Nothing

Not much has come out on Daisuke, but there have been some not-so reliable reports out of Texas that the Rangers made a $30 million bid and might have won. In reality, teams like Texas and Arizona have a hard time getting top tier pitchers to play for their teams. Partly because of their parks and partly because of their organizations, but they are mostly reliant on developing their own talent or overpaying for guys like Russ Ortiz, Chan Ho Park, and Kevin Millwood. It makes sense for them to go balls deep into this type of bidding for a certifiable ace.

If the Mets fail to nab Daisuke, they will get someone else. I have faith in Omar. However, if the Mets do fail to get Daisuke, let us all hope the Yankees do not get him. I cannot bear the thought of the Yankees just throwing more money out there to simply buy more top tier talent and see Cashmen get lauded as a genius once again. Genius is what Omar did with bargain players this past season. Genius is not laying out the most cash for for a baseball player.

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As the Glavine Turns....

""I pretty much told (Mets CEO Jeff Wilpon) that I won't hang him up on this, that I'll probably let him know before the winter meetings (Dec. 4-7)," Glavine told the Web site.

"I'm a little surprised that I have so little sense of what I'm going to do. I'm listing all the positives for (the Mets and Braves) in columns and trying to assess what I have as educatedly as I can."

I'm sure Tom and his agent know the Braves interest in him more than a bunch of assholes like us, but has anyone even heard the slightest bit of interest on the Braves part in bringing Glavine back? Tom filed for free agency, but the Mets still have until November 20th to pick up their option and could negotiate with him until then. This was expected, but he is annoying me more and more every day. With his $12 million, I would rather nab Zito at this point. Tom's $12 million will be put to better use there and Zito's hefty salary might be a burden for 2008 while Pedro is still around, but after that? Not so much. I want Tom back, but part of me thinks the Mets just might be better off if he walks. Of course there is no guarantee they could get Zito and bring in another solid starter via trade or free agency, but it seems like a gamble worth taking.

Best football game ever?

Maybe. I graduated from Rutgers in 2000. Admittedly, I didn't care much about their collegiate athletics program like a lot of friends my friends did, but this year I'm pumped. The Rutgers defense is just scary and watching Judge Jeremy Ito go for broke at the end of last night's game was just sick. Rutgers should be ranked 8th or 9th after last night's win (just let that sink in) and I never thought I would see the day that I would be in a bar with people going crazy for Rutgers like they were watching game seven of the World Series.

Bill Conlin does not want to see the Phillies to peruse Alfonso Soriano.

I HAVE COME to praise Alfonso Soriano, not to bury him. He is a special player with special skills. He is also a flawed player with special flaws.

In his first season in leftfield - he had to be dragged there kicking and screaming - Soriano was ranked No. 3 among all major league leftfielders in the plus-minus rankings of stats guru Bill James. And James ranked him a credible No. 6 overall in his Fielding Bible awards for 2006.

But despite Soriano's speed and stolen-base totals, he is not a particularly good baserunner. According to a formula devised by James to rank a runner's success ratio going first to third on a single, scoring from second on a single, scoring from first on a double and extra bases taken (moving up in a variety of situations), Soriano is barely middle of the baserunning pack.