Gary finishes up his conversation with a pair of front office execs, touching on umpiring, agents, and slotting.

A conversation with a pair of baseball execs on hiring practices and living the life on the inside.

BP's founder makes his comeback bearing an unsettling message.

Gary Huckabay breaks down just how enormous a factor luck is in creating a winner, and identifies the areas where the Giants need to find that good fortune in order to have a shot at the hardware in 2007.

One of our own says goodbye.

Focusing on the baseball players' use of potentially performance-enhancing drugs and the men who supplied them misses the real issues emanating from last week's grand jury leaks.

After not getting to a game for the first seven weeks of the season, I've been living at the ballpark since Memorial Day weekend. That continued on Monday night, as I took in the Angels/Indians game with some of the guys who have been kicking my butt in AL Tout Wars this season. Sam Walker of the Wall Street Journal, who is actually working on a book about fantasy, was in town and dragged me, Jeff Erickson of Rotowire and Matt Berry of Rotoworld down to Anaheim to see the classic Kaz Tadano/Aaron Sele match-up. Obviously, I love baseball, and enjoy watching games whenever and wherever I can. But a night like this one--or like last month, when I got to see an Angels/Dodgers game with Jonah Keri, Rich Lederer, and Brian Gunn--is hard to beat. Watching a ball game while talking baseball for three hours with people who know and love the game might not be heaven, but you get a better view and St. Peter gets a little bit jealous.

I found out about Doug Pappas' tragic passing on Friday. There were phone messages on both my cell phone and home phone from a number of people, all with a more serious tone to their voices than you'd really like to hear. None of the people actually left the momentous news, but rather some version of "Give me a call the second you get this message." Moments later, I checked my e-mail, and a barrage of messages with the header "Sad News" scrolled up my screen. Doug Pappas had passed away. My friend, a colleague for whom I have immense respect, and all-around good guy, had departed from us too soon. My initial response was the same during those horrid times when another friend had died; it sounds strange, but my first impulse is to give him a call and find out what was really going on. It can't be right, you know? This has got to be some sort of misunderstanding, right? Doug's only 43, in good health, and a standup guy. Must be someone else. There's definitely a big ball of confusion out there, and this is completely out of left field. I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach and stolen the air from the room, but I knew it was a mistake. Had to be. It wasn't. And we are all diminished because of it. Doug's particular chosen role was a particularly difficult one--to call the powerful on the inaccuracy or dishonesty of their public statements. That's not easy. Over the years, Doug came out and publicly pointed out the inaccuracies, contradictions, and misleading nature of Major League Baseball's financial disclosures. He did his homework, explained his position, made sure that the MLB functionary's agenda was understood by the public, and stood by his work. It was an often thankless and misunderstood role, but the public interest was well served because Doug was willing to vigorously undertake it.

Back by popular demand, I bring you another installment of "Conversations With Dave," which are, in fact, not with Dave, but with someone not named Dave at all, who's not a stathead or blogger, or even a management consultant. The conversation was not transcribed perfectly, but Dave has had an opportunity to review and approve the final copy, to make certain he wasn't misrepresented.

The Dodgers offered a number of $5 million, and Gagne's rep, Scott Boras, offered $8 million. How come the lower number was so compelling? Sadly, the current CBA lacks a clause allowing unfettered access to the process to self-important analysts, so we have to posit a little, and ask around some front offices to hear possible explanations. One NL exec had this to say: "Boras overreached." Not that there's a whole lot of ambiguity in that statement, but after prodding, the exec clarified the statement: "Gagne's in his first year of eligibility, and there's a bunch of comparable guys. They're not as good, but they're a clear baseline from which it'd be easy to convince the panel to work." This is true.

Next week, Peter Gammons is hosting Hot Stove, Cool Music in Boston. All proceeds from this benefit concert support The Jimmy Fund, which raises funds to support cancer treatment and research. Baseball Prospectus has pledged 50% of all proceeds from new subscriptions during the next week as a donation to The Jimmy Fund, so if you were thinking about subscribing, this is the time to do it. More importantly, if you'd like to support the Jimmy Fund with a donation, simply click here. Yeah, people are hitting you up for money all the time, and we all get tired of it, but The Jimmy Fund is worth both your money and time. Cancer is an indiscriminate killer, and it's likely affect either you or someone you love. Pre-emptively strike with a donation. Maybe an hour's salary. It's cold over much of the country, but Spring Training is not far off, and beginnings of all types are actually pretty cool, when you think about it. New Year's Resolutions don't, on a percentage basis, pay off, but occasionally, they stick, and if you make one to be generous in some way to someone in your life, you'll be happier, and so will they. I It sounds corny, but it's true. Think about it: do you ever really feel better--and deservedly so--than when you're helping out someone else? So, at the very least, show some pity to a Devil Ray fan this year. I only know of one--Tony Constantino--so you'll have to find your own.

In case you've been living under a rock, it's been a pretty interesting couple of weeks in the news. If you've been feverish, like most of the populace of California's scenic Contra Costa County, you may have observed that a bombastically hirsute Alex Rodriguez was liberated from a sort of cave/hutch just north of Tikrit and west of Odessa by a U.S. Army strike force, who then checked him for ticks, packaged him in a box, and shipped him to Worcester, where he was unpacked by Larry Lucchino and Gene Orza, then shipped back to Houston, Texas, where he was awarded a Hummer by noted conservative talk show host Michael Savage. The more coherent among you are aware that the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers have been discussing a deal that is, at its center, Manny Ramirez for Alex Rodriguez. Since both players have very long, lucrative contracts, money has been a significant component of the deal. So let's dive in and take a look...