Tony and I made our first journey through PNC Park this afternoon It was interesting seeing the jerseys on sale in the team’s souvenir shop – the most recognizable name was Ryan Doumit.

The flags flying on light poles outside the ballpark featured guys like Garrett Jones and Ramon Vazquez. This is a team seemingly intent on trading every position player on its roster.

As we wandered PNC Park, with its jutting outfield and views of several bridges and the skyline in the outfield, it’s almost as though ownership thinks the beauty of the ballpark outweighs the need to spend the money to put a major league product on the field. Yes, Delwyn Young might be a perfectly fine role player. But he batted third in the lineup today.

I said to my brother “Any team with Delwyn Young batting third doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

He reminded me that Young was leading the team in some hitting categories. Again, I said “Any team with Delwyn Young leading the team in major hitting categories doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

It’s not that the cupboard is completely bare. Stephen Pearce hit two homeruns today. And Andrew McCutchen has been as good as advertised since the team brought him up.

But deals like the one that allegedly cleared space for McCutchen – Nate McLouth to Atlanta for three prospects – are the reason I am suspicious of team ownership’s motives. If they had a history of turning those deals into an improved product or at least into improved prospects for the future, one might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But that’s not the case with these guys.

Out of curiosity I rewound through yahoo to find out what the Pirates’ starting lineup was on April 2, 2008. It is listed below. Shockingly, seven of the eight position players are no longer with the team. A look at the team’s first five starting pitchers of the 2008 season revealed that two are still on the team, two have been traded, and one is out of baseball. There was talk that one of the guys that is left, Zach Duke, was on the block before the deadline.

The lineup and where those players are currently is below:

Pirates 2008 opening day lineup
CF McLouth – Atlanta
2B Sanchez – San Francisco
LF Bay – Boston
1B LaRoche – Atlanta via Boston
RF Nady – New York Yankees – out for the season
C Doumit – Still in Pittsburgh
3B Bautista – Toronto
SS Wilson – Seattle

Starting Rotation
T. Gorzelanny – Cubs
Z. Duke – Started today
M. Morris – Out of baseball
P. Maholm – Still in Pittsburgh
I. Snell – Seattle

Sure, some of the prospects the Pirates received in trades for those guys may have decent futures. But at some point, for a team to make a move forward, it has to commit to keeping some of its good players to build around. In trading McLouth the team took one of those building blocks and shipped him away for a bunch of “could bes” and “might bes” instead of moving him to a corner outfield position and pairing him with McCutchen.

Such moves might have been understandable in the cases of players like Jason Bay, who was soon to be heading toward free agency. But McLouth isn’t just some fly-by-night, one-year-wonder. He was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner in 2008, and more importantly, he was under contract for a couple more years at affordable prices. Sure. McCutchen was ready for the bigs. But why couldn’t McLouth move to a corner outfield spot?

Then the Buckos would have had two legitimate young stars to build around – M&M Brothers akin to Minnesota’s Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Instead, the Pirates close in on the trade deadline in full shed mode. The Pirates went into Wednesday’s game with legitimate prospects in McCutchen and first baseman Stephen Pearce, with youngsters like outfielder Brandon Moss and third baseman Andy LaRoche on the bench.

But the lineup was also dotted by recycled guys like Delwyn Young, Garrett Jones at first base and Ramon Vazquez at shortstop.

Sure, they got decent hauls for some of these guys. Tim Alderson, the pitcher they got from San Francisco for Freddy Sanchez, is a legitimate talent.

But don’t you eventually have to pick a couple guys and build around them? Don’t the fans eventually deserve for the team to grow around some of these guys, supplementing them when they look promising rather than jettisoning them as they have done so often in recent years?

Instead, the Pirates remain Major League Baseball’s current farm system for every other team in the league. They haven’t had a winning season since Barry Bonds took off for San Francisco and they’re constantly trading off vets approaching their big contract years.

As we wandered around the beautiful ballpark in the heart of downtown at the convergence of three rivers we both remarked at what a shame it was. Pittsburgh is a proud, hard-working town that is passionate about its sports teams. The Steelers have won six Super Bowls. The Penguins have gone to back-to-back Stanley Cups, winning the last one. The city has rebuilt itself after years of struggles as the steel industry slowly sagged in importance.

As it sits, the Pirates continue to sag in importance as well. Championship flags from World Series wins past barely flew in the heat and humidity of the first 90-plus degree day of 2009 in Pittsburgh. I like a good rebuilding project. I like building from within. But it’s questionable to me whether there’s really a plan here. With the moves at this year’s deadline and the others made since the start of the 2008 season, you can make a pretty good argument that the decade-and-a-half rebuilding project is doing nothing more than starting again.

And when I picked the complimentary USA Today off the floor in front of my door this morning, I turned to the sports page and saw a story about Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, and their respective contributions to the New York Yankees this season.

“It’s incredible how important these guys have been,” Johnny Damon told the paper. “I feel like they’ve been worth about seven or eight games a piece.”

AMAZING HOW IMPORTANT THEY’VE BEEN?!?!?

You spent $423.5 million last offseason to bring them in. I’d say for that amount they’d damn well better be important or the Steinbrenners would have every right to be as stuffy and huffy as they have been the last seven or eight years while the Yankees have languished below mediocre by their high-priced standards.

My brother tells me Mike and Mike in the Morning were talking a couple days ago about parity in baseball. How great is it, they apparently said, that there has only been one repeat World Series winner in the last 10 years (Boston) and nobody has won it back to back. Others have been writing about this fallacy as well. It’s been quite the popular topic on ESPN and elsewhere.

A whole bunch of teams have made the playoffs in the last few years as well and there are more than 20 teams with legitimate playoff hopes still alive this year.

Parity, they said. What a great thing.

Parity my ass.

Parity doesn’t mean there are 20 teams with legit playoff chances at the trade deadline in July. Not having a repeat World Series winner in 10 years doesn’t signify parity. Not in my eyes.

If the season were to end today, the American League playoff teams would be Boston, New York, Los Angeles Angels and Chicago. You’ll note that of those four teams come, three come from the largest media markets in the country and the fourth, Boston, consistently has the second-highest payroll in baseball.

And, taking into account this year and the last five completed seasons, Boston, New York and Los Angeles would have claimed playoff spots in five of six years. That means there’s one spot – generally the American League Central division – up for grabs each year, as you can largely count on two divisions and the wild card participants.

During that same time span five American League teams (Baltimore, Toronto, Kansas City, Seattle, and Texas) have failed to make the playoffs even once while three others (Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Oakland) have each made one appearance in the fall. Some of this is due to poor organizational management, no doubt. But some of it is the continued economic disparities inherent to Major League Baseball.

The playoff spots in the National League have been slightly more spread out. Still, Los Angeles Dodgers have made four playoff appearances and the Philadelphia Phillies three (again, if the season were to end today). St. Louis (which I have credited with 1/2 a playoff appearance because they are tied with Chicago for the Central right now) has made it 3.5 times and the Cubs 2.5. Four other teams have two playoff appearances (Colorado, Atlanta, Houston and San Diego).

But even with the different spread of teams, the leaders in appearances are in large media markets and there are still five with no appearances (Florida, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and San Francisco).

The one weird outlier in all of this research is the New York Mets, who despite playing in the Big Apple, have still managed just one postseason appearance in the last six seasons. That’s in part due, I would guess, to organizational incompetence, partially due to two collapses the last two seasons, partially due to competing with the tail end of the Atlanta Braves’ stretch of divisional dominance, and partially due to sharing the division with Philadelphia.

Mets aside, however, the research indicates clearly that large media market teams continue to have a dramatic advantage when it comes to making the postseason.

They also have an edge in winning the Fall Classic. While 20 teams have made at least one appearance in the last six seasons (again, factoring in this year if the season were to end today), the last five World Series winners were Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and Boston – respectively the fourth, seventh, 20th, third and seventh largest media markets in the country. St. Louis is an outlier, but the other four are large markets and consistent leaders in MLB payrolls.

And while St. Louis isn’t a top 10 market size-wise, they have in the past fielded $100 million-plus payrolls as well. They’re down to the upper $70 millions this year.

So don’t give me parity. Parity would be when the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Angels didn’t have a virtual stranglehold on three of the four American League playoff spots year after year.

Parity would be when more teams besides the Yankees could compete for the trio of free agents they paid $423.5 million to sign.

Parity would be achieved not when 20 teams have a “legitimate” shot to make the playoffs at the All Star Break, but when something approaching 20 teams had a legitimate shot to compete in the playoffs once they get there.

This might be parity for ESPN, which goes googly over everything Boston-New York in the postseason. But for fans of the other 28 Major League Baseball teams this is not parity.

Now I don’t necessarily blame Boston, New York, the Angels or the Dodgers for this. They’re just playing under the rules and the system that are currently in place. The fault belongs to Major League Baseball and the Players Association and the lip service both entities play to creating a level playing field for every team. It might look different. But at the end of the day it’s really just more of the same.

But if you play for them, you’d probably like to get an occassional headline.  Like, oh, say, if you went on a 30-game hitting streak, like Ryan Zimmerman recently did.  However, I didn’t hear about his hitting streak until today–when it ended.

Now, I don’t follow baseball as closely as Rich and Andy do, but I typically check the headlines each day. But I have to imagine that if a player on the Yankees or Red Sox was in the middle of a 30-game hitting streak, ESPN would probably be breaking in with live coverage of every at-bat.

Hell, if it were Alex Rodriguez or some other star player, ESPN on-air personalities would probably be joined by executives for an on-air circle jerk.

Ramirez is the first true star player to earn a suspension–but even with him missing 50 games, he will be eligible return to the field around the begining of July–which means he will be active for before the All-Star break.

And since Manny is a fairly popular player (for some reason, people enjoy the aloofness and me first attitude he has displayed for most of his career), there stands a chance that despite missing nealry 2/3 of the first half of the season, Ramirez could be elected by fans to start the “Midsummer Classic.” (subscription required for full article text)

Even without going into how this could impact the argument that fans shouldn’t be allowed to vote in the starting lineups for a game that now actually has postseason ramifications (or how stupid it is that the game HAS postseason ramifications), hopefully if Ramirez IS voted in, the commissioner’s office will step in and nullify the voting, and ban Ramirez from the game.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Selig started making up rules on the fly.  And for once, it would probably be the right call.

In fact, I would take it one step further, and propose that Ramirez (and all players caught using performance enhancing drugs) be banned from All-Star games AND postseason awards, if not for the rest of his career, than at least for the next 3-5 years.  I’m not sure how much of an impact it would have on players using the drugs–although many players may have award bonuses in their contracts–but at least it would help with the “purity” of the game.

At the same time, this is Bud Selig we’re talking about–so if Manny does get voted in, odds are good that he will be in Phoenix.  Unless Ramirez has enough common sense to…never mind.

And I’m actually noticing that they seem to really be focusing on the news again, rather than all the feature stories that they started jamming in over the past few years, which is one of the main reasons I stopped watching it.

Then they get to the Top 10 Plays of the Day, and gave me a whole new reason not to watch–Play #2 of the day yesterday, according to ESPN, was Alex Rodriguez hitting a home run.

Yes, it was the first pitch he saw in his season debut.  But it’s the 554th time in his career he’s hit a home run.  And, oh yeah, now we don’t know how many of those home runs are legit, since he’s admitted taking steroids in Texas.  And there are allegations that he did in New York.  And high school.  And that he tipped pitches, which if true, hopefully will finally earn Rodriguez some punishment from the league (and possibly some retribution from some fellow players).

In the mean time, at least I now know I don’t have to worry about trying to catch Sports Center any time soon again.

Wednesday morning it was reported that he has a rib cage strain and that he may be forced to make yet another trip to the disabled list.

This has to be frustrating, not just for Carpenter but for the Cardinals, who got just 21 1/3 innings out of their former ace in 2007 and 2008 combined. Still, as upsetting as this setback might be, the Cardinals have to be happy with the signs they’ve seen from Carpenter’s two starts so far in 2009.

In three innings last night, he shut out the Diamondbacks on four hits with two strikeouts. That followed a seven inning, one-hit, two-walk, seven-strikeout performance last week against Pittsburgh in his 2009 debut. That’s 10 shutout innings with a 0.00 ERA, a WHIP below 1.00 and nine strikeouts – it’s a small sample size, but them there are ace numbers.

The Cardinals certainly weren’t putting all their eggs in Carpenter’s basket. This team has Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse and Todd Wellemeyer all coming off of solid, double-digit win seasons during which they all sported ERAs below 4.00. Any offense featuring Albert Pujols and supported by solid contributors like Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick and, eventually, Troy Glaus has at least the potential to score runs.

There are also holes. The bullpen is a mix-and-match work-in-progress, with three people sporting saves in the season’s first two weeks – none of which have come from the supposed season-opening closer Jason Motte.

But it’s the starting rotation that is going to determine whether or not the Cardinals can stay in the race with Chicago and Milwaukee all season. And if Carpenter is able to successfully make this comeback from arm problems and two lost seasons it’ll give the team a starting rotation as deep as nearly any team out there.

The Yankees high-buck starter gave up six runs and 13 baserunners in 4.1 innings this afternoon against Baltimore.

My guess is CC will be fine. But Hank Steinbrenner and many short-fused New York Yankee fans will undoubtedly be spewing anger tonight.

Ahh, watching Yankees fans get uptight about their $423.5 million worth of free agent investments after one day on the field – priceless.

They spent another half-a-billion dollars on three players in December. Remember December? While some people were wondering how they were going to fill their kid’s Christmas stocking and unemployment numbers were gaining a big head of steam, the New York Yankees were throwing around $20 million dollar salaries like they were bricks of government cheese.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m fine with this. If the New York Yankees want to pump $2 Billion into the economy, I have no intention of standing in their way.  Hank, Hal, knock yourselves out, boys.

I just don’t think you’re going to get the immediate results you’re expecting.

The guys you signed in the off season all have great credentials, but I would expect varying degrees of success. Mark Teixeira will work out immediately, and I think that was the perfect move for this club. He’s a switch hitter with power from both sides of the plate, and may very well be the best natural hitter they’ve had since Don Mattingly retired. Put in between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, his career average could very easily jump from .290 to .330. He’s young, personable and not as image conscious as a certain third baseman. He’s bounced around a little bit in the past couple years, so he’s used to dealing with new surroundings. The Yankee faithful will be quick to embrace him, and he’ll thrive in the Bronx.

CC Sabathia would seem to be tailor-made for a place like Yankees Stadium. A big powerful southpaw, he should keep opposing managers honest. Tempting as that short-porch looks, you can’t load your lineup with left-handed hitters while Carston Charles is on the mound.

However, Sabathia has always been a second-half pitcher, and it’s going to be interesting to see how he deals with negative New York press after starting 1-2. He’s an emotional guy who has melted down on the mound before. God help him if Boston sluggers Jason Bay and JD Drew go back to back early in a game at the stadium this summer. The boos he’ll hear will be unlike anything he’s ever experienced, and that’s just the kind of thing that can get him completely unwound. It’s going to take him a little time to get acclimated. He’ll be fine by August, but in the short term he’s going to have some tough times.

And speaking of tough times, I have two words for AJ Burnett – Carl Pavano.  There is a grand tradition of mid-to-upper level players putting on pinstripes and coming completely unnerved. Kenny Rogers. Steve Sax. Chuck Knoblauch. Hideki Irabu. But Pavano is the best comparison.

He signed a big contract with New York, and then promptly hurt his shoulder. He made a total of 26 starts for the Bombers, compiling a record of 9-8. But because of the money he was being paid, he became a whipping boy of the fans, the media, and occasionally the front office. Burnett has a history of injury, and of taking a lot of time to recover. He’s got a chronically bum shoulder, and it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll spend time on the DL this year. That’s not going to help the Yankee cause.

Meanwhile, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera are all starting to age. Even Derek Jeter is on the wrong side of thirty. Alex Rodriguez has all the talent in the world, but the guy’s a train wreck between the ears. There’s too much age on that roster without enough depth (see: Cody Ransom), and too much competition in the division. Sorry Yankee fans. It’s going to be a much better summer in Queens than in The Bronx. The Yankees look to me like a high-priced third place team.

Rich
NL MVP – Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
AL MVP – Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians
AL Cy Young – Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox
NL Cy Young – Johan Santana, New York Mets
NL Rookie of the Year – Cameron Maybin, Florida Marlins
AL Rookie of the Year – David Price, Tampa Bay Rays
AL East – Boston Red Sox
AL Central – Cleveland Indians
AL West – Anaheim Angels
Wild Card – Minnesota Twins
NL East – New York Mets
NL Central – Chicago Cubs
NL West – Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card – Milwaukee Brewers
World Series winner – New York Mets
World Series loser- Boston Red Sox

Games by Milton Bradley before Lou Piniella punches him – 62. Three games after Piniella is found chasing Kosuke Fukudome around the clubhouse with a steak knife, and five games after Alfonso Soriano dislocates his shoulder trying to hit a lead-off Grand Slam.

Over/Under on games played by Joe Crede and Joe Mauer – Will they change the rules so Mauer can win the Batting Title with 95 at-bats?

Starts made by CC Sabathia before Hank Steinbrenner rips him – 3. Then CC will straighten himself out. By September, Hank will be praising CC, and blaming the failings for the year on his real mistake, AJ Burnett. So, of course, he’ll fire Brian Cashman.

Summary: The World Series will go seven games, and at least one – if not two – games will feature the two Cy Young winners facing off against each other. I like the Mets for no other reason than they have the best pitcher in baseball without a ring. Johan Santana will be on a mission, and he’ll carry that team to the promised land.

Andy
NL MVP – Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers
AL MVP – Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
AL Cy Young – CC Sabathia, New York Yankees
NL Cy Young – Francisco Rodriguez, New York Mets
NL Rookie of the Year – Colby Rasmus, St. Louis
AL Rookie of the Year – Matt Wieters, Baltimore
AL East – New York Yankees
AL Central – Minnesota Twins
AL West – Anaheim Angels of Anaheim
Wild Card – Tampa Bay Rays
NL East – New York Mets
NL Central – Chicago Cubs
NL West – Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card – Florida Marlins
World Series winner – New York Mets
World Series loser – New York Yankees

Games by Milton Bradley before Lou Piniella punches him – 162. Piniella sees a lot of himself in Bradley. He takes the temperamental outfielder under his wing. They start a lifelong friendship and make several appearances on Oprah and Dr. Phil together.

Over/Under on games played by Joe Crede and Joe Mauer – 224

Starts made by CC Sabathia before Hank Steinbrenner rips him – 4. CC will start hot, but will blow one in April. Hank will explode. Hal will then have Hank stuffed and put on display in the new Monument Park.

Summary: Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers explode out of the gate, dominating the West Coast while Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz make all the difference for the Mets who go from crapping themselves to beating the crap out of their opponents. They meet in a dramatic NLCS that is decided when the stopper strikes out Manny Being Manny to send the Mets to the Series.

The American League also features an East coast vs West coast matchup, but East coast bias wins out. The Steinbrenners succeed in buying their way back to the Series, largely because no other team is good enough to stop them. All those of us who bitch and moan about inflated East coast salaries are proven correct and we are subjected, much to the joy of ESPN and Fox, to a Subway Series, during which F-Rod comes up big again with four saves and a big three-inning save in game seven.

Tony
NL MVP – David Wright, New York Mets
AL MVP – Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians
AL Cy Young – Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays
NL Cy Young – Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
NL Rookie of the Year – Cameron Maybin, Florida Marlins
AL Rookie of the Year – Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles
AL East – Boston Red Sox
AL Central – Cleveland Indians
AL West – Anaheim Angels
Wild Card – New York Yankees
NL East – New York Mets
NL Central – Chicago Cubs
NL West – Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card – Philadelphia Phillies
World Series winner – New York Mets
World Series loser – Boston Red Sox

Games by Milton Bradley before Lou Piniella punches him – 87

Over/Under on games played by Joe Crede and Joe Mauer – 235, and I take the under

Starts made by CC Sabathia before Hank Steinbreener rips him – 9

Summary: The usual suspects in the AL, with Cleveland surprising the Twins (injuries & bullpen), and Rays coming back to reality.  Yankees will have bought there way back into the playoffs, but not all the way to the series, sending Hanky Steinbrenner into another offseason spending fit.

NL features some usual suspects as well—Cubs streak of blowing their best chances will continue, though, and the Mets will (finally) take advantage.
In a World Series that I will be able to (once again) completely ignore, the Mets acquisition of Johan Santana will kill the Red Sox, and put the Mets over the top.