Wheelimus

Well, it's highly possible that Soto had not actually used marijuana for a month before the test. Especially as, um, portly as he came into camp. Pot mainly stores in fat cells. The real joke here is that his smoking pot is even an issue. Or illegal.

who exactly are you benching to get Mr. Dunn into the lineup? Why, Mike Fontenot of course. Hey, it would be fun to watch. The same kind of "fun" that attracts viewers to NASCAR crashes, err, I mean races.

Yeah, but Lilly is sure a midget today. Release the bum* * obviously I'm joking

Just because Fuku adjusted to the league doesn't mean the league won't re-adjust to him. Sadly, he seems to be the type of player who can only adjust while it's the offseason. Unless he changes, we should probably get used to this. However, I really don't think he's as bad as his June numbers have been.

Then you'd have to say wearing contacts should be cheating too. Only players with natural 20/20 vision could play. Unless they could figure out how to be successful with less-than stellar vision. It would definitely get Kevin Gregg off our team BTW. At the very least it would help his chances if half of the batters he faced can't see. I can't imagine he'd pitch much worse a little blurry...

At what point do we have a serious discussion about replacing Harden in the rotation with Marshall? Because I think he could do better. I'm not really saying forever, but assuming they're finding nobody interested in trading for him...make up a reason to DL him and send him on another rehab assignment to try to figure things out. Hope I'm wrong and he turns it around on his own. You have to assume it's more "body falling apart" than lack of interest, because this is a pretty huge year for him as far as his next contract goes.

Ugh, I've rarely been as happy to have missed a game as yesterdays. I'm not sure when the last time was I saw a box score that was that ghastly in the LOB department. Obviously, the only option is to sign Randall Simon for that late spark...

I wonder if Ryno is so down on the steroid-era players because he blames them for his comeback not working out? While his numbers in 96 and 97 weren't that far below his last few pre-retirement years, I could see a guy convincing himself that it wasn't fading skills but rather an uneven playing field.

It bugs me when I hear on sports shows people saying the 2003 list needs to be releeased so it can "end speculation," not just in terms of who is on the list but also to definitively close the door on the "Steroid Era." It's a frustratingly absurd idea to think that four decades of PED use can be dropped on the back of 103 players (and the handful of others caughter after the fact) as if it was relegated to them and not the at least hundreds of other players that also used them. What bothers me is that, even if the list ever comes out, we won't know what players were juicing during the "Steroid Era". We'll just know who the 103 stupidest players in the game were. Remember this was a test that they were given plenty of notice of, whose results were to be used to determine future policy. It was literally a call to "PLEASE GET OFF THE JUICE JUST THIS ONE DAMN TIME SO THIS ISSUE GOES AWAY." They might as well have had a trash can to discard needles on your way in. Any ballplayer with a lick of sense would have tried their damnedest to time their cycle to test clean then or, gasp, maybe go off the sauce for a few months to be safe. Because even back in 2003 I was thinking "that list will someday come out." This doesn't confirm that Sammy Sosa did steroids, any of us with a brain and eyes knew that. It just confirms that he was freaking stupid. The guys whose IQ's might leave them employable even if baseball went away didn't test positive. At least not **that** time.

You won't catch me complaining about Ryan Theriot, warts and all. Because there was a time a couple of seasons ago I thought he was going to make us long for Neifi's bat. Hard to ignore how far he's exceeded our reasonable expectations. I don't really care why he's done it. I'm just a tiny bit concerned that his OBP is down to the .350's. Not terrible, but if that power disappears like I'd expect it to his line won't be as nice.

Yeah, I'm not going to whine if he shocks most of us and succeeds. And we wind up with a legitimate haul in return.

It wouldn't be outrageous. It would be downright stupid. As already mentioned, doing that would start his arbitration and option clocks early. Do we seriously want Vitters getting expensive that quickly? Lets find out if he can handle AA before we get ahead of ourselves. Especially stupid when you consider his likely output. If he would OPS over .650 called up this early, I'd be surprised. And that kind of production you don't ruin a prospect for. If we're that desperate, send the Orioles a cheese sandwich for Chris Gomez. Or just let Scales live the dream. Won't be any worse.

"From the team that brought you "The Rookie" comes the next great tale of an unlikely baseball player..."The Scales"

Not everyone gets an 81.0 ERA as their final stat line....

Decent move. Shark should be starting at Iowa. Fox, with how he threw in spring and has thrown at Iowa, needs to be up contributing before his arm inevitably falls off again.

But he'd have to pass through waivers!!!! Uh, yeah, I see no detriment or risk of losing him. :-))

Nope. Sweet! Forfeit lineup Though I won't be too hard on poor Bobby Scales getting a start. The guy put in the years to really savor the moment.

I'm late to the game. Has someone already said "forfeit lineup"?

Part of me would rather leave him down there to keep raking, unless he's going to get some significant playing time up here. He has to be building some killer trade value right now. It would be just our luck to bring him up, let him rot on the bench for two weeks getting a handful of PH AB's, and then send him back to the minors cold and he drops off.

That's what everyboyd says when they get caught. They didn't know it was banned, they didn't read the label, they didn't know what they were taking, their doctor/trainer/teammate gave it to them, whatever. That is true but how many of them filed a lawsuit? Exactly. Romero may be the first failed test player I believe. Because he didn't just talk a big game, he actually followed through with the lawsuit. He's a good example of why the 50 game automatic suspension is stupid. Like everything else in life, it isn't black and white. There should be an option to only suspend a player for, say, 15 games when you believe they didn't intentionally cheat. Obviously every player will deny it, but most won't have a verifiable GNC product that MLB could presumably test and verify the banned substance wasn't on the packaging.

She'd be a 5 in Chicago...but probably an 8 in Iowa. Or St. Louis. Yes, I HAVE watched too much Office lately. :-)) Oh, and the phonecall? Funniest stuff EVER...

It all depends on a World Series win. I could see the team that finally breaks the curse being pretty damn revered for eternity. To the point of a few retirements even if the final numbers don't exactly demand it. If the current crop could win one, I could see a number of players being retired. Z, Aram, Soriano, etc. And, of course, Geovany Soto.

Luckily I preemptively had given up hope of this being completed this season. So I'm not too upset. Just, please, for the love of all that is holy get this wrapped up before the next offseason.

I know that Koyie won't keep this up, but I think he'll wind up being a fine backup. But still... Geovany Soto

How about Wrigley Apple Depends Motrin Ben Gay Ross Perot Field? Just think of the combined advertising haul!!!! **shoots self** Or Mark Cuban could buy the naming rights. SUCK. ON. THIS. FIELD. Complete with Gary Condit standing outside to greet the fans every day. Just to make sure the message is clear.