Complete the Journey

In case you don’t know, this is the final week of Journeyman.

Tonight we have a new episode airing at 10 PM Eastern.

Then on Wednesday, we have the season/series(?) finale at 10 PM Eastern.

Make sure your DVR is set up to tape both episodes!

That’s about right

Over the weekend, the Oakland A’s decided to dump their best player and alienate their fans.

The A’s traded Dan Haren and another no-name pitcher to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 5 prospects.

As a fan of the A’s, this is just the latest mind boggling maneuver. Over the past 6+ months the A’s have gotten rid of all their outstanding players. Now their pitching staff is decimated. Honestly, they are to the point where if they make one bad move (like signing Barry Bonds to a contract), I could become a MLB fan free agent. The moves the A’s have made over the past year would be the equivalent of the Yankees letting Alex Rodriguez go to free agency, trading away Bobby Abreau for prospects, and giving Chin Ming-Wang a DFA (designated for assignment). The have totally gutted the team and haven’t gotten the pieces to replace anything.

On the other hand, the Diamondbacks just took the lead for likelihood of winning the NL West next year. They now have two Cy Young candidates in their primes in the starting rotation (Brandon Webb and Haren). They also have a great mix of upcoming youngsters and tough veterans (who doesn’t like the way Eric Byrnes plays the game?). They are reminiscent of the D-backs teams that won the W.S. with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

On other trade news/rumors. Johan Santana is still getting a ton of press about where he is rumored to go. I think the smart money is on the Yankees. They have the biggest need for a star pitcher. So, they are going to put all their efforts into making the deal. The only other front runner is the Red Sox, but I don’t see them making that big of a move this offseason. They just won the W.S. They are going to be a little more passive and hope the same core can come through next year too.

While we are discussing baseball, we need to touch on the Mitchell report. I took a look through a decent amount of it (mostly the stories of how each player got into steroids). It was actually a fascinating read. Well worth the time to check it out. Sure, Roger Clemens is getting all of the press, but the other stories are better. It offered a great insight into the lockerroom/lives of ballplayers.

One solid example of this is Andy Pettite. Yes, he took HGH, but he only used it to try and rehab from an injury quicker. In the report, it shows Andy as a guy who really wants to help his team and it is eating him up to be on the sidelines with an injury. So, he gave into the HGH temptation in order to come back sooner and help out.

Another great story was the Adam Piatt story. Outside of me, there’s probably only a handful of people who know Piatt’s name (he was a prospect that came up with the A’s and later played with the Tampa Devil Rays). He was the only player who actually sat down and talked with Mitchell (unless you count Jason Giambi, even though he was being forced by MLB to talk with Mitchell). Piatt comes across as one of the most upstanding and honest guys in the report. He talks about making the majors using just his natural talent and then he got a nasty injury. Eventually, he rehabbed from the injury and made it back into the line-up; but he was no where near what he was before the injury. So, he gave into steroids to get back to that same level. He goes on to talk about how the steroids just made him feel worse (on an emotional level). Eventually, Piatt decided that if he had to continue taking steroids to stay in MLB, he rather just leave the game. He did exactly that, retiring at the age of 28.

The stories of the players really boiled down to two different types. The first are the players who went full fledged into the world of perfomance enhancing drugs (PHDs). This list includes players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Their story is really boring and tells a lot about how poor their characters are. The other type is the ones who tried to come back from injury and wanted a little help. In these cases, they are players who are torn in trying to make a decision. The ones in the Mitchell report went with using PHDs, but it offers great insight into the world of sports injuries. These players tend to have a stronger moral ground. Their hearts were in the right place, but they just did things the wrong way.

Overall, I think the Mitchell report is a mixed bag. Some players careers are going to be tarnished/ended. Others will likely continue on just as if it had never been published.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend reading at least some of the report for yourself. It is a lot better than getting all your information from the reporters (honestly, Andy Pettite didn’t really do anything too bad, but the media has plastered his name all over).