See, if I were you...

Hot on the heels of the brilliant Alex Rodriguez Choose Your Own Adventure is this game, hosted by MLB.com.

In an open free agent market, it's a pick 'em game to try and predict where this year's free agent class will end up. Considering what a crapshoot the first week of free agency has turned out to be, this is essentially a lottery drawing instead of a game of skill, but good for MLB for sticking their nose in there.

Of course, it's sponsored by Monster.com and has a wrinkle with an added confidence points section, but all in all it should be a lot of fun for the weekend at least.

For anyone who thought NCAA brackets were a shot in the dark, this game will make your head hurt. And for the record there's no option for "no team" for Mike Cameron given his recent PR blowouts.

I have to admit, I have no idea where half of these guys are headed and the speculation changes on an hourly basis, but it's still a moderate amount of fun despite the onslaught of Monster.com spam that is now headed my way for entering.

(Image from: Worth1000.com)

Peter Gammons will not receive a Christmas card from A-Rod

Tell us how you really feel, Pete.

In the middle of coverage last night - and possibly this morning, I'm still checking back on this morning's broadcast - Peter Gammons was brought in to answer a few questions about Alex Rodriguez and where he'd end up next season.

After a few seconds that boiled down to "we'll have to wait and see," Gammons ripped Rodriguez for the rest of the segment.

Said Gammons:

What's unfortunate here is the total disrespect for the game of baseball. This is the World Series, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester are doing something Alex has never done - play in a World Series game - and to want the attention on this day is kind of a sad commentary and might be a little bit of a buyer beware because, again, he's never played in a World Series game. Maybe there's a reason.

I'm guessing that Gammons would be less than impressed with A-Rod in a Sox uniform.

Update:

Here's the video courtesy of ESPN.com which I found via The Buried Lead on a Ballhype.com board. Wow, that was a long path for 30 seconds of video.


(Image from: MSN.com)

How did I miss this?

Big thanks to The Girl who asked me, "Did you see who the Twins signed today?"

No, I hadn't. The mystery man? Sidney Ponson, the clown prince of Baltimore.

Signed to a minor-league deal, Ponson has been better known for running afoul of the law and refusing to lose weight lately, but an arm is an arm in Minneapolis these days.

Go check his bio, this dude's been around.

My favorite bit of Ponson trivia revolves around his Christmas vacation in 2005 when he reportedly punched a judge on he beach in his native Aruba. On Christmas Day... punched a judge...

The kicker was he was in better shape from a week in the joint than he was left to his own devices as a major league pitcher preparing for the season. Oh, Sid...

Welcome to the Dome, Dougboy.

(Photo from MSNBC.com)

News out West

Barry Zito to the Giants?

Hmm, didn't see that one coming. Too bad there's not much left on that team at first blush.

I'll have to stew on this a bit, but I'm surprised at this to say the least. Must really love the Bay, huh?

Big day for pitching

Good info piece by Jerry Crasnick on ESPN.com today about the guys who'll be in contract years this year and the prohibitive bets about whether they'll sign this year or hit the free agent market next off-season.

Say what you will about Christmas coming earleir and earlier each year, this is really getting out ahead of the curve on this one. A 2007-2008 off-season article before 2007 is really staying on top of things.

If the Cubs don't shell out the cash to resign Carlos Zambrano, they're officially back to the usual swing of bad ideas, decisions and luck. Then again, if the agents for Zambrano don't mug these guys in the parking lot, they're not doing their jobs right.

Honestly, I think Zambrano should be paid whatever the hell he wants, just because he dumped Scott Boras. Let's try and make this a trend, shall we?

* Brad Radke has officially called it a career in Minnesota. More on this once I gather my thoughts. It's all so sudden, I don't even know how to react...

* Also on the radar for everyone should be the Rangers signing Eric Gagne. He passed his physical and is on his way. It's strange that such a dominating arm was essentially scrap heap material this year, although the injuries have really limited him the past two seasons.

He was the terrifying closer in 2004 and now he's an interesting arm, but not generating the level of heat the Barry Zito and the rest of the free agent pitchers are.

Maybe he needs new entrance music? Something more Canadian? Just throwing things out here.

(Odd sidenote: The Rangers reissued a new jersey for manager Ron Washington so that Gagne could keep his number 38. That's pretty cool. )

(Photo from MyPicksPal.com)

Just putting this out there

You feel that?

That low rumble? Almost like the ground is shifting under superagent Scott Boras?

Awesome.

Seth Mnookin over at Feeding the Monster has put together a great recap of the past 72 hours in the Daisuke Matsuzaka signing process which basically outlines how Boras is screwing himself as we speak.

My favorite part is how Boras is backpeddaling on his $100 million demand:

Scott Boras is insisting that he did not say that Matsuzaka should receive $100 million; he merely said that’s what pitchers in today’s market are receiving. (Pretty much everyone who saw the press conference thought he said that’s what Matsuzaka should get.) Boras also stressed that Bill Clinton did not have sex with that woman.

There's no way this ends well for Boras if the deal doesn't get done - not that it'd be a picnic for the Red Sox to lose out, either - but you have to hand it to the front office for pulling a West Wing and marching right into the lion's den and making a PR mess for Boras and company.

Two days and counting...

It was a joke, I swear

I was only kidding, Minnesota Twins management - by using two players like Jeff Cirillo and Jeromy Burnitz, I was saying those would be bad signings this offseason.

Still, today the Twins are set to announce a one-year deal with the man most likely to be confused with an STD.

So let's break this down so we don't have to come back to this later:

The 37-year-old Cirillo batted .317 in 112 games with three homers and a whopping 23 RBI last year. This of course, clears the way to slot Jason Kubel in as a backup to get more experience and move Rondell White into left field.

I can't see how this will fail.

I'm all for "change of scenery" moves and trades made to jumpstart a failing career, but you know how I was talking the other day about adding a big bat to the lineup in the DH spot?

Three home runs does not a big bat make. Not even close.

Cirillo has been a solid player for the Brewers for many years, but as the showcase bat in a lineup? Not so much.

Most AL teams would kill for a one-two punch like Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau and wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger on a bopper to either protect those two or to serve as a bigger catalyst in the lineup.

Not the Twins, though. They're more than happy to push whoever will sign for under $2 million a year into the on-deck circle.

How is this not a subject worth debating about for hours on SportsCenter? You have the AL MVP and the batting champ on a playoff team which has made the postseason in four of the last five years and the brass brings in Jeff Cirillo as the calvary?

It's practically a crime against humanity.

(Photo from the Associated Press)

Two for the road

Hitting the Internet this morning and saw that the Cubs have reportedly signed Jason Marquis to a three-year deal for roughly $20 million, just furthering the belief that Jim Hendry has confused his MLB '06 - The Show roster with the actual Chicago Cubs roster.

This is all very strange and disorienting to me.

It's like moving the furniture around on a blind dog.

ESPN.com did the math and it's $272.5 in new contracts, not even taking into account Lou Piniella's deal. It's like some bizarro Brewster's Millions plot.

Aside from another arm in the rotation - See? See? They're finally figuring this out! - Marquis brings hatred for the Cardinals who left him out of the post-season last year. Let's hope he uses this as motivation and not as a moment of clarity that maybe he's not big league material.

(Sidenote: The stories of Hendry being told to take it easy as he makes two signings in a few days from his hospital bed makes it so I don't know whether to be excited for 2007 or worried for the poor guy's health. These are the kinds of stories that are told months from now if the Cubs are doing well, or, more likely, are snickered at by Bill Simmons in a Page 2 column. It could really go either way.)

* Why should Twins fans be angry this morning?



This link, right here.

Rondell White, boo bird bait in a town where I hear the least amount of heckling per capita than any other sports town, is being "courted" by the Twins to be their every day left fielder.

Let me break that down to hit all the important parts:

Rondell (third on the depth chart in left / no home runs as a DH prior to the All-Star Game) White is the top candidate for the starting left fielder's spot in Minnesota next year.

While he seems like a nice enough guy in post-game interviews, let's not forget that this is the man Twins fans wanted to kill to start the 2006 season. While he struggled, hacked and grounded out his way to an .081 batting average, the team nearly drowned before finding new life and making a surge to the division championship. If you needed to point to one guy who was at least indicative of the team's awful play - if not largely responsible for it - White was at the front of that line.

I file this along with Nick Punto's stunning second half. Yes, it's great to get above-grade production from guys in your lineup that weren't supposed to be very good. Now, revisionist history says that White turned things around down the stretch and was a vital cog to the team as it pushed for the playoffs.

What a bunch of bullshit.

The trick is not looking at your roster on paper in the winter, seeing the Punto that turned it on in the stretch run and standing pat. Same with White. Here's a guy who was brought in to do one thing - Hit the baseball - and he found new and amusing ways to stink up the joint on a nightly basis.

While quality, good-value players aren't falling off trees just waiting to sign up here, there's a baseline of talent that the Twins organization needs to maintain with solid young players and a better than they look core of pitchers.

Why you'd let this slip away as Johan Santana, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau enter their primes is beyond me. A new ballpark is right around the corner and I haven't heard a (serious) peep about breaking out the cash for a big-name bat yet.

Hell, at this point, I think the Twins fans would be happy with a middle of the road guy versus overpaying for the Jeromy Burnitzes and Jeff Cirillos of the world, but it'd be nice to at least hear that the Twins were in the running for someone, even if it's not true.

(Image from Download.com)

Week's end wrap up

I was really excited Thursday morning after a big night of moves in the hot stove league. Better yet was Steve Phillips chasing Barry Bonds around like Carl Monday, asking who he was talking to, if he was staying with the Giants and if he was jacking it.

Bonds told him his testicles were too far gone to even consider the last option. Not really, but in the television of my mind it was awesome.

The biggest, but least shocking moves were today, with Andy Pettitte going back to the Bronx and bringing rumors of a return of Roger Clemens with him. Bonds is also returning to San Francisco where he'll be hated the least.

Other big moves:

Jason Schmidt - Dodgers - Headed to the Dodgers, the biggest free agent arm (tied with Barry Zito this year) undercuts the Giants and helps Los Angeles which has a much better rotation on paper now (Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Schmidt, Randy Wolf and any number of arms looking to take over the five spot.)

Being able to beef up your team while draining a division rival is a nice bonus, but these moves put the Dodgers as the early favorites in the NL West next year.

To his credit, Drew has defended himself a bit to the media, but given that it's Boston, this could get ugly in a big way. We'll see what happens, but this could be a train wreck right out of the gates.

Seriously, you can't trust LA, but who else is going to step up? In other words, business as usual in the NL West.

JD Drew and Julio Lugo - Red Sox - Here's what worries me. Five words in 20 years: The Curse of Johnny Damon. Expect JD Drew to get a lot of face time with Joe Buck's kid and AJ Pierzinski if this becomes a story line of my future nightmares.

Bad attitude and injury prone? Where do I sign?

To his credit, he's defended himself to a point, but it's still Boston and it's not out of the realm of possibility that this could be a train wreck out of the gates.

As much as I'm skeptical of Drew, I like the Lugo signing.

Not as much as I'd like Damon and Orlando Cabrera, but still...

(The best part of the Cabrera Era was screaming, "Welcome to the O.C., bitch!" every night.

Ted Lilly - Cubs - Please, oh please can we get at least a half-powered Bronson Arroyo factor here?

He was 15-13 with a 4.31 ERA in 32 games for the Blue Jays last season.

I can't lie, I was awake after I turned off the TV the other night asking over and again if Ted Lilly was worth $10 million per year. My gut reaction is no.

Hope it's worth hospitalizing a GM over, but this deal isn't as exciting as it should have been. Yes, Cubs front office, we get it, you're trying to win now. There's still no need to try and spend 15 years worth of surplus cash in one mediocre off-season for talent.

Mike Piazza - A's - It's about time, huh? Maybe they'll give him Frank Thomas' old locker.

Freddy Garcia - Phillies - I'm with Frankie on this one who sent me an e-mail when this signing was confirmed. In an off-season where Lilly gets $10 million per, the White Sox give away a very, very durable pitcher for peanuts?

I thought this would be a move to bring Aaron Rowland back, but was surprised when he was left out east.

Still waiting to get word back on whether or not Kenny Williams is still a genius. That said, I'm getting a Billy Beane vibe off Willaims still where no matter how ridiculous the signing or free agent drop is, you can't help but wonder what he's up to.

This is a direct turn around from the Williams we were given in Moneyball where he was emasculated and painted as too dumb to grasp the finer points of a simple multi-player swap.

More from Frankie on this subject can be found here.

Joe Borowski - Indians - This guy keeps finding work and he always seemed like a good enough guy, but I can't help but wonder how he keeps signing contracts.

He's never very good, but never very bad, either. I think this is indicative of the season Cleveland can expect next year.

Gil Meche - Royals - Good for you, Royals!

Aren't they cute everyone? Yes, they are! Yes, they are!

Cute little ballclub you got there, KC...

For more of the same, jump over to ESPN.com where Jayson Stark has a similar breakdown, but with, you know... facts and stuff.

The Perfect Storm

Have I mentioned my lack of respect for LaTroy Hawkins lately? How he's become the punchline for nearly all of my struggling reliever/whiplash candidate jokes? How I mused to get a sick feeling whenever he'd enter a game on the North Side and I was always a little disappointed to see him come in because in any video game I'd trade his ass for a bag of used baseballs the first chance I got?

Yeah, I guess it's come up once or twice.

Hawkins signed a new deal today for what ESPN.com is reporting to be one year and an undisclosed sum in - are you ready for it? - Colorado.

Oh, sweet Jesus, this could get ugly quick.

While he had surprisingly good numbers in his last full season in Chicago on the road at Coors Field (the Rockies only mustered batting averages and on-base percentages of .143 against him) things got a little worse when he made the jump to San Francisco where in eight games he allowed an on-base percentage of .500, slugging of .667 and batting average of .333 - it's also worth nothing that he didn't face many batters in this time frame to be fair, seeing only six at-bats - but that's still less than stellar for limited work there.

Looking at his career numbers and taking into account moves from and back to the American League, it appears that Hawkins has probably hit a plateau and is on the downswing for any number of reasons.

His career numbers slimmed down to hit a low point in the year before his acquisition by the Cubs (his ERA shrunk from the eights in limited use in 1995 and 1996 to the two-three-four range before ballooning again in Baltimore last season with a 4.48 ERA in 60 appearances.

So, while a trip back to the NL might help a bit, expect Coors to take that edge off in the mile-high air.

Not quite sure how much he'll help, but at least it's a one-year deal with a mutual option. Keep that in mind, Rockies fans.

Haven't we been over this before?

Mike Piazza is on the market again and it looks like his agency (I wonder if it's still the Beverly Hills group) might get it right this time.

As I pleaded last spring (and in between taking pot shots at his representation on the sister site - bonus points for being the very first baseball post at either site).

While aging pitchers now flock to the NL for the Bronson Arroyo treatment (I know he's not old, but his was the biggest turn-around last season from a simple league switch) sluggers will continue to take DH jobs to tack a few years onto their careers.

Why this hasn't happened with Piazza yet is well beyond me. Now, looking to fill the gap left by Frank Thomas' departure to Canada, it sounds like they're the front-runners to sign Piazza this off-season.

Please, oh please, do not let this man continue to catch. Granted, the Padres were more than happy to bump Doug Mirabelli out of the top slot in Spring Training in favor of an everyday catcher in Piazza, but let's hope Jason Kendall will stick around to keep his starting spot.

Just for old times' sake:

I thought the whole damned point was to get him a slot in the AL where he can DH and and catch every few days to spell the everyday catcher...There are only a handful of AL teams that don't have a great DH and a deep enough catching bench. In an era where Sammy and Corey are shopped in back-to-back years, Kevin Millar signs for a million plus for one year, Furcal breaks the bank (I could go on and on here) Mike Fucking Piazza isn't enough of a draw (if not so much a bat anymore and I contend that his numbers will get better when he's not squatting on Jake Taylor's knees) to maybe check in with the Beverly Hills Sports Council? Or maybe they can't make a few calls?

Yeah, that was me. I'm going to stand by that.

Good point

Want to see how far salaries have gotten out of control this offseason?

Check out this little math lesson courtesy of Boston Dirt Dogs and Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe.

His [J.D. Drew's] asking price, according to sources, is at least $14 million. That's $4 million a year more than the Sox offered last winter to Johnny Damon before he signed a four-year, $52 million deal with the Yankees. Bobby Abreu, the right fielder the Sox passed on in July because of luxury-tax ramifications before he was dealt by the Phillies to the Yankees, is due $15 million in 2007, with the Yankees holding an option of $16 million for 2008.

Yeah, I feel better now. God, Mondays are the best, aren't they campers?

They signed Alfonso Soriano, not Ralph Soriano, right?

You know the problem with being a man of the people?

By the time you get home and have time to settle in for a blog post, most of the pertinent comments have been made. The people have sucker punched me time and again, and today was no different.

It's OK, though, I have an e-mail trail a mile long from going back and forth over the pros and cons of the Alfonso Soriano signing and on the whole I think it's a positive.

While some will mock the cash thrown about to close the deal and the fact that it's one of the first times in recent memory that the Tribune Company opened its wallet to try and put together a team that isn't made of rookies, past-their-prime veterans and fans selected to play in that day's game as part of a promotional stunt, I say it is a sign of good faith from the team.

Year after year of seeing the big names swing by, meet with the team, take a tour of the city and sign on either coast made me skeptical of the rumors at first, but according to ESPN.com, it's official (great move there, Nationals - was it worth keeping him on the sinking ship for the final two months of the season?).

The fact that the team has spent the money it needs to in order to secure its own free agents so far - in Aramis Ramirez and Kerry Wood - as well as signing Mark DeRosa and Soriano, seems to indicate that the "Loveable Loser" tag is starting to wear on Cubs brass as much as it has on the fan base.

Is it being done to sweeten the pot for potential buyers who are eyeing up the franchise? Maybe. Is it giving Cubs fans reason to look forward to the spring in a way they haven't for years? For sure.

For the quick wrap - and yes, I know much of this has been written and discussed at length over the past 24 hours:

Pros:

* Instant credibility with this year's free agent class - If you need any more evidence that the Cubs are serious this year when trying to court a few arms for the rotation or to plug gaps, they need only point to Lou Piniella and Soriano.

* Another bat in the lineup - Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Soriano as the boppers in the Cubs lineup next year are solid starters. In flux is Juan Pierre and at first blush, it's the most recogizable infield that will take the field on Opening Day.

These are all good things.

* Who's the big winner? Lou's the big winner! - There's something to be said for taking the top prize in this year's free agent class. The pitching is pretty weak and I challenge you to find a better pick from this year's free agents. Psychologically speaking, this is a big play for the ballclub.

And its neurotic fans.

Cons:

* The age thing - Soriano is listed at age 31. This monster deal is eight years long. How old will he be at the end of this contract, assuming no one wants to take over the contract of an aging slugger? That's right class, pretty freaking old.

As much fun as it was to walk around today talking to the other baseball fans in the office, this was the major buzzkill. It's a situation that you can easily see going south. I e-mailed Frankie pretty early in the day to say if there are no World Series wins in five or six years, people might be pretty bitter about this signing around that time.

* That's a lot of money - Don't trust the Chicago Tribune, they aren't really your friends. Sure, they provide all sorts of information daily, have a pretty building and give you cartoons every single day, but they aren't your friends.

If the Soriano deal goes bad, don't think the Tribune company won't hide behind this as a reason to stop spending money hand over fist.

Frankie has long held the opinion that Cubs fans should have rioted and burned down Wrigley years ago because with full seats and crappy teams, the company was happy to collect everyone's cash and keep fielding teams of losers and nobodies.

He's right, but only to varying degrees throughout the years.

If the company can go back to business as usual - full seats and empty teams - they'll do this in a heartbeat.

It bears repeating - the Tribune Company is not your friend.

* One player, does not a World Series champion make - I'll direct you to the Ron Karkovice Fan Club for an extended discussion on this one - check out the final two paragraphs in particular - where it's argued that the Cubs are not in position to make the jump from second-rate to top dog with the addition of one bat to the lineup.

For starters, they need starting pitching. Wood will be in the bullpen, Mark Prior had arm trouble the same day Piniella was signed and the only real arm is Carlos Zambrano who is probably getting pretty sick of being the only strong arm in that rotation.

While home runs are fun to watch, they kind of suck when it pulls your team within eight runs in a 10-2 blowout.

Just ask A-Rod's fans.

(Photo from Washington.Nationals.MLB.com)

Q and A with Will Carroll

I was driving home late last Wednesday when The Girl called me after seeing the Deadspin link to my gyroball post. After seeing a spike in visitors throughout the day, I was out of the office in the afternoon and lost track for a few hours.

"Do you know who Will Carroll is?" she asked. "He just posted a comment on your blog."

"Are you serious?" I said. "Does he sound pissed or anything?"

Mr. Carroll is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus and weighed in himself on the subject of the gyroball this week on his own colun there. It sounds like he's been sucked in - as many of us have - by the promise of a new pitch in an old game, so there's hope for all of us baseball nerds who will have two or three baseball conversations, even in the dead of November.

I wish I could lie and say that I took it all in stride, but hearing about the comment post made me wish I'd spent a lot more time doing prep work. In any event, he'd left a very nice comment and said that if I had anymore questions, to feel free to ask away.

A few days later, that's where we're at. The following is the series of questions I'd sent along as well as Mr. Carroll's unedited answers. I'd like to thank him once again for the time he's spent on this and if you're looking for a little more information, I've also found this link to Rob Neyer's blog, which has a great post on the gyroball as well.

(Quick note: the above link is from the first writing Mr. Carroll had done on the subject of the gyroball. There are some portions that aren't 100 percent accurate after he's spent more time researching it. Still has some good background, so I'll leave it up for now.)

**************

Siberian Baseball: You'd said in your post on the site, "I'm still learning about the pitch - turns out the version I teach is a variation on the "pure gyro." It's more like a slider/cutter variant than a screwball."

Can you explain the motion as it relates to pitches that we're all familiar with? Also, are there many variations on the pitch?

Will Carroll: There are three variations, each doing slightly different things based on the position of the rotation of the ball in relation to the direction of the pitch.

One drops, one doesn't drop so much, and the last, my variation, moves like a slider/cutter, but more. I actually think what I've been teaching is a combo of the last two, so there might be a de facto fourth variation.

For the last three years, I've been teaching a version that is thrown "normally" and moves across or away from a RH batter (from a RH pitcher.) It moves significantly, with what observers have called "legit 3-9 movement."

SB: How did you initially become involved with the pitch? You've been able to teach it to others and are seen as one of the top sources for information on it – what is the basic timeline of how that level of understanding came about?

WC: Rob Neyer had a question asked to him in a chat and I chased it from there. Odd how things like this start.

The timeline? Learned about it in 2003, got the book on it from Japan about two months later, tried teaching it (as a goof) for the first time in 2004, and really got serious about it this year. I'm still learning about the pitch and have probably learned more about the pitch in the last month than I have in the previous couple years.

SB: From what I've heard and read, the a lot of throwing a true gyroball comes down to timing. What are the key points to consider here? Is it a matter of release point, body rotation, ball rotation or something else?

WC: I'd rather not get to technical on the delivery of the pitch. This isn't to keep it secret, but because it's difficult to explain. The last thing I want is for someone to misunderstand what I'm saying, throw the pitch wrong, and hurt themselves. Thrown properly, the pitchers that have thrown it say that the pitch is less stressful than a slider, but done wrong, any pitch can be dangerous.

It is a very "fine" pitch. A slight variation can make the pitch do or not do things in pretty significant degree. One of the biggest 'problems' I had with the pitch is that occasionally, the pitch would break in rather than out for no apparent reason. I finally understand why, after a physicist broke down the motion. Now, instead of a problem, it's a weapon!

SB: How difficult is the pitch to throw and is there an overriding reason why it hasn't made it to the major league level? Comparitively, how tough is it on a pitcher's arm?

WC: No one besides me teaches it, as far as I can tell. I'd be happy to show any pitcher, especially if they're high level where we could see how this works in comparison to other high-quality pitches. It's one thing to say a HS kid from NJ can make this thing move, but entirely another to see if ... I don't know, Anthony Reyes could make it dance.

Tough on the arm? See above. Like I said, the experience is very limited, but anecdotally, it's not harsh. The pitch itself is a side effect of Japanese research on biomechanics, so it comes from a place of safety.

SB: Have you seen the pitch thrown in competition? It seems that many people (myself included) have had a hard time telling the difference between what is presented as a gyroball and what is a really tough slider. There are rumors that major league pitchers have asked about the pitch, so have you seen anyone quietly try it out in competition? Have you seen enough from (Daisuke) Matsuzaka to say one way or another if you think he is able to throw the pitch for strikes?

WC: A few times. And yes, it does look like a slider to some. Face it, a breaking ball is a breaking ball and even the best of us will mix up pitches that are moving at high speed. How many times has a pro announcer said a pitch is something else? I have had a couple major leaguers ask about the pitch, but none have asked to see it. Matsuzaka, I think, throws it, but does not control it well enough. I hope to meet up with him now that he's in America!

SB: While it's certainly exciting for fans to talk about the birth of a new pitch, do you think it can have an impact in the majors?

WC: That's the million dollar question. I don't know. Did the split-finger change the game? The curveball? I think it would be interesting and maybe for the guy who becomes the gyroball version of Bruce Sutter, it will change things for him.

Maybe. I'll be honest, I don't know, but it's fun to think about.

(Image from The New No. 2 as posted on Flickr.com / SportsIllustrated.com)

The prom queens of the NL: Your New York Mets!

Think back two years to the winter that Carlos Beltran was on the market.

He'd had a monster postseason in 2004, taking the Astros down to the wire against St. Louis and after wasting away in Kansas City, he'd suddenly exploded onto the national scene.

It's not overstating things to say that Beltran was the hot property in that year's free agent class. Teams came and went on the rumor mill columns, with the big bank teams leading the charge.

Would he take the Yankee money? Would he stay in Houston? The man could write his own ticket at that point and most people - myself included - saw the Mets buzzing around and immediately wrote them off.

Two years later, they not only picked up Beltran, but Pedro Martinez, Billy Wagner and a handful of other guys to take them to October this year.

Where is all of this going?

This evening, the Rumor Mill promo on ESPN.com has a Barry Zito to the Mets headline. Doesn't seem so strange anymore, does it?

* The Cubs have reportedly signed Mark DeRosa for $13 million over three years and fills a hole at second. While we're on the subject, he can play pretty much anywhere around the infield, with time at second, third and short, which is always a good thing for anyone who read at least two injury reports from the Friendly Confines last year.

According to MLB.com:

DeRosa, 31, is coming off a career year in which he set highs in batting average (.296), doubles (40), home runs (13), RBIs (74) and games (135).

I always get nervous about guys coming off career years, but as we're fond of saying at Wrigley, "He can't be worse than the last guy, right? Who was the last guy, again?"

* The Red Sox have "won" the right to work out a deal with Daisuke Matsuzaka for paltry $51.5 to $40 million dollars.

For the right to negotiate with Scott Boras.

At least $50 million.

That's not the contract, or anything... I hope the Boston brass gets a free "I fucked the Yankees" t-shirt or something.

That's great and I'm pretty excited overall, but I'm still stung over the NL Rookie of the Year announcement. I thought Moneyball was supposed to make the cost of running a successful team cheaper.

* And finally, the Oakland A's are eyeing a new home where they won't have to fork over funding for a tarp to cover half he seats every season and Cisco Systems is happy to slap their name on the new front door.

Two things:

First, they have plans for a spa at the park - I have no idea what to do with this information, but I'm pretty sure my sperm count just dropped.

Second, they better play The Thong Song before every home game, or the terrorists win.

(Photo from: Photofile.com)