Yankees and Mets

http://www.msgnetwork.com/content_news.jsp?articleID=20071218210120690000101-a&docType=news&sports=baseball&league=mlb&team=yankees&newsgroup=null

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - New York Yankees traveling secretary David Szen pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to filing a false tax return and admitted he failed to report more than $50,000 in tips from players and coaches.

Szen, who took a paid leave of absence during the investigation, was fired Tuesday, said Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

"I was wrong, and for that I'm humbly sorry, your honor," Szen told U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz.

Outside court, he asked for forgiveness and apologized to his family, employer and friends.

Szen was released on his own recognizance and will be sentenced March 7. Federal guidelines call for up to six months in prison for the felony conviction. He also faces a fine of up to $100,000 and will be required to pay $10,285 in back taxes plus interest and penalties.

Authorities said the tax loss was $10,285 based on underreporting of $53,350 over five years. The 56-year-old from Brookfield, whose reported 2005 income was $63,631, received tips ranging from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 for services provided to unidentified coaches and players during the baseball season.

Szen was the Yankees' media relations director in 1982. He later worked for the Seattle Mariners and returned to the Yankees in the 1990s as traveling secretary, arranging charter flights, buses and hotel rooms for the team.

Ben Tuliebitz, the Yankees' assistant media relations director, took over Szen's duties after he went on administrative leave.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071218/SPORTS01/712180398/1108/SPORTS01

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has signed with personal manager Guy Oseary for projects outside baseball, but still retains Scott Boras as his agent.

Oseary, who manages Lenny Kravitz and Madonna and is a partner in Untitled Entertainment, whose client base includes Hilary Swank and Naomi Watts, will be working with his first baseball player.

"This is to help him have more control of his image and brand," Oseary told Daily Variety.

Rodriguez's image took a hit when Boras announced during the World Series that the three-time AL Most Valuable Player would opt out of his contract. The Yankees immediately said they would not negotiate with Rodriguez, but when the player attempted to reconcile, the club agreed to do so, but would not negotiate with Boras.

Rodriguez recently signed a 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees. Although Boras was not part of the negotiations, he did review the contract.

Speaking on CBS's "60-Minutes" Sunday, Rodriguez said he hadn't recently spoken with Boras, leading to speculation he fired the high-powered agent.

However, the Major League Baseball Players Association said Boras is still listed as his agent, and that Oseary is not certified by the union to negotiate baseball contracts.

Oseary said he's exploring vehicles for Rodriguez, but hasn't anything specific, yet.

In a statement, Rodriguez said: "As I embark on this new chapter in my career, I know that I have found in Guy Oseary someone who is aligned with my interests and who has earned a lot of respect in the entertainment industry."

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070130&content_id=166769&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp



Carlos Carrasco was named the Phils' top prospect after the 2006 season by Baseball America. (Kenji/MLB.com)

The following is the fourth in a series looking at the top prospects in the Phillies' Minor League system. This time we check out the right-handed starting pitchers, in alphabetical order:

Andrew Carpenter
Age: 21; Height: 6-3; Weight: 225; B/T: R/R; Resides: Vacaville, Calif.; Second-round selection in 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of Long Beach State.

2006: Made pro debut with Phillies team in the Gulf Coast League ... Because of a heavy workload in college, the Phillies had him on a reduced program ... He had two starts in the GCL and three with Batavia and went 0-0 with a 0.77 ERA ... Fanned seven in 4 2/3 innings vs. Williamsport on Aug. 27.

Scouting Report: "Big, strong athletic body. Good sink on his fastball. Has the making of a good slider. Very good competitor."

Carlos Carrasco
Age: 19; Height: 6-3; Weight: 178; B/T: R/R; Resides: Barquisimeto, Venezuela; Signed as an amateur free agent on Nov. 25, 2003, at age 16.

2006: Paul Owens Award winner as best pitcher in Phillies' Minor League system ... Went 12-6 with a 2.26 ERA for Lakewood's championship club ... Third in South Atlantic League in ERA and strikeouts (159) ... SAL All-Star ... Pitched in Futures Game.

Career: 18-20 with a 4.09 ERA for three seasons ... 253 strikeouts in 290 1/3 innings, allowing only 266 hits ... Named the Phillies' top prospect after 2006 season by Baseball America.

Scouting Report: "Shows good poise on the mound. Live arm/works easy. Fastball, curve and excellent change. Dominated hitters with location of three pitches. Has a chance to be a solid top-of-the-rotation starter."

Kyle Drabek
Age: 19; Height: 6-0; Weight: 185; B/T: R/R; Resides: The Woodlands, Texas; First-round selection (18th overall) in 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of The Woodlands High School; son of former Major League pitcher Doug Drabek; led Woodlands to the national title this spring, going 10-0 with a 1.18 ERA.

2006: Made pro debut with Phillies team in the Gulf Coast League ... Went 1-3, 7.71 ERA for six starts ... Baseball America ranked him as the Phillies' second-best prospect.

Scouting Report: "Power arm, plus fastball. Spike curve with hard downer bite to it, his out pitch. Velocity comes easy for him. Has the stuff to become a solid Major League pitcher. Young arm who needs innings."

Edgar Garcia
Age: 19; Height: 6-2; Weight: 190; B/T: R/R; Resides: Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic; signed as an amateur free agent on Oct. 26, 2004; received a $500,000 signing bonus.

2006: Started 12 games at Batavia, going 3-5 with a 2.98 ERA ... Posted 1.17 ERA over his final five starts ... Rated as the fourth-best prospect in the Phillies' Minor league system by Baseball America.

Career: Two-year pro with a 7-9 record and 3.25 ERA.

Scouting Report: "Plus fastball with above average curve and change. 86-94 mph range. Smooth arm action. Needs innings."

Kyle Kendrick
Age: 22; Height: 6-3; Weight: 190; B/T: R/R; Resides: Mount Vernon, Wash.; Seventh-round selection in 2003 First-Year Player Draft out of Mount Vernon High School; Turned down a football scholarship to play quarterback at Washington State to sign with Phillies.

2006: Began the season at Lakewood (3-2, 2.15 ERA, 7 starts) before promotion to Clearwater (9-7, 3.53 ERA, 20 starts) ... Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April (2-1, 1.60 ERA) ... Pitched in Arizona Fall League.

Career: Four-year pro with a 22-37 record and 4.47 ERA ... Is 17-13 in last 41 starts ... New York-Penn League in-season All-Star in 2005.

Scouting Report: "Very good athlete with a solid to above average fastball and average secondary pitches. Does little things well to be a winning pitcher. Very durable. Has been a slow developer, but his confidence has grown dramatically this year. Should be a quality Major League starter in time."

Next week: Left-handed starting pitchers

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

Long-time Jay trainer never saw evidence of Clemens pumping up
But Craig felt uneasy about Toronto's hiring of the Rocket's accuser

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/287274
Tommy Craig, who spent 25 years with the Blue Jays organization and was head trainer with the club during Roger Clemens' 1997 and '98 seasons in Toronto, says he never saw anything to suggest the Rocket used steroids.

"Roger never gave me any reason to believe anything like that was going on," Craig said this week from Florida, where, for the past year, he has worked as a trainer in Milwaukee's minor league system.

"He was a hard-working fool, a guy that you'd wish every one of your players would model themselves after as far as fitness and training and, on game day, his focus and all that. But I never saw anything out of the ordinary. I mean, Roger didn't get obviously bigger. He didn't change, didn't get a squeaky voice, didn't have any hair sprouting out. I didn't have any reason to believe anything was going on."

Craig, however, did recall feeling "very uncomfortable" with Brian McNamee, who was hired on as the Jays' strength and conditioning coach for the '98 season and who, last week, outed Clemens as an alleged steroids user in the Mitchell Report. Clemens has since vigorously denied all allegations.

"It was kind of shaky how he came aboard," Craig said of McNamee's hiring. "(Tim) McCleary (the Jays' assistant GM at the time) hired him and I didn't have a whole lot to say about it. I wasn't that concerned, but he just didn't have the best resumé of all the ones I looked at.

"I just never connected with him. I was very uncomfortable with the guy ... right from the start. He was just shaky. You were very leery. You wanted to stay at arm's distance. He was a pipeline (to McCleary) and I didn't want to be the brunt of any of his stories."

Craig, though, was well aware that Clemens and McNamee had established a close relationship.

"I ended chalking that up to the fact that Roger was probably going to do that with whoever our strength guy was," Craig said. "I mean, he was the guy who took care of him when he was healthy ... when he didn't need me, so to speak.

"I really only even saw Roger pretty much on game day. He'd come in (to the trainers' room) and I'd stretch him out, give him a shoulder rub, wrap his groin.

"Again, I didn't see anything to back up any evidence anything like this (steroids) was going on. I never saw any paraphernalia, nothing like that. It may have been going on, but I didn't see it in my arena, my area."

Both Gord Ash, the Jays' GM at the time, and Darrin Fletcher, Clemens' catcher for the '98 season, echoed Craig's statement that Clemens never was cause for suspicion.

"I don't know anything, other than just the good stuff ... Roger performing so well," Fletcher said.

And McNamee?

"I think it was kind of understood he was a strength and conditioning guru and Clemens liked him, liked his workout. That's as far as it went on my side," Fletcher said.

"I'm just a naïve, corn-fed boy from the midwest that thought, you know, major league baseball was a fairy-book type of story all the time. I never really wanted to believe any of that bull---- was going on."

But was it?

"It was another time, it was something that happened in the dark corners of the society of major league baseball," Fletcher said. "There were whispers and I kind of heard them, but that was it. It was not a topic for discussion."

And, as Ash told the Star's Richard Griffin last week: "We were all educated as to what the signs were (of steroid use). Rage? We didn't see any of that. Change in body structure? We didn't see any of that. So how would we know?"

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=olney_buster


The Royals became the latest team to invest big dollars in a reliever, agreeing to terms with Ron Mahay on a two-year, $8 million deal. And so the trend of more and more money being aimed at bullpen help in the free agent market continues.

The amount of dollars spent this offseason position by position, in deals of $2 million or more:

Position No. of deals $2M or more Total years Total dollars (in millions)
1B 0 0 0
2B 3 8 45.5
SS 3 3 10.15
3B 3 15 319.1*
OF 7 21 278.2
C 6 12 77.50#
Utility 1 2 2.2
SP 6 11 116
RP 14 29 167.95
* Includes Alex Rodriguez's $275 million deal
# Includes Jorge Posada's $52.4 million deal

• We must've gotten 5,000 e-mails here this year saying something along these lines: Please, no more stuff about steroids and HGH. Some fans are sick of it, don't want to hear about it, don't want to read about it.

The problem for them, of course, is that the performance-enhancing drug issues promise to linger for the foreseeable future, as Roger Clemens tries to regain his credibility, as Congress holds more hearings, as the drug-testing agreement is revisited, as more drugs are invented and more players are suspended and as suspected PED users come up for election to the Hall of Fame. It will never go away, completely.

So here's a compromise. Going forward, this blog will have a PED-Free zone -- a section filled entirely with stories about the game. And there will be another section for PED-related stuff. Pick and choose at your own discretion. For today, the top half of the blog will be PED Free.

• The Mariners may announce their signing of Carlos Silva today, writes Geoff Baker. Silva's major-league ranks are not good, as Mark Simon notes:

Carlos Silva (2007 MLB rankings)
ERA 4.19 61st
H/9 IP 10.20 99th
SO/9 IP 3.97 133rd

• Kosuke Fukodome will have no problem playing for Lou Piniella, considering his history. The Cubs are still looking to make a deal for Brian Roberts, writes Dave van Dyck.

• The Nationals shook up their coaching staff. Nats' season-ticket holders will soon be able to select their seats.

• The Phillies are closing in on a couple of free agent signings, writes Todd Zolecki. Not that the Phillies needed offense, but you have to like how Geoff Jenkins will effectively plug the hole created by the departure of Aaron Rowand in the Philly lineup:

SS Jimmy Rollins
CF Shane Victorino
2B Chase Utley
1B Ryan Howard
LF Pat Burrell
RF Jenkins/Jayson Werth
3B Gregg Dobbs/Wes Helms
C Carlos Ruiz

The pitching staff should be deeper, too. Right now, on Dec. 20, I'd be inclined to pick between the Braves and Phillies as the front-runners in the National League East, based on what the clubs look like today. And we'll continue to wait to see what the Mets do to address the weakness at the front end of their rotation.

Have heard that the Mets could land Joe Blanton with this package: center fielder Carlos Gomez, pitcher Aaron Heilman and pitcher Kevin Mulvey. We'll see if they make an aggressive move like that, or take a plug-and-fill approach with someone like Livan Hernandez.

• The Pirates fell short in their bid for a valued swingman, writes Dejan Kovacevic.

• The Padres reached agreements with Michael Barrett, Robert Fick and Jeff DaVanon.

• Hank Steinbrenner thinks there's still an outside chance that the Yankees will land Johan Santana, writes Kat O'Brien. The waiting on the Santana talks goes on, writes La Velle Neal.

• Peter Schmuck lists apologies he'd like to hear, including one from Peter Angelos.

• The divorce between the Cardinals and David Eckstein has turned a little ugly, with Eckstein now saying he wanted to stay, as Joe Strauss writes. Within this story, there is word that Eckstein was offered a three-year, $21 million deal in spring training.

• The Tigers have made progress in talks with Dontrelle Willis about a long-term deal. The Detroit talent evaluators must not have the same questions about Willis that scouts with other teams have -- about whether he'll continue to regress, about whether his stuff will translate in the American League.

• The Rockies finished a couple of deals, writes Tracy Ringolsby.

• Steve Stone will call White Sox radio this year, on some days.

• A stadium vote in South Florida will probably come on Jan. 10.

THE PED ZONE

• Paul Lo Duca skipped his own baseball camp, writes Richard Obert.

• Curt Schilling thinks that Roger Clemens should give back his Cy Young Awards if he doesn't clear his name, and Murray Chass wonders if Clemens is going to work from the Pete Rose script. Clemens needs to prove his innocence, writes Ian O'Connor. Dan Shaughnessy wonders if Clemens is just in a state of denial.

Tim Sullivan thinks Clemens should speak before Congress.

Here's the problem for Clemens: If he's guilty of using PEDs, well, he's guilty. If he's innocent, then there's nothing he can do to completely clear his name --nothing. No matter what he says or does, his name is in the once-in-a-lifetime Mitchell report forever, and he can no more completely prove his innocence than Brian McNamee can completely prove Clemens' guilt. It's Clemens' word against the words of his trainer.

• A long time Jays trainer says he never saw evidence that Clemens used steroids, but he did not have a good feeling about the hiring of McNamee, as Allan Ryan writes.

• A friend to both Clemens and McNamee tells Rob Bradford that he feels horrible about what has happened.

Ferguson Jenkins says it's time to set the record straight, as Fred Mitchell writes.

• The apologies have been lame, writes Gwen Knapp.

• A congressman is trying to recruit Brian Roberts.

• Bud Selig has done a lot of good stuff as commissioner, writes Richard Justice, but on the issue of steroids, he blew it.

• Ross Newhan, who has been honored at the Hall of Fame, says he'll never vote for Clemens or Barry Bonds.

AND OTHER STUFF

• My fantasy football team has forever been the Buffalo Bills of our league -- many years to the verge of a title, but no titles -- and this weekend, we go for the championship again. And now one of my primary players is picking on the girlfriend of his quarterback. Wonderful. C'mon, T.O. -- focus, focus.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3163403


HAVANA -- Cuba plans to play in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and, no surprise, considers itself a favorite to win the tournament.

"We have said we are going to participate," Jose Ramon Fernandez, the island's top sports official, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's been authorized."

In 2006, Cuba reached the championship game of the initial WBC, losing to Daisuke Matsuzaka, Ichiro Suzuki and Japan 10-6 in San Diego.

"With the same players and other better ones than those who were there, are we in crisis? Please," Fernandez scoffed. "Today we don't just have one team for the Classic, we have more than that."

Fernandez, a Cuban vice president and head of the Olympic Committee, praised Major League Baseball for engaging in "a respectful and proper dialogue and looking for solutions for both sides" when it looked as if an embargo might keep the country out of last year's tournament.

Cuba was almost barred from participating when the U.S. Treasury Department initially denied it a permit.

An appeal by MLB and a promise by Cuba that winnings would go to Hurricane Katrina relief -- thus ensuring no money went to Fidel Castro's government -- successfully reversed that decision.

MLB and its players' union jointly ran the inaugural WBC. While no formal decision has been announced, it appears the second WBC will be played in March 2009.

Fernandez said in October that Cuba had received a formal WBC invitation from MLB but did not say whether the island planned to play.

In November, the United States beat Cuba 6-3 in Taiwan to win baseball's World Cup for the first time since 1974, ending the island's streak of nine straight titles.

"I don't have the slightest doubt about Cuban talent, no doubt about the quality of Cuban baseball," Fernandez said.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Associated Press

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3163650


SEATTLE -- Pitcher Carlos Silva and the Seattle Mariners finalized a $48 million, four-year contract Thursday.

Law: Questionable value

Carlos Silva is a good addition to the Mariners' staff, but the price and length of the contract curtails the reasonability of the deal, Keith Law writes. Blog Insider

The 28-year-old right-hander was 13-14 last season for the Minnesota Twins with a 4.19 ERA -- better than every Mariners starter other than hard-throwing Felix Hernandez.



Seattle likes that Silva pitches deep into games, generally stays low in the strike zone with a sharp sinker and walked just 36 batters in 202 innings last season.

He joins a Seattle rotation that includes Hernandez, Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn.

"We feel that signing Carlos addresses one of our main needs, adding a quality arm to the starting rotation," general manager Bill Bavasi said. "Our goal heading into the offseason was to identify the best available pitcher on the free agent market and we feel we got the best one."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

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QUOTE(Jack Brohammer Experience @ Dec 19 2007, 03:12 PM) *
What's notable is that while he has been effective against the Sox and Yankees, he doesn't fare as well versus Baltimore and Toronto. While the benefits of acquiring Santana include the fact that the Sox would no longer have to face him and that he could be expected to pitch well against the Yankees, his relatively poor showing against other frequent opponents could also be used as a case against a trade.
Does the value of not facing him a couple of times every year plus his expected performance against the Yankees outweigh his tendency to struggle with Baltimore and Toronto? That is worth considering.

So, let's look at that, by player, based on the current rosters in the AL East.

Let's start with Toronto:

Toronto
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Frank Thomas 18 8 1 0 4 8 5 3 0.444 0.565 1.167 1.732
Reed Johnson 19 10 1 0 1 4 1 3 0.526 0.550 0.737 1.287
Alex Rios 12 5 2 0 1 1 0 5 0.417 0.417 0.833 1.250
Russ Adams 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0.500 0.667 0.500 1.167
Troy Glaus 21 7 3 0 1 4 4 9 0.333 0.423 0.619 1.042
Matt Stairs 15 4 0 0 1 3 1 6 0.267 0.313 0.467 0.779
Vernon Wells 24 4 1 0 1 2 0 6 0.167 0.167 0.333 0.500
Curtis Thigpen 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.000 0.500 0.000 0.500
Marco Scutaro 9 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.222 0.222 0.222 0.444
Lyle Overbay 11 1 0 0 0 0 2 8 0.091 0.231 0.091 0.322
John McDonald 13 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 0.077 0.143 0.154 0.297
David Eckstein 6 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0.000 0.250 0.000 0.250
Aaron Hill 9 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.111 0.111 0.111 0.222


You've got just 2 players with 20+ ABs against Santana. Reed Johnson is on his lead pipe list as well. Among those that have performed well are a 40 year old Frank Thomas and PED user Glaus. Alex Rios I can see faring well against Santana over more at bats, but thus far he has held Wells in check.

Baltimore next:

Baltimore
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Jay Gibbons 15 8 4 0 1 5 0 5 0.533 0.533 1.000 1.533
Nick Markakis 5 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0.200 0.333 0.800 1.133
Aubrey Huff 21 6 1 1 2 6 1 5 0.286 0.318 0.714 1.032
Ramon Hernandez 14 3 0 0 0 1 1 4 0.214 0.267 0.214 0.481
Brian Roberts 19 4 0 0 0 1 0 6 0.211 0.211 0.211 0.421
Melvin Mora 20 3 0 0 0 0 0 9 0.150 0.150 0.150 0.300
Jay Payton 14 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.071 0.071 0.143 0.214
Kevin Millar 16 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 0.063 0.059 0.063 0.121


One thing that stands out is just how short the list is. To say Baltimore fares well against him doesn't really tell the story. Speaking of PED's...anyway, again, you have just two guys with 20+ ABs against Santana. There's nothing on this list that jumps out and scares you. Huff and Gibbons are the only two with 10+ ABs that have higher than a .215 AVG against him.

So, since there has been some fluctuation in rosters, small sample sizes, etc., I pulled up Tampa and NY.

Tampa
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Carlos Pena 24 7 1 0 2 3 2 9 0.292 0.346 0.583 0.929
Carl Crawford 19 3 0 0 1 1 2 2 0.158 0.238 0.316 0.554
B.J. Upton 5 1 0 0 0 1 1 4 0.200 0.333 0.200 0.533
Cliff Floyd 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.167 0.167 0.167 0.333
Akinori Iwamura 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.000 0.333 0.000 0.333
Rocco Baldelli 16 2 0 0 0 3 1 7 0.125 0.176 0.125 0.301
Jonny Gomes 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Dioner Navarro 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Ben Zobrist 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000


Carlos Pena, then dominance...over relatively few at bats

NYY
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Hideki Matsui 15 6 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.400 0.438 0.667 1.104
Robinson Cano 9 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.444 0.444 0.444 0.889
Jose Molina 8 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 0.250 0.250 0.625 0.875
Alex Rodriguez 19 4 0 0 2 2 3 2 0.211 0.318 0.526 0.844
Derek Jeter 17 5 3 0 0 1 1 3 0.294 0.333 0.471 0.804
Bobby Abreu 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.000 0.667 0.000 0.667
Melky Cabrera 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.333 0.333 0.667
Jason Giambi 12 3 1 0 0 2 1 4 0.250 0.308 0.333 0.641
Johnny Damon 24 5 3 0 0 4 0 6 0.208 0.200 0.333 0.533
Jorge Posada 14 2 2 0 0 2 0 5 0.143 0.143 0.286 0.429


Still small sample sizes. Some good hitters on the list, and he's had some trouble against some (Matsui, Cano) and held others in check pretty well (Rodriguez, Damon, Giambi, Posada).

While it's interesting to look at, I'm not sure how much of this is really predictive.

Finally, I decided to see how he did against some of the regulars within the AL Central to see how he fared (if we're concerned about how he's performed in the past within a division).

Johan vs. AL Central
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Magglio Ordonez 46 18 5 1 5 17 7 10 0.391 0.455 0.870 1.324
Ryan Garko 23 7 1 0 3 4 0 6 0.304 0.304 0.739 1.043
Esteban German 17 6 0 1 1 4 1 8 0.353 0.389 0.647 1.036
Jim Thome 31 6 1 0 4 7 5 12 0.194 0.324 0.613 0.937
Grady Sizemore 38 11 4 0 2 6 5 9 0.289 0.372 0.553 0.925
Victor Martinez 48 13 2 0 4 7 3 5 0.271 0.321 0.563 0.883
Brandon Inge 44 11 3 0 2 6 5 13 0.250 0.327 0.455 0.781
Travis Hafner 40 6 1 0 4 6 5 10 0.150 0.261 0.475 0.736
Casey Blake 55 14 6 0 1 3 4 17 0.255 0.305 0.418 0.723
Mark Grudzielanek 13 4 1 0 0 0 0 4 0.308 0.308 0.385 0.692
Gary Sheffield 31 8 1 0 1 3 2 3 0.258 0.303 0.387 0.690
Jermaine Dye 57 15 5 0 0 2 3 15 0.263 0.295 0.351 0.646
John Buck 17 4 0 1 0 4 1 5 0.235 0.278 0.353 0.631
Carlos Guillen 43 9 1 1 0 1 6 11 0.209 0.306 0.279 0.585
Joe Crede 45 8 2 0 2 3 3 12 0.178 0.229 0.356 0.585
Paul Konerko 56 8 0 0 3 5 8 18 0.143 0.250 0.304 0.554
Ivan Rodriguez 36 7 1 0 1 5 2 9 0.194 0.237 0.306 0.542
Mark Teahen 13 2 1 0 0 1 1 6 0.154 0.267 0.231 0.497
David DeJesus 24 4 1 0 0 1 2 4 0.167 0.231 0.208 0.439
Marcus Thames 34 4 1 0 1 1 2 13 0.118 0.167 0.235 0.402
Jhonny Peralta 28 3 1 0 0 1 2 22 0.107 0.167 0.143 0.310
A.J. Pierzynski 20 2 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.100 0.100 0.100 0.200
Jason Michaels 20 1 1 0 0 1 1 6 0.050 0.091 0.100 0.191
Jose Guillen 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

http://embodiment-of-hentai.blogspot.com/2007/08/nine-oclock-women-streaming.html

This is not about the Red Sox keeping Santana away from the Yankees or making the Yankees drive up the price. I know a few Red Sox people. Boston trains in Fort Myers where the Twins are and I bump into their people all the time. I met GM Theo Epstein and assistant GM Jed Hoyer at the winter meetings when they were just wandering around the hotel with nothing to do. I’ve had no choice but to talk about, `The Nation.’ The Red Sox want to dominate. They want to build a dynasty in the AL East and keep the Yankees reeling for as many years as they can. A rotation of Josh Beckett, Santana, Dice-K and Schilling with Tim Wakefield and Clay Buchholz also in play helps them achieve their domination goals.

-- La Velle Neal, answering some questions from his readers.

Neal is quickly gaining my respect as one of the better baseball writers out there. He has the sources, and he's good about delineating his speculation from his reporting. It helps that he stands out from the ESPN crowd by articulating what I've been saying for a month -- the Red Sox have legitimate reasons to acquire Johan Santana completely unrelated to the Yankees.

I still think he’ll end up with the Red Sox, and I don’t mind either package. I will say this: Some Twins people like Coco Crip and feel he can get back to his game if gets out of Boston. I think that’s possible, but Ellsbury could be very good. He had a .389 OBP throughout his minor league career and the Twins have watched him develop while facing their teams in the Gulf Coast League, Eastern League and Internatonal League. They know what they’re getting.

The Yankees have no shot if Hughes (a super stud of a prospect) isn’t in the deal.

Before I’d say yes to Theo, I would call the Angels and Dodgers one last time.

Let's finish it, already.