is going to work out as the Brewers want and they intend to move forward with the bullpen intact as is, they're going to have to go old-school with the two free agents to be; if they do that, it may work out exactly as they've

planned; if not, it's probably not going to work out at all.
As for the Indians, Mark Shapiro (my doppelganger) and his staff have proven that when they target players from other organizations, they know exactly what they're getting more often than not; if their history of smart moves is any indication, LaPorta is going to be a producer for them in the very near future.

Piling On Randolph And Other Stories

• Is it necessary to dump on the dearly departed?

Willie Randolph is no longer the manager of the New York Mets, therefore isn't it time to let the man get on with his life without having to endure relentless piling on to his perceived failings as a manager? Mets broadcasters Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are

going out of their way to point out the differences in style and tactics between Randolph and new manager Jerry Manuel. In particular, there is continued discussion of how much "looser" the Mets clubhouse is under Manuel in comparison to the "businesslike" Randolph; but when Randolph was hired, one of the things that got him the job was his history with the Yankees and the businesslike and serious clubhouse he worked in under Joe Torre. Now that approach was the root of all evil for the Mets? It would be one thing if the team was on a weeklong tear under the new manager, but

they're 3-3 since Manuel took over.
Randolph had his faults and I felt that the Mets would have been better served to fire Randolph at the end of last year rather than bring him back with a guillotine hanging over his head; but even with those faults, he carried himself with dignity throughout what was a turbulent first managerial job in a very, very tough situation with factions working against him and a natural wariness of the media and notorious thin skin when it came to criticism. The only way to judge whether or not Manuel's style is the antidote for the Mets will be in retrospect and six games isn't enough to make that judgment. If the Mets clubhouse appears more relaxed, that may have little to do with Randolph's departure and more to do with the players not having to repeat the same answers to the same questions about the shakiness of their manager's job.
Considering his inexperience and all the factors he had to deal with, Randolph doesn't deserve to have people like Cohen (who clearly didn't like the way Randolph managed and who were reluctant to criticize him openly for whatever reason) making comparisons after a week. Randolph's gone and Manuel's the manager; it's time to move on.

• Brewers 4-Braves 1; what's going to happen with Big Ben?

The most interesting question this winter will surround what's going to happen with Ben Sheets. Sheets has Cy Young Award quality stuff, but has been so injury-prone over the past

four years that any team that wants to get him is going to have to take that leap of faith that their money isn't going to be predominately wasted a la Pedro Martinez/Barry Zito. Sheets is scary-good when he's healthy, but cannot be counted on to make more than 25 starts in a season. Is a team that needs an ace at the top of their rotation going to risk a 7-year contract on a pitcher who's 30 and has such a long injury rap sheet?
There are some likely scenarios with Sheets. One, he's going to get a Zito-type contract from a desperate owner who wants to make a splash and is willing to risk a catastrophic injury to roll the dice on Sheets fulfilling his potential; two, he's going to see that the market for pitchers isn't as free as it once was and he's going to have to take a down-the-line contract as Carlos Zambrano did to stay with the

Cubs and Jake Peavy did to stay with the Padres; three, he's going to go for the bigger money on a shorter-term contract and if that's the case, there will be a long list of teams willing to take the risk.
If I had to bet now, I'd say Sheets winds up with the Yankees. They have a load of money coming off the books and they're going to need starting pitching, but the last case scenario might be intriguing to a large number of teams. The Dodgers have gone the high-salary, short-term route with Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones and, even though both appear to be blowing up in their faces, the injuries from the explosions aren't going to be that bad because of the short-term nature of the contract. Schmidt's provided nothing for them and his contract's up after next season; Jones has been a disaster, but his contract is also up after next season. If Sheets is willing to eschew the long term deal and accepts a three or four-year contract in the $58-80 million range, he'll likely have a larger choice of destinations rather than the Yankees or possibly Texas Rangers.
Every time the idea that the time for long-term, lucrative contracts for pitchers is gone, some desperate owner whips out his checkbook and, in the same motion, flings sanity out the window. Sheets is such a talent that it could go both ways for him, but any owner who shells out for such a historically fragile pitcher is either going to regret it or get himself a long-term ace. It's all going to depend on what Sheets wants and where he wants to play because someone's going to pay him; the question is who.