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Over the years Billy Beane has always had one thing going for him. He doesn’t act like other GMs. That sometimes entails making a deal like the one Beane made today, when he traded his ace, a top 5 MLB pitcher (health permitting) under contract for 15 more months at a reasonable salary, for two bench players, a #3 starter, and a fringe catching prospect four years away from a major league stadium.

Of course in Beane’s eyes the haul consists of a 22 year-old whose dominated older players at every minor league stop, a speedy 2nd basemen with some pop, a five tool outfielder who has never gotten the playing time he deserved, and a former 1st-round pick who was impressive in his pro debut last year.

Obviously Harden’s health in the major factor here. Beane clearly believes Harden is damaged goods. The Cubs clearly believe Harden is worth the risk. Are the A’s merely frustrated with an injury prone pitcher, or are Cubs looking past the red flags due to their excitement over actually having a team with a chance of winning the World Series?

Only time will tell. At first glance the deal seems like a steal for the Cubbies, but it’s so hard not to trust Billy Beane (after all, this is a trade, not another one of his awful drafts). Right now the only surefire winners are the desperate souls who get to debate the trade’s impact on Sean Gallagher’s fantasy value.

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I’m not sure too many people are going to be hiring him in the future (although he did do some noble work in getting Enron off the hook). Here a few of Hardin’s shrewd moves so far.

–Demanding a congressional hearing in which his client was repeatedly railed by the democratic members of Congress for being an arrogant liar—Somehow Hardin failed to foresee that the U.S. Government wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to clear the name of one of baseball’s most upstanding gentlemen. Additionally, Hardin let Clemens testify without any material beyond the “I worked hard” line he’d been peddling for the previous six weeks.

–Filing a defamation lawsuit against Brian McNamee without knowing whether there was any information that could prove Clemens’ name was already defamed—Either McNamee was so naive he didn’t believe Roger Clemens’ copious extramarital affairs would effect the suit, or he didn’t bother to find out all the pertinent information about his client. Whatever the case, that’s not good frivolous lawsuit management. On the plus side, Mindy McCready’s mom say she thinks Clemens is clean—you know, because her underage daughter definitely would have told her if the married man she was having an affair with was using performance enhancing drugs.

–Representing both Clemens and Andy Pettitte, the man who’s testimony contradicts that of Clemens—Yep, there’s nothing like representing the star witness for the other side. That’s a conflict of interest you can take all the way to the bank.

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Barry Bonds and Kenny Lofton are unsigned free agents. The MLB Players Association is so flabbergasted at this development they’ve launched an investigation. After all, why would nobody would be interested in a disgraced steroid user and a 41-year-old, zero-tool centerfielder?

Think about it. Bonds’ walks would more than make up for the biggest fan backlash in league history, and Lofton’s .300 slugging percentage would be a small price to pay for a guy so old you would need Torii Hunter to play the other two outfield positions.

Frankly, I’m surprised the MLBPA is stopping there. Why aren’t they also investigating how Mike Maroth remains a free agent? He had a 6.89 ERA last year and a 12.91 ERA in three Triple A starts this year.  Who doesn’t need that kind of production?

It’s obvious there’s some kind of owner collusion that’s designed to keep unproductive players out of baseball, and it’s nice to see the MLBPA has taken a break from fighting steroid testing in order to address it.

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As Roger Clemens testified before congress about the perpetual purity of his urine, many people pointed out it appeared as though he was living in his own fantasy world. After Mindy McCready’s confirmation that, yes, she did in fact have an affair with Clemens, I think it’s time to consider the fact that Clemens may, in all seriousness, no longer be living in the same reality as the rest of us.

This was the statement released by Clemens’ lawyer yesterday:

At no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or improper relationship with her. It is unfortunate that the Daily News has chosen to report anonymous allegations that are completely unfounded, have no basis in fact, and have nothing to do with Roger’s baseball career or the issue of steroid use in baseball.

Why in the world would Roger Clemens attempt to refute this story? He knows it’s the truth. He knows people who know about it will testify under oath if it becomes relevant in his lawsuit. He knows that she’ll confirm the story. Why doesn’t he just say “no comment”?

Now Clemens has zero credibility. Before this week there were probably 5 or 10 people left out there who still believed he never used steroids. But how can they believe him when he says “I didn’t take steroids” and “I didn’t have an affair,” and the latter statement is proven to be false?

There’s no explanation for why Clemens would effectively proclaim himself a blatant liar by issuing such a straightforward denial of something he knows will be proven to be true. Clemens truly is living in some kind of fantasy world. He believes “I’m Roger Clemens, bitch,” and that whatever he says is the universal truth.

These must be some tough times for Virginia Foxx.

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$126 million for a relief pitcher? Since the advent of modern free agency, there have been some serious free agent busts. The ability of teams to freely bid on players means that sometimes teams spend extravagant amounts of money on players that turn out to be not worth it. This has become increasingly true since the strike in 1994, and now teams are under even greater pressure to spend big bucks and take big risks. And while a couple of recent free agents may some day make this list (Barry Zito, Carl Pavano and Andruw Jones, I am looking at you) here are the five biggest busts in baseball free agency history.

1. Mike Hampton: $121 milllion/ 7 years ($17.3 a year) – Rockies and Braves
Although he has had 3 seemingly decent (I stress decent) seasons since his signing, this has to be the absolute worst free agent bust. Perennially injured (he hasn’t started since 2005), even when he was healthy Hampton went 46-48 with an era of 4.92. That’s $2.6 million dollars a win. Watching him hurt his pectoral while warming up for his first start this season summarizes this guy’s career.

2. Mo Vaughn: $80 million/ 6 years ($13.3 a year) – Angels and Mets
After putting up monster numbers for Boston, the Angels banked on this guy to elevate them into the 21st century. Unfortunately, his weight and fitness caught up with him. After two good seasons with the Angels, he got hurt and never returned to form. He ended his career a liability at first base for the Mets and eventually the highest paid pinch hitter ever.

3. Albert Belle: $65 million/ 5 years ($13 a year) – Orioles
The only reason he is behind Mo Vaughn is because he signed for one year and $300k less. This guy was trouble the day Peter Angelo signed him. After destroying the AL central with Cleveland and Chicago, Belle brought his attitude (and an injured hip) to Baltimore. Belle put up 60 homers and 220 RBIs his first two year, but then was forced to retire.

4. Darren Dreifort: $55 million/ 5 years ($11 a year) – Dodgers
The only reason this guy is not the worst bust in history is the money. For some reason, after going 12-9 with a 4.16 ERA, the Dodgers gave this guy a monster deal (despite having a career losing record). And this was right after they had just dropped 9 figures on Kevin Brown. He proceeded to immediately get hurt, only started another 26 games, ended up in the bullpen, and since his signing finished his career 9-15 with a 4.53 ERA. $55 million for 9 wins. Woof.

5. Chan Ho Park: $65 million/ 5 years ($13 a year) – Rangers and Padres
Park went from NL ace to AL dud. He ended up languishing with the Rangers, never quite living up to his hype. Injuries and inconsistency led to Park never pitching more than 150 innings in a season, or getting more than 10 wins.

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E:60’s ambush of Miguel Tejada was flat out wrong. It was television at it’s lowest point. Pure exploitation in order to get ratings. What did Tejada do to deserve being lured into a studio and left bare in front of a camera on live tape-delayed TV? This isn’t “To Catch a Predator.” Nobody can think to themselves that the guy on camera deserved what he got. Nobody can think ESPN was helping out it’s viewers by calling attention to Tejada’s real age. It was simply entrapment. Tom Ferry tricked Tejada into lying and then he had the brazeness to keep yelling questions as Tejada left the room.

I guarantee Tejada was led to believe the interview would be about something else. How do you even describe what E60 did. Unethical? Sleazy? Ruthless exploitation?

The last question Ferry yelled was “does the U.S. government know your real name?” He was indirectly implying Miguel Tejada was some sort of terrorist or a threat to the U.S. government. That’s insane. What’s even more insane is millions of people wasted 30 seconds of their lives being exposed to that idea. And think, when Tejada woke up that morning he thought the tough questions would be about adjusting to National League pitching.

Kudos to the Astros for sticking by Tejada. The new report changes nothing. The affected parties received no new information. It’s fake news, and the team is doing the right thing by ignoring it.

There’s a reason that no legitimate sports magazine TV show has ever had a long run. There aren’t enough important stories to entice enough sports fans to watch large blocks of non-game, non-highlight programming. Apparently E60 is going to do whatever it takes to find (or create) enough stories.

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Moises Alou is either a liar, or a really mean guy. Five years later he reveals that he wouldn’t have caught the Steve Bartman ball!? Is he you serious? He couldn’t have said that right after the game? Or the week after? Or the year after? Or three years after? Alou clearly doesn’t understand how the normal psychology of human emotion and forgiveness works.

Most likely, Alou would have caught the ball, and still believes he would have caught the ball. But now he’s decided it’s about time to help old boy Bartman out. Good for you Moises. I guess. Perhaps next week you’ll forgive the kid who took your lunch money in 2nd grade.

As for Bartman, he probably wishes this whole thing would be left alone. He’s been vindicated—sort of—but now he also has to deal with everybody remembering who he is again. That’s not good. What is good is that Alou’s words have made it possible for Bartman to once again show his face and use his real name…a few years from now.

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Pretty good start for the Nats and their new stadium. Pretty, pretty, pretty, good. The second Ryan Zimmerman’s drive landed in the bleachers I could think of only one thing. The game was rigged. It was a set up. The Nationals winning their home opener on a walk-off home run by the face of the franchise? Nice try Bud Selig. I’m not falling for it. How much did the Braves get for agreeing to lay down?

The other notable thing about Zimmerman’s home run (and Chipper Jones’ nearly identical blast earlier in the game) is how quickly and easily the balls flew out of the park. Both were hit on a line, and both just seemed to hover for the last 50 feet of their flights. Neither ball would have made it past the warning track in RFK. Unless Sunday night was a fluke, a lot of home runs are going to be hit in DC.

My favorite part of the whole evening was hearing the local media, players, and Nationals personnel raving about the new stadium. It’s a nice stadium. It’s new and state of the art. That’s a fact.

But it’s clear that having to play in RFK for two years has the Nats thinking the new stadium is the 8th wonder of the modern world. “A batting cage in the stadium!!!! Holy cow!!!” So what if nearly every stadium built after 1980 has batting cages in it. “Multiple TVs in the clubhouse!!! What is this, Bill Gates’ house?” Not exactly, but the Nats did spend a few grand of the $600 million stadium bill to make the clubhouse more enjoyable.

I think it’s adorable. The Nats are like the poor little boy who’s grateful for his Playstation 2 while all the rich kids complain about their Playstation 3s. Or something like that. For now the Nats are just enjoying their new home and their time in first place. And they better enjoy it. The stadium won’t be new for long and the next time the Nats are in first place Barack Obama could be running for his second term.

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Yeah, that’s right. What makes you think you’re worthy of playing in an MLB spring training game? Why should you be able to play and not me? Who cares if you’re rich or famous. You can’t hit a baseball. That should be the prerequisite skill for hitting in a spring training game.

There are guys out there who work their asses off (with and without the assistance of steroids) just to get a single Spring training at bat. Even if they never get past Double A, the ones who make it to spring training know that on some level they’ve arrived; nobody gets to where they are unless they have what it takes.

Crystal’s appearance cheapens all that. One of the great things about professional sports is that you can’t buy your way into a game. At least I thought it was. I miss the good old days when celebrities weren’t allowed on the field unless it was to participate in some terrible all-star event.

I’m not scolding Crystal specifically. I shower insults on any celebrity who gets to take a couple swings so an MLB team can have some good publicity. That means you Garth Brooks. I don’t know how you managed to spend so much time with the Padres and have the only tip you picked up from Tony Gwynn be the fastest way to get from the Peoria Wendy’s to the Peoria Burger King.

One last thing. Why did Crystal have to play against the Pirates? It’s not enough that the Buccos are headed for their 37th straight losing season? The Yankees have to publicize the Pirates’ insignificance by choosing them as team against which they’ll bat a 60-year-old comedian in the leadoff spot. That’s just mean.

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Barry Bonds cheated. A lot. And although he didn’t come clean about it, he goal was never to put forth a river of lies. Bonds only needed to not go to prison, and to not have Major League Baseball suspend him or expunge his records. He lied to make sure he got those two things, but other than that he didn’t care if the entire American public thought he was a cheater. He understood the consequences of his actions and didn’t try to change them. Within that disconnected attitude was a certain kind of honesty; an acceptance of the punishment for his actions. You could even say that Bonds has done what most people would have done if they were in his situation (his 2007 situation, not his 2000-2005 situation).

Clemens has been the complete opposite , and that’s what makes him such a jackass. It wasn’t enough for him to escape legal and disciplinary action. He needed to keep his legacy, regardless of whether or not he got that legacy cheating. And so Clemens embarked on one of the most malicious and fallacious campaigns in the history of sports.

Bonds lied in response to questions that were being forced upon him. It was a passive kind of dishonesty. Clemens, on the other hand, initiated the lying. He went out of his way to try and deceive the American people. Instead of accepting his punishment (a tarnished legacy), Clemens made a mockery of the justice system in the hope of striking his steroid use from the record. That’s the reason he deserves to go down in history as somebody even more foul than Barry Bonds.

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