JUGGERNAUT

I'll try again. Ben Davis is the most likely to go next. Before AJP: plan was to platoon C w Davis & Burke After AJP: plan is to use Davis off the bench & Burke as a 3rd C, corner IF Davis only offers speed off the bench. If they are planning to keep Harris he's a useless bench player. Burke on the other hand offers the strong RH bat they want. Davis's career OPS is not much worse than many C's playing in the game. There are several sporting a < 700OPS. A strong showing by Davis in CL play could entice several teams to roll the dice with him. He does offer better foot speed than most C's & is a switch hitter (relatively speaking). The Sox would be looking to trade him for a solid glove bench player for 3B. I've yet to find any G played by Ozuna or Valdez at 3B. Asking Uribe to accept the burden of the extra AB's, G played, & responsibility of playing 3B risks burning him out by Sept. That leaves an ill-experienced glove to backup Crede at 3B. The Macwk trade seems plausible but not at the expense of Harris. They want to keep Harris as insurance against both Iggy & Pods. Two players that could sink or swim this year.

If you put it in perspective it makes sense. Before AJP: Davis & Burke platooning at C - that was the plan After AJP: AJ the starter, Davis the backup, Burke 3rd C Davis becomes the odd man out. He's not a major upgrade D over Burke & provides next to nothing bat wise off the bench. Who would want him? Before asking that take a look at the depth chart of C's around the league. Look at how many < 700OPS C's are playing. As a switch hitter with good speed Davis might actually represent an upgrade to some teams. I'd say we'd be trying to get a good D player to backup Crede at 3B. That remains our weakness & there's a risk of burning Uribe out if you burden him with those additional AB's, games, & responsibility.

Andro was legal when he was using it so he's in the clear. If he were to talk about other players using roid it would raise suspicion of his own usage of roids & that would jeapordize him. That's what the comm wanted him to do & he refused. In the same context why didn't Sammy & Palmeiro have to face the same questions? Schilling was asked a similar question & he either answered 5 to 10 or 10 to 15 guys he knew were using that he played with. This was in stark contrast to his quotes in 2002. But Sammy & Palmy never had to answer that question & Frank of course was not asked it. Why the double standard to protect Sammy?

They need to give Frank a questionaire so he can respond to the same questions the panel did. That would be good for another article in the Times & Trib

I agree with the Fox Sports article. Davis is going to be traded & Burke will be kept. You don't give up RH hitters who seem to be knocking the s*** out of the ball even at 33 yrs of age.

I was looking at Koney getting 45/5 but damn! Sexson got 50/4? That's insane! If Koney is due for 50/5 I'd have to say sayonara. He's opened the door with deferred money. 2-3M deferred a yr on a 45/5 deal is signable. 3-4M deferred a yr on a 50/5 deal is reasonable. But he needs to have solid road numbers this year to get that kind of money.

Steff is right on. The quotes from the 2002 SI article were very damaging to Schilling's testimony on the panel. That was a genius way to end the panel around the time supper ended for most families in America. Which means it was brought to the attention of more sports-minded Americans than any other part. Mr Schilling, doesn't that contradict what you are saying now? He never answered that question. He seemed totally unprepared in his answer.

Definitely Pop. How many people do you know that say "give me a soda please?" Second to Pop is just "coke". Even though it could be RC, Pepsi, or Coke. Everyone knows a pole cat is a skunk. Don't you people ever watch toons? Boomerang is educational

Well the Schiavo case is down to the wire now. The same comm you saw grilling MLB is planning to grill everyone in the Schiavo case. While at the same time the US House of Rep is trying to get a bill passed where the state will error on the side of life in such matters where the decision of the patient is not clearly known. Basically removing right for a judge(s) to decide the intention of the patient. This is a strange case because of all the extraneous circumstances. Did he abuse her beforehand? Was there negligence involved on his part? What is the best case scenario for her outcome? In lieu of the high divorce rates & the ever increasing rates of repeat marriages should the parents in general have greater say in such matters than the spouse? Which is stronger in America? The institution of family or the institution of marriage? Many of those answers are pretty obvious. In my opinion the parents should have the greatest say. They are responsible for bringing Terri into this world & they should have the greatest responsibility for when she leaves it. Period. Having said that should Terri be left to die? What we know: The medical consensus is that based on today's medical technology there is no hope for Terri. She is not going to get better. The brain damage is too extensive. However; that same consensus agrees she is experiencing no pain & may have some sense of being alive. They can't quantify that, but they agree there are signs her body is reacting to some degree to that which surrounds her. No it does not mean she is going to get better, only that there is something left & she is not going to get worse. What is possible: Terri is in her 40's now & her organs are in good health. I suppose we could all make that claim if we had been fed with the healthiest of solutions for that many years. Her life expectancy is good for at least 20 more years (2025). Now try to think logically about this. I want you to consider the evolution of pc technology in the last 20 yrs. I want you to consider the evolution of genetics in the last 20 yrs. Finally I want you to consider the evolution of nano-technology in the next 20 yrs. It is possible Terri could regain consciousness with a cyborg brain in her 60's. Life expectancy for the rich will probably be a 100 by then & Terri's celebrity status right now would probably afford her access to that technology. Now you're probably saying what the Fk are you talking about with nano-technology? We are talking about machines of a size & scope of 1/10th the size of a human hair. These machines would contain wireless based networking components not unlike mobile technology today. This enables them to be controlled & monitored by advanced networking systems. Machines of this magnitude could be used to bypass those areas of Terri's brain which no longer function. That could enable Terri to regain a form of consciousness, speech, & God only knows what else. This is not science-fiction. It's plausible science. The kind of science that is feeding billions of investment into the nano-tech sectors. Not on the scale of the bio-tech sectors but bigger than what was present at the infancy of bio-tech. Many of us in are 20's & 30's & possibly even 40's now are going to be living in a world where cyborgs exist. Make no mistake of that. Because I so firmly believe in technology I am reluctant to vote to pull Terri's feeding tube. If her organs were deteriorating I would have second thoughts but as long as she remains a cyborg candidate she should be given that opportunity. It's not like the nano-tech industry isn't going to want to try. Can you imagine how quickly their stocks would rise in the next 20 yrs if Terri was made a cyborg & then suddenly said boo? The old science-fiction represented cyborgs as monsterous creations. Plausible science sees them as looking no different then you & I but with magic in the body. I firmly believe that before I reach my parents age I too will have some measure of cyborg technology in my body. Most likely a cerebral interface that allows me to upload & download memories or visual input. It won't look hardwired at all like in Johhny Mnemonic. It will be seamless, wireless, & virtually undetectable. The antennas will be embedded in the skin. I'll be sleeping while backup & retreival ops are going on. Nothing so real-time like in the Matrix, but the general principle will still be there. There's an old-saying amongst engineers, technologists, scientists, & just geeky people alike: today's sci-fi is tomorrow's science. Think Strange Days & Ghost in the Shell & see our future on the horizon. Scary as hell, but the next step in our evolution to colonize space. Assuming we don't kill ourselves in the process If you were to vote to pull the tube then be sure to administer a painless death solution. Medical consensus can not conclude that Terri has no active pain receptors. There is the possibility she could experience pain during her death by starvation. It would be more humane to administer a quick & painless death.

I hope that Congress bothers to send Frank a questionaire with all the questions they asked the other members of the panel with. But right now Frank remains in the eyes of the public the cleanest MVP of the past 20 yrs. I thought that quote by the congressman in the last panel was profound. Over the past 30 yrs more than 1/2 of the MVP's of the league are suspected of doping. That's like dropping a nuc on the record books when you considered how many of these guys broke records. Schilling looked worse than Fehr in his defense of the current policy. On the day I don't think two guys looked more pathetic than Schilling & Manfred. Why didn't Fehr coach Schilling in the progressive discipline defense? He would have sounded like less of a hack for the MLBPA. Someone mentioned above that even if player's filed defamation of character suits against Jose the odds are against them winning. I don't think that matters. This is all about the court of public opinion. Odds are most of those suits would be settled out of court. Mac looked bad no doubt, but I don't think he looked worse than Schilling. In Mac's evasiveness he did nothing to hurt his credibility. Schilling did a lot to hurt his. It's public knowledge Mac was a steroid user. He's public acknowledged his use of Andro & we all now that once it enters the body it acts just like an ano roid. There's no need to make him say that. I too remain undecided on Raffy. His numbers are not monster enough to suspect him & if he had never been mentioned in Canseco's book I would never have thought of him as using roids. Mr Sosa, why were you carrying a paper bag full of 25K in a DR area well known for athletes buying sports dope? Until congress asks Sosa that question & Sosa provides a reasonable answer he remains in my juiced list. He lied about the corked bat. He lied about leaving early on fan appreciation day. Why would it surprise us that he would lie about this?

Damn, I thought I could exit. Personal experience of a substance gives you immediate knowledge of it's effects. Collective experience of a substance gives you long-term knowledge of it's effects. It's common sense to consider both before deciding to use a substance. Though there are no clinical trials available there are independant observations that have been recorded. When the size of these observations grows large enough that sample data becomes worthy in terms of making analysis similar to that of clinical trials. We have reached that point after 30 yrs of roid usage. There are several good books encompassing the analysis of the data if you are interested. Now I can exit. I'll check on Fri to see if any one's interested. Thank you & good night

I'm getting pulled into a never-ending discussion on the dangers of roid usage with someone who believes that their personal experience is the only source of knowledge they need on anything in life. :rolly It's time for me to exit this thread. I just wanted to say one more thing with respect to Fehr. He doesn't really represent the players but rather their agents. That's why the MLBPA is such a powerful union. All of the players today are represented by the very best minds the legal sports agent world has to offer. You have to sell the zero-tolerance policy to them. That's a very tough sale.

I've never taking opium either but there is a mountain of information that tells me it's pretty bad for me & the risk of addiction is very high. Of course the fact that I can describe it's chemical breakdown & most aspects of its impact on the human body, it's history, & it's current growth span today I guess is meaningless because I've never tried it :rolly You are taking yourself seriously so I'll just ask some questions to maybe get you to pause & think differently. Why would my personal experience with say smoking weed have greater value than clincal research covering say 10's of 1000's of persons smoking weed? In the same likeness why would your personal experience with performance enhancers have greater value than 10's of 1000's of others accounts. The best knowledge is collective knowledge because it filters out biased opinion. That's why the internet is the best tool mankind has ever invented.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Death...G=Google+Search You sound pretty young so let me give you some more advice. In general don't believe what you read from just one source. Collect several sources which you feel have different interests in what they print & draw a consensus opinion from all of them. It takes more of your time but you will become more open-minded in doing so. What you missed earlier is that roids don't just make you bigger. They change your hormones & in doing so can bring on addiction & severe mood swings. That's factual data as recorded from doctor observations. Any time a substance is addictive the risk of abuse is much higher. You seem to refer to to ABUSE as something a person can control. That is not usually the case. Roids are not cool. They bring on bad breath, acne, oily & puffy skin. What's cool about that? Maybe your friends are an exception. Maybe they can use them in moderation & not grow an addiction. Taken at low dosages I can buy the argument that the decline in quality of life wil occur much more gradually down the road. But there is independant study data that has recorded the effects on the organs & various systems of the human body with long term roid usage & it is anything but cool. Take time & use Google to educate yourself in the subject. You might help your friends in the process.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2004-03-12-...wrestling_x.htm Pretty extensive report on roids & wrestling. Does your entire source of knowledge on a subject come from what you witness in your personal life? When do you consider that of statistics, reports, articles, periodical, & books? I've given you numbers & facts but you choose to ignore them in lieu of what you've witnessed amongst your friends. Good luck in life young person. :rolly

Do you think Mac knows Sosa was on roids? Just wondering. Final thoughts. Manfred is the punching bag for the owners. The OR is in there so if a player like Pujols tests positive the commisioner can choose to hide the infraction. It allows the commish to weigh economic concerns vs suspensions. The owners can claim they want a zero-tolerance toughest standard possible but they want to control revelations. They hide behind Fehr & the players for maintaining that control. Congress is fed up. Now MLB has to weigh the value of the anti-trust exemption vs removing the ORs. Removing that which gives them control & discretion. Someone mentioned that this will long be a dead issue when Thomas comes up for HOF voting. I strongly disagree. Bonds is still on pace to grab the all-time careeer HR record. If he should succeed in doing so this issue will be alive for a very long time. Somewhere today it was mentioned that over 1/2 of the MVP's of the league the past 30 yrs are suspected of using performance enhancers that are now considered illegal. That's a pretty big black eye to the game, records, & HOF stature.

Can I ask you a few questions? Do you think illegal substances such as heroine, weed, crack, ecstacy are cool as well? Do you think that operating machinery or vehicles under the influence of such is cool? What is your definition of cool? The fact that 17% of roid users can grow an addiction to me is not cool. The fact that those who become addicted can suffer severe depression leading to suicide during withdrawal is not cool. The fact that over 50% of the wrestlers who were roids users during the Hogan era are dead is not cool. The data is overwhelming that continued roid usage will lead to an ever decreasing quality of life is not cool. Maybe ignorance is cool :rolly

Do you get the same impression that I do that this committee would like nothing more than to get up walk over to Manfred & b**** slap the s*** out of him?

Exactly. I would prefer drug testing for get high drugs remain between the worker, the company & the union. I think if the Fed gets involved there is substantial room for abuse & error & that could have severe consequences on one's life. It's a general assumption that government Fk's things up worse than the private sector. I'm in firm agreement with that. I just want to say personally that I am not in that fold. I don't smoke & barely drink. But I know friends & acquaintances that do & they are capable of practicing their usage in moderation to where they are undetected with their current drug testing programs.

That was a heavy handed threat. Either clean it up now & fast or we will do it for you. One of the options in doing so was a threat to remove drug testing provisions from all collective bargaining agreements across the nation & replace them with a Federally mandated program. That's a scary threat for the rest of us.

Well at least you are leaning toward Oakland as the source to his drop off. I would agree that the manager is more to blame than Beane for over-using Koch but we also know from Beane's own words in Moneyball that he is more involved with the coaching aspects of the team than most GM's. I don't fault him for dealing damaged goods to KW. It's KW's fault for not looking at velocity reports on Koch in August. All MLB teams have access to them.

It's getting boring again & the NCAA's are on. I think we can conclude that the comm is pretty pissed at Manfred for creating such pathetic documents. There will be a later hearing by the commerce comm that pretty much controls the anti-trust exemption & if Manfred hasn't improved the documents by they will not be kind to this panel. Despite getting dirty Selig achieved what he wanted: We want tougher testing. Fehr likes his progressive discipline approach. Talk to him. He's the road block.

You heard it. Owners write-off most of the purchase price of the franchise by depreciating players salaries. That's how AZ remains afloat.

Manfred = Pathetic. That's the general consensus of the people on the comm. But you know something? Sometimes having a pathetic person in that capacity is the best thing for business. Sad but true. Congress should just call an audit on MLB & do away with this crap. Manfred keeps telling Congress how they operate with nothing substantiated in a written document. What other business gets away with that crap?

I just tuned in again & you guys are right. This is getting good. Manfred puts a paragraph in the bottom of the document he sent to congress before the hearings that Congress prioritized the economic aspect of the game over all else after the strike. This was during the hearings on the strike. Selig echoed those sentiments saying none of you were talking to me about steroid abuse in 1994-1995. I just loved how MLB shifted the blame to Congress back then. Ah, but Congress has smart & hard working people. One Congressman quotes an article in the LA Times in 1995 on the growing use of steroids in MLB. Selig basically claimed ignorance & said we had no basis to believe what it said. Another clue that they are covering for Sammy. Manfred eluded that Mexico & the DR have a relaxed culture & laws wrt to steroid usage. It was in the DR where Sammy supposedly lost his 25K paper bag of cash.