Wigginton and Mackowiak

Is it a platoon? I assumed it was but maybe that's not the way the team sees it now. Ed Eagle describes Ty Wigginton as the starter at third in his Q & A. I suppose "starter" could just mean the guy who plays there on Opening Day.

Wigginton, a right-handed hitter, hit lefties at a .272 / .343 / .453 rate the last three years. Mackowiak, a left-handed hitter, does not hit lefties. But he's been a .258 / .337 / .447 hitter against righties. And Wigginton has hit righties at a .259 / .317 / .415 rate. Combine them and, if they keep hitting at those rates, you have .788 OPS production at third base. Not great, but better than all-Wigginton all the time.

Maybe the Bucs see something in Wigginton's history against particular kinds of righties. Maybe they believe Wigginton has a edge over Mackowiak against these guys. Otherwise, I don't see why this won't shake out as a traditional platoon arrangement, with Mackowiak playing against righties and Wigginton playing against lefties. Since two-thirds of the pitchers are right-handed, that would seem to give more playing time to Mackowiak at third.

Defensive statistics, for what they are worth, suggest that Mackowiak, Mac's "best athlete," is the superior fielder at third. All the ones I can find favor Rob. Here, for example, he's listed as playing third with a .962 FPCT, a 2.78 range factor, and a .775 zone rating. Wigginton's fielding stats look like this: a .938 FPCT, a 2.62 range factor, and a .731 zone rating. Those are the 2004 numbers. Range factor is nothing but (putouts + assists) * 9 / innings, so for all we know, one guy has a higher zone rating because he more often played behind pitchers that put the ball in play. I don't know how the zone rating is figured. Regardless, it's hard to see a defensive edge for Wigginton in the numbers.

Ed Eagle quotes McClendon as describing Mackowiak as a player who can't get overexposed. By that, I'd guess he means "exposed to any left-handed pitching." Perhaps Mackowiak is considered a player with lower upside because of this. Perhaps there's reason to be hopeful that Ty Wigginton will continue to improve at the plate. Since both these guys are at the probable peak of their careers, odds are that they'll outperform, by a small amount, the three-year averages I just quoted. Certainly Wigginton's streakiness suggests that he still has something to learn. But some players start streaky and retire streaky. Some players never learn.

Wigginton and Mackowiak are pretty natural platoon partners, So why anoint one the starter? It's not at all clear to me that this has happened, but Ed Eagle's Q & A suggests that this is his take on the position.

Here's hoping that Wigginton has a breakout year in his 27th year. There's a chance. It could happen. Crazier things etc. etc. Otherwise, here's hoping that Mackowiak has the chance to challenge him for playing time every step of the way. All things being equal, the average player with the slightly better defense and the more common platoon split should wind up with a greater amount of playing time.

Todd Ritchie a Pirate

Signed to a minor-league deal. No surprise there.

J.R. House

Ed Eagle reports that House is on the Craig Wilson career path. Let your hair down, J.R.!

PirateFest

Press release here. The Buc-lywed Game sounds like a terrible idea. I don't even want to know more about it. Ah, just kidding. I'm sure it's just as much fun as Pirate Karaoke. Rowdietta, who clears 30 inches in shoes, would probably dig this.

The 2005 alternate uniforms have pinstripes.

Monday morning reading

Dejan Kovacevic describes the shape of the starting pitchers. When did we first learn that Kip Wells had an elbow problem in addition to a carpal-tunnel problem? I must have missed or forgotten that news. Burnett, of course, is out for awhile. JVB will come back slowly. And now Vogelsong's shoulder is tired. He only started about 34 games, summer and winter combined, so who knows what's up with him. He looks to start the year in the back of the bullpen. It's not hard to see why Littlefield wants to acquire another starting pitcher. You need about twelve of these guys to start the year even though you hope to never use your seven back-ups.

Around the blogs, bkopec has a herniated disc and is headed for the DL. Trev isn't sold on Jose Castillo and wants to see more Freddy Sanchez. Charlie answers the ten questions. For the front page at OnlyBucs, Richard A. Mathews has been profiling the players. While you are there, take a minute to admire this painting of Honus. It brings a tear to me eye. See Paul's other work, which is equally impressive, here. I find this one especially entrancing.

While we are talking art, don't miss "Creation of Big Ben". I was on an airplane and missed the game during which CBS featured that thing.

And did any of you New Yorkers get over to Brooklyn to see the Roberto Clemente exhibit (scroll down, under "Vamos!")? More here and here. Maybe it's Rowdietta's remarkable artistic talents, or maybe not, but these days I'm a real sucker for kid art. I'm sorry I missed the exhibition and wish they had some of the work posted online.

Back to football. For the Trib-Review, Bob Prine offers a valuable dissertation on the arguments against the NFL's current hard-salary-cap pay structure. It seems that the players pay a toll, physically, for their inability to miss games without having their pay docked. This leads me to wonder if the NFL shouldn't be reporting who will miss games with and without pay. When the Steelers decide to sit Burress, for example, does he take a pay cut for that game check? This doesn't appear to be a salary issue so much as it appears to be the NFL's management using the salary cap to crack down on suspected malingerers. Maybe I'm not following all the arguments. Anyone, there's the link for now. Don't miss it or file it away for later.

I'm not sorry the Astros won't get Carlos Beltran. The AP reports there that they may be using the "R-word" - rebuilding - more often. Lance Berkman tore his ACL washing his truck. Jeff Kent will make $8.5 million playing for Los Angeles. Wade Miller got cut. Clemens is on the fence. But they still have a former Bucco managing the team, and Jason Lane is not the worst option to plug into centerfield. The team re-signed Jose Vizcaino for $1.25M and Orlando Palmeiro for 800K. Hmmm. We'll see them six times before May 5. Hopefully Berkman won't come back until May 6.

It's getting time to look in at the other clubs. The Cubs let Moises Alou go to San Francisco. Insert pee joke here. Matt Clement went to Boston. They lose Grudz to St. Louis. Ramon Martinez was lured away by Detroit for one year and $1M. How is Abraham Nunez still out of work? Kent Mercker left Chicago for Cincinnati, yawn. The Cubs resigned Nomar, Neifi, Todd Hollandsworth, Glendon Rusch, Todd Walker, and Ryan Dempster. They also picked up Henry Blanco. I'm not sure if these moves make them a stronger or a weaker club though I'm tipping toward weaker since Matt Clement was solid for them. We see the Cubs for a three-game homestand starting April 15th.

J - E - T - S

Looks like the Steelers will line up against the Jersey team, who won yesterday's choke-a-thon. To me, both the Jets and the Chargers looked like Losers coming out of that one.

But all I have to say now is this: There is no little enemy. The saddest-looking opponents are the most likely to surprise you in the playoffs.

Burnitz in centerfield

Dejan Kovacevic handicaps the chance the Bucs could land Burnitz to play centerfield. As long as his agent talks like the Pirates "are not a contending team," I say Burnitz can fuck off.

Craig Wilson bobblehead day June 4th. Long hair or short? After going over what the Bucs now have and how it might fit together on the field, I can't see how they can deal Wilson without getting someone just like him in return. Since he's good, I can understand Littlefield "shopping" him. You have to trade quality to get quality.

Whinery

Gene Collier sheds some tears for the Pirates and their low payroll.

I'd be down with a salary cap; it has been good for football. But don't tell me you can't field a respectable baseball team on forty million dollars.

The part I most resent about this line of reasoning is that it exaggerates the gap between the Pirates and the rest of the league. In the recent Sports Illustrated sports atlas, they showed that our rust belt region tunes into less baseball than any other part of the country. Since our teams are the Tigers, the Brewers, the Reds, the Indians, and the Pirates, that can't be surprising.

The Bucs have fallen into a vicious cycle. They have a losing season. Fans and sportswriters get disgusted and stop paying as much attention. They have another losing season. Everyone pays less attention. Year after year, the level and accuracy of the discussion of the team sinks a little lower and a little lower. Fewer and fewer people know what's going on. Collier's review of the state of the team reminds me of a book review by someone who hasn't read the book carefully. All this crap about we don't have as much money amounts to little more than an elaborate rationalization to not pay attention to the team.

There's definitely some real-world, reality-based reasons so many people in Pittsburgh frame the state of the baseball team in these terms. But let's keep the political arguments off the field, OK? Stop crapping so near the well. Pirate fans who really want to hate on our Gilded-Age distribution of wealth should redirect their energy into support of their local unions. It would be much more effective and satisfying in that arena.

There were stretches in 2004 when the Pirates were as good as any team in the big leagues. Maybe they weren't as good on paper, but I remember, for example, a stretch last summer during which the Cardinals came to PNC and got swept. If you win seventeen or eighteen games out of twenty-one, that's as good as it gets. And that's what I live for. Sure it sucks that the team hasn't made the playoffs since they cut Tim Wakefield. But on any given summer evening, it's hard to think about the playoffs when there's a game on the field. Collier may think he's doing the team a service by calling attention to the fact that the Yankees have a bigger payroll. But who doesn't know that? We've heard about it ad nauseam.

I look forward to seeing the Bucs win in Yankee stadium. How sweet would a sweep be?

Still to come: hitter and starter

Dejan Kovacevic covers the Jack Wilson press conference. Everyone seems to agree that centerfield is up in the air. Kovacevic also notes Littlefield may acquire a right-hander for first and/or the outfield. And he still expects to pick up a starting pitcher.

Any guess who we'll bring in? Here's a list of FA first basemen. Carlos Baerga!

Here are some FA pitchers. Jeff Fassero signed, but Omar Daal is still out there. Steve Sparks would look pretty intimidating in black-and-gold. Todd Ritchie? Estaban Loaiza?

Or maybe we'll find those players some other way. Maybe we can trade some of our ready-for-primetime prospects ...

Banged-up Bucs

Injury updates from Ed Eagle and Joe Rutter.

All hail Mark Guthrie

He did good.

2005 playing time estimates, January edition

These playing time estimates were made consulting the fielding statistics available at the Pirates' team index page at Baseball-Reference. Playing time is measured in total plate appearances (at-bats plus walks plus hit-by-pitches plus nuts and bolts leftover from the latest car repair). The players are sorted from the most playing time to the least playing time.

The Pirates made 5743 PAs in 2004 (not counting the pitchers). These projections add up to 5750. They could have a few more - they had a game cancelled in 2004 and didn't score a lot of runs - but that strikes me as a good number to expect for next year, too, so I used it. They are distributed as 700 at first base and left field, 675 at every other position, and 300 pinch-hitting and miscellaneous at-bats. Odds are that the few positions stocked with the healthiest and best-hitting players will go over the 675 number. Looking at the players, I'd guess we'll go over that number at 2B and maybe at another outfield position. For sure, Lloyd McClendon won't manage 300 pinch-hitting plate appearances, and no one will get 100 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter. Since it's tough to forecast which positions will go over the 675 number, however, I'll lump the final 300 plate appearances into a pinch-hitting and miscellaneous category.

Spring training will change everything, of course. A close look at the team's current options will reinforce the expectation that David Littlefield will acquire a hitter, especially if one of the top five or six players gets injured before the season begins.

The players with numbers are the ones I'm guessing will make the 25-man roster at the end of Spring Training.

1. Jack Wilson: 650 PAs at shortstop (2004: 693 total plate appearances).

Jack Wilson looks to me like our only everyday player. Given McClendon's ongoing studies of mixing and matching and rotating and platooning and substituting, that's not a bad thing. 650 is the most I'd project for anyone. Jack gets that number.

2. Jason Bay: 400 in left, 200 in center (2004: 472).

Jason Bay only had 475 plate appearances last year. I expect McClendon to play him as much as possible. Until he has a 650 PA year, however, I don't think it's wise to project one for him. He was amazingly consistent month to month in 2004, but he did have the occasional stretch where he struck out seven times in ten at-bats. With so many outfielders, I expect he'll get a day off now and then. With no Randall Simon, I'm not sure who will sit him down for a hug and a pep talk. Pirate fans everywhere should hope that Bay can play a good centerfield in 2005. If not, see Tike Redman, below.

3. Craig Wilson: 200 at first, 350 in right, 25 in left, 25 pinch-hitting & misc. (2004: 644).

In 2004, Craig's fielding percentage was good at first, but his range factor was statuesque. In right field he was at least average. For that, I expect him to see most of his time out there. The possibility that McClendon will want to start Redman - in spacious parks, or because Redman got a big hit the day before - combined with the probable presence of a healthy Bay, a healthy Lawton, and a versatile Mackowiak - suggests to me that Wilson won't start full-time out there. Most likely, he moves around. Give the man some love: he is as important to the offense as anyone on the team. Hopefully we'll see more of the Jim Thome impression he performed in the first half of 2004.

4. Jose Castillo: 525 at second, 25 at third (2004: 414).

Jose Castillo could change his name to Warren Morris and only earn about 300 plate appearances, or he maybe he'll play 95% of the innings at second and have a breakout year. I'm guessing he's on the Jack Wilson career path. Jack Wilson jumped from about 400 PAs in his rookie year to about 550 in his sophomore year. I have a hunch that he'll play some innings at third.

5. Rob Mackowiak: 100 in right, 50 in left, 325 at third, 50 in center (2004: 555).

Mackowiak's defensive numbers suggest that he could play more 3B in 2005 than he did in the Chris Stynes-afflicted 2004 season. With Stynes out of the equation, he should. If Rob's fielding percentage and range factor are correct in their suggestion that he's at least average over there, then he's better than Wigginton. My guess is that Rob and Ty both hit in the neighborhood of a 330 OBP and a 440 SLG, so the rotation at third base could well depend upon who was slick with the glove or hot with the bat the night before. Mackowiak's fielding percentage and range factor in the outfield were mixed. He looked pretty good in left but not so good in center or right. Overall the numbers suggest that he's pretty average out there. Assuming that Craig Wilson and Matt Lawton are still around after the trade deadline, this season Mackowiak won't have as many opportunities to play a corner outfield post.

6. Ty Wigginton: 100 at first (?!), 300 at third, 50 at second (2004: 206 with the Bucs, 339 with the Mets).

Can Ty Wigginton, a second-baseman moved to third, play first base? He did some for the Mets. Looking for ways to get him into the lineup, I figure that if Mackowiak plays as much as he did last year, Wigginton may be hard-pressed to get the same amount of PT he got with the Mets and Pirates combined in 2004. So I'm giving him 100 plate appearances as a weak-hitting first baseman to get him up to a 450 PA projection. It looks like there may be time at first, too. First, I want to be conservative with estimations of Ward's time there. Second, I also think Craig Wilson will be needed in right field, because I don't want to predict that Lawton, who has a history of missing time, will be an everyday player for us. This leaves a little gap at first. Littlefield talks about acquiring a power-hitting first-baseman, so perhaps this is reserved for him. Or, maybe the time here will filled by another of the team's trademark super-subs. Or these 100 plate appearances at first could easily go to Craig Wilson, if someone like Lawton or Redman exceeds expectations. Or they could go to a minor-league call-up like Brad Eldred.

7. Matt Lawton: 225 in right, 200 in left, 25 pinch-hitting & misc. (2004: 665 with the Tribe).

Lawton wore down after All-Star break in 2004. More frightening: his second-best comp at Baseball-Reference is Derek Bell, who shut it down at the age of 32. Lawton will be playing his 33rd year. I don't think he'll break down, but I also don't think he'll play 150 games in the field. We're desperate for plate discipline and he could fit that need. Lawton could be a hero if he can manage a .370 OBP – his career average – leading off.

8. Tike Redman: 425 in center (2004: 581)

I'm guessing his role will be reduced somewhat with a healthy Jason Bay to play some center. I see him moving toward a Kerry Robinson-type fourth outfielder role. If Lawton can't play the outfield very well, then Bay has to spend more time in left. Redman and maybe Mackowiak would then see more time in centerfield.

9. Benito Santiago: 375 catching, 25 pinch-hitting & misc. (2004: 183).

400 plate appearances for the Old Man may be optimistic.

10. Darlye Ward: 350 at first, 50 pinch-hitting & misc. (2004: 321).

A ballplayer needs three things to succeed in the show: athletic ability, competitive knowledge, and the will to maintain professional work habits. Ward has shown that he can hit the ball, when healthy and in shape. As the son of a ballplayer, Ward strikes me as someone who knows how to succeed in the majors. It's the third component, willpower, that I'd question with Daryle Ward. After getting sent to the minors at the end of Spring Training, Ward appeared in some stories as a character who looked in the mirror and turned over a new leaf (after throwing some tantrums). First of all, no pro gets so out of shape. And second of all, no pro throws that kind of tantrum when he's demoted. Both facts show that what he lacked in willpower, he made up in self-delusion. On the other hand, he was very impressive when he stormed back in May of 2004 before hurting his hand. I believe the changed-man narrative that came with the May surge, and I expect him to have a few surprisingly productive years. The playing time estimate (400 total PAs) reflects pros and cons. To his credit, I believe that he'll hit pretty well. If he hits as well as he's capable of hitting, he'll be a hero. He'll get all the PT he can handle, too. Even if he only manages 400 plate appearances, he could be a bargain at under one million if he hits for power. Working against a more generous PT projection is his history of injury and his defensive shortcomings. Ward had a horrible zone rating in the outfield last year; I'm assuming his days out there are over. And he wasn't that good at first base, so he's worth yanking for a defensive replacement.

11. Humberto Cota: 250 catching (2004: 70).

Cota has less than 120 big-league plate appearances and a history of getting injured often. His cut of the catching duties could easily fall to J.R. House or Ronny Paulino.

12. Bobby Hill: 100 at second, 100 pinch-hitting & misc. (2004: 267).

Bobby Hill will have to keep up his torrid pinch-hitting to get this much PT in that department because McClendon will have more and better pinch-hitting options this year. The pinch-hitting is sure to improve from the 2004 campaign led by Abraham Nunez. Hill doesn't have a great defensive reputation, but perhaps that's unfair. His fielding percentage and range factor were both above-average in 2004. He could pick up another 100-150 plate appearances if one of the above players gets injured and misses a substantial amount of time.

AAA. Brad Eldred: 50 at first (2004: 0).

Eldred will get a big cup of Joe if the Pirates fail to acquire another power-hitting first baseman before the trade deadline.

13. Freddy Sanchez: 25 at short (2004: 20).

Someone will have to pick up the few innings at short when Jack Wilson comes out of the game or needs a day off. It will be interesting to see who makes the Opening Day roster as the backup shortstop. Sanchez could be the thirteenth position player if McClendon is comfortable with two catchers. If he does make the Opening Day roster, I imagine the team will find a way to get him more than 25 plate appearances over the course of the season. Perhaps they'll trade one of their utility players in a package for a power hitter if Sanchez looks ready for even more time.

AAA. J.R. House: 25 catching (2004: 9).
AAA. Ronny Paulino: 25 catching (2004: 0).

House and Paulino will probably get some playing time if/when Benito or Humberto go on the disabled list. If they start the year in the minors, both these guys should have a bag packed for the next flight out of town.

Right now, I project no playing time for Bautista, Doumit, R. Davis, Duffy, or McLouth. Right now, it looks to me like those guys need a trade, an injury or two (injuries will happen), or some kind of stellar start to find their way into the 2005 lineup.

Minor-league signings

In addition to the Jack Wilson signing, the Bucs also signed some minor-leaguers (thank you Clay). Meanwhile, the Astros signed Carlos Rivera

Jack gets two years

Alan Robinson has the non-details here. Dejan Kovacevic has the scoop on the salary information for the PG. Littlefield appears to have gotten what he wanted.

...the AP revised their story to include more financial details. Good work, Alan Robinson.

...did Jack get a no-trade clause? Is it me or do these terms say "hometown discount"?

Dodger-Pirate Thoughts

In keeping with our new blog name and marketability, it's time to turn our attention to the Los Angeles Dodger-Pirates. Here are some topics we might discuss.

First, contrary to what's been said on all the discussion boards, we reject the notion that the Dodger-Pirate is a figment of our imagination. No less an authority than Robert Louis Stevenson, for example, writes

"If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it," returned the captain. "We must keep upstream. You see, sir," he went on, "if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded by the gigs; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken, and then we can dodge back along the shore."

Obviously, dodging and piracy have a long and shared history.

Now let's turn our attention to the larger, more marketability club we intend to cover here at Los Angeles Wagner of Honest.

A. The Aramis Beltre fiasco. When will the Dodger-Pirates do anything to show their fans that we intend to compete with the big-market clubs? It's one thing to pass on the overpriced likes of Alex Rodriguez. It's another to give away your homegrown talent for nothing. Where will we find a third baseman to replace him?

B. The Jason Lo Duca trade. What exactly can fans of the Dodger-Pirates expect without our heart, soul, and backstop? What do we have to show for this trade? Obviously Brad Redman didn't like pitching on the West Coast. Can we expect him to re-discover the groove he had pitching for the Los Angeles Marlins of Florida?

C. Now a bit of news that is more fun. A friend of mine in Los Angeles of Aspen says that Craig Seop Choi, who been skiing there lately, has grown a full head of long, flowing blond locks. He needs a new nickname. What do you think of "Chore"?

These are just a few topics we might discuss. They are just a start. If you have other ideas that might get the ball rolling, please include them in the comments.

New Blog Name

Today we announce that we are changing the blog name to Los Angeles Wagner of Honest. The name change will strengthen the blog's long-term economic health by enhancing the marketability through this metropolitan area and beyond. This change is effective January 5, 2004.

How to beat the Steelers

Peter King wrote this on Monday, but I missed it until today.

Kovacevic drives in two

Dejan Kovacevic (does it rhyme with copacetic?) brings us two bundles of Pirates news-joy today. First, some details about one-year contracts, complete with griping agents. Second, his first-ever Q & A, in which he cops out and has the nerve to ask us the questions! Talk about mailing it in.

Copying & answering questions has a long if undistinguished history on blogs. Here are my answers.

1. Who deserves most of the blame for the Pirates' inability to win since moving into PNC Park?

A. Satan? No, seriously, the blame would have to go to the people who signed the bad players to ridiculous contracts. I'd also note that they have only played four seasons in PNC Park. It's not like the Pirates have been losing there for 86 years.

2. When you see young players excel, as have Oliver Perez, Jason Bay, Jose Castillo, Jack Wilson and Mike Gonzalez, do you find reason for hope? Or do you just picture how they will look in another uniform?

A. That's a leading question. If I was a lawyer, I'd object to that line of questioning. Now, to answer. With enough beer in me, I can find reason for hope watching the Parrot dance on the top of the dugout.

3. For old-timers only: Can you recall any Pirates player between Ralph Kiner and Perez who single-handedly drew Pittsburgh fans to the ballpark?

A. Uh. Pass.

4. What are your choices for Dave Littlefield's best and worst personnel moves in his tenure? This does not have to be limited to trades. It also can be an internal move (keeping Castillo in the majors last year, Rule 5 fiasco, drafting Neil Walker, whatever).

A. Right off the top of my head, the Giles trade ranks as the best and the Aramis trade ranks as the worst.

5. In your mind, which prospect in the organization who has yet to appear in a major-league game has the greatest potential?

A. Zach Duke?

6. If Major League Baseball shut down for a full season or more when its current Basic Agreement expires in a couple of years, and you had reason to believe that the end result would be a salary-cap system, how would you react during the work stoppage?

A. Watch hockey games? Play Yahoo! scrabble? A salary cap would be fine with me. I would find another hobby for the work stoppage.

7. For season-ticket holders only: Is there anyone 18 or younger in Pittsburgh who cares about the Pirates? I am not talking about kids who get dragged there by their parents and roll their eyes when dad starts talking about how Bill Madlock once said that hitting a sac fly is the easiest thing in baseball. I am talking about passionate, stats-keeping, analyze-every-move, Bay-jersey-wearing fans.

A. Why is this question for season-ticket holders only?

8. Who should start in center field? For that matter, what should the outfield look like? Feel free to throw in a free agent you think the Pirates should sign or acquire through trade. But be realistic. No Beltran.

A. A lot depends on Matt Lawton's ability, range, and throwing arm. My guess is the team plans to rotate Bay, Lawton, Craig Wilson, Tike Redman, and maybe some Rob Mackowiak in the outfield. Redman's a low-budget Kerry Robinson-type; he can play center as a defensive replacement. I don't see any centerfield FAs the Bucs "should" or will acquire before opening day.

9. How do you feel about the Pirates' decision to delay signing Perez to a long-term contract? Is it a needless risk that could cost the team money in the long run? Or a shrewd show of patience?

A. Two words: Scott Boras. This is a trick question outside that context. Even if we thought the Pirates should negotiate now, the odds are against Boras letting his client sign for anything less than insane terms. Boras is on the record gloating about what a great thing it is to be a starting pitcher and a free agent. It's not right to frame the Oliver Perez situation as one in which the front office has a range of options. I'd even guess that Littlefield's decision to not participate in negotiations now is mainly sour grapes - he must know that he's in no position to get anything done with Perez right now.

10. A purely selfish one: What would you like to see in the Post-Gazette's coverage of the Pirates in 2005? Over the years, suggestions made to the Penguins Q&A have led directly to regular features in the newspaper. Among them were a minor-league notebook, nearly every element of our Sunday hockey page, specific story angles, the recent Penguins in Exile feature and a slew of other stuff. I would like to encourage that type of communication here.

A. The Post-Gazette should feature what fans can't get from other sources, e.g., information and analysis from players, the manager, other clubhouse folks, former players, the GM, etc.

Steeler links a-blazin'

Here's what I found on the internets.

First a word about registration. If you are one of those people who has trouble reading different papers because you aren't registered for many, or hate to register for them, visit this great site and thank me later.

Dolores Block of Shaler won 33 grand because the Steelers scored 33 in that win against the Giants. I used to work at a bar that was said to sell more Rolling Rock than any other establishment in the country. I love the stuff cold, in bottles, in the summer. When I lived in London I read a review in Time Out that said the beer tasted like "hay." Uh, yeah. British people.

Looks like Hines Ward will be on Wheel of Fortune.

Jon Gruden will root for the Steelers in the playoffs. I understand the bias. If you coach the Bucs, it must be hard to not like the Steelers too.

The Browns want Russ Grimm. Of course they do.

The team nutritionist appears to be a big fan of Weight Watchers. Note to Daryle Ward: call her. Offer a cut of the raise you might receive for 2006.

Ben Roethlisberger is rich. File that under "D" for "Duh."

Alan Robinson, football writer extraordinaire for the Associated Press, writes up Jeff Reed, who is good. I'm generally shocked that sports teams don't spend more time and money educating their players against superstition. I'd start by making them memorize the definition of the word.

This was yesterday, but I missed it then. Michael Wilborn of the Washington Post predicts good things for the team in the playoffs. For some reason, none of the talk like this unnerves me this time around. It's kind of like reading articles that say the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

One last link. The Steelers and "slumping Pittsburgh" have made the Christian Science Monitor.

Catching up with Spanky

The Bradenton Herald has a story.

He's only 44. How old is Santiago again?

Very positive conversations with most everybody

Joe Rutter reports on the negotiations with the arbitration-eligible. Also explained is Jack Wilson's mysterious extra year of arbitration eligibility.

Groundhog Day

I'd like to see Bill Murray tackling this day after day.

Don't wait until next year

Steeler schedule for the 2005 regular season. HOME: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, Chicago, Detroit. AWAY: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, San Diego, Green Bay, Minnesota.

Ed Eagle mailbag

Ed Eagle looks at the outfield and writes a bit about Brad Eldred.

I'm all about Jack Wilson. I never doubted the staying power of his breakout year, and I think he's shown that he's someone the team can build around. But here's a PR question Eagle's comments raise with me: Why does the team need to have "a face"? A related question - to what extent can the front office (successfully) determine who that face is going to be? If the 2004 Pirates had a face, for most baseball fans it was Randall Simon, not Jason Kendall. Jack Wilson is worth good money, but I don't get the rationale that he's worth extra because he's "the face" of the team. Such extra money would be better spent on uniform and logo design. That's my hunch at least.

.500

The good chance of a winning season is one of the reasons I'm filled with irrational exuberance about the 2005 team. Jim Molony frames the upcoming year as one in which the team could make a run at .500. Low expectations are a good thing since they are more rarely disappointed.

But taking any given ballclub and forecasting a .500 season strikes me as an always-conservative enterprise. It's akin to predicting an NFL team will score 17 to 21 points. Or projecting that Average Man will lose most of what he brought during his weekend at Vegas. Or predicting that it will be very cold on New Year's Day. A team has to be pretty wretched to not have at least a 45%-55% of finishing at .500. That's my sense of it.

The current team is not wretched so again I'd handicap their chances of a .500 season at something like 50-50. Over the last twelve years or so, maybe there have been four or five teams that weren't wretched at the start of the year. The fact that none of them finished above .500 is unfortunate but no great improbability. A quarter can come up heads five times in a row. That kind of improbability happens every day. It's easy to be a fatalist and think that the team didn't reach .500 in all of those years because those teams never had a chance of reaching .500. But my experience as a sporting fan rejects that logic. To me, that's like losing twelve straight hands of blackjack and chalking it up to your genetics. It's an overreaction to what probably included some usual dose of ill luck.

I also thought that the team underperformed in 2004. Injuries, a cruel schedule, and unexpected extremities of performance added to a sense of anxiety that appeared, to me, to prolong the losing streaks. Every sub-.500 team can say that. If the rotation stays reasonably healthy and if we aren't watching the likes of Nelson Figueroa come September, I think it's no great feat of irrational optimism to expect something close to a .500 season. If the horses are healthy and the team looks game at the end of March, I'll probably forecast something like 85 wins. As Ty Wigginton would reason, they're due.

Steelers

Great story from Clark Judge of CBS Sportsline. Here we go ...

All hail Dejan

Mega-useful notebook. If Ollie has a 2005 that is as good as his 2004, he's worth whatever he can win in arbitration. I'd like to see the team roll the dice and not grimace if they lose their attempt to keep down his 2006 salary.

The Boras factor considerably raises the risks associated with signing a young player long-term. When the long-term deal talks open - after next year, or after a year or two at arbitration-determined salaries - you know Scott will bust out the PowerPoint presentation projecting Ollie as a certain Hall-of-Famer. There will be a cheesy fade at the end where Ollie's smiling mug blurs into a Photoshop-generated brass plaque. And Boras will ask for the sun and the moon.

And all hail Jose Castillo, who knocked the snot out of the ball this winter. Look for him to outperform expectations in 2005. Go get him in your deep keeper leagues.

While we are making hasty toasts, all hail the Steelers JV as well.

Happy New Year

Here's hoping that the New Year finds you happy, warm, and well-fed.

This is probably my last post until next Tuesday. I'm still on vacation with family.

In the meantime, feel free to make like Roberto Clemente.

King of the World

More weird and impressive news about our poised rookie.

Elmer the Great

In October 1936, the two New York teams were playing in the World Series. Lux Radio Theater, then considered the best and most high-brow of radio drama shows, performed "Elmer the Great," a play from a Ring Lardner story about a hayseed pitcher who is better than Dizzy Dean. He pitches in the "World Serious" until he's framed by a gambler. It's a pretty interesting look at the status of baseball players in the 1930s. Not much has changed since then, I think.

Carl Hubbell and Lou Gehrig also appear - star players from the opposing teams - and do what might be called a comedy routine if either man had any talent for radio.

You can find a free stream of the October 5, 1936 program here.

Cool Steelers music

Please help Eileen name that tune.

On minor-league stats

Regular readers of the blog know that I can be impatient with fellow amateur Bucco writers who think they understand the value and potential of minor-league players more than the folks in the front office. It's the Allegory of the Cave, as far as I'm concerned. We fans and part-time baseball scholars can only work with shadows cast upon a wall by shapes and beings we can't actually see. And for all the beauty of the translation and projection systems that are publicly available, I'm pretty confident we can be sure that the big-league teams have models and systems that blow these away. And since they are proprietary, we'll never see them.

So I'm cautious when it comes to second-guessing a GM's decision to throw away some A-level pitcher, even if the numbers say that he throws the ball hard. I'll admit it's possible that the GM is a complete moron. I don't think so, but that doesn't mean much. Still, if fellow Pirate fans don't at least concede that it's possible that they can't know as much as him from their rumpus-room iMacs, then they lose some credibility with me. And so what if Rob Neyer, Royals partisan, wants to gloat about acquiring Leo Nunez for Benito Santiago and enough money to pay much of Santiago's contract? My fellow Bucco fans should buck up when it comes to such things. Of course Rob Neyer will look on the bright side of Leo Nunez.

Over at the Birdhouse, a Cardinals blog I just discovered through a link from Primer, Jeff Luhnow, Cardinals Vice President of Baseball Development, talks about the way the St. Louis team evaluates minor-league numbers. I'll quote the part that supports my view of the situation.

I think at Double-A and Triple-A, we’re very comfortable with our methods for converting those stats and projecting major league performance.  Once you get to Single-A and especially down to rookie ball, those leagues, even though they are competitive and you want to win, the pendulum swings more to the development side of things.  A player may be down there working on plate patience or how to hit a breaking ball or control if he is a pitcher.  So, you never know the real picture of what is going on.  Because those environments are more developmental than Double-A or Triple-A, you may be misled.  It becomes more of a challenge.  Our rule of thumb basically is that we look at the stats below Double-A, but the stats we consider important at the minor league level are the ones as the Double-A and Triple-A level.  Those are the ones that we feel are more predictive of major league performance.  That is one of the challenges of the lower minor leagues.

I don't think we have any idea what Leo Nunez is worth. And like most Bucco fans, I'm glad we're not saddled with two years of Charles Johnson. I had reasons to doubt the Bucs would find a use for Nunez any time soon. And while I didn't think Humberto Cota and J.R. House were so obviously insufficient that the Bucs had to go get another catcher, I'm not foolish enough to think that I have all the information I'd need to say, with complete confidence, that I'm smarter than the GM here.

All that said, more power to the folks who want to play it that way. It takes all kinds. Whatever gets you through the offseason, it's all right.

Brian Walton did a great job with that interview and I recommend the whole.

Trading with Arizona

John Perrotto reported last week that the Bucs might get involved in the Return of the Randy Johnson Trade. CNN/SI clipped his paragraph a few days ago.

What would we want off the Arizona roster? My hunch: Chad Tracy.

Tracy works the count and has better range at third than Wigginton. He's shown little power and for that, reminds me of Sean Burroughs. He's young (25) and has two more years of service before he's arbitration-eligible. And he hits left-handed.

The D'backs also have a number of young starting pitchers. But I don't see anything worth Kip Wells and Craig Wilson. Maybe that rumor, like the one Gammons reported with the Bucs non-tendering Fogg, really has nothing going for it.

All hail Bert

Rich Lederer has posted an interview with Bert Blyleven.

Blyleven was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the 1978 season, and he helped lead the Bucs to a World Series victory over the Baltimore Orioles in 1979. Although Bert won two games in the postseason — including a “do-or-die situation” in Game Five of the World Series — he became disenchanted with the fact that he was only allowed to complete four games that year (after never having fewer than 11 in any full season) while setting a record with 20 no-decisions.

“Chuck Tanner and I did not see eye-to-eye. My only beef with him ever was ‘why do I have to wait five to six days to pitch if I’m only pitching five to six innings?’ What you’re doing is taking away about 50 extra innings.”

I'm not sure they were counting pitches in the 1970s. Still it's clear in his record that Blyleven's managers restricted the number of starts he made and innings he pitched after the early 1970s. Tanner looks like the first in a series of managers to deny Blyleven 40 starts and 300 innnigs. He gave Blyleven as many starts as any Pirate pitcher in the 1970s but, as Blyleven told Rich, he surely pulled him early often, as Blyleven's total number of innings pitched never got real high again until he returned to Minnesota. I'm away from all of my books and reference books that might explain Tanner's approach. Any old-timers remember what he was thinking? Obviously it's a four-man vs. five-man rotation question. I'm curious if anyone remembers what was the rationale for the latter under Tanner.

The Bucs dealt Blyleven to the Indians in the middle of 1980.

Looking over the Pirate teams from the 1970s, I'm struck by how many games they won. Those teams were good.

Steelers 20, Ravens 7.

Sweet. Stillers secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs by pounding the crap out of the lowly cheapshot-artists/professional thugs/Cravens. AP recap and boxscore here. Post-game quotes here. Steelers never punted, put up 404 total yards, and stuffed Jamal Lewis for 26 pathetic total rushing yards. My favorite part was the dozen-consecutive-rushing-play-bitchslap:

Drive Summary: 14 plays, 71 yards
  1st-10, PIT29 B. Roethlisberger passed to H. Ward to the right for 7 yard gain
  2nd-3, PIT36 J. Bettis rushed up the middle for 7 yard gain
  1st-10, PIT43 J. Bettis rushed up the middle for 3 yard gain
  2nd-7, PIT46 J. Bettis rushed to the left for 11 yard gain
  1st-10, BAL43 V. Haynes rushed up the middle for 11 yard gain
  1st-10, BAL32 V. Haynes rushed up the middle for 9 yard gain
  2nd-1, BAL23 V. Haynes rushed up the middle for 5 yard gain
  1st-10, BAL18 V. Haynes rushed up the middle for 3 yard gain
  2nd-7, BAL15 J. Bettis rushed to the left for 6 yard gain
  3rd-1, BAL9 J. Bettis rushed up the middle for no gain
  4th-1, BAL9 B. Roethlisberger rushed up the middle for 2 yard gain
  1st-7, BAL7 J. Bettis rushed up the middle for 4 yard gain
  2nd-3, BAL3 J. Bettis rushed up the middle for 1 yard gain
  3rd-2, BAL2 B. Roethlisberger passed to J. Tuman to the left for 2 yard touchdown. J. Reed made PAT

Of course this was followed by my least favorite part, as the Cravens managed to get in another costly cheapshot, "injuring" Rotty's ribs. If anyone's got any info on the rib status, please pass on in the comments thread.

All hail the Bus for racking up 117 to pass Dickerson! All hail Plaxico! All hail James Harrison! All hail an undefeated Heinz field record!

Gone fishing

See you January 3rd. Feel free to amuse each other in this comments thread.

Go Steelers. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

Joe Liggins

True or false: Lloyd McClendon looks more than a little like Joe Liggins.

More pictures here.

No wonder I like him as much as I do. I'm listening to Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers every chance I get. Including now.

Pink Champagne, that stole my love from me.

Honest Wagner NFL pick 'em: week 16

VIS SPRD HME SCOOP BONES ROWDY
gnb 02.5 MIN .MIN* ..MIN .MIN*
oak 07.5 KSC .KSC* ..KSC ..KSC
den -4.5 TEN ..TEN ..TEN .TEN*
snd 06.5 IND ..snd .snd* ..IND
bal 05.5 PIT ..PIT .PIT* ..PIT
chi 06.5 DET ..DET ..DET ..DET
atl 02.5 NWO ..NWO ..NWO ..NWO
hou 07.5 JAX ..hou .JAX* ..hou
nyg 05.5 CIN ..CIN ..nyg ..CIN
nwe -2.5 NYJ .nwe* ..NYJ .NYJ*
bf -11.5 SNF ..SNF ..buf .SNF*
car 02.5 TAB ..car ..car .TAB*
arz 06.5 SEA ..arz .arz* .SEA*
was -2.5 DAL ..was ..was .DAL*
cle 06.5 MIA .MIA* ..MIA .MIA*
phl 02.5 STL ..STL .phl* ..phl
Asterisks indicate best bets.

Season to date:
Bones 122-102 .545
Scoop 121-103 .541
Rowdy 113-111 .504

Consensus 43-31 .581

Best bets
Bones 42-28 .600
Scoop 29-20 .592
Rowdy 43-35 .551

Altoona well promoted

All hail Stink Night!

More McClatchy

Dejan Kovacevic's interview with Kevin McClatchy continues. They discuss G. Ogden Nutting and other mysteries of ownership.

Thursday Steeler links

The team gets the Washington Post treatment from Camille Powell. Not much to see, but it's hard to tire of reading "the Dominant Team in the AFC." Too bad the Colts and even the Chargers have been pretty dominant, too.

Re: injury report. What did Hines Ward do to his hip?

Troy Polamalu got a hand from the team for making the Pro Bowl. Alan Robinson of the AP reports that

Polamalu called his selection a testament to perseverance and patience _ namely, that of his teammates for patiently waiting out his underachieving 2003 season.

But we know the real reason:

''If you look at all the great warriors, starting biblically with Samson, he had long hair. The American Indians, the Samurais, the Greeks, the Chinese -- everybody had long hair. I don't know of anything that says you have to have your hair short.''

Of course that's Troy from this wire story on the long-hairs in pro sports.

There's another Alan Robinson story making the rounds. This one is on Myron Cope, who deserves as much attention as anyone cares to give him. Now that he's 75, they should put him on the endangered species list. We'll never see another like him. I read his autobiography - Double Yoi! I think it is called - last winter. If you mainly know him from the radio, you might be surprised to see that Cope is a great writer.

ESPN's John Clayton also reported that former Steeler Jim Haslett won't get fired at the end of the year. I couldn't be much of a fan of the Saints; if I lived in New Orleans it would be hard to get past the food and the music. That's no kind of hobby, following the soap opera of the Saints.

For USA Today, Skip Wood wrote the article I would write about the Patriots. Losing to Miami like that is like taking one cannonball through both sides of the ship. Bail, boys, bail. The Jets have a great chance to further sink that ship this weekend. New England faces a new kind of challenge here.

Rod Woodson retired. Were there any discussions of moving him to safety before he left the Steelers? I always thought he got pushed away too quickly. And for what? Lee Flowers? On the other hand, I also thought that Woodson's second act in San Francisco/Baltimore/Oakland did much to motivate the Steelers to hang onto Jerome Bettis. We all thought he was done a few years ago. In football more than baseball, these hall-of-famers can really surprise late in their careers, given the chance and good fortune to get healthy.

Ben Roethlisberger's name comes up in this story about the role scholarship limits are having in the recent success of the MAC. Didn't Roethlisberger sign with Miami because they were the first team to make an offer? I remember there being some kind of loyalty lesson to his career at Miami. I mean, I'm pretty sure he would not have been a JV player at Ohio State before scholarship limits. He would have been a starter there.

Finally, here's another Steelers team: meet the Sheffield Steelers Ice Hockey Club.

Paul Meyer Q & A

Meyer says the Bucs can't win it all with a $50M payroll. A reader recommends that MLB cane and flog players who test positive for steroids.

We got Pro Bowlers

Six of them.

I'm confused. How can they make a list of bowlers and not include Bettis?

Ward signed for just under $1M

Daryle Ward was great pre-thumb injury, so this signing strikes me as a good gamble. Power is expensive. There's a chance - maybe not real great - that he puts together 500 productive at-bats. If the chance is one-in-three, this is a great gamble. If it's one-in-six, it's a solid bet. The team needs left-handed power. He's a good fit.

Payroll going up

Dejan Kovacevic interviews Kevin McClatchy. The owner suggests payroll will cross $40M soon and generally says the right things about competing as a small-market club.

No Nishi

The Japan Times reports that Toshihisa Nishi will stay with the Yomiuri Giants. His agent, Scott Boras, attempted to get a major-league team interested in him. The Bucs obliged Boras but stopped short of offering a contract to Nishi.

Festival of Steelers links

Patriots nation is in full sour-grapes mode. All that is laughably stupid. They lost to a two-win team on Monday Night Football. The loss may not hurt the playoff chances, but anyone who watched that game and now says the Patriots should still be the favorite to win the AFC is in full-on denial. I'm more worried about the Chargers and the Colts. We can pick on Troy Brown and pick off Tom Brady, too. The way the Patriots played last night, it doesn't look like they'll see the Champtionship game, regardless of whether or not they get a bye. More on the home-field advantage angle in a moment.

This site has the Steelers as 4:1 to win it all.

All hail Dan Rooney.

Everybody wants a Steelers jersey for Christmas.

Down the hall at the Uniontown Mall, Sears general manager Wayne Pracel said because of the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the football team's merchandise, notably Ben Roethlisberger shirts, had to be restocked several times since the start of the holiday shopping season.

It's not just wives wanting to buy their hubby a great Christmas gift, instead, Pracel said, "there's no rhyme or reason" to the people who come to purchase Steelers merchandise.

There's plenty of rhyme and plenty of reason: everyone wants the Steelers this season. Or, shall we say, black and gold is the new black.

Here's a fun story about balancing football and church. Rowdy's dad, a Methodist minister, might not approve of the way we're raising Rowdietta. When we say "Sunday," she says "Football!"

More horse people supporting the Steelers. Ward is a good name for a horse, but I think Scoop's horse, Kip Smells, has the better Pittsburgh-sports-themed name.

Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune writes something I've seen in more than one editorial. Namely, that the Steelers don't really want home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They lost two AFC Championships at home under Cowher. So what? They can learn from mistakes.

And home-field advantage is not just about maximizing your chance of getting to the Super Bowl. It's about playing the championship in front of your fans. It's fine that the 53 Steelers wouldn't mind going on the road. What about the 60,000 Steeler fans who won't be there if the team goes on the road? You'd think the players and the media would know enough of the world to keep the fans first. And it's pretty pathetic how Hines Ward is more or less quoted (in that Pierson link) blaming the 2001 Championship loss on the "distraction" caused by reading the newspaper and getting tickets for his family. Hines Ward doesn't often play the crybaby; this is out of character for him; obviously someone asked a dumb question and he gave a dumb sour grapes answer. The athletes are trained to give all kinds of answers to inane, leading questions. They should add this one to the list. Why do you want the home-field advantage? To play in front of our fans, who did so much to help us get to this position. We think they deserve it.

On publicly-funded stadiums

For the record, I agree with these two editorials on not using public money to build stadiums. This is good, from Linda Robertson's essay:

The D.C. City Council voted 7-6 to tell baseball it is not accepting the financial risks of a ballpark that could cost upwards of $535 million. The owner of the Nationals was not only going to get a free stadium, but all the revenue from it. Whoa, council members said, that's not a boon to the city, that's a boondoggle. Councilwoman Carol Schwartz said she could picture owners ``high-fiving each other until they collapsed from exhaustion.''

All hail Councilwoman Carol Schwartz.

It's not the biggest boondoggling of public funds, but it's a big one. It may be mild compared to some of the other schemes for looting the public treasuries, but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

PNC Park, pigsty of despair?

How can I get one of these high-paying jobs to speechify like a complete moron?

In Pittsburgh, Steelers fans will suffer through lousy seasons at Heinz Field yet never confront the unforgiving truth that some teams spend tens of millions more on talent every year. Next door, in PNC Park, Pirates fans wallow in despair. They don't count the days until pitchers and catchers report. They count the days until the next pitcher or catcher has to be dealt to keep the budget from exceeding Alex Rodriguez's per diem.

Wallow in despair? The only dignified response to that is an unprintable string of expletives and insults. We're not a bunch of pigs. We don't go to PNC Park to "wallow." Unlike Kevin McClatchy - who O'Connor traps in shameless whining - at least this Pirate fan relishes the underdog role. Money can't buy everything; only crass materialists cling to this belief. As for not counting the days, O'Connor has no idea what he's talking about. The big-time pros should do their research before they fart out such inaccurate hyperbole for a national-circulation paper.

... oh, nevermind. Maybe he did his research. Maybe he read Ron Cook.

Dodgers becoming Pirates

That's the fantasy of Andy Kehe of Bakersfield.com (reg. req'd).

Here's what it means to be the Pirates in Bakersfield:

The Dodgers seem to be posturing, on the other hand, to become the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Having an owner with no money and a general manager who cut his teeth with the small-market Oakland A's, the Dodgers seemed destined to become baseball's first big-market team to conduct itself like a small market club -- acquiring little more than prospects for major stars, hoping they develop in time for a run at a championship every five years.

Posturing? For little more than prospects?

He writes that like it's a bad thing. Get with the program, Andy Kehe.

We can't all be the Yankees.

And, for what it's worth, we don't see the Pirates claiming scrubby left-handed relievers off anybody's waivers.

Contracts for everyone

Merry Christmas, you seven guys.

Steelers still full throttle

As they ought to be. Alan Robinson of the AP has this story now up all over the web.

"There are too many implications," Cowher said. "This is a very important game and we're going to approach it with that in mind. The way the AFC is right now, there is no margin for error. We need everybody we can get. If guys can go, they're going to go."

To that I say, right on. Hunger never saw bad bread. There is no little enemy. Would you live with ease? Do what you ought, not what you please.

Diligence is the mother of Good-Luck. Industry need not wish. There will be sleeping enough in the Grave. Look at the season as a marathon, and run each mile faster than the one before it. That is the way to win it all.

Ben Roethlisberger has not been as surprising to me as Chris Hulk Hoke. I had no idea he could replace Casey Hampton as well as he has. Vincent, Foote, Harrison, Mays, and Willie Williams. All the backups have stepped up. So I'm not afraid to see the Steelers go all-out the rest of the way. The bye will be nice. Better will be keeping their hunger and not breaking their diligence.

The Steelers can't be afraid of injury and maintain the edge that has them kicking everyone's ass right now. The prospect of playing in the playoffs or in the Super Bowl will work wonders on the sick and injured. Remember how Rod Woodson came back? I don't want to see the team resting anybody this week or next.

And fuck a whole bunch of the Ravens. I don't want a winning season tainted by the memory that the Steelers lost twice to those punks.

Individual records

All hail Peyton Manning for taking a knee.

A lot of what turns me off with pro sports right now can be traced to the growing respect for individual records. It will be no great feat for Peyton Manning to break some record for passing touchdowns. It will be no great accomplishment for Barry Bonds to break some record for hitting home runs. In context, neither thing is a big deal. I wish the sports media would stop talking about either achievement as though it's the equivalent of winning a playoff game. Or any game, for that matter.

Sports is about two things: team play and winning games. The average American loves sports because the rest of our lives are troubled by problems related to individualism and losing. It's always been that way. Fantasy sports are great but they should never become the basis for evaluating the relative value of pro athletes. If they aren't team players and if they don't win big games, they are nothing special and deserve no special praise.

The fans booed Manning because they wanted to be there when he broke the record. All boo that.

The 04-05 free agent market

As a Pirate fan, I've sat back and watched the free agent signings with a kind of detached amusement. We don't desperately need starting pitching and we don't expect to sign a top-dollar slugger. So all of this has unfolded at some distance.

There's no doubt that these signings significantly change the environment in which Littlefield operates. Here are some thoughts on the subject.

1. The Mark Redman contract, which the A's and the media called "bad" at the time of the Kendall trade, does not look so bad today. The Benson signing established 3 years and $7M per as the standard for pitchers of Benson's ability. Mark Redman is more than half the pitcher that Benson is, was, or will be, and we have him not only for $4.25M, but also just for one year. And it's better. If the trade-time reports can be trusted, we also a team option of about $5M for 2006 or a player option for $4.5M in 2006. In the new environment, Redman, who is only one year removed from being one of the "catches" of the free agent market, is very much worth that contract.

2. Teams are spending like drunken sailors. Especially drunk are the Diamondbacks, who have a tremendous amount of deferred-salary debt. Or so they have claimed. Maybe they have been fudging the books to make it look like they have financial problems. I don't know.

Either way, I see three explanations for all the new spending.

A. More Money. Many people have reported that the teams are all doing much better right now. Increased attendance, satellite radio contracts, revenue sharing, etc. means more money is flowing into all the teams. If all of baseball is flush with cash, that could explain the drunken-sailor spending.

B. Incompetent financial management. Maybe they are drunken sailors after all.

C. Funny Money. Perhaps the owners are betting that the federal government will monetize the national debt. The easiest way for the government to get out from under its massive debt burden would be to invite inflation and devalue the currency. The dollar has fallen like a rock against the euro. Maybe the owners have good reason to believe that it's no big deal to promise someone $8M for the 2006 season. Will the day come when baseball contracts are valued in euros instead of dollars? Don't ask me - I'm just a beer-swilling guy in the bleachers.

3. If the More Money explanation is the answer, then we have to wonder what the Bucs are doing with their new money. If the Brewers can afford to sign some big-name talent, why can't the Bucs? The Brewers' 2004 payroll was in the $28M range. Now they've added Carlos Lee for $16.5M over the next two years. They are also making noise about keeping Ben Sheets when he goes to free agency. Looks to me like the Brewers have more money.

4. If all of these signings represent Incompetence, then we may see good buying opportunities next off-season. I like how we got Redman on a contract that was "bad" in September but good, or at least OK, in December. If teams are overextending themselves this off-season, perhaps the Pirates will have some good "certified pre-owned" players to consider this time next year.

It's always wise to let someone else pay the depreciation. Imagine that the Red Sox drive Matt Clement off the lot. Say he puts in a year where he pitches great in every ballpark except Fenway. If the current contracts are overvalued, the Bucs can acquire him or someone like him in a deal which involves the Red Sox paying part of what now looks like a "bad" contract. That's one way to get more with less money. Could a team plan on making such deals in the future? Only if they are certain that these contracts are above what will be market value in a year or two.

The easiest and most cynical explanation, I think, will be to say that the Pirates are making money hand-over-fist and putting it into the pocket of Mr. Burns Nutting. While I can't rule that out - what do we know about their books? - I'd also say it's possible there are other explanations. The owners and the front office get the benefit of the doubt from me. I'm not a sports fan for the opportunities it provides to bitch about the way the rich are screwing the poor. I'm not saying that I wouldn't agree with such arguments. I just don't think sports is the right context for what should be more activist energies.

5. Oliver Perez's agent is Scott Boras. There's no way Perez is going to sign an extenstion with us. He'll play year-to-year for the Bucs until he's eligible for free agency. Then he'll go to the highest bidder.

6. What's the best way, long-term, for the team to spend its money? Say the Bucs have some extra cash, like the other teams, and could increase payroll by $10M per year for 2005. When would you spend that money? Right away? One pro for spending right away is that every team should want to win right away. There's no point in losing now because you think it will increase your chances of winning later. Losing only promotes more losing. On the other hand, the market right now - and perhaps this whole off-season - looks overpriced. It's hard to buy value when contracts are only going up. In the end, as with every move a GM makes, the decision to spend now or hold for later involves calculated gambles.

Rick Weaver: Santiago "a wack job"

Says he'll do.

Joe Rutter: Mack, Ward, Meadows on bubble

Joe Rutter gets you ready for the Monday deadline to tender contracts to the arbitration-eligible players. Rob Mackowiak may be the most expendable in terms of how these players complement the rest of the roster. But I'd think the Pirates could easily trade him if they decide they don't need his services in 2005. If I remember correctly, the Red Sox were interested in him last year. My guess is they find a way to keep all seven guys for at least the next few months.

Terry Pluto: Lawton's arm "is shot"

As he talks himself to sleep (reg. req'd), Cleveland sportswriter Terry Pluto rationalizes the Lawton-for-Rhodes deal:

The Indians have statistics showing there were five triples hit to left field against them when Lawton was out there. Lawton's arm is shot. The idea of him in right field "is scary," said one Tribe operative. That's why they made the Lawton-for-Arthur Rhodes deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They believe Blake is a good guy, a gifted athlete with a strong arm who will be a better outfielder than Lawton and drive in as many runs.

We'll have to keep an eye on Lawton's arm in Spring Training. Such reports make me doubt the Bucs will use him in left.

Steelers at Giants

If the Steelers don't turn the ball over, they should have no trouble running through the Giants tomorrow. What are your predictions? Share them if you care in the comments thread.

No more posting from me until Monday. Maybe Bones or Scoop will favor us with a rant in the meantime. Go Steelers and have a good weekend.

...1:30 am ... so I did get to a computer after all (nothing like a little last-minute shopping at Amazon.com). Nice game today, eh? It's was only close on the scoreboard. The Giants got an early special-teams touchdown and some of those turnovers I was worried about. And the Steelers moved the ball at will. They didn't punt once. They left something like 12 points on the field by settling for red-zone field goals. They converted more than half of their 3rd- and 4th-down situations and they held a ten-minute TOP advantage. The score could have easily been much more lopsided.

Ben has missed Plaxico, I think, who looked to me like Ben's security blanket in the early games of this run. Burress's time off has given Randle El a real chance to emerge. The Steelers have three #1 wideouts.

And Bettis was amazing again. Duce's situation reminds me a bit of Bettis's a few years ago. Running backs don't come back from multi-week layoffs without rust. I want to see Staley on the field pounding the ball in the next two games. Bettis may or may not need a rest, but I'll be nervous about Staley's ability to help the team in the playoffs if he doesn't get some significant playing time before the probable bye.

No me in team

Uh, wait. Uh, nevermind.

Ashley Fox does the whole "team unity" thing with the Steelers, Patriots, and Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer. All joking aside, I believe all that stuff. It's not just fluff.

Kevin Colbert

Mark Maske of the Washington Post identifies Kevin Colbert as a possible candidate for the Browns GM job.

The Plain Dealer reports the same thing.

Ban amphetamines from baseball

In this week's Sports Illustrated (Peyton Manning cover), on page 68, at the bottom in the left-hand box, Tom Verducci alludes to the prevalence of amphetamine abuse in the big leagues:

Players have been taking [amphetamines] before games for at least five decades, which is why it's unlikely the union would go that far [and agree to add them to the list of banned substances].

Players "bean up" to enhance focus and alertness and to give their tired and sore bodies a jolt of energy. The pills are often taken with coffee or highly caffeinated energy drinks.

As T.J. Quinn reports for the New York Daily News:

Greenies have been one of baseball's worst-kept secrets for decades, and many say that if amphetamines are added to the test list, it could mean a major change in the game. Many clubhouses have separate pots of coffee for players and coaches, with the players' variety carrying more than caffeine.

"One of our coaches tried the players' coffee one time," a former Yankee said. "He went on for days saying, 'Wow - you guys have really good coffee.'"

The spinach steroids issue has burst more than few blood vessels over the last few months, but no one seems to give a damn about amphetamine abuse. That should change. Now that steroids have our attention, let's consider the role of the even-more ubiquitous methylenedioxymethamphetamine/caffeine cocktails.

The easy equation of anabolic steroids with "performance-enhancing drugs" will bite the players in the ass and, in the end I think, do them some good. Fans are not upset about steroids per se; they are upset about the evidence that Popeye Barry Bonds has been taking spinach steroids in the off-season to magically create his Hulk-like physique. Like all forms of amphetamines, Amphetamine is widely recognized as a performance-enhanching drug. As Quinn writes:

Major League Baseball and the Players' Association have been haggling in recent weeks over whether amphetamines are performance-enhancing drugs. If they determine they are, then players could be tested for their presence up to four times a season. If not, then the drugs would be treated like cocaine, heroin or marijuana, and baseball could test for them only if it has "probable cause."

"We think they're (performance-enhancing)," one major league official said. "The union doesn't."

Union officials refused to comment, but one veteran player, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he expected the two sides to agree that amphetamines are indeed performance-enhancers. The union has long held that players should not be subject to random testing for recreational drugs because they should be afforded the presumption of innocence. But union leaders have been willing to amend the steroids policy because performance-enhancers change the landscape of the game.

As that last paragraph indicates, obviously the union knows that amphetamines are "performance-enhancing" drugs. The drug is already prohibited by both the International Olympic Committee and the National Football League. As Quinn explains:

To many anti-doping experts, as well as players, there is no question that amphetamines enhance performance. A landmark 1960 study at Harvard University found that among swimmers, throwers and runners given amphetamines, 75% of the athletes showed improvement in their performances.

Dave Hannigan described the issue yesterday for the Guardian, a British newspaper. Tony Gwynn has described "greenie" usage as "rampant":

"Guys feel like steroids are cheating and greenies aren't. Sooner or later it's going to get out that there's a greenie problem, and it's a huge one. Guys feel like they need an edge. It didn't seem like there was a lot of it earlier in my career but I know that coming down to the end of my career it was rampant in my club. I would just laugh at the guys. I'd be like: 'You're 23 years old. What the heck, look at me, I'm in my late 30s, and I'm taking two aspirin and saying, let's go'."

Like [Jim] Bouton 30 years previously [for the descriptions in his book, Ball Four], Gwynn was roundly criticised for his candour, yet when the dust settled the substance of his allegations remained intact.

"I would say he is pretty accurate in that statement," the Atlanta Braves outfielder Chipper Jones said of Gwynn's comments. "There is probably a little bit more of a problem as far as that goes than with the steroids. This is a tough, tough lifestyle. Guys are paid a lot of money to show up at the right time and do their job and sometimes they need a little help."

These drugs have been illegal since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. They create a profound, "performance-enhancing" high, as this website explains:

Amphetamines stimulate the central nervous system by potentiating the effects of norepinephrine, a neurohormone which activates parts of the sympathetic nervous system. Adrenalin like effects are produced at the brain's synaptic sites, causing the heart and bodily systems to race at high speed: Blood pressure rises, along with the pulse pressure and heart rate. Appetite is suppressed because of the drug's action on the control centers of the hypothalamus and the depression of gastrointestinal activity. The effects may last from four to fourteen hours, depending on dosage. Amphetamines may be detected in blood and urine by lab tests up to seventy-two hours after ingestion.

Amphetamines are quickly assimilated into the bloodstream. The roller-coaster ride begins with a tremendous rush accompanied by feelings of elation and confidence. Unlimited power seems to be at the speeder's fingertips. The pupils dilate; the heart pumps frantically, breathing is rapid, and the mucous membranes get dry. Speech becomes rata-tat-tat gibberish. The user may focus in on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. But the speeder doesn't care because he feels he is at the height of his intellectual powers. This initial flash of brilliance is succeeded by a euphoria, an elevated mood; as the body continues to release stored energy from its reserves; Physically as well as mentally charged up, he feels capable of superman feats. Life is a cartoon and the speeder is the Roadrunner.

Wow. That's vivid stuff. On second thought, I'm sure that description of the high is seriously embellished and exaggerated. It reads like Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater. If speed is like that for you on your first time, much of the reason for that has to be that you have these expectations. There's no way a player taking speed 100 times a year has this same euphoria day after day after day. That defies logic and science.

Still, there is a high, and this "high" is followed by a "low" which often requires, for the habitual user, another dosage, unless the user is willing to endure the full crash, which can take more than a day. Amphetamine usage impairs sleep and can cause malnutrition through loss of appetite. High-dosage users sometimes develop paranoid feelings and persecution complexes. The drugs have nasty side effects.

Where does the issue stand right now? As John Shea reported reported for the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday:

[Union chief Donald] Fehr has been opposed to more drug testing, citing privacy rights, Selig has fought for a policy similar to one used in the minor leagues: four tests year-round and a 15-game penalty for the first offense. He also wants amphetamines to be on the banned list and treated as performance- enhancers, a possible stumbling block.

Baseball fans eager to support the BALCO witchhunt better get behind an amphetamine ban. Absolutely those things should be banned and included in any stricter drug-testing program. All of the arguments used to persecute suspected juicers apply here. They are illegal; they "enhance performance;" they set a poor example for the children.

At the same time, though, baseball fans should also know that baseball has not been "ruined" by steroid use or by amphetamine use. The game is just as tainted and just as clean as it has always been. The playing field has not been tilted in any one player's favor by any one substance or cheating crutch. All of the different things players do as they seek some advantage probably cancel each other out.

I for one think the ability of these drugs to actually enhance baseball performance is probably overstated. Sure, maybe the first time a player does speed, he'll have a great game. But the next day, unless he takes speed again, he's going to be wiped out and have a poor game. I can't believe that speed confers any long-term advantage that we would see in, for example, wildly corrupted statistics.

Another thing to remember is that the players are the last people to trust on the question of whether or not steroids or amphetamines enhance their performance. As always, when it comes to the question of drug abuse, the biggest fools are the users themselves. If they knew that amphetamines would give them no more "edge," long-term, than daily consumption of two liters of Mountain Dew or six cans of Red Bull, then they wouldn't be breaking the law and polluting themselves with this stuff.

As I've written about the steroids issue, one of the things I've tried to say, again and again, is that people are drawn to illegal drugs because the politically-motivated hysteria about them sends the message that they are the ultimate cheat, imbued with some kind powerful, magical, dangerous, world-changing, godly power. We don't have to exaggerate or fabricate evidence that illegal drugs "enhance performance" to ban them.

One more time: we don't have to exaggerate or fabricate evidence that illegal drugs enhance performance to ban them. And by speaking more honestly about their limited ability to help, we'll do a lot more to discourage their use than we would by fueling the black-market with sensational, hyperbolic accounts comparing them to Popeye's spinach. Hannigan quotes an anonymous major-league manager as saying this:

"This is all going to be very interesting," said one Major League club manager in an interview with New York's Daily News last Sunday, "because if we do get steroids out of our sport, which we should, and we get amphetamines out, it will be real interesting to see what it does to the level of play. I know that's a scary statement but it's true."

What will happen to the level of play when amphetamines are removed? Probably, nothing. One of the most evil things about drug use is the fact that such a large percentage of Americans buy into the myth that "drugs change everything." Think the players will be tired with no amphetamines? Consider that they might sleep well in-season for the first time in their career. Think the players will get run down? Consider that, with a healthier appetite, they will probably eat more and better. If anything, removing amphetamine will probably elevate the level of play a teeny-tiny bit. And the kids will have better role models to emulate.

But most things will never change, no matter what. Daryle Ward, for example, will still have to avoid the buffet table.

The Art of the Deal

Jerome Bettis's favorite book. Donald Trump is a "great mind"? I should watch more television. Or maybe not.

Honest Wagner NFL pick 'em: week 15

VIS SPRD HME SCOOP BONES ROWDY
pt -10.5 NYG ..pit ..pit ..pit
was -4.5 SNF .was* .was* .was*
car 03.5 ATL ..car ..ATL .car*
hou 00.5 CHI ..CHI ..CHI .hou*
buf 00.5 CIN .buf* ..buf ..buf
snd -9.5 CLE ..snd ..snd ..snd
min -2.5 DET ..DET .min* ..DET
jax 03.5 GNB ..GNB ..GNB ..jax
sea 05.5 NYJ ..NYJ .NYJ* ..sea
dal 12.5 PHL ..PHL .dal* ..dal
stl -1.5 ARZ ..stl ..ARZ .ARZ*
nwo 07.5 TAB ..nwo .nwo* ..TAB
den 01.5 KSC ..KSC ..KSC .KSC*
ten 02.5 OAK ..OAK ..OAK .ten*
bal 07.5 IND .bal* ..bal ..bal
nwe -9.5 MIA ..MIA ..nwe .nwe*
Asterisks indicate best bets.

Season to date:
Bones 113-095 .543
Scoop 111-097 .534
Rowdy 103-106 .495

Consensus 39-29 .574

Best bets
Scoop 27-19 .587
Bones 38-27 .585
Rowdy 38-33 .535

Rowdy: Just combed the archives and counted up our consensus picks. Not bad at all. Before anyone gets a second mortgage to gamble on our consensus picks this week, consider that they've been right only five of the last fifteen times. In other words, they are running downhill from a .641 peak. That's probably my fault. My picks have sucked the last two weeks as I've been picking on fumes and whimsy. Never blow off your weekly reading if you hope to compete with the likes of Bones and Scoop.

It's Our Great Beer

Something about this Cubs blog caught my eye.

For those of you who don't get the reference, "Old Style" is a midwestern beer that does a lot of advertising tie-ins with the Cubs. When I lived out that way, we called it "Dog Style." We meant that affectionately. We drank a lot of it. A 12-ounce draught is really good with greasy cheeseburgers.

What other good NL Central weblogs are out there, and not linked on the right-hand side of this page?

Benito a Pirate

It's official.

Bucs in San Juan

No, no, no.

The Bucs should resist this with everything they got. If the team wants to build attendance, they should fight all proposals which take them away from the locals or have them playing at odd hours when the locals can't or won't tune in.

Baseball is a serial drama. The more episodes you miss, the less you enjoy the ones you catch. And, just as important for a team whose payroll is tied to attendance, the less you look forward to the next one. The Pirates have to find ways to get the locals planning their days around the ballgame. Sending the team to San Juan for a "homestand" or two is not going to help.

And didn't they learn last year that the Bucs are no great draw in Puerto Rico?

Steelers links

A big reason I tanked in the pick 'em game the last few weeks: I haven't been paying attention to the rest of the NFL. Now that work has abated and I have an hour to pound coffee and catch up on the papers, I find all kinds of good Steelers reading. Here's another installment.

Ernie Palladino of the Asbury Park Press writes about Roethlisberger, Deion Sanders' comments about the Giants being quitters, and the further injury to the New York defense.

Mark Garafalo of the Staten Island Advance describes the world of hurt that is the Giants' defensive line.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe downplays home-field advantage in the playoffs. I wish the media would frame the home-field advantage goal not as a potentially slight edge for the players, but as a reward for the fans.

Speaking of fans, how many Steelers fans will make the trip to Giants stadium this weekend? I expect we'll see a large crowd like the one we saw at Dallas. New York's not so far away and you know tickets are available. Good seats are going on eBay for about $200 each. We can all find that kind of money, with our Wagner tobacco card, wedged down there in the couch.

Tom Coughlin sounds like a zombie in a quote gracing in this week's game preview from the AP:

``The rookie player that has this type of opportunity, and this type of experience, it is a priceless experience that does not come without pain,'' Coughlin said.

What is a priceless experience? Getting your face stomped into the dirt? Establishing a reputation as a Loser? Incurring painful injuries because you're too green to see how a blitzer will have a free shot at your back? Coughlin can't believe what he's saying.

Ralph Vacciano of the Daily News trots out the tired argument that Eli Manning has a no-good supporting cast. I'd take offense if I'm Jeremy Shockey.

Ben's "PFJ" shoe-graffiti comes up in this Philadelphia Daily News report about the NFL's fashion police (reg. req'd). The NFL should lay off guys whose socks aren't pulled up or whose shirts are untucked. But I'm pro-fashion police on the issue of ornamenting the uniform with conspicuous logos or messages. The NFL has to protect the players from the pressures and temptations they'd come under if they could regard little parts of their body as advertising space. I don't doubt the sincerity of Ben's religious beliefs, but if he can do it, then all the self-promoting hucksters will do it, too, and in a much less sincere fashion. We can't have an armbands-race between NFL players competing for the reputation of Mr. Good Guy, Mr. Jesus, or Mr. Patriot. Just as the highest form of philanthropy is anonymous giving, so is the highest form of worship selfless and silent. Don't tell me you can't honor Jesus if you can't write some initials on your shoe with a Sharpie. You don't need an audience to pray. If an NFL players feels a duty to proselytize, I say good for him. In the meantime let him respect the uniform and the game.

Mark Maske and Leonard Shapiro compare the teams with the NFL's best record for the Washington Post. They argue that all three teams are evidence that it's still possible to build dynasties in the NFL. Huh. I'd love to think this is the beginning of a dynasty in Pittsburgh, but there's still a lot of football left in the season. We can start talking dynasty a year or more from now.

Based on all the reading I've done, it looks to me like the Steelers should be able to pound the ball and own a significant time-of-possession advantage. The Giants will have to force turnovers to win this one. They'll also need Manning and Barber to take care of the ball. That's a little like saying the Giants will need to score more points if they hope to win, but it's still pretty true. They don't match up physically with the Steelers' running game so they better not pin their hopes on stuffing the run. Outside of turnovers, how else can they plan to stop the Steelers' offense?

Bay and Roethlisberger

Didn't take long to get these guys together for a photo.

Santiago

Bob Dvorchak reports Santiago had his physical yesterday. Before too long, we should get news on whether or not he ran through the tires fast enough.

Charlie argues the team would have been better off with Kelly Stinnett. I don't agree, but it's fun to read what he has to say. Stinnett is coming off reconstructive elbow surgery.

How will Santiago fare throwing out baserunners this year? Will he provide some kind of mentorship that coaches couldn't provide for one-tenth of the salary? Charlie raises some good questions.

Bones on Bonds

I hate Barry Bonds. As a lifelong Pirates fan who was tragically scarred by the early 90s heartbreak trifecta, I have no control over this hatred, it flows naturally. Barry choked big-time as a Buc, posting OPSs of .542, .392 (!), and .868 in the 90-92 postseasons . His only postseason HR as a Pirate was in the 1992 8-run 2nd inning of the Bucs' 13-4 ass-whooping of the gutless Braves. But scrawny little Barry just couldn't prove to be the difference. Of course he couldn't since Ted Turner had already paid off Randy Marsh. But that's getting off the subject.

So now, 12 years later, Barry is the Greatest Hitter Ever coming off the the Greatest Season Ever.

Rowdy's argued at great length that steroids were not that big a factor for Bonds, and weren't to Bonds as spinach was to Popeye. As Supervisor of the Biomedical Advisory Board for HW, I'm contractually bound here to weigh in.

First off, I'd say I agree with a few of Rowdy's points. Such as:

1. That professional sports regulation is currently a bigger political issue than more important domestic issues (e.g. the environment) is mind-numbing.

2. In general I think drugs are poorly understood and often wrongly demonized by the American public and media.

But in general, I'd say I disagree with most of Rowdy's other points about steroids not being that big a deal, not obviously enhancing performance, and comparing them to other drugs. I won't belabor each of these points, but for the record, I think:

1. Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are a serious problem to society today because young people are likely to emulate Bonds and Santiago and take whatever they can that might confer some kind of advantage. This being a problem hinges upon steroids having adverse long-term effects on human health, which I think (but don't know) is true.

2. Steroids should not be compared to nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, or other psychoactive drugs that to me are pretty clearly different in that they don't obviously confer an advantage. Sorry, Leyland's managerial record stands.

3. Evidence abounds that steroid use has enhanced the performance of MLB players. True, one never has an ideally controlled experiment (e.g. Bonds 2004 +/- HGH). But, c'mon. Look at the career stats of Bonds or Bret Boone. Bonds suddenly doubles his HR rate at the age of 35. The statistical unprecedence requires explanation. He got juiced and probably has at least 50 more career HRs than he would've otherwise.

But whatever, he stunk for us. Thanks for nothing, Barry.