Benson

Sorry Batgirl, your Twins have backed off. Joe Rutter and Paul Meyer have that news.

Sounds like the addition of Lastings Milledge has Littlefield listening to the Mets again. Meyer reports that the Braves are in it.

Rotoworld reports that Peter Gammons reports the Pirates will trade Benson for Wigginton, Peterson, and Milledge tomorrow. Sounds like he did this on TV and threw in some speculation that the White Sox would give us a player to sweeten the deal and keep Benson out of Minnesota. That would be sweet. Maybe the Indians will throw in Grady Sizemore? How much protection money is too much?

I've learned a few things about media coverage since starting this blog. It was obvious enough that the New York teams get the most coverage. They have the most papers and the most people getting paid to write something every day. What's less obvious is two things. One, the New York writers present a lot more speculation and also indulge in more "L.A. Confidential"-type gossip stories. A lot of the news is soft. It's not factual and it's not always related to the play on the field.

Second, all of the national sources are on top of the New York coverage. Guys like Peter Gammons don't miss any of it. This stems from an imperative the national sources feel: they must report the New York news. They don't care what the quality is. If A-Rod swore like a teenage sailor with anger-management problems, that footage starts Baseball Tonight. If two guys at the New York Post have trade rumors, Peter Gammons has better trade rumors. The big national guys will not go on TV and hard news on the Colorado Rockies when there's any excuse to talk about the Yankees or the Mets.

This isn't the first time there have been rumors that the Pirates will trade Benson to the Mets "tomorrow."

The Atlanta and Anaheim sides are largely unknown. If Terry Ryan doesn't go on Minnesota talk radio to say he's out because we won't take Resto, then we wouldn't know that, either.

We're too in the dark to be able to second-guess how the Pirates are handling the negotiations. But we're not so in the dark. Maybe we believe Peter Gammons, or maybe we wait and see.

Maybe we wait an hour and read in the Post that the rumor is false. Think Gammons made it up just so he could bask in the glow of rapt attention? Today the Post says the Mets will part with Scott Kazmir (!) for Victor Zambrano (!!). Not the hot-headed Cub starter but the Devil Ray.

P.S. No more drafting players with girly first names. Would it be such a bitch to trade Benson if his first name was manly and menacing, like, say, Bones?