-Well, I am back. The Mitchell Report was released to wall-to-wall coverage by ESPN, but it has been less than satisfying. On one end, the sheer randomness of players mentioned (big stars, bench players) is kind of scary, but we expected that, right? What bothers me is that the players do have a legitimate beef to be concerned about the amount of evidence cited. However, this was not a criminal investigation, but a view at the usage of steriods and HGH in baseball. In that, it was probably fairly successful. One player cited, Andy Pettitte, has admitted to usage. For two days.
“If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize.”
If? Um, Andy, IT _SO_ WAS! While I think HGH is way overblown as an effective performance enhancer, your usage is still clearly wrong. For a fun bit, check out Pettitte's talking up God, as reported by Fire Joe Morgan via BeliefNet, here.
-Thankfully, no current Braves (*ahem* Chipper?) made the list, but twelve former Braves did. You have to take this with a grain of salt, however, because the Mitchell Report's star witnessess both worked around the New York players more than any others so if you were a roided up freak not calling New York home, you were a bit more safe. The former Braves to make the report are: P' Paul Byrd, Darren Holmes, Kent Mercker, Denny Neagle, John Rocker, and Mike Stanton; C Todd Pratt, 1B's Ken Caminiti, Matt Franco, and Wally Joyner, and OF's David Justice and Gary Sheffield. Byrd, Holmes, and Sheff were all apparently using or at least purchasing drugs during their time as Braves. No Marcus Giles, Javy Lopez, or Jesse Garcia, but again - they didn't ask the Braves clubhouse guy.
-Justice did add to his dickdom. I should patent that word. When approached about his own steriod usage, Justice named names as if he was about to get killed. He still gets reported and now, his names are reported too. In the 20's, he would be sleeping with the fishies by now.
-The voice of clarity is Jeff Francoeur. He essentially read and thought about the Mitchell Report for a day and then went to play golf because it didn't mention him. Such a needy bastard.
-Other stuff happened this week. I have a weak source to comment on here, but a livejournal post here reports two things of interest. One, the Braves might be seeking Damian Miller, a perfect backup catcher. Good defender and has some pop. Would make for a great backup, but with a few teams still looking for a starter behind the plate, he will be looking for starting time until that is cleared up. Also brought up was the rumor that the Braves might be interested in Steve Finley. God, I just threw up in my mouth.
-Willie Harris and Peterson Orr are Nats Orr is getting closer to Canada and signed with a former Canadian team so you know he's psyched, but Harris was less thrilled of leaving Atlanta. I love how the article implies that Harris "tailed off?" because of less playing time. Dumbass homer Willie articles.
-Finally, DOB is back to report that the Braves are quite interested in former Rockies closer, Brian Fuentes. However, he is due at least $4.5M in arbitration, his final year of arbitration, and the Rockies have no need to trade Fuentes, when makes his package tough to benefit the Braves.
-Um. Merry last week before Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Great Willie Harris article. I love it when sports reporters don't actually understand anything about the processes of the sport they are attempting to cover.
Case in point: "Atlanta is shopping the outfielder/second baseman to as many as thirteen different teams, preferring to go with someone younger and cheaper."
Point #1: No one would trade for Willie Harris.
Point #2: They don't get much cheaper than league minimum.
Also, run spell check Mike Shiers. It helps you avoid embarrassing statements like, "Harris says hearing his name mentioned in trade rumors is fiddicult, especially since he grew up rooting for the Braves."
Post a Comment