I saw the Dodgers released Bubba Trammell. Does anyone else think it would be a good idea for the Mets to pick him up? I'd say he's better than The Platoon.

Ryan, they went over EqA in this week's SI, as well as why runs, RBI, and BA are meaningless.

When the Hanshin Tigers won their first CL championship in 18 years last season, they are said to have boosted the local economy by 50 billion yen ($420 million).

Man.

mo-ti can in turn hire mase to be HIS body double.

As of now, The Yankees are the worst team in baseball! Hooray!

The ironic thing though is that you drafted him. Teehee!

if melvin mora becomes president he can hire timo (mo-ti) perez to be his body double to protect against assassinations.

the main thing about garcia is that i don't like his face.

Couple of quick notes:

Chump, why isn't Garcia working out in RF? First of all, spring training stats are virtually meaningless. But, Garcia's are fine. He's hitting .276 with a .483 Slugging percentage. Sounds fine to me. (ESPN doesn't display walks, so I don't know what his OBP is.)

I agree about McEwing and Zeile. I think Duquette did a good job with the big moves this offseason, but a terrible job with the little moves. A strong bench is important because injuries and days off are inevitable. There's no reason for Joe McEwing to be on a major leage roster. It's particularly upsetting because the Mets had a perfectly good alternative who was much cheaper (Scutaro) and let him go. We've had to suffer through over 500 McEwing plate appearances the last 2 years, there's no excuse for more.

Good article at Playboy.com (I read it for the articles) alleging that the entire reason for the BALCO investigation is because some guy at the IRS hates Bonds ("He's such an asshole to the press.")

MEL-VIN MOR-A!!! Melvin Mora may run for President of Venezuela!

shockingly, neither garcia nor spencer is working out in right field.

also in non-shocking news, jeff weaver is performing garbage for the dodgers and is on pace to double any projected 4.20 era for them this year. hot trade, give away one of the best pitchers in the game for jeff weaver. damn yankees.

Shawn Estes is on the Rockies. I say the over/under on his ERA this year is 7.

there is no better indictment of our 2004 mets than the fact that we have ziele and mcewing all set to play a signigicant amount of games this year. mcewing starting on opening day, it makes me sick.

Manager Art Howe indicated that Joe McEwing will be his starting second baseman if Jose Reyes isn't ready for Opening Day.

-boo. ty wiggs at second, zeile at third. anything to keep mcewing on the bench.

Come on, that Jim Palmer quote is just lazy journalism by whoever wrote that article. Brady's huge year is definitely hard to explain, but to just assume that he was using steroids is irresponsible unless there is some kind of further evidence. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't.
Obviously, the huge aberration makes it suspicious. Brady hit 50 homers in 1996. The most he hit before that was 21, the most after was 24. But if steroids helped him so much, why would he stop using them the following year (when he only hit 18)?
And Brady's fluke isn't without precedent. Davey Johnson hit 43 homers in 1973. The most he ever hit before or after was 18. Was he on steroids?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Jim Palmer has questions about Brady Anderson, his 50 homers in 1996 and steroids, but the Hall of Fame pitcher couldn't come up with definitive answers when pinned down about his suspicions.

In an interview broadcast on a Baltimore radio station Sunday, Palmer said that Anderson's Orioles-record 50-homer output might have been tainted by steroid use. Anderson's previous best was 21 homers in 1992 and his subsequent best was 24 in 1999. He hit 16 and 18 the seasons before and after he hit his 50.

"I like Brady, and it doesn't mean he's a bad guy because he took steroids," Palmer said in the interview, which was taped Saturday. "But I'm sure he wanted to enhance his performance.

"I don't know how he hit 29 more homers that year," said Palmer, who announces on Orioles telecasts. "And he hit 31 more on the road that year, so it's not like he took advantage of Camden Yards."

Not keeping Scutaro on the roster was the dumbest thing Duquette has done since taking over.

Marco Scutaro hit his team-leading third home run today in the Athletics'
win over the Mariners. Scutaro is 5-for-14 with a 1.071 slugging percentage.

Wow, Dave Nilsson's back? Guess he didn't want to go out for the '04 Australian Olympic Team.

The starting lineup for Jayson Stark's 2004 Invited to Spring Training All-Stars:

1B: Jose Offerman (Twins)
2B: Homer Bush (Yankees)
SS: Benji Gil (Rockies)
3B: Olmedo Saenz (Dodgers)
LF: Greg Vaughn (Cardinals)
CF: Ray Lankford (Cardinals)
RF: Henry Rodriguez (Pirates)
C: Joe Girardi (Yankees)
DH: Dave Nilsson (Braves)

Starting rotation: Jim Parque (Diamondbacks), Esteban Yan (Tigers), Joey Hamilton (Padres), Dave Burba (Brewers), Jason Bere (Indians).

Bullpen: Todd Jones (Devil Rays), Toby Borland (Marlins), Rich Loiselle (Devil Rays), Alan Mills (Devil Rays), Mike Jackson (White Sox), Doug Linton (Royals), Scott Sanders (Marlins), John Wasdin (Rangers), Willie Banks (Rangers), Doug Brocail (Rangers).

This made my brain hurt:

Bill James invented a method called the Favorite Toy to determine approximately where a player's total in a given category would wind up. The method is fairly simple, taking into account how many more years the player will probably play and his current established norms in that particular category. According to the Favorite Toy formula, Rafael Palmeiro will end up with 590 career home runs. The formula gives Palmeiro a 36 percent chance to hit 600 home runs, with a caveat. The Favorite Toy formula predicts Palmeiro has 1.5 seasons remaining in his career. Palmeiro has established a level of 41 home runs per season over the last three seasons. He's been within six home runs of that number in each of the last nine seasons. With 1.5 seasons remaining, Palmeiro can be projected to hit 62 more home runs, bringing his career total to 590.

OK, maybe I'll start a new feature: the dumbest quote of the day. In an article in the Daily Herald, Dusty Baker gives us a couple of gems.

"I think walks are overrated unless you can run. If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can't run, most of the time they're clogging up the bases for somebody who can run."

Does he feel the same way about hits? If you get a single and you're slow, you're clogging the bases just as much. Apparently, Baker only want a player who's fast or just hits homers. Of course, all those homers will be solo shots because there will never be anybody on base. But the next quote is the really dumb one:

"Who's been the champions the last seven, eight years? Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks?"

Over the last 8 years, the Yankees have been first in the AL in OBP and second in walks (behind the A's). Whether or not the Yankees have been talking about it, they've been doing it. You would think Dusty Baker would've noticed.

Chump, look what time you posted that message. Ohhhh maaaaaaaannnnn.
You can see day-by-day standings at http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/standings.shtml

where does one see old day-by-day standings? i'd be curious about pre-realignment years. i still insist that the four best teams in each league should make it in, regardless of division. this would have to occur simultaneously with a more balanced schedule, which i am adamantly for.

In an interview at SI.com, Bud Selig says: "Last Sept. 1, 17 or 18 teams were still in playoff contention. I think this year we'll have at least as many. That couldn't have happened seven or eight or nine or 10 years ago."
Ok, is that true? Well, assuming that any team within 5 games of a playoff spot is in contention, 17 teams were in contention last year when September began. OK, sounds good so far. But, what about 7-10 years ago? Well, I arbitrarily picked 1995 (8 or 9 years ago depending on whether he meant from 2003 or 2004). Using the same criteria, 19 teams were in contention. So, not only could it have happened, it did happen. Do your homework, Bud.

Garcia and Spencer gave it their best shot, but it's hard to get the Yanks off the back page.
I think the best headline yet regarding the pizza incident is Bill Madden in the Daily News:
Mets tolerate pee brains

the terrible reign of a-rod upon the post's back page was finally brought to an end today......by teammate gary sheffield in an essentially non-story, typical over-reaction. he'll be back in a week. the train keeps a-rollin.

Did we know this story? (from Newsday):

"Isringhausen nearly killed himself during spring training in 1993 when he was climbing up the side of an apartment building -- drunk -- and fell three stories, landing on his head. He needed 22 stitches to close the gash in his head, and he also cracked his sternum and broke both of his big toes. Doctors told him he was lucky to have been so intoxicated because it helped relax his body. Otherwise, he might have been killed."

Climbing up the side of an apartment building???????? That's pretty drunk.

conspiracy on Barry Bonds*?
(the post's mike vacarro will now use an asterisk whenever referring to bonds*).

ralph wiley: What Barry Bonds has done is show great merit in the game. Unfortunately, when you are what is called "black," that can be inconvenient; often when you show merit, the rules on merit are changed to make them more obtuse.

mets up BIG over the dodgers in the 3rd inning!!
perhaps the fact that all this soriano talk is so public is a good sign that the deal won't happen.
the rangers are so incompetent they should immediately be contracted. they got a player who wouldn't change positions for them who lied about his age and will make as much in two years as the yankees are paying a-rod this year.

of course, if stupid management were the basis for contraction, we'd long ago have lost our mets and become fans of the long island ducks.

Erickson gave up 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Solid.

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Jose Canseco can now focus on being an actor or an author rather than a baseball player.

As expected, the Los Angeles Dodgers informed the former slugger Tuesday that they weren't interested in his services.

Canseco, 39, participated in an open tryout with the team Monday. He said he wouldn't play in the minors, which probably ended any chance he had of being signed by the Dodgers.

Matt Slater, the team's director of professional scouting, said a couple of players who participated in the workout will be offered contracts -- but Canseco wouldn't be one of them.

"We called him to give him the news," Slater said.

Canseco was told beforehand there was a 99 percent chance the Dodgers wouldn't sign him, but he participated anyway.

He certainly didn't look prepared.

"This is probably going to be my last attempt -- see you in the movies," Canseco told reporters as he signed autographs.

There should be a list of Top 10 All-Time Dumbest Injuries, like Van der Wal tearing his ACL shoveling snow.