Does the Lee deal now give the Phillies a shot at the division or are you sticking with your Mets prediction from a few weeks ago?

I'll say this: If the Mets do pull off a miracle, you'll at least be able to say you were probably the only person in the world who actually believed it could happen.

You're like a every Mets fan I know, except exactly the opposite.

Doesn't the fact that Halladay could demand a trade and thus void his contract this offseason change the analysis of who should trade for him and how much you should give up for him?

Joe, I'll play your Goodell suggestion another way. The Times story could have been planted by a Red Sox owner (yes, I know). It was going to come out at some point. Sandwich it within big trades and accept that it has come out after ARod has already been outed this year and this is Manny's second outing of the year and this could result in NFL-level mock outrage.

If you wanted attention, the time to run the story was at the start of the All-Star break, when there are no other sports stories to report. This story gets pushed to the backburner and forgotten with a Haladay trade. The timing is counterproductive to a splash. Spring training (after football and before March Madness), playoffs, the break, and any other occasions when most/all teams are not playing baseball, that's when small stories get big headlines.

If you the Union chief and you agreed to release the 103 player list, when would be the ideal time to release it so that it didn't have legs? A few days before the Super Bowl (it would probably initiate football steroids talk)? Dec. 23rd? The day of the play-in game for the NCAA tourney? When something big is going to happen that most people would rather pay attention to.

I don't get the last paragraph.

For what it's worth, Keith Law gave a rather pessimistic view of Alderson compared to the report in this article. Apparently, his curveball has regressed and his strike outs are way down. Some now see him as a #4 or #5 type of starter in a best case scenario. A guy who is still a good prospect, but by no means elite in the range of Bumgarner and Posey. If this view was held by Sabean and the Giants, then I can see how they justified making the deal.

Joe, you really havn't been watching Gordon Beckham play the last month and a half, his makeup, instincts, plate discipline, and lately power (on the road no less) speaks volumes if you've been watching him. He is the real deal, and he is going to be all-star lvl 3rd/2nd/ss wherever they play him. I would love if kenny wanted to get a great 3rd basemen and move gordon to ss or 2b depending on where alexie ends up (he is a tad better at 2nd than ss even though he's not amazing at either) and have getz be more a utility guy, but alexie got hurt yesterday so thats going to make things intresting. Anyway gordon is special and I wouldn't trade him straight up for halladay right now, since it won't help us more than just staying put and praying pods doesn't relapse to sucking, and our outfield defense gets lucky and Q stays healthy.

if you have to tell me the Mets are 'still playing for this year', they aren't.

Why does ANYONE care about steroids? Seriously, who cares? I know I don't, I just flip off ESPN and then I don't hear about it 35 times a day. They are the only outlet that creates the tension and they feed into these reports in time lines. No one else runs with these stories like they are a revelation.

There was an article on Ortiz slumping a little while back and someone tried to tie him to his injury, protection, eyes, whatever.......... Come back to reality. I remember commenting on the story that Manny's dealer left with him to LA and it was quickly deemed an inappropriate comment. It was reality and I am not even close to Nostradamus. It's just common sense, but the more we keep feeding into this "non mystery" the more it feeds into the hype machine.

People, you love the greatest sport on earth. There is nothing we can do about the roids and there is nothing we will ever be able to do about the roids. It's part of the game. It's really not even worth the time that you think about it because no matter what, there isn't a safety net that can contain it.

Can I humbly sugggest assigning Kevin Goldstein the task of evaluating all the the players Pittsburgh has acquired in the past year to see what they actually have? A lot of these prospects (Tabata, Clement, Milledge) have potentially great upsides, but all of the underwhelmed their former franchises for one reason or another.

Joe, noticed this comment in your opening salvo:

"The downside of a guy like this is Ian Kennedy, who I think has been abducted by aliens"

In actuality, Kennedy underwent surgery a few months back to remove an aneursym from his pitching arm, specifically, on his biceps.

According to a recent AP report, he "made 50 throws at 90 feet" a week or two ago and by Kennedy's own account, he's saying it "doesn't feel like anything happened".

Hopefully he can regain his ability from before the surgery and return to a normal and healthy career.

"Until and unless baseball controls the story, it will be controlled by people who at best have no concern for baseball, and at worst have an interest in its embarrassment."

MLB does control the story. Sadly, MLB itself is controlled by people who have an interest in embarassing the game. The more the steroids non-issue harasses and persecutes the players, the more Selig and the owners stand to gain financially at the players' expense.

Do you really think a group of billionaires can't put a lid on Roger Goodell if they want?

I don't understand the need to point to the NFL every time a steroid issue comes up. Baseball should focus on getting rid of drugs within their own game because its the right thing to do, and forget about what other sports do (or don't do) about drug use amongst their players. To point fingers at the NFL and complain of a double-standard is childish. Why not point the finger at the WWE, or professional bodybuilding? It shouldn't matter what anyone else is doing. If my neighbor sells drugs and doesn't get caught, it doesn't mean I can sell drugs and complain when the police bust in my door. Life isn't fair. Get over it.

And its not like MLB is at the top of the list when it comes to people trying to control illegal drug use. Just ask the United States Anti-Doping Agency what they think of MLB's testing program, and its penalties.

Talk up Roger Goodell and the steroid-lovin' NFL all you want, but baseball could learn something from the NFL's recent Personal Conduct policy. NFL players can - and have been - suspended for an entire year without pay for their conduct outside the lines. A couple of years ago, Brett Myers hit his wife in the face and dragged her down the street by her hair, and he pitched the next Saturday. And what did Pat Gillick have to say after it happened?

"He's been our best pitcher and I think it's in the best interests of the club that he does pitch"

It took MLB players, coaches, and owners 30 years to take illegal drug use within their own sport seriously, and the majority of those who have been identified as users still won't take responsibility or hold themselves accountable. Nobody within the game of baseball should be pointing fingers at anyone but themselves.

Joe, real Pirates fans get tired of hearing "how upset the fanbase is, with all these trades." We still have to see the results, but most of us are all for the process. Thanks for recognizing it.

There's another addendum to the recent Ortiz thing flaring up a bit over on the ESPN boards. In response to the Ortiz report, someone got a hold of Canseco and asked him if he was surprised about Ortiz. He said:

"When you tell me something I didn't already know, I'll be surprised," Canseco told ESPN. "And I'll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who's used."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4367025

So now, over on ESPN's conversation boards, another witch hunt is brewing wondering which Hall of Famers juiced, from Rickey Henderson (recently inducted, and along the lines of what Joe was saying on the timing of the released reports) to Warren Spahn (because he happened to have a three year perk).

Between amphetamines and quack doctors around since the birth of baseball, I wouldn't really be surprised by anyone in the HoF. Overall, I'll never know nor do I really think it is the biggest issue in baseball. It might be nice if the list was released, but I doubt the questions would stop there. The question that I wonder about, though, is if the BBWAA will change their stance on current PED users if they have already elected one to the Hall of Fame. Or, will they live be considered either a) hypocritical by refusing to allow more in, or b) as baseball writers, lose credibility for not doing their job and investigating/reporting/writing about drug usage before this decade. In theory, that's the BBWAA's job, right? To report and write about baseball...

I cannot judge the quality of traded players and leave it to the experts like Joe. That said, I do get a bit tired of the acceptance of "rebuilding". I can recall Joe admiring Beane when he traded Swisher because that was the right, tough call. Now heralding the Pirates "rebuilding". I am not saying that these GM's are doing the wrong thing given the environment, but it saddens me that the economics of baseball require teams to relinquish good talent because they cannot afford them while other teams can. There are rarely prolonged rebuilding campaigns in NY, BOS, LA, Chicago. OK, reality, but it is a sad reality, not a one that is one to be trumpeted.

And it is with almost equal glee that Joe will trumpet a major market team stepping up and signing a major player to big bucks. At least he trumpeted Texiera signing last winter. To me, it is sad that some teams can afford to spend like that while others get to take their shot and then rebuild.

When this issue comes up, people always seem to jump up and say "Yeah, but a cap/rev share deal will just make the owners richer at the players expense." I am thinking there are ways that does not have to be true (rev share is the more important piece, not caps), but the current climate is disheartening to me.

I'm a Pirates fan and I try to look at these trades objectively. I can say that trading LaRoche, Sanchez, Wilson, Morgan, Hinske, Snell, Gorzellany and Grabow was not 'relinquishing good talent they cannot afford'. All of these players were no better than average, and were getting veteran's pay scales to be average. McLouth was the only player traded this season who was better than average for his position. Some of the immediate replacemnts are not as good, but it won't be hard to replace the production at a much lower price. Thing is, we as fans want better production than before, we want to actually cheer for a winning team. I believe the Pirates will quickly have a good starting rotation, but the offense may take awhile, as I do not believe Milledge, Clement, Tabata or Gorkys Hernandez to be better than average for their positions either. Only Pedro Alvarez, if he can stay at 3b.

What the Pirates are doing is exactly what a smart team should do. When you realize that you're not winning, and you're not going to win in the short term (1-2 years), then the best thing to do is trade any and all players you have that will not appreciate in value over the next 12 months. The Pirates, unfortunately, did not have any star players to trade, or even above average regulars (sans McClouth) either. But they have basically assembled a collection of talent that can probably win 73-78 games next year for $30M. They spent, what, $10M on the draft last year? They plan to do the same this year, and they are still the front runner for Sano, who will cost them $3M. Everyone wants to trade their average/slightly below average regulars for stud prospects, but in this environment, teams are protecting their blue chip prospects. The Pirates got very few studs in this cleanout, but they weren't exactly trading studs in LaRoche, Sanchez, Wilson, and Grabow. The return on the McClouth deal might have been higher, but I think his defense in CF is vastly overrated (if people even rate it highly), and his bat plays even less in the corners. He's a solid player, but he wasn't going to be in his prime when Pittsburgh emerges from their rebuilding, so he's gotta go.

They should have tried to deal off Duke (4+ years of service post 2009) and Capps (3+ years of service after 2009), but they can wait on those two. Doumit is signed to a nice deal through 2013, Maholm is signed to a nice deal through 2011 with an option for 2012, and you can easily see those two guys appreciating in value, and at the very least, not significantly depreciating in the next 12 months.

Teams with bigger payrolls (75-80M) have a hard time buying their way to the postseason through free agency, even harder for a team with a 50M payroll, which is what Pittsburgh started the year with. If they continue to spend 10M a year in the draft and they spend wisely in Latin America, in 5 years they'll emerge with a big batch of talent that's cost controlled for years, and they'll have used the collection of average players with 0-2 years of service that they got in this year's purge to get there.

Its the model lots of teams should follow. When you're going to tear it down, anything not nailed to the floor for the next 4+ years should be torn down with it.

note, I forgot to add "$3-4M" for Sano, instead of just 3M, but whatever, the point stands.

Joe: "I don’t take any pleasure in advocating that a hundred baseball players be treated this way,"

Look, I know you're recommending this relucantly. But as I said on another site, the names aren't going to be officially released, and it's silly at this point for people to seriously believe that the names would be or could be. There are legal duties involved. There's a fiduciary duty the union owes the players. The players are also owed a duty of fair representation. Players could bring private causes of action for a breach, or could ask the NLRB for relief. *The players were promised that their names would be kept confidential.* The players would see their reputations harmed, and suffer financial damages, and the union would open itself up to huge liability.

People who believe that the names might be officially released, or think that this is a viable option, are simply missing the boat. It won't happen. It can't happen.

Hey Joe-

Rather than raising a family/living in a major market like New York or Boston, or LA or Chicago, perhaps you might consider what it is like for fans raising a family/living in a mid- or a small-market city like Pittsburgh. We live our lives and/or raise our families and root for our baseball teams just like you big city folks. But here in Pittsburgh after 17 years of losing baseball it kinda starts becoming a drag. We ask why the Steelers can win (and not the Pirates...). We ask ourselves why the Penguins can win (and not the Pirates...).

It seems like this time of year that the buyers are big-market teams and the sellers are small-market teams. When the Brewers acquired Sabathia last year it was such a glaring exception to this pattern that analysts used it as the exception that disproved the rule.

Would some sort of mechanism to level the playing field really be such a bad idea?

My outrage is not "mock," Joe. I REALLY think it was--and is--cheating to take steroids and play baseball. I REALLY think cheating is bad. Is this so difficult to understand? Do we really need to go through the grade-school lessons of why cheating is bad, who it hurts, what it undermines, etc.? Or is the contention that using steroids wasn't cheating? Please.

I implore you to stop treating each steroids story as an indictment of those who criticize steroid users, instead of an indictment of the people who actually, you know, cheated and profited from it?

The analogy of the NFL to the WWE is right on. It's a freak show, and anyone who cares about baseball wouldn't point to the NFL as any sort of relevant comparitor.

I think you are on drugs saying that Gordon Beckham will be nothing special at third, if he sticks there. The kid just came out of college and is already in the majors, and putting up solid numbers .310/.379/.476. With a giant hole at third, the white sox would have to be crazy to trade Beckham in a deal for Halladay.

Richard - I love baseball, discovering new things, sharing with everyone, and hopefully make a little money. I have several options right now. I have been talking to Christina, and I hope BP is part of my future.

As a long time Pirates fan, I have to say that I really like what Huntington's done with the Pirates so far. He inherited a real mess when he took over in September 2007. Besides Jason Bay, the Pirates were a collection of below average to average ball players that hadn't lost fewer than 94 games since 2004. The farm system only had Andrew McCutchen and Brad Lincoln as the standouts. Look at the farm system now and it's like night and day. I'm not saying that they're going to start winning championships, but I think they're closer to a winning season than at anytime since 1992.