Pssst.... Antonio, The NFL Has A History Of Steroid Use Too

Does this pic qualify as NSFW?
The sports world was rocked by the revelations in the Mitchell Report. Today we heard from athletes from pretty much every sport who weighed in on the subject. And while most were surprised and upset by it, few were as ironic as Antonio Pierce who apparently didn't get the memo about his sport's seemingly endless history with illegal performance enhancing drugs (documented, just to name a few, here, here and here) and almost weekly news that another NFL player is getting suspended for performance enhancers (in the last 2 years, Merriman, Rodney Harrison, Chris Henry (RB - Tenn, not Crackhead - Cincy) and Marcus Stroud are some big names who were suspended just off the top of my head). But Pierce seemed blissfully ignorant of these facts when he noted:

“I think it is a disgrace for the sport, baseball, whatever sport, if you have to use some kind of enhancement or some kind of performance to get ahead," Pierce said. “We all put in the same amount of hours of work throughout the year and for you to go and get something like that, especially if you are a guy with a big name, it makes no sense to me. It is something I would never hope to see in the National Football League and I hope baseball can deal with it and recover from it."

Umm.... seriously? You hope you don't see steroid use or a documented history of any prior usage in the NFL. Unless you can't read or your eyes are closed, you see it and hear about it EVERY FUCKING WEEK YOU IDIOT! In the 1970's and 1980's NFL players used steroids openly and it was accepted if not encouraged. I know it's unfair and unkind to pick on stupid people, and Antonio Pierce is clearly that. But come on, what a fucking idiot.

Join The Ukrainian Army And You Will Steal Prostitutes & Drink Filthy Water!

This video is absolutely unreal. It's apparently an ad for the Ukrainian Army (originally found on Break.com) and beats the shit out of our lame "Army of one" ads. In the U.S., the military ads feature dudes who climb mountains and fight fire beasts. In the Eastern Europe, their ads say that if you join the military you'll bang average looking hookers who wear a shitload of crappy makeup. No wonder the dollar is sagging against international currency.

Colorado's Invisible Basketball Player

The Buffs of Colorado have had a rough start to the season and No. 0 certainly isn't gonna help out anytime soon.
I got an email from a west coast fanta buddy that featured something pretty funny so I thought I'd share. It seems as though the Colorado Buffalo basketball team is using an invisible guy. Or at least that's what his ESPN player information page would suggest:

#0 Dwight II
Full Name: Dwight II
Birth Place:
Height: 0-0
Weight: 0 lbs.

It's gonna be awfully tough for Dwight II to help the Buffs in any meaningful way at 0-0 and 0 lbs. That's pretty much all I got, so as an additional treat, here's a clip of some asian youngsters playing invisible basketball while drinking a 40. You don't see that everyday....

Germany's MacGyver

I don't have a whole lot to add to this story but this guy takes problem solving to a whole new level:

A man nearly died from alcohol poisoning after quaffing a liter (two pints) of vodka at an airport security check instead of handing it over to comply with new carry-on rules, police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred at the Nuremberg airport on Tuesday, where the 64-year-old man was switching planes on his way home to Dresden from a holiday in Egypt.

New airport rules prohibit passengers from carrying larger quantities of liquid onto planes, and he was told at a security check he would have to either throw out the bottle of vodka or pay a fee to have his carry-on bag checked as cargo.
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Instead, he chugged the bottle down — and was quickly unable to stand or otherwise function, police said.

A doctor called to the scene determined he had possibly life-threatening alcohol poisoning, and he was sent to a Nuremberg clinic for treatment.

I guess I can sort of relate because when faced with the same predicament in St. Thomas with a liter of Cruzan Rum, I poured some rum into my 16oz coke bottle and blasted my way through security leaving behind .90ozs of delicious rum behind.

They haven't seen a German this drunk since, well...

Does Anyone Really Want To Hear The Names On This Mitchell Report?

Revealing the names on the Mitchell Report seems to me to be about as valuable as tits on a bull, or the above sign.
Call me nutty, but I could give a fuck about the Mitchell Report. What the F is it going to prove? How will they distinguish between the guys who "ordered Rx HGH" from Florida and the guys who shoved Cow strengthener up their urethras? And what will it matter how they are distinguished given that any name that appears in the report will forever be linked to "The Mitchell Report" and therefore inexorably linked to steroids. For purpose of history, you won't be able to distinguish your steroid juicing freaks like Jason Giambi from your HGH sampling idiots like Paul Byrd. Some might say that these guys deserve to be forever flushed down history's toilet. But what good does it do?

One thing that strikes me about this whole thing is the double standard we have with Football and Baseball. We KNOW guys in the NFL do roids and get caught ALL THE FUCKING TIME! Shawn Merriman and Luis Castillo have both been caught and apologized for using performance enhancers. Rodney Harrison got caught in the preseason and Mike Golic announced on the national airwaves that he tried steroids. Yet for some reason no one gives as much of a shit about any of this than they do about the rumor that some big name pitcher* may have used it. And even when the Mitchell Report comes out and fingers someone of note (double entendre intended), the evidence in the NFL cases will be MUCH stronger than the eyewitness reports or hearsay that gets into the Mitchell bullshit. So why is this going to be a bigger deal?

But here's the thing that really gets me, can you think of a player who might appear on that report who you'd be happy to find out had used drugs? I mean, there are some guys in the MLB who I truly loathe. And I mean I really REALLY hate some of these motherfuckers, and I wouldn't get ANY satisfaction out of seeing those guys on the list. What would it do for me? You've got to be a pretty sick fuck to get some satisfaction out of learning that someone's life is changed for the worse forever. From a fans perspective, I just don't get the draw (though, of course, I will be on the edge of my seat waiting for the release of the names at 2pm tomorrow).

And that brings me to the major issue I have with the whole thing: What is the point? Originally, the point of publicizing steroid users was to deter people from future use and educate kids on the problems associated with performance enhancers. Baseball's old "don't ask don't tell" policy was essentially a tacit affirmation that steroids "weren't really that bad." So something had to be done and I get that. But when the NFL and other sports put together their new testing policies, they didn't dig up old files on Juice freaks of the 80's who we all worshipped and cut them down because they now feel guilty that they turned the other cheek for so many years. It was good enough that progress was made. And that's how I feel about baseball. We've moved past the "steroid era" on dozens of occasions, whether it be the Congressional hearing, the Palmeiro thing, Canseco's book or the new testing policy for steroids and search for an HGH test. The result is what we were looking for, not a fine-toothed combing of what they fucked up in getting us here.

Because here's the thing, when this report comes out tomorrow, it will be incomplete in the same way Canseco's book was incomplete and today's testing policy is incomplete. It will be unsatisfying and will stir up controversy. Some people will be upset and we will talk about it. But if it doesn't get us anywhere closer to getting untestable performance enhancers out of baseball and doesn't gain us anything, then what the fuck is the point? I will tell you this, no matter who is on that list and how outrage Jay Mariotti and Skip Bayless are, those names and that outrage alone will not do shit to help us get any closer to eradicating performance enhancers from the game. And if that wasn't the point of this whole fucking thing, then I ask, once again, what the fuck was?


*As I said in an earlier post, I'm not going to throw out names in these posts unless they have been publicly linked. There's no reason for me to add to the thousands of links available when someone types in "Baseball Player and Steroids" into google.

Do We Already Know All The Names On The Mitchell Report?

18 months and a gazillion dollars later, the Mitchell Report might not look a whole lot different than Wikipedia's list.
The Mitchell Report will apparently include somewhere between 50 and 60 names of MLB players who did drugs in the last decade. And while that's terrific and all, don't we already know those names? Wikipedia has compiled a list of players linked to steroids/HGH and those who have been suspended. So far 37 players with MLB experience have been suspended and at least 23 have been fairly linked to performance enhancing drugs with varying degrees of evidence. That adds up to 60 players. So my questions remains: If this is all we're getting, who gives a shit?

Wikipedia's list*
Players linked to steroids/HGH via published reports:
1. Jose Canseco
2. Mark McGwire
3. Sammy Sosa
4. Ken Caminiti
5. Gary Sheffield
6. Barry Bonds
7. Jason Giambi
8. Wally Joyner
9. Gary Matthews, Jr.
10. Darren Holmes
11. John Rocker
12. David Bell
13. David Segui
14. Fernando Tatis
15. Jerry Hairston, Jr.
16. Rick Ankiel
17. Troy Glaus
18. Jay Gibbons
19. Scott Schoeneweis
20. Paul Byrd
21. Jose Guillen
22. Matt Williams
23. Ismael Valdez

Major League players suspended
24. Alex Sánchez
25. Jorge Piedra
26. Agustín Montero
27. Jamal Strong
28. Juan Rincón
29. Rafael Betancourt
30. Rafael Palmeiro
31. Ryan Franklin
32. Mike Morse
33. Carlos Almanzar
34. Félix Heredia
35. Matt Lawton
36. Yusaku Iriki
37. Jason Grimsley
38. Guillermo Mota
39. Juan Salas
40. Neifi Perez (Twice!)
41. Mike Cameron

Players with MLB experience suspended
42. Damian Moss
43. Robert Machado
44. Clay Hensley
45. Brian Mallette
46. Jon Nunnally
47. Tom Evans
48. Grant Roberts
49. Darnell McDonald
50. Steven Smyth
51. Christian Parker
52. Luis Ugueto
53. Wilson Delgado
54. Ramón A. Castro
55. Matt Whiteside
56. Wilson Delgado
57. Luis Ugueto
58. Nerio Rodríguez
59. Abraham Núñez
60. Yamid Haad

*Wikipedia's list is actually more complete than this, but I felt it irresponsible to include some large names who have been mentioned in the past but the only evidence available to date has been conjecture. If you'd like to view the entire list for yourself, feel free.

The Knicks' Only Hope

If the only way Isiah is leaving the Knicks is in a Cedar box, Sniper Cat may be their only hope.
I mean, what the fuck else can happen to the Knicks this year? It is absolutely incredible that this team is still heading on the same course it is. There are not words to accurately describe the level of disgrace that the team and organization have sunk. But if you thought Isiah was going down with the ship, you may have misread his contract. Apparently Isiah inserted a "50 Cent"* clause into his contract that we didn't know about:

"I fight till I die. It's not about giving up or quitting. To me, it's win or die. I literally mean death, I don't mean 'walk away.' I mean death. That's how I have coached. We've got a job to do here and we're going to get it done. I'm confident we have the right players and confident we have the right people, and we'll dig our way out of this."

Ho-Lee Fuck, Zeke! Will you take a step back and settle it down for a minute? I mean seriously. First of all, if you lived by the creed "win or die," you'd be long ago dead. But more importantly, why did you need to go there? I think we get it that you aren't walking away and need to get fired. Was it really necessary to suggest that unless Dolan kills you you aren't going anywhere? This doesn't prove that you are more loyal to the cause than anyone (which I am assuming was your hope), it just proves you are an idiot. Which is like someone coming out today with further proof that water is wet.

The future of the Knicks is in your hands, Sniper Cat.

My Guys v. More Titles: After Winning Again, I Prefer The Former

Sure it'd be nice to get Santana but when do I get to root for "my guys?"
Word is that the Santana for Ellsbury/Lowrie/Masterson/??? trade is coming to a head and may actually get itself done. And while the idea of watching Beckett and Santana pitch on back-to-back days is an exciting proposition, so was the prospect of watching Jacoby Ellsbury manning centerfield for the next decade. The difference with Ellsbury was that he had the potential to be "our guy" and now it looks like we'll be rooting for someone else's guy. In the game that has become Major League Baseball, that's kinda par for the course, I guess. But that doesn't mean I can't want it to turn out differently.

Someone is going to trade for Johan Santana. That much is certain. The Twins can't afford him, they likely aren't going to win (especially now with Detroit so loaded) and the longer they wait the less the chance that the teams the Twins need to be involved (the Sox, Yanks, Angels, Mets & Dodgers) will need to grab him. I also understand that the trade with the Sox, as it is outlined in the media, is a virtual no brainer from the Sox perspective. They get the best pitcher since Pedro in the prime of his career and don't have to give up a single member of their rotation, bullpen, or starting lineup from last year's team. It will make the team better without depleting the farm system too greatly as the Sox have an abundance of pitching talent in the minors and both Jacoby and Lowrie are relatively replaceable guys (in the sense that neither is projected as a corner power guy). I also get that one of the reasons you develop a strong farm system is to poach players from teams who cannot afford them. And lastly, I'm well aware that even if Jacoby Ellsbury exceeds expectations and becomes a Carl Crawford-like talent as opposed to the .300, 10Hrs and 40Sbs guy he projects to be, his career will pale in comparison to that of Santana's. But with all that being said, I'd still rather have Jacoby.

I'd never have said any of this 4 years ago. Are you shitting me? I'd have traded Buchholz, Jacoby, Hazel Mae and my scrotum for Santana. You could throw in anyone else and I would've ok'd it. But now after winning 2 World Series, the game is completely different. My fanhood has changed entirely. In 2004, people, though are loathe to admit it today, were rooting for the Red Sox to pull it off. I received congratulations from people are hardly knew who were genuinely excited for me that the Sox won. Now, Sox fans are hated. And while other people's opinions of me don't necessarily affect how I feel about my team, the difference does represent a change in the entire image of what it meant to be a Sox fan then and now. Today, we are supposed to win. We are supposed to be players for the highest priced players and our GM is supposed to make the best deal for the team regardless of how "loyal" we feel towards the players it takes to make those deals. For me, it was fine when we needed to win to end the bullshit of the 1918 chants and force the retards who bought the "Got Rings?" t-shirts to throw them in the toilet because the Sox number keeps going up. But now, with the team and organization legitimized to a degree and those chants gone and those shirts rendered irrelevant, can't the Sox just hold back on this one and try winning it again with our guys?

You see now, after all the bullshit and the two World Series, I find myself rooting for different things. Yeah I cheer when Julio Lugo gets a big hit or grabs his crotch for the 50th time, but I'll never love watching him play. I loved the stories of Pedroia, Lester, Buchholz and later Jacoby. When I turn the TV on to watch the Sox play, those are the guys I'm most excited about seeing (Note: there is some hypocrisy here considering my favorite all-time Red Sox player in Manny, and he was not really "my guy" in the same sense that I'm pulling for the Sox to stick with "my guy" Jacoby because he was drafted by the team. But we can just forget all that for the timebeing...). I like watching them get better and watching them go f'n nuts whenever anything good happens. Those players haven't been tainted by the monotony yet. They aren't cynical. Their eyes are still wide when the cameras come on. They sneak a peak into the stands at big moments (and when famous people are in the stands) and take a deep breath and need extra time to collect themselves when things are clearly overwhelming. When you see a guy in that situation you want him to succeed not just because it will benefit your team but because you want HIM to succeed. I'm not saying it doesn't matter as much to guys like Julian Tavarez or Kyle Farnsworth, but as a fan it's much more gratifying when you are convinced the guy on the mound or at the plate would be up there if he were being paid $50. Maybe I'm naive, but the young guys are I root for on the Sox at least give the impression that they would.

Listen, I'm not saying I'm not going to brag about having Santana or not enjoy the 2008 season (and seasons thereafter) because this Sox team has the potential to be the best team they have ever fielded. Hell, I'll likely be even more insufferable than I normally am about the Sox. But if they do get rid of Jacoby it will be a huge buzzkill for me that clouds the entire season. I'm fine with making this Sox team the best it can be, I just think the team could be pretty damn good with "my guys" on it. And if the decision comes down to fielding the favorite to win the World Series with "my guys" or fielding the overwhelming favorite for the World Series without them, well, I guess I've made it clear how I feel.

The LPGA's New Leading Lady

From this:

To this:

The LPGA's image has come a long way from days when Laura Davies was the face of the sport.
Meet Anna Rawson, the model-turned-pro golfer from Australia who is sure to turn a few heads on the course this year after she announced that she's turning pro and created an internet search firestorm in the process. Anna is just the latest in the continuing trend of young women golfers joining the LPGA who are actually attractive as opposed to the troll-like dregs who used to stomp the greens and convince our baseball heroes to marry them. Ray Knight has to be kicking himself that he wasn't born two decades later.

G-Rob's Perfect Opportunity

The mark of a good coach is utilizing the best tools he has to his advantage. In 2008, Greg Robinson has the tools. Whether he chooses to use them will decide his fate.
If you're not a fan of Syracuse Football (and that breed is more endangered than the Narwal), you probably won't recognize the names Taj Smith, Mike Williams, Da'Mon Merkerson, Lavar Lobdell or Deandre Preaster, but if you're Syracuse Football Coach Greg Robinson, those names and how they are featured on the field represent the only chance you have of surviving the 2008 season.

To say that Greg Robinson's tenure with the 'Cuse has been rocky would be an understatement. Since taking over the 'Cuse, Robinson is 7-28. He just fired Brian White, his 2nd Offensive Coordinator since taking over and is working on picking the third in four years. And with this team Robinson finally has the personnel around whom he can sculpt an offensive philosophy. These are his guys of his choosing and some of them are fucking good. Mike Williams has the potential to be a top 15 draft pick. He'll be one of the best players to come out when he does. Taj Smith, when healthy, is a beast and can break a play better than most in the Big East. Lavar Lobdell has all the promise in the world if he can get his head on straight and get himself involved in the offense. And then they've got the Sophomore Merkerson who was highly recruited out of high school and the kid Preaster coming in next year who both are impact players. That core group of wide receivers are as good in any in the Big East. With offensive line and running back concerns and a defensive that is suspect at best, Robinson needs to show now that he understands what he's got and what he's up against. He needs to hire a guy who will spread it out and fire it downfield. He needs to go 4 wide and score 40 a game. That is what this 2008 Syracuse team is setup to do. He needs to show that he can coach or he's gonna be shown the door.

Exclusive Footage Of The Bart Scott Freak Out

This video didn't capture when he threw the flag into the stands but you get the picture. This Ravens team does an awful lot of complaining.

Hank Is Taking This "Steinbrenner Role" Awfully Seriously

Hank Steinbrenner isn't just as pompous and arrogant as his dad, but now he's breaking the rules just like dear old dad used to do.
When George Steinbrenner paid some scumbag to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield simply because he didn't like the guy, big Stein got himself banned from baseball (only to be reinstated 3 years later). It was Steinbrenner's second Commissioner-Ordered absence from the game of baseball and just one of many of Steinbrenner's less than admirable maneuvers. Now that Steinbrenner has moved off into la la land, his son Hank has stepped up and filled that substantial void of low class behavior.

After Hank shot his mouth off, not only was it reported that the Twins and most others in the MLB were laughing at him, but now it seems the Twins might pursue tampering charges:

A Twins official this morning confirmed that the club is not pleased with comments made by Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner about trade talks involving Santana.

When asked if he thought the comments constituted tampering, the official replied, “We’re not happy. We’ll deal with this internally.'’

It’s unsure if the Twins will pursue tampering charges (or what the penalties are) but it’s definitely added even more spice to the Twins attempts to trade Santana - as if more was needed.

I'm sorry for devoting so much time to this, but you have to admit, between spending $400 million on guys they will pay well into their forties, getting all uppity with A-Rod and then paying him the exact same amount, setting some bullshit deadline and getting called out on it and now possibly tampering charges.... the Hank Steinbrenner era is pretty entertaining.

In The Steinbrenner Family, The Asshat Doesn't Fall Too Far From The Tree

So lil' Stein says the Yanks are gonna pull their offer for the best pitcher in baseball after Monday because he doesn't like waiting. That seems reasonable.
It's been less than a week since the Twins made it clear that Johan Santana was definitely on the trading block. In that week there has been a lot of back and forth and speculation and conjecture and posturing and all the other bullshit that goes along with these types of things in the MLB. Well, it seems that Hank Steinbrenner has had just about enough of your "negotiating." According to lil' Stein, if the Twins don't take their final offer by Monday, the Yanks will go on their merry way:

"By tomorrow," Steinbrenner said (of the deadline) Sunday.

..."The Twins are aware of it, that I'm not going to wait much longer. And the truth of the matter is, they don't want to be stuck with only one team to deal with. If they're stuck with just Boston, they're going to get a lot less. I'm not going to be played. This is not a game. This is serious business. I'm not going to be played, us against the Red Sox. That's not going to happen."

You tell em, Hank! You're not gonna get stuck in some kind of bidding war like the one that already happened where you first refuse to give up Phil Hughes and then concede that you have to because the Sox countered with a better offer (like I said before, I don't necessarily believe that this "bidding war" went down the way it is portrayed in the media, but Steinbrenner makes it seems as though that's exactly how it went down).

But here's the thing that gets me: why is this deadline necessary? Steinbrenner claims that they have to move on because they don't want to miss out on a potential deal for Dan Haren but then later notes, "Nobody wants to lose the Yankees in a negotiation." EXFUCKINGACTLY. Oakland's not going to do a deal without calling the Yanks to see what they will offer. The Yanks won't miss out on shit. And if and when the A's call, the Yanks can give them their offer pending the outcome of the Santana deal and I can guarantee you that the A's will wait. Because if the Yanks lose out on Santana, THEY HAVE TO get Dan Haren. The A's won't come close to dealing Haren utnil the Santana deal is sewn up. That deal is their leverage. The Sox must be ROFL right now (sorry about the text message lingo). They can just sit back and wait wait for Monday to pass and bullshit that they'll go higher than the Yanks. Once the Yanks are "out," the leverage falls apart. And another thing, if the Twins come back on Tuesday and say, "we'll take your deal," Hank will fucking sign the paper work faster than you can say "sweet buzz cutt."

But my favorite part has to be the selective memory that spawned this little ditty from Hank:

"I don't really care what the Red Sox offer, to tell you the truth," Steinbrenner said. "The way I do things is, I make a strong offer, take it or leave it."

Yes, A-Rod would agree that once you turn down Hank's initial strong offer, there's no looking back. This deadline reeks of pompous blowhard and stale cigarette breath, and as a Sox fan, I fucking love it.

I Don't Want To Say I Told You So.... Well, Maybe I Do

Rory the Lion doesn't like what sees in Detroit these days.
About a month ago, I wrote a piece about how the Lions were not nearly as good as their 6-2 record and the only decent teams they played beat them handily. I suggested that not only would they not get to Kitna's promised 10 wins but that they would likely win only one more game the rest of the way. There were some who doubted this theory and others who objected more strongly to it. One commenter was rather forthcoming and undaunted with his disgust and offered his own predictions:

"[The Lions] are just as good as the Cowgirls, Giants, and Packers. The feel good story of Brett Favre will come down to earth on Thanksgiving when the Lions destroy them .... I sure hope everyone continues to doubt the Lions this season because WHEN they have a first round bye in the playoffs people will finally smarten up. Then again people will continue to doubt them until they DEFEAT the previous unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, which I may add is in Arizona, the home of the Cardinals: the team you say will be the home of the Lions final victory. Well your (sic) right in that respect. Sort of..."

The Lions are now 6-6 and finish the season against the Cowboys, Chargers, Chiefs and Packers. That's 1-3 at best. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Do I Believe Any Of These Sox / Yanks / Santana Leaks? Not For A Second

When the Sox and Yanks are involved in a potential trade, there's more feces in the air than a Chinese take-out kitchen.
The Johan Santana trade situation is infuriating. Every minute there's a new story about a different player the Sox or Yanks are willing to part with for Santana despite the fact that the player was labeled "untouchable" in a previous leaked story. And there are the stories about the stories. Writers are writing stories about how the teams are using the media to leak bullshit trade props in order to make the other team up their offer and get rid of better players. And the writers are perfectly happy to oblige and post as many bullshit stories as possible no matter how realistic. It's f'n ridiculous and I don't believe a fucking peep of it. I think when you step back and take a look at the two teams involved in this, it's easy to see exactly what's going to happen without trying to weave through the thorny thatch of misinformation the writers are feeding us.

First, the Yanks need Santana much more than the Sox do for a ton of reasons. The first being that their current rotation is not really major league quality. So far it looks like Wang, Mussina and three guy who have combined for less than 20 starts over their entire careers combined. And as much as you might love the idea of Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy starting some day, that is about as shaky a rotation as there is in the AL East and perhaps all of the major leagues. I know everyone loves Joba Chamberlain (and if you've been a reader here for awhile you know that I do not), but you have no fucking clue what those 3 young guys will give you as starters and even less of a clue what Mussina has left. That rotation is in dire need of a frontline starter. Meanwhile the Sox have 6 guys in their starting rotation right now and two guys in the minors who they think they could bring up at any point this season in Masterson and Bowden. While the addition of Santana certainly wouldn't be a downgrade, there's not as much of a need.

Second, the Sox will not part with either Buchholz or Ellsbury and the Yanks will not part with Cano, Jackson or Tabata. I don't care what you read, none of those guys are going anywhere. The position players especially will go nowhere. Projecting position talent is INFINITELY more reliable than pitching talent. The Yanks are old at every position except 2nd base. Cano is a potential perennial All-Star while Jackson and Tabata (Tabata in particular) are well developed talent in a system very light on good position talent. None of those guys are going anywhere. Ellsbury is locked up by the Sox for a bunch of years for cheap and is the best position prospect in their organization. Meanwhile the guy Ellsbury is replacing, Coco Crisp, is a top notch defender who the Twins could use and who they can move to Oakland for Haren if the Santana deal falls through or to the White Sox straight up for a young arm. Why would the Sox trade their younger, cheaper and better CF option for a position of depth in their organization when teams are interested in the older, shittier and more expensive CF?

Third, other than Chamberlain, the Yanks will give up ANY combination of young pitchers to get Santana. This seems like common sense to me but no one seems to get it. Of the three young pitchers on the Yanks, it is likely that one will flame out and be out of baseball in a couple years, one may find his way to the bottom of a rotation at some point in his career and one may become a number 2 starter, probably after Tommy John surgery. But it is even safer to say that NONE OF THEM will become Johan Santana. Let me repeat that. Of all the pitchers being considered for the trade for Johan Santana, NONE will be as good as Santana. Not Joba Chamberlain or Clay Buchholz or Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy or Michael Bowden or Justin Masterson. The chance that these guys never throw a pitch again in the majors is ten times more likely than the chance that they become a starter even in spitting distance of the talent level of Santana. So the idea that the Yanks would think twice about the giving up the middle of the rotation ceiling of Ian Kennedy or the top of the rotation potential and mounting injury history of Phil Hughes for the best pitcher in baseball is absurd. They will trade any of those guys. The only reason they wouldn't trade Chamberlain is for PR reasons. People haven't fallen in love with Hughes or Kennedy yet (though they probably should love Kennedy because he may be the smartest "pitcher" of the bunch), so they won't be as upset if those guys are moved, even if it may be true that Hughes and Kennedy have a better starter's pedigree.

Fourth(ly), the idea that the Yanks, Twins and Sox are talking and accidentally leaking this information is flat out comical. The Sox don't talk about this shit in public. Ever. Under Theo, they have a steadfast policy of complete radio silence during negotiations. And unlike past regimes, it's actually been effective. The Gagne deal got done in the last days without too many people knowing. The trades for Renteria and Coco Crisp came out of nowhere, as did the famous Nomar trade. Nobody saw that coming. It doesn't benefit the Sox to have other teams know what they are offering. So the only reason that this information would come out would be to provide bullshit information so that other teams up their offers. But there is no way that the other teams aren't aware of this, so it ends up being bullshitters bullshitting other bullshitters. It's all so fucking stupid.

Lastly, you're kidding yourselves if you think that anyone other than the Yanks are getting Santana. In the end, they'll include Hughes, Cabrera and possibly Sanchez or some other young arm (maybe even Kennedy) in order to get a deal done. It makes too much sense. The Twins can't afford Santana so it makes sense for them to move him now when his value is highest (Santana has a history of starting slowly in the first half of the season so his value might decrease by the trade deadline). The Yanks have talent the Twins need and they have a gaping hole at the top of their rotation. Throw in the fact that their biggest rival has won two world series over the last 5 years to the Yanks' none and that their fans are being told that the Sox are in prime position to grab Santana without substantially decreasing the talent in their organization (creating a Beckett, Dice-K, Santana, Buchholz rotation for the next 4 years at least), and it's a no brainer.

My guess is that the 72 hour negotiating window is opened tomorrow and by Wednesday the Yanks have their man at 7 years for around $180 million with Hughes, Cabrera and Horne (or possibly Sanchez) gone to the Twins. As a Sox fan, I'll be glad it's all over. And more importantly, I can't wait for the Jacoby and the Sox to take on the Yanks and their elderly outfield threesome of Matsui, Damon and Abreu. Even Manny could hit a triple against that crew.