The Return of the Evil Empire?

With the avalanche of reports suggesting that the Spankers are buying every starting pitcher on the market, starting with CC Sabathia and extending to the Mets own target, D. Lowe, it's beginning to look a lot like (most years') Christmas.

Players the Yanks target would "be crazy to turn down the opportunity to play on what is, by default, the greatest team in baseball." And, although it will drive up the price of mediocre starters and add needless years onto their bloated contracts, this is a good thing. Mets fans need the cartoonish Yankers to fill that hated enemy #1 or 2 role that the Spankers relinquished when they enabled the Mets, by passing on first Beltran and then Santana, and then of course when they started playing themselves into the 3rd place AL East also-ran role they currently fill. Having the Phillies as an enemy is just lame. From the Spankers perspective, trusting CC's legs to support that body for much longer is a fool's game. Just for fun, I'd like to see the Mets make an offer for CC slightly higher than the Yanks to get the ball rolling. Then crazy Art Moreno of the Angels might get interested.

So sometimes we have to welcome the Evil Empire back with open arms, just to right the balance of hate. Of course, before we run to the barricades, we should remember that sometimes the Empire brings us a Jar-Jar Binks.

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As the market mellows on Francisco Rodriguez, I guess if we think we got a bargain, most Mets fans could handle a K-Rod signing and the angst it would bring (is he a statistical invention? does he have too many miles on him? etc). If Omar's plan is to drive down KRod's price by convincing KRod the Mets don't really need him by getting in touch with the fact that the Mets don't really need him, then it seems to be working. But this guy at some point will = Billy Wagner, there's no getting around it.

It's hard to get too worked up about any of the free-agent choices. I like Lowe, and ex-Cubbies Wood or Prior interest me under the right conditions. A.J. Burnett is the classic free-agent injury gamble that is sure to blow up in someone's face, so I sure hope the Br*ves (or Yankmes) end up with him, and not Peavy. Frank Wren is no John Shitholtz. There seem to be at least three decent choices for the bullpen out there, and I think the Mets need at least 3 new decent arms. So I hope Omar choses to go with his all-of-the-above arm stockpile strategy, only this time, not all-of-the-above-scrubs.

I think I'd be happier if the Mets signed both Kerry Wood and Brian Fuentes instead of KRod. Tell them both they'll be the closer and figure it out in the Spring.

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The Florida Marlins management is at it again. Met-traitor Mike Jacobs, headcase Scott Olsen, the most mediocre player ever nicknamed "The Hammer," and closer Kevin Gregg have already been dispatched. It seems like the Marlins strategy is not to wait for a cheap core to mature since they ship out young guys faster than Kody Ross gets aroused around livestock. So I don't know what their strategy is. As the Fish trade their chips, I also wonder how this impacts the reserves of white hot hatred-jealosy that allow the Fish to get up for their last series with the Mets every year, but does not allow them to sustain competitive play throughout a season.

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It turns out, David Wright loves the scrappy. Fire Joe Morgan is spinning in his grave.

"I've always been a huge fan of high-character players, not only players that [have talent]," Wright said. "I love a player that puts winning before everything else. I take a guy that maybe has a little bit less talent but a guy that has a desire to win over maybe a guy that's a little more top-notch but doesn't."

Be interesting to see if Golden Boy gets any backlash from the sabermetrics crowd.

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Day 15 of the tense, Orlando Hernandez Free-Agency campaign is passing. Do you know where your GM is?


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Sometimes the world just gives you exactly what you want. I'm not talking about the recent Presidential election, I'm talking about the opportunity provided by the new, increadibly homoerotic Guitar Hero advertisement to mock three of the biggest tools in pro athletics. Acting like the sissies they are, ARod and Jetes lay on the couch and kick their legs in the air like we probably all imagined they do when they don't get their way. Rapist-whiner-Laker-loser Kobe Bryant rounds out the crew. I can only imagine the shoptalk (advice on how to cheat on your wife and/or spread STDs to unsuspecting groupies) traded on the set, with the impressionable Michael Phelps taking it all it. Phelps? Well, no one is impressed by the company he's keeping, but he is a damn swimmer so he has to get $$ where he can.



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Wouldn't it be cool to be able to keep track of all the beat reporters and insiders' hot stove "reports" in order to track just how ridiculous many of them are? I would also like data on how many contradictory reports appear to be in response to another reporters previous claims. Noble, Lennon, Rosenthal, Heyman, etc should be tracked. We have the technology.

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Finally, a great big f*ck the heck? and "RIP" to Fire Joe Morgan, the bloggers that suddenly decided to make better use of their time this week and cease all bloggy operations. They did something every satirically-minded blogger does every day, but they did it better.