Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

- You have to think that both Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa are done with their MLB baseball careers. Palmeiro is a baseball leper and Sosa is now a slugger who can't slug. I wonder if Sosa is tainted enough by steroids to be kept out of the Hall of Fame? My guess is that unless more evidence comes out on him the baseball writers will vote him in and further show that they have no spine and are completely blind to real life.

- David Wells has another year on his contract but I wouldn't be surprised if he called it quits. He played in pain for most of the year and at 42-years old - he may not want to subject his body to the vigors of a MLB season anymore. I'm completely ambivalent about him returning for 2006. If he does fine - if not that's OK too.

- Everyone thinks that the Yankees will make a huge run for Johnny Damon but I also wouldn't be surprised to see the Dodgers make a bid. Damon may not want to cut his hair for the Yankees and the Dodgers may have had enough of Milton Bradley's act. I still think the best bet is that Damon returns to the Red Sox.

- Red Sox Nation keeps thinking that Paul Konerko will be the first baseman next year but my guess is that he's too valuable to the White Sox for them to allow him to go anywhere.

- Kevin Brown's a free agent but will anyone give him a shot? He's a DL waiting to happen and a clubhouse cancer to boot. For his career Brown is 211-144 and that won't be good enough for the Hall of Fame (Wells is 227-143 and that won't cut it either). I always thought that Brown as a steroids guy too and I know I'm not alone in thinking that.

- Kevin Millwood is an interesting free agent. This year he had a losing record but his ERA (2.86) was the best in the AL. I think he may be the top free agent starter on the market.

- When people see the money that Konerko will make - the teams that lose out on him may start to think that $25 million for two years of Mike Sweeney isn't that bad and start to talk to the Royals about a trade. The fact that Sweeney has only averaged 112 games per year for the past three years worries me though.