Roger Clemens Denies Steroid Use In Youtube Video

Update 12-24-07:  It is actually posted on Youtube now.  Here you go.

On his website in a Youtube Video he denies steroid use and says he will be interviewed by Mike Wallace of 60 minutes after Christmas.  So if you want to see it click here. 

Recent 12-22-07

Recently things have gotten out of hand.  But this is the year of out of hand, because now we know all of sports is rigged.  From Floyd Landis to Bill Belichick to Marion Jones to Shawn Merriman to Tim Donaghy to David Stern to Roger Clemens to Rodney Harrison to Barry Bonds and Bud Selig.  And remember nobody has or can yet be caught with a drug test for HGH.  We’ve let these bozo’s take control – we keep coming to the games and they juice up to make millions off of us.  But oh well, here is some of the semi-recent events that have taken place and I haven’t blogged about yet.

1.  The Mitchell Report

2.  20 FSU players suspended for academic cheating scandal.

3.  Vick gets 23 months in prison.

4.  Bobby Petrino skips town not 1 year in to a five year deal with Atlanta.

5.  John Smoltz and Curt Schilling speak out demanding that Roger speak out if he is innocent, I don’t think they think he is.  But does it matter what I think that they think or we think that they think if he thinks he isn’t.

6.  The Grimsley affidavit is unsealed revealing the biggest suprise of all – Grimsley suspected Jose Canseco of steriod use.  Hmmm, thanks Grims.

7.  Jessica shows up to the Cowboy game in a pink, Romo jersey.  Romo is shot down into mortality (earning 3 points in my fantasy league and costing me a shot at the championship title).  T.O. comes out saying Mickey was right women make you weak in the knees Tony don’t let Jessica near you for the next 2 months.

8.  Brian Westbrook, against my beloved Cowboys, has a chance to score a touchdown at the end of the game, but instead kneels down at the 1 yard line (again an action that led to me not advancing in my fantasy league playoffs).

9.  Important to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area – the Mavs and the Stars, while not doing great, are still in their respective division leads or at least within a game.

10.  Can it be that for the second year in a row the Texas Longhorn’s have the best player in college basketball – DJ Augustin.

Okay consider it blogged.  Oh and Merry Christmas! 

 

 

 

 

Let’s Talk, Alright Maybe Not

Jim Reeves wrote an article about the fresh aroma coming from Ron Washington’s mouth.  Ahhhh!   Don’t you smell it now, that scent of honesty we so love to hear?  Well incase you don’t, I will allow you a sample by taking some of the sentences written in the article and placing them right here on my blog.  It starts out very romantic.  Among the filth that surrounds the Winter Meetings, stands one man.  That one man, Ron Washington:

Standing virtually alone in the sea of guile and clandestine summits that are at the heart of baseball’s annual winter meetings, the Rangers manager has somehow remained a breath of clean, fresh air.

God bless him, he can’t help himself. He tells the truth.

Now are you feeling all warm and fuzzy about Mr. Washington?  Well Reeves starts out this next quote by saying sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy.  Then goes on to pooh pooh that idea by saying how players are too sensitive, who says you can’t treat players like cattle:

Sometimes there’s even an actual rationale behind the obvious stonewalling. Clubs don’t want players to read their names in trade talks. The trades might not happen. Feelings could be hurt, relationships damaged.

As if players are so naive, they don’t understand that baseball is a business and that any one of them is subject to trade at any point in time.

So when Washington, in a chance meeting Tuesday, honestly answered a reporter’s casual question about the Rangers’ interest in Santana and his candid assessment showed up in this newspaper the next day, there apparently was much frowning among the Rangers’ brain trust.

“He’s on our board,” Washington had said of Santana. “But if we give [the Twins] what they want, we’ll have nothing to surround him with.”

Washington went on to tick off three of the young Rangers players the Twins would demand in any deal for Santana.

This was a clear violation of the winter meetings code. Respond to no question by mentioning specific teams or players.

Alright, do you get it?  Ron Washington’s has a “chance encounter” with a reporter (probably Reeves), apparently shot off about specific players (I don’t know, I haven’t found the article) and that was not received favorably by Ranger’s management.  So now this reporter feels like he needs to stick up for his new pet, the man who can give him interesting quotes, the man who can give him fodder.  

Me?  I personally like a Ron Washington who keeps quiet.  I mean keeps quiet when what he has to say is pure idiocy.  Like for instance when he says this in an article written by T.R. Sullivan recently:

Ten more wins.

That’s what Rangers manager Ron Washington would like to see next season from a team that finished 75-87 in 2007.

“My realistic goal is if we can add 10 more wins, I’ll be very happy,” Washington said Wednesday at the Winter Meetings.

That would be fine except for this:

”It’s going to take at least 93, 94 wins, I think, to win the West,” Washington said.

That doesn’t bode well for the Rangers if their goal is to win just 10 more games.

“You know, from where we came last year, that’s just a goal,” Washington said. “We could do more. You never know. But that’s a goal. It’s just going to take 90-some wins to win the West. Do I want to win 90-something? Of course. I can’t predict that.”

Is it becoming clearer to anyone else just what that smell is that is coming from his mouth?  That man wants to tell me that my team’s goal next season is to come within 5 or 10 wins of the division crown.  They won 75 last year, he wants to win 10 more, that makes 85 and he thinks it will take 90 something wins to win the division.

Now what do you think a player who hears this thinks?  My manager is telling me that if we come within 5 or 10 wins of winning the division then we will have accomplished our goal???  And don’t think that 85 wins is going to get you the wild card, not with the likes of New York, Boston, Detroit and Cleveland out there.  Now I’m going to give you a little more:

”I’ve always got high expectations for myself and I’m always going to have high expectations for my players,” Washington said. “I always said, I never worry about things I don’t have. I only worry about the things I do have. If this is all I have to go to war with, we’re going to go to war. I’m not going to look back and I’m not going to cry about it.”

Is this not the inspiration Ranger’s fans and players have needed for so long?  What is he telling us here?  He’s telling us if he has to go with the players he has now – he will.  And he has high expectations for them.  But the players he has now are so bad that even among his high expectations he can’t expect for them to . . . Oh I don’t know, let’s say MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!!!

I have to say that’s a new one on me.  In my wildest dreams and among the worst Dallas/Fort Worth teams that have ever exsisted, I’m not quite sure if any of them came out 4 months before the next season and in so many words stated that there goal was to fall just short of making the playoffs.  Wow!

Miguel Cabrera

In other news, the Ranger’s interest in Miguel Cabrera is exactly what I wanted it to be.  They weren’t willing to make a trade unless they were able to talk to Cabrera’s agent.  This quote is from the Marlin’s website:

. . . . . and the Rangers inquired, but backed away when the Marlins denied them permission to speak with Cabrera’s agent about signing a long-term contract.

Johan Santana

Somebody in Ranger’s management needs to either grow some brains or some balls because there’s a legit, numero uno, 28 year old ace out on the trade market – there for the taking.  There are 4 things you need if you want to acquire this ace:  Brains, . . . uuuuh. . .Intestinal Fortitude, Money and Players.  The last two the Rangers have plenty of, it’s the first two that might screw this up.

Let me first introduce you to the player, Johan Santana.  He is a lefty who will be 29 at the beginning of next season.  Over the last 4 seasons he has been the best pitcher in baseball.  He has not had major or for that matter minor injury problems.  During the last 4 seasons his average season consists of 228 innings, a 2.90 era, 246 strikeouts, 18 wins against 8 losses while holding hitters to a .211 average against him.  There may not be a whole lot of pitchers that you can legitimately call ace, but he is an ace of aces.

Now let’s get to the cost and the first thing we will deal with is money.  It has been largely rumored that Johan will not wave his no trade clause unless he gets a major contract extension -  about 6 years 125 to 150 million.  Now the Rangers, last year, had a total major league payroll of about 70 million, which is considered low for the size of the market they play in.  This year so far they have a total payroll of about 45 million.  Now that Torii Hunter has signed with someone else, it doesn’t appear as if the Ranger’s are going to be spending the kind of money it would take to get them back just to where they were last year – at 70 million.  Not to mention ARod saving them 21 million by opting out of his contract just about a month ago.   So the money is definitely there.  In fact the Rangers are in one of the best positions to give the amount of money that this ACE is asking for.  (I just can’t emphasize ACE enough and for all you Ranger’s fans out there who have missed out on Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Josh Beckett and others, how is it possible that we would let this ACE out of our hands when we are the best possible suitors.)

Now let’s get to the players.  And here is where Ranger’s fans might think the cost would be too much.  I strongly disagree.  Because of the events in recent years this farm system has a made a jump from one of the worst 5 to one of the best 5.  And there is no doubt there is major depth throughout this farm system.  I would agree with the point that we shouldn’t trade our young talent if we didn’t have the quantity of young players that we do.  As far as the young, almost major league ready or major league ready pitchers we have:  Brandon McCarthy, Kason Gabbard, Kameron Loe, Eric Hurley, Edinson Volquez, Luis Mendoza, Matt Harrison, Armando Galarraga, Doug Mathis, Thomas Diamond and Josh Rupe.  And that doesn’t include the talent in the lower realms of the minors, just the upper.  As for young hitters (I’d be willing to trade) we have:  David Murphy, Marlon Byrd, Jason Botts, Taylor Teagarden, German Duran, Johnny Whittleman, Joaquin Arais, Max Rameriz, Travis Metcalf, John Mayberry and Brandon Boggs.

No doubt the Twins want a couple of highly touted, young pitchers for starters (pun unintended).  That would be Eric Hurley and Edinson Volquez.  Two talented pitchers who are ready right now (or close to right now) to break into the majors.  I include them.  When it turns to the hitters they can have a pick of 3 or so out of the list above.  Obviously the hitters I leave off the table are:  Ian Kinsler, Micheal Young, Hank Blaylock, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus and Chris Davis.  I’m able to do this because of the quantity of players I’m offering, the quality of depth I have in my minor league system and because I have already offered my two best, highly touted, young pitching prospects.

In the end the Deal might end up looking something like this:  7 years at 165 million of the services of Johan Santana for Eric Hurley, Edinson Volquez, German Duran, Travis Metcalf, David Murphy, and Frankie Francisco.

Or Johan Santana for Eric Hurley, Edison Volquez, Johnny Whittleman, Taylor Teagarden and David Murphy.

Look at the amount of major league talent that could possibly be going the way of Minnesota.  If you look at that first trade you have 6 young, cheap, quality players all ready (or extremely close) to playing in the majors next April.

Now are we going to let this chance slip past.  This chance to bring in a. . . . shhhh . . . . . . . ace.

Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis Traded To Tigers

Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis have been traded to the Detroit Tigers for one of the top three prospects in all of the minors and one of the top young left handed pitchers in the majors.  Cameron Maybin one of the prized centerfielders coming up from the minors and Adam Miller + 4 other players are headed to the Marlins.  Good for the Marlins.  As for Detroit they’re becoming like the Yankees.  They now have a lineup of Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco, Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, Pudge Rodriguez and some left fielder.  They now have a rotation of Justin Verlander, Dontrelle Willis, Jeremy Bonderman, Kenny Rogers and then someone to fill the fifth spot.  But on the bright spot their bullpen stinks, you know they same one that kept them out of the playoffs last year.

Good news that trading season is off to a bang. 

There is a rumor out that the Santana to Boston Deal is done.  Jon Lester, Justin Masterson, Ryan Kalish and a centerfielder? We’ll see.