As any read can imagine, the site has been mostly dark for the past two years. On some level, this is due to Taft’s passing, as he was the driving force for the site. On another level, I’ve been busy with other stuff. Nevertheless, I felt it necessary to continue in the tradition from four and a half years ago, wherein I talk shit about the team (the Philadelphia Flyers) opposing our team (the Chicago Blackhawks) in the championship series. I realize I did not do this for the Bears Super Bowl. Sorry.

As I wrote before the Sox took on the Astros: in lieu of writing about matchups, strategy, toughness or coaching, I’d decided to give you 10 reasons to hate the Flyers.

1. Welcome to Philadelphia, now go home
I could easily do 10 reasons to hate Philadelphia fans.

This moron is a Philadelphia fan. So is this copycat moron. And this guy. This city booed Santa Claus, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and Michael Irvin when he hurt his neck and had to be carried off in a stretcher. Or how about the time they threw batteries (!!) at J.D. Drew.

This idiot—on command, mind you—puked on some other fans. Donovan McNabb was booed by these fans when he was drafted. There are many more, but I don’t want to get too far into it.

Now.

I understand that the fans of one team aren’t always the exact same fans as those teams; plenty of people only care about one sport or another. Not everyone loves all sports as I do. But, nevertheless, if Eagles and Phillies fans root for any hockey team, I’m sure it’ll be the Flyers.

2. The Flyers don’t have a theme song.
The ‘Hawks have this:

Advantage? ‘Hawks.

3. Scott Hartnell is disgusting.
The guy on the left:

4. The team is loaded with French Canadians. The ‘Hawks have none.
I actually love Quebec, but in case you’re on the fence, the Flyers have tons and tons of French Canadian players (Ian Laperriere, Simon Gagne, Claude Giroux, Danny Briere, David Laliberte and Kevin Marshall). The ‘Hawks have none.

Now, let me cleanse myself of this before I say it: I am just playing to the xenophobes out there. Personally, I love the world of French Canada.

But…

They don’t even speak English! They eat weird food! There are tons of strip clubs!

(Again, I actually love French Canada.)

5. Speaking of Ian Laperriere, he’s, maybe the stupidest person ever.
I realize that hockey players are tough; I saw Duncan Keith get seven teeth knocked out Sunday. I realize that Jeff Carter hurt his foot and came back quickly.

But Laperriere bruised his brain. Let me rephrase that: He had a brain contusion. You can get new teeth. You can walk with a limp. You cannot get a new brain or walk with a limpy brain. You die.

Therefore: Laperriere is a total idiot.

6. Historically, the Flyers have been thugs.
Again, I understand that hockey is a tough game and I realize that hockey players are tough dudes. But, the Flyers take that whole “tough” thing too far.

This is a team that lovingly called themselved “bullies” and won championships doing so. This is a team that went to the finals with a top line called the “Legion of Doom.”

On the other hand, the ‘Hawks play Mario Kart Wii.

7. Chris Pronger: Bad guy.
Just ask his wife.

8. In the late 1930s, some Philadelphia weirdos poisoned over 100 people.
Philadelphia’s Poison Ring had 114 victims.

9. Ed Snider is a bad person.
Anyone who has Comcast cable agrees.

10. I’m sorry, but orange is a ridiculous dominant color for a hockey team.
I have some trouble rooting for a team with a Native American logo, but, in the ‘Hawks defense, Chief Blackhawk was an actual dude. Also, it’s been voted the best sweater by many people, though I can’t find the link just now.

Orange just looks like a pumpkin.

If you don’t root for the ‘Hawks, please, use these reasons to root against the Flyers. They suck.

Considering the free agent outfield crop looks pretty bleak (would you overpay for World Series winners Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui at inflated prices?), Teahen could be, as Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley initially suggests, a Jermaine Dye replacement. While that doesn’t make much sense from a talent standpoint, I wouldn’t put anything past Ken Williams.

Cowley also wishcasts Gordon Beckham back into the middle infield. The only problem is that he puts Becks at the wrong half of the middle infield. I’ve suggested it before, but I’ll say it again: Beckham—a natural shortstop and a perfectly average fielder (0 FRAA this year)—should be playing shortstop instead of Alexei Ramirez. Putting him at third is a joke.

Ramirez is an ath-a-lete who should be playing in the outfield. His arm is erratic and his mental errors are unendingly frustrating. Just because his athleticism makes him look like an shortstop does not mean he is actually a major league shortstop.

And let’s make something clear: Just because Mark Teahen will stand anywhere you ask him to… That doesn’t mean he’s a third baseman anymore than were you to stick a basketball in my hand and tell me I’m Wilt Chamberlain. Teahen was 15 runs below average last season, spending most of his time (107 games) at third base. He’s not a good fielder and, sure, sticking him in the outfield will help a little (career, he’s -15.1 FRAA in the outfield, which still sucks, but sucks less, as it is compiled over three seasons).

But that brings up the question of his hitting. Quite simply, Mark Teahen is not good enough to play a power position. His career home run total? Fifty-nine in five seasons. His season-high total? Eighteen, in his age-24 season (2006). Last year, he had 12 home runs and slugged .408.

His OBP isn’t much, either. For a guy that was drafted by the Oakland organization during its emphasis on OBP, Teahen was traded, largely, because he wasn’t much at getting to first base, by hook or by crook. Indeed, his career OBP is .331, buoyed by two .350+ OBP seasons in ‘06 and ‘07. Last year, he got on base at a 32% clip.

All this adds up to a .265 EQA, which puts Teahen squarely average. For a wide-open division (hey, Handsome Chairman Mauer isn’t going to do that again, the Royals suck, the Kitties are getting old and Cleveland’s hire of Manny Acta signals that organization is rebuilding), the Sox have to do better than “average guy” at third, second or right field.

(Of course, this is assuming the Sox don’t sign Chone Figgins, which seems more and more inevitable every day.)

Oh, also. Fuck the Yankees.

Though it’s not come through on this site much, I’ve been trying to pin down the Sox place in the success cycle for the past four years. Since the World Series win, the team has made the playoffs once and averaged 84 wins. This is, essentially, a .500 team.

It is also not a really young team. Ken Williams has made his share of good trades since taking over the helm, notable getting Carlos Quentin for a bunch of nothing, sending Aaron Rowand to Philly for Thome and Gavin Floyd and trading site favorite Brandon McCarthy (who has since turned into a pumpkin) for staff co-ace John Danks. He turned Aaron Miles into Juan Uribe’s best year. He turned Jeremy Reed and Miguel Olivo into two good years of Freddy Garcia. He acquired Jake Peavy for a bunch of B- and C-level prospects. Overall, I’ve found Williams to be a pretty good GM.

He has not drafted well. Only top ten pick Gordon Beckham has looked good as a Sox player.

Whether it’s Williams’ sense of urgency or the pressure to remain relevant in a competitive baseball city (Hi, Cub fans!), he has never looked at the team as one in need of a rebuild. It’s been four years and the Sox are four games below .500 and out of the playoff hunt. Williams did a lot of good things for this team at the normal (non-waiver) trading deadline, acquiring the ace of the future and a decent outfield piece in Peavy and Alex Rios, but that was a win-now move.

The Sox aren’t winning now.
—-

In 2007, two years after the Sox won the WS, I wrote about the team’s place on the success cycle and Williams not getting it:

Jose Contreras, a pitcher who’ll surely not be a part of the next great White Sox team, is still there. Jermaine Dye, a 33-year-old outfielder with a history of injury problems and a World Series MVP (read: He’s not going to make the minimum), is still here. Williams is talking about an extension!

I know it’s sacrilege, but Paul Konerko or Jim Thome should’ve both been on the table in order to get some serious talent back in this organization. I love Juan Uribe, but he should be a chip, too.

It’s two years after I wrote that and Williams is finally getting around to trading Thome and Contreras. Dye’s still here. Uribe left as a free agent. Konerko’ll be here until he needs a walker to get to first.

In 2007, the Sox won 72 game. I know the team’ll win more than 72 games this year, but not many. If the 2009 White Sox make it to .500, I’ll be suprised.

Still, I can assure you that Williams sees this team and doesn’t think “this team is poopy.” He thinks it is one player or a few good breaks away from making the playoffs and winning it all. Last year, the team fell back asswards into the playoffs—an off year from Detroit and injury troubles from Cleveland—and Williams saw it as encouragement. So, he stood pat and here we are.

I imagine that Williams now sees this team and says “Why can’t we compete next year? We’ve got as good a team as Detroit or Minnesota.”

He’s wrong.
—-

Within the confines of the success cycle, it’s important to identify the core of a team. With the trades, that leaves the question: Who will be on the 2010 White Sox? What will this team look like?

So, as is the way of the blogs, I’ve tried to figure out a 25-man roster for the team next year. It’s not my ideal roster, but rather what I think Williams will put out on the field next year (some is wishful thinking, as my 12-man staff shows). It assumes health (probably not a great assumption). It’s, obviously, a crapshoot.

1. Scott Podsednik – CF
2. Gordon Beckham – 3B
3. Jermaine Dye – RF
4. Carlos Quentin – DH
5. Paul Konerko – 1B
6. A.J. Pierzysnki – C
7. Alexei Ramirez – SS
8. Alex Rios – LF
9. Jayson Nix/Brent Lillibridge winner – 2B

Bench:
1. Mark Kotsay – OF/1B
2. Jayson Nix/Brent Lillibridge loser
3. Chris Getz – IF
4. Ramon Castro – C

Starting pitchers
1. Mark Buehrle
2. Jake Peavy
3. John Danks
4. Gavin Floyd
5. Insert crappy free agent here

Bullpen
1. Bobby Jenks
2. Matt Thornton
3. Jhonny Nunez
4. Tony Pena
5. Randy Williams
6. Carlos Torres
7. DJ Carrasco

That team isn’t great. It’s not young. It has a shortstop playing third base and a defensive liability at short. It has a free talent retread/PR wet dream playing center field, despite his shortcomings. It assumes Carlos Quentin will be healthy, which is like assuming I’ll fall for a girl who won’t jerk me around. As in, it’s not going to happen.

I’m actually pretty satisfied with the pitching staff. Buehrle has sucked since his perfect game ERA over 6.00), but you can pencil him in for 200(ish) IP with an above average ERA. Danks is still developing and Floyd is a fine 3-4 starter. Peavy is coming to a smaller ballpark in a harder league and was injured this year. So, he’s kind of a wildcard, but he’s still Jake Peavy, a man with a career 3:1 K:BB ratio.

In short, it’s not a championship team. It’s an 85-win team in a good year, with just as much potential to win 75 as 90. A lot can go wrong.

Because Williams has tried to keep the team at the top of success cycle for too long, the Sox are stuck in the same place they were in the mid-late 1990s. A consistent second-place team.

This’ll be fun.

Apparently, he told the cop that people in Chicago cross streets wherever they please—I can attest to this, having jaywalked every time I’ve been back to Chicago. The officer, apparently, told him that Seattle isn’t like that.

I suspect Williams will pay that $56 ticket soon.
—-

Wait, what? Ken Williams did something else yesterday?

The White Sox made a waiver deal for two-time All-Star (I know he sucks this year, but he has played well before) outfielder Alexis Rios. Rios has played a litte centerfield in his career, but mostly played in right to make room for Vernon Wells (and his contract). Career, he’s 90 FRAR, with 14 FRAR this year. Sixteen days younger than I (I’m 28), Rios is theorectically in the prime of his career.

Because she’s the best transaction columnist working today, Christina Kahrl saw this one coming and laid out the possibility of the White getting him (subscription required to read the whole thing):

Given the White Sox’ need for a starter at the position, you have to wonder, if they have claimed him and they do wind up with him, whether they feel that he can help them initially to help cover not just for Carlos Quentin’s bad wheels and slack production since coming back from the DL, but more importantly that they’re seeking a long-term solution to Scott Podsednik’s limitations as a placeholder in the middle pasture. Adding Rios not only helps the Sox now, it would arguably give them their starting center fielder for several seasons to come. Jermaine Dye’s under contract for 2010, and Quentin’s under contract, so if they add Rios, center’s the obvious long-term spot for him. It’s a massive overpayment for a starting center fielder, but the market’s going to only have an aging Mike Cameron and perhaps Marlon Byrd or Endy Chavez to offer. That’s a starter on the wrong side of 35 and a couple of placeholders. Supply and demand’s a bit of a snaggy/nasty problem when there’s a limited supply, and you harbor higher ambitions involving winning the AL Central.

(Emphasis is mine.)

Rios is as good a free agent-type player (as in, won’t cost the Sox any prospects in a trade) as the Sox can get going forward. He’s better than Cameron, Byrd or Chavez. He’s got a better upside than a 31-year-old Chone Figgins (who, by the way, has been playing in the infield for the last few years). He’s not Willie Mays, but he’s the best of what’s available.

But, this is a big development for two reasons:

1. This move shows that Williams and Reinsdorf are absolutely committed to winning. And willing to spend the money to do so.


2. Williams and Reinsdorf know that Scott Podsednik isn’t the solution.

The second development is kind of fun because of the problems inherent in the Sox looking for help this offseason. Realizing that Pods isn’t the solution going forward is very important. Williams all too often falls in love with free talent (see Dotel, Octavio or MacDougal, Mike for recent examples), signing scrap heap guys and keeping with them even after they’ve turned into a pumpkin.

(For now, I’m going to ignore the possibilities of the Sox letting Dye go, as Dye is also a free agent.)

As for the first development… For all the complaints about owners, Reinsdorf is opening his wallet up for this team. The Sox are not the cheapskate team that waived the white flag for so many years. It’s a winnable division and putting the proverbial money where the team’s proverbial mouth (aka Guillen) is.

Jose Contreras, Pods, Dotel, Dye and Jim Thome all come off the books next season. Contreras probably won’t be back. Pods probably won’t come back—at least as a starter. Dye is willing to give a discount, but he might not stick around. Thome is older than dirt, though he has his usefulness. Dotel is a volatile bullpen arm, so the team doesn’t need to bring him along.

Rios isn’t much of a player. He’s an average player making awesome player money.

No question, $62 million is a lot of money to that type of player. And with Jake Peavy now being a part of the team, the Sox are looking to win right now and that may be a difficult thing.

This team isn’t super young. It doesn’t have a ton of a future. Only Gordon Beckham and John Danks are current roster fixtures under the the age of 25. Tyler Flowers (23 years old) is the catcher of the future and Jordan Danks (also 23) may be an important piece in the outfield of the future. Dayán Viciedo (20) is the future of the the third base position, but he’s a bit of a wild card.

The point is this: This isn’t a team at the rebuild side of the success cycle. This is a team in win-now mode and moving to get a major league centerfielder is smart.

Does this mean the Sox lose some big pieces in the offseason? Possible. Losing Dye will really hurt the team, leaving Pods, Rios and a very fragile Carlos Quentin in the outfield. Making Quentin a DH (i.e. losing Thome) and putting Rios in left helps the defense, but is a major step down in offense. Williams needs to identify the chaff (Pods) from the wheat (Dye) in making moves this offseason.

So, overall, the Sox need to make the correct moves going forward in regards to Rios. There’s a lot of money tied up in Peavy and Rios. The move makes the Sox better right now, but the question remains: How much better?

Flags fly forever, folks. If Rios is an upgrade over Pods (likely) and the Sox get somewhere in the playoffs…

This all comes off the heels of the huge deadline deal to bring Jake Peavy to Chicago. And in a big of good news, it has been suggested that Peavy’s rehab might be on a faster schedule than originally thought:

The Sox are looking at the possibility of Peavy pitching in the minors on Aug. 13, Aug. 18 and Aug. 23, with a projected major-league start on either Aug. 28, or Sept. 2 or Sept. 3. The Sox and Chicago Cubs have a make-up game on Sept. 3.

That could be wonderful. Peavy’s going to need as many starts as possible to get into proper form. If the Sox are still in the thick of things—possible, but not probable—his return could spur a nice run to the playoffs and something on which to build next year.

Speaking of next year, we have the unfortunate news that Scott Podsednik remains a valuable player to the team and Ozzie Guillen wants him next year. Podsednik is the prototypical “free talent”-type guy. You get some use out of him and send him back to where he came the second he turns back into the proverbial pumpkin.

The bigger issue is that Podzilla isn’t even the team’s number one target in the coming free agency period. It’s Chone Figgins. This Chone Figgins. The soon-to-be-32-year-old Chone Figgins. The same Chone Figgins who slugs, career, under .400 (.390). The same Chone Figgins with a projected 2010 eqa of .260. Oh, boy. Slightly lower than league average!

No question, that .397 2009 OBP is tastey, but this is a guy who needs to hit .310 to be of any use. His 69% SB percentage is off what it should be.

The Sox are likely to lose Jim Thome this coming offseason. Carlos Quentin is a question mark, health-wise. To fill out the outfield with a slap-hitting 32-year-old may not be the way to go.

Jake Peavy is the newest member of the Chicago White Sox. Here’s an pro/con list as to the impact of the trade on the team:

Pros
– Jake Peavy’s RA (basically, his ERA+ unearned runs), career: 3.50
– Peavy’s K:BB ratio, career: 3.1:1
– Peavy’s K/9, career: 9.03
– Peavy’s age: 28 (birthday: 5/31/81)
– Peavy’s VORP last year: 50.5, good for 15th in all of MLB.
– Adam Russell and Clay Richard are fewer than 2.5 years younger than Peavy.
– While Poreda is a big prospect, he’s a reliever.
– In a short series, the Sox can throw out Peavy, Danks and Buehrle. Not bad.

Cons
– Richard has pitched well recently, though his career track record isn’t great.
– Poreda has been the Sox’ most effective reliever this season, arguably.
– Carter is a baby—22—and has a ridiculous K:BB ratio (4.4:1). There’s a lot that can happen until he reaches the majors. In essence, Williams sacrificed the future for the (sorta) present. As in, the next two years.
– Peavy is recovering from an ankle injury and who knows how many starts he will make this year.
– The Sox didn’t really need a pitcher.

And that’s the biggest problem with this deal. Peavy has been out for a few months with an ankle injury. There are really only, like, 10(ish) starts left for each pitcher. So, Peavy’ll have to put in, say, 5-7 good starts in order to be valuable. Next year, he’ll presumably be healthy.

Overall, it’s a good deal. The Sox, once again, have rocked the trade deadline.

It’s Buehrle’s second no-no, his first being April 27, 2007 against the Texas Rangers. The Devil Rays are a pretty solid team, so facing the minimum against said Rays is quite impressive.

In a season that has seen its ups and downs, this is certainly a fun little thing. Taking three of four from the Rays isn’t a small feat, considering they have one of the best run differentials in the league (fourth in MLB, third in the AL).

Though he is a monstrous redneck with a car that is doing more to destroy the ozone than many small cities, Mark Buehrle is a favorite of mine. He’s always one to take silly photos, few sillier than when he dove onto the tarp during a long rain delay:

—-

You’ve probably noticed that Shorr and I haven’t been posting much here lately. That is due to the fact that we both have had a ton of things to do and being a sorta adult isn’t kind to blogging. I write over at my albums blog, but, I just finished graduate school and I’m feebly trying to lose some weight I gained in the last eight months. Shorr is studying for the bar exam.

Which is all to say that the future of the site is somewhat up in the air. Taft was a big driving force behind Snobsvsslobs.com and his loss last year made it such that keeping the site up is not super easy. So, please, bear with us, accept my apologies and hope that we’ll write more in the future.

This isn’t a crazy notion. After all, the Sox were sixth in the AL in ERA last year, ranking second in K:BB ratio and fourth in K/9IP. The team’s 2008 pitching staff was not crappy.

But to expect that to happen again forgets a couple of factors:

• One year does not an ace make. John Danks and Gavin Floyd combined to ppitch over 400 innings (and 300 strikeouts) and notch an ERA under 3.75. Both had previous problems in the big leagues and to assume both will pitch like they did in 2008 is probably foolish. It doesn’t mean they won’t do that, but to count on it is not smart.


• No more Javy Vazquez. As much as fans were annoyed by Javy, he was a valuable pitcher for the Sox last year. His 4.67 ERA wasn’t anything to write home about, but he gave the team more than 208 innings with a nice 8.64 K:9IP ratio. Those are quality innings left to a combination of Jose Contreras, Bartolo Colon, Lance Broadway and Clay Richard.


• The final two starters’ spot is mostly up in the air. Those four guys above are slated, as well as Jeff Marquez and possibly Aaron Poreda, to fit into the final two slots in the rotation. None of these guys are reliable. Richard was a crap starter last year, Broadway’s minor league numbers don’t portend and MLB success and the Contreras/Colon team is not to be trusted to be healthy.

Look, having all these guys means that the Sox might find two good players to fill the final two spots. Sox GM Ken Williams did a good job acquiring a million guys with decent talent. That’s wonderful. And, of course, I understand the nature of spring training stories (“the fat guy got thin,” “the skinny guy got strong,” “all the pitchers learned new, awesome pitches,” etc.).

Still, let’s curb that enthusiasm, Sox fans.

1. Check out the Bowie Baysox. I’ve actually done this. It’s not terrible, but it’s minor league baseball. AA baseball, in fact. They make a lot of errors and they are slow. The promotions are fun (Fireworks! Bobbleheads! Kids run the bases!), sure, but the players suck. Also, it’s about as far as the Orioles are from my house and not Metro accessible. So, I’d have to drive a long distance for crappy baseball.


2. Drive to the University of Maryland and check out some college baseball. The Terps feature all lack of skill level, plus the annoying “PING” of aluminum bats. On the upside, I live outlandishly close to the stadium, so the drive to College Park shouldn’t take me more than 15 minutes. Also, the mascot is a turtle.


3. Drive to Baltimore to catch AL baseball at Oriole Park. Now. I love Oriole Park; it is my favorite place to see a game. However, the O’s are terrible and are in the AL East, the division of the annoying fan. Basically, seeing the O’s play anyone in their division involves dealing with scores of Yankee or Red Sox fans, of which there are many. Finally, it’s far away and I have to drive. I really don’t like driving.


4. See the Nationals play in downtown(ish) D.C. I live on the Green Line, so the stadium isn’t a tough ride for me. The Nats are nominally a major league team and major league teams do play the Nats. Most importantly, though, I love the racing presidents. I don’t care that it’s a gimmick. I don’t care that it’s a gimmick stolen from Thrillwaukee Milwaukee and Shitsburgh* Pittsburgh. I love it. I root for Lincoln every time. Loudly. (There are blogs named after the event.

Let me be clear: I am not a Nationals fan. I remain a devout White Sox fan. I own a Nats visor that I’ve worn, I believe, once. I have a free giveaway hat from a few years ago somewhere in my apartment.

I root for the Nats in the same way I root for the South Africans or the Australians in the World Baseball Classic. Washington is barely a major league team, with a brand new stadium, a pitching staff full of no-names (and no-talents) and four guys dressed as presidents running around. It’s silly.

• Note: I actually find Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to be lovely cities. I just feel like it’s blog S.O.P. to make fun of other cities with stupid, profane names. Kissing Suzy Kolber does it, so why not us?

Blaming Alex Rodriguez (or Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens or Raffy Palmeiro or Jose Canseco or whoever) for steroid use is all good and well, but here remains the question: Who didn’t take PEDs during this period? The list with A-Rod’s name on it was supposed to be destroyed by the MLBPA and the did a crappy job of protecting the players. The list has 100+ players and none of those guys are being outed today, because A-Rod is the big fish.

This, of course, is not even remotely fair. But, it’s life with the big contract. He knows what that entails and, in a lot of ways, he signed up for it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, some statements needed to go forward:

1. The realities of professional sport are cutthroat and occupied by people who do not have a long-term view of the players’ health. The agents are only interested in getting the largest contracts for their players—therefore getting the big cut that goes along with negotiating said contract. The owners only need the players to stick around long enough to help the team—why do you think football players are cut the second their knees give out? The fans want the same thing.

The athletes hardly give a crap about their long term health. Fewer of them are Mike Mussina or Doug Glanville—smart guys who know something about something—than are Sammy Sosa and Bobby Jenks. You know, guys with high school degrees or less.

Moreover, an athlete’s career is short. Sure, he can go into coaching or broadcasting, but he is not going to be doing his thing for more than 10-15 years. He makes a lot of money in those years—more than nearly everyone in the world—but his career is short.

And here’s the thing. Baseball is big money. The TV contract MLB holds with Fox is huge, in the hundreds of millions. That money’s going somewhere.

2. Professional athletes are not like you and I. They are better physical specimens with certain physiological crap that we don’t understand. That crap is mostly a maniacal competitiveness that would make them seem as assholes if we actually met or interacted with them.

They measure themselves everyday in different ways than we normally do. A-Rod’s original contract was $252M—the rumor goes—because he wanted to double up on the largest contract before him. Upon his free agency, Miguel Tejada signed with an inferior team than his previous employer because something about “respect.”

“Respect” means “money.” It means they’re competitive about how much they make as compared to the next guy.

3. Steroids, HGH and other such performance enhancers work. Different drugs have different uses, no question. They make players stronger or faster or able to heal faster or whatever. They

4. Before the testing was put in 2005, steroids were accessible to everyone in MLB and untestable. A cycle of HGH —from what I’ve read on the Tubes—cost something in the neighborhood of $2,000. The minimum salary of a major league baseball player has been between $200,000 and $350,000. That’s affordable.

Anyone could take this stuff. It’s not an unlevel playing field. Everyone has the ability to cheat in the same way, therefore, it’s not actually cheating. That’s the nature of cheating; it has to be an unfair advantage. Every team plays in Southern California at some point in the year and can hop down to Tijuana and buy some drugs. Or meet that guy at the gym who can hook you up.

It’s not hard. And I don’t blame the guy.
—-

And so we have the case of Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez. A-Rod is, along with Barry Bonds, the best baseball player I’ve ever witnessed. He played shortstop with the grace of a dancer and hits with the power of a lumberjack.

But, because of all those things mentioned above, A-Rod found it important to take performance-enhancers to, well, enhance his performance between 2001 and 2003. He admitted this to Peter Gammons today. He was a superlative player those years, placing in the top five in MLB VORP all three years.
—-

I don’t find Alex Rodriguez to be a particularly charming individual. I wrote a long piece on this subject over at our baseball blog more than three years ago and it still holds true. Here’s one of the key lines: A-Rod is one of two things: disingenuous or really boring. And both is a big problem in my book.

I don’t disagree with this now. In the same sense that Barry Bonds is a terrible person to back, A-Rod is an awful martyr. A-Rod is aso one of the most manicured players in baseball, if not the most manicured. He’s a robot. I don’t like to defend him. He cheats on his wife with Madonna. While I understand greed is a natural state for athletes, he is the greediest of the greedy. He’s great and he knows it, but tries not to show you he knows he’s great.

But, he’s many things. He’s a human being, for one, so taunting him for trying to make the most money possible is not reasonable, on any level. Every athlete does this and every human—if s/he had the chance would—would take similar steps. The 252 number isn’t important to this discussion, though it is always in said discussion.
—-

There is a huge problem with the A-Rod story (and the Bonds story and the Clemens story), too, and that’s the nature of this scandal.

Alex Sanchez got popped for steroids. So did Jason Giambi. So did Mike Morse. Raffy Palmeiro tested positive. Bret Boone never failed a piss test, but it sonsidered one of the guys most likely to have done it. A-Rod. Clemens. Manny Alexander. Fernando Vina. Bonds. Guillermo Mota. Eric Gagne. Braves farmhand Jordan Schafer.

It’s black guys and white guys and Hispanic utility infielders. Power hitters and slap hitters. Hall of Famers, guys who will certainly be in the hall of very good. Decent, everyday players. Guys at the cusp of everydaydom. Guys at the cusp of the majors.

Every strata of MLB was using PEDs. It was so widespread that to assume guys weren’t doing it… That’s foolish.

Think about it. What’s the incentive to take PEDs? More money. More admiration. More wins for your team, therefore a better work environment. Better short-term health, as far as injury recovery is concerned.

What’s the disincentive? There was no testing for any of it back then, so public shame is years down the road. The most serious long-term effects studies—especially in the cases of moderate-low use—are not a direct correlation (remember that Lyle Alzado died of a brain tumor that was only connected to steroid use by… Lyle Alzado. Not exactly a doctor.) situation, so, even if the long-term effects will hurt the player, it won’t be for years. Athletes don’t think in those terms.
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So, please. Join me in assuming everyone in MLB takes performance enhancers. That means A-Rod. It means Jason Varitek. It means David Ortiz. It means Justin Mourneau. It means Paul Konerko and Carlos Zambrano and David Eckstein. It means great players like Jake Peavy and Chipper Jones and it means crap players like Augie Ojeda and Juan Pierre. It means everyone.

To be surprised that A-Rod took PEDs is simply not understanding the ballplayer. It’s not understanding the economics. It’s not understanding the politics of Major League Baseball. And, most importantly, it’s not understanding the nature of greed in human nature.