OK.

So apparently Alex Rodriguez has a torn labrum in his hip, which will either put him out for 10 weeks (according to his brother), 4 months (if the Yankees feel he needs surgery), or not at all (the initial approach the Yanks are taking.)

So where does the conspiracy come in?  Well, you’re probably aware of Rodriguez’s admission that he took steroids for the three years he was with the Texas Rangers, but not when he was with the Yankees – not that this would make any sense.  Rodriguez stated that he was pressured into the steroids due to the enormous expectations put upon him by his signing the largest contract in the baseball history with the Rangers back in 2001.  Going from that to the MEDIA CAPITAL OF THE WORLD surely wouldn’t put any more pressure on him, would it?

The Baltimore Orioles have picked up former hyped center field prospect Felix Pie from the Chicago Cubs for starter Garrett Olson and minor league pitcher Hank Williamson. Pie needed to be dealt because after six seasons, you stop being a “prospect” and start being the guy who couldn’t make the major league roster. His days were numbered after this past season – when your team chooses to stick a corner outfielder who couldn’t make the Blue Jays 25-man roster (Reed Johnson) in center, then after realizing that was a bad idea chooses to reanimate the corpse of Jim Edmonds rather than give you another shot in center, you’re never going to make it. Baltimore is a fresh start for him, and he’ll get as much shot as anyone to get the center field job.

Milwaukee receives:

RHP Scott Linebrink

Padres receives:

RHP Will Inman
LHP Steve Garrison
LHP Joe Thatcher

Thoughts: Linebrink was a nobody until the Padres got him off waivers from the Astros

I’m a big fan of the guys at firejoemorgan.com , especially since I’ve been known to disect articles like they do while reading them. So I took a shot at taking apart one of the New York-based newsrags (sadly, probably the best of the three tabloids) articles focusing on one of my new Yankee man-crushes, Shelley Duncan . It may not be up to the standards of FJM, but it came surprisingly easy, I guess with such an easy target.

I’m normally a fan of the XM Baseball morning show with Buck Martinez (who will be forever ruined to me thanks to Triple Play ‘99) and the other guy, but they were pulling some things out of their ass this morning. They were doing some seemingly “on the fly” discussion of last year’s deadline trades (I say “seemingly” because they plugged it several times as coming up during the show, but the prep work involved seemed to be a transaction list from last July) and made accurate comments on what trades have worked (boy, the Nationals really bent over the Reds on that Kearns/Majewski deal), but usually missed the mark on why (Ryan Wagner is pitching “well” for the Nats ).