2 headed monster in the Desert

So long Dan. You took the ball whenever the bell rang. Now you have an incredible opportunity to join a youth movement that keeps gaining momentum. Today the A's sent Dan Haren to Arizona for a ton of blue chip prospects. In a move that A's fans were dreading all through the Winter Meetings Billy Beane replenished a farm system that was looking bleak. The D'Backs got a complimentary horse for the stable head Brandon Webb. Where this leaves Randy Johnson rotation-wise is still yet to be seen. Immediately Haren has hoisted Arizona's expectations even higher. The D'backs now have 1-2 starters who haven't thrown less than 217 innings in the past three years. Losing Jose Valverde's 47 saves from the back-end of the bullpen to Houston in another deal earlier in the day definitely stung. Chris Burke is a young position player still trying to find his stroke and Chad Qualls is a serviceable middle man. The other pitcher in the deal Juan Gutierrez is too young to forecast. The winners for next season are the D'backs with Haren and the Astros with a shutdown closer in Valverde. Down the line the A's part of the deal will pan out and they might earn more in offseasons to come.

The real winners of this deal are the Oakland A's fans. We lose an eventual staff ace, but we don't have to deal with the circus tent hovering over the Coliseum if Barry comes to town. He will only sign(take a paycut)for a contending team. Since Billy Beane has raised the white flag we are no longer in the Bonds bermuda triangle media event. I recently tore BB a new ass for getting rid of our beloved Marco Scutaro, but at least he isn't going to sell out.

Other topics I would like to add are the sad news of seeing Jack Cust's name on the Mitchell Report and the lack of Red Sox on that list. Are we to seriously believe a team that has won two championships in a 4 year span didn't have a single juicer using? I guess they are far enough from the East Coast and Bay Area to not be touched by steroid taint. Bullshit. They are fortunate enough to have the lead investigator sit on their board of directors. Oh wait he took a leave of absence from that position while slitting open the underbelly of the steroid era(more like heavy petting the underbelly). Great choice Bud. That choice won't bring up conflict of interest stories. Bud do yourself a favor and step down from the Commissioners spot and get back to the Owners Box. That's were your judgment has been all these years. The MLB needs to have an impartial "fan"....yes thats right I said fan! We are the people who know what is right for the game. We sell our souls for teams that would spit on you if your lead fist wasn't full of green and still come smiling to the ballpark. I'm not talking about the ass that goes to every game, but rarely sees it because he is wasted. Not that fan. Someone who knows the history of the game. Loves to see Eras change from generation to generation. I will be appointing myself in 15-20 years. I would do it now, but my receding hairline isn't quite to the "trustable" stage as of my 27th year. That is all.

Mitchell Report

Now that all the smoke has cleared after the explosion let's examine where we go from here. You had the words of George "I'm on the Red Sox Board" Mitchell telling us he had no cooperation from current players and that we should move forward and not dwell on the names he listed in his "impartial" report. We have Bud "Not my fault" Selig saying this report was needed to start removing ourselves from the steroid era. Fat chance Bud. I definitely enjoyed his dodgy comments about the total cost of the investigation. Something along the lines of it would have cost more to not have this investigation. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. The final contestant in the fall-out press conference sweepstakes was Donald "Remember me from '94" Fehr. His take was supposedly how the Players Union feels. The main thing I got from his statement was that he is upset that players(mainly Clemens) reputations were permanently tainted. Over the past few years nobody who has been implicated has been proven to be wrongly accused. Your name doesn't accidently get tossed into goverment investigations without some questionable behavior. Unfortunately I was not permitted a podium and national media coverage for my $0.02, but here it is. This whole charade has just been a smoke screen for the fans. MLB felt they should flex a little muscle, throw a few sacrificial lambs on the fire and take some partial responsibility. There is no way the Players Union or MLB will allow the testing to be administered by an outside party. That would be letting outsiders in on the dirty laundry. The most interesting number I heard yesterday was 60. That is the MAXIMUM number of random drug tests allowed during Spring Training. 750 players and only 60 tests. Talk about giving cheaters a chance to hide. Other allegations were of Union officials tipping off players before they were to be tested. There's a shocker. My feelings are that no real results will come of this investigation. As a fan I will not use the names on the list as ammo to rip someone the next time I go out to the ballpark. The most disappointing name on the list is Jack Cust. The only reason to watch the A's last year. It just served as a reminder that anything that I believe as real from the past 20 years has probably had an invisible asterisk next to it. The best memory that was stirred up from reading the report yesterday was of Roger Clemens. This past season the Yanks were in town to play a weekend series against the Giants. My buddy and I made it out to the ballpark early and gave it to Roger Clemens during BP. We must've said something right since he turned to us and pointed at his ring finger alerting us to the fact he sold out and earned some championships with NY. When he really should of bent over and pointed to his ass cheek, but I guess I can't blame him for keeping that gesture to himself while in SF.

Final Verdict:

Baseball will be back in 2008 and people will go to the ballpark. Hopefully the players, owners and commissioner will stop with the tough talk and realize that the viewing public is not as stupid as they think. We know it's all been a sham, but the game is too great for these ego maniacs to drag it down.