So A Congressman, Roger Clemens, and the King of the Gungans Walk Into a Bar...

Enough is enough. I want Roger Clemens taken down a few notches, but seriously, do we really need to launch yet another investigation by the Department of Justice? It's just like with Barry Bonds: we all know he did it, we all think he's a scummy guy, but 25 to life and the utter annihilation of his reputation aren't going to make the record books any more pure. I surely hope that this ESPN article referencing a rumored draft letter to the DoJ is false.

More locally, after locking up Tito the Sox decided they really liked Star Wars Episode I and signed Bartolo Colon (known here as king of the Gungans) to a minor league deal worth roughly $1 million.Although he won 21 games with Anaheim as recently as 2005 he's been more or less a bust after that, going a combined 7-13 over the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Considering it's a minor league deal this is really a win-win for the Sox. Colon, if healthy, could be a valuable addition to the back of the rotation come midseason, and at the very least he'll spot start when one of our horses need their planned midsummer shoulder rest.

Also, on a side note, I think everyone should stop holding their breath for a Coco Crisp trade before the season begins. There just isn't enough demand out there for a player of Crisp's caliber, and at the very most they'll only recoup B-level prospects from most teams. If he were traded, the Sox bench would become immensely weaker, and the backup outfielders would have to be someone along the lines of Bobby Kielty or Brandon Moss. Seriousy, Coco's better. I know that by keeping him one runs the risk of Jay Payton a few years ago, but it's a risk that at the very least maintains team depth.

Besides, Coco can't be traded until his premium Red Sox Nation membership expires.

Congratulations, Tito

We've all given him our fair share of garbage over the past four years, disputing lineup shuffles, bullpen use, and Lord knows how many other things he's done; despite all of that, however, I think we can all agree that some congratulations are in order. Terry Francona and the Red Sox agreed to a three year extension (excluding two more options). If everything remains the same, we should see Tito take the team through Fenway Park's centennial celebration in 2012, and hopefully, thensome.

Kudos.

Morning Becoming Eclectic

So with all the rumors and rumblings across the camps in Florida and Arizona, sometimes it's hard to focus on what's really important. Roger Clemens was at Jose Canseco's party, according to newly released photographs he took with a boy at the party; Manny changed his agent to Scott Boras one day after declaring he wanted to finish his career in Boston, and that's not necessarily a bad thing considering Boras' relationship with the front office; Coco Crisp stated his desire to play full time or be traded, but not in a malicious way, and Jacoby Ellsbury seems to be OK with the competition; David Ortiz's knee is close to 100%, and Curt Schiling's shoulder is starting the long road through rehab. These are all the big "business" headlines that I've been keeping up with over the last week, and if you've been doing your reading, maybe you have, too.

Still, weekends are slow, so maybe you decided not to check your online link list, or maybe you decided to hit the ground running on this snowy Saturday morning and skip the morning paper. Wait for Sunday, right? Well, if that's the case then you missed a fantastic piece by the Globe's Gordon Edes. Nothing you'll find on Sportscenter or even scrolling across the BottomLine, but something that's somehow more important than everything mentioned above. I won't ruin it for you. I'll just post the link to this creation here and at the bottom of the post.

Happy Reading.

"Camp Sights," Gordon Edes

Rocket Crash Lands in Washington

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Hoo, boy. If you stayed home to watch today's Congressional hearing you were in for a treat. We had everything from stupid questions and feigned indignation, to hubris uncovered and a body destroyed.

In short, we had what we always have when baseball comes in front of Congress.

There were a few new facts that came to light today. Among them, the fact that Roger Clemens' nanny corroborates McNamee's claim that Clemens was at Jose Canseco's gathering, that an independent expert examined the MRI of Clemens' buttocks and determined his abscess couldn't result from B12, and that you don't need to be much smarter than a 5th grader to be a congressperson. Most importantly, however, we learned that Andy Pettitte is a much more upstanding man than his friend. It was there, in the made-public sworn affidavit of Pettitte, that we find the most compelling evidence. Pettitte backs up McNamee's side of the story, and is such a God-fearing man that even Clemens himself has a hard time doing anything but claim that Pettitte "misremembers."

>Beyond this evidence is how strikingly arrogant Clemens is, and how visibly frustrated he becomes when placed in a situation where he is not in control. On repeated occasions he interrupted Rep. Waxman and other representatives to comment on his own, and was even allowed to speak entirely out of turn and independent of any line of questioning to make a statement regarding his wife. As Howard Bryant writes in this fine piece at ESPN.com, Clemens decided to point the finger at everybody around him: his trainer, his agents, his lawyers, the MLBPA, the commissioner's office, the faulty memories of his teammates, and even his wife. It was their fault that he is being investigated, their fault that he is being unfairly targeted on a national stage.

Please.

The funny thing about all this is that baseball will emerge unscathed. The Mitchell Report managed to withstand the criticism thrown its way, becoming an even stronger and more important document. So many players have gotten caught and come clean that there is a strange sense of absolution in a lot of ways. Once again, players like Andy Pettitte stand next to players like Roger Clemens and look to be made of much purer stuff. 

I've moved on. While I'm interested to see how the Clemens legal situation evolves over the coming months, I have no more interest in partaking of a league-wide witch hunt. Ex-players with blogs and microphones can spare me the clubhouse rhetoric and affected innocence; there has been enough evidence to convince anybody that there was a serious problem. Now we should all attempt to move on.

As camps open tomorrow and practice fields fill with young, impressionable minor leaguers, teams find themselves in a position to promote the right kind of development. Fans young and old now have a more precise lens with which to view their heroes, and such heroes will hopefully be chosen for the right reasons.

Unfortunately for Roger Clemens, he no longer gets to be one of them.

It's OK to Start Counting Now

Conspiracy Theorists Abound

We've all looked at the results of the Mets-Twins trade this past week; we've seen the super-mega-excellent contract extension that Johan managed to land despite not being a free agent; finally, we've seen the miserable pack of prospects that Minnesota was able to drag in out of the cold. What we haven't seen is any sort of proof backing up the whispers of conspiracy being uttered across cyberspace. "The Mets gave up what? Minnesota got what? There must have been a wink-wink nudge-nudge deal between the Yankees and the Red Sox." That's right, folks, we're talking collusion and conspiracy.

I call BS.

Look, Minnesota really got a raw deal here. If I were a fan in the Twin Cities I would be screaming for blood. Unfortunately, there's nobody to blame here but Bill Smith and Carl Pohlad. Smith, in my opinion, misread the desire of the Sox and Yankees to have Santana in their rotation. At the Winter Meetings the iron was hottest with both teams ready to bring him in and move on with the offseason. As the days turned into weeks tuned into months, all of baseball began to look at the potential deals differently.

For the Big Two, the announcement of their luxury tax payments was likely the first push in the direction of not trading with Minnesota. The Twins tried to play chicken with both front offices and basically ask for Boston and New York's top five lists. There again, another push. If Minnesota was so convinced that the loss of Santana would be eventually made up for by these prospects, was it even worth getting rid of them in the first place? C.C. Sabathia, big hulk of a left-hander that he is, should be up on the free agent block next season. Even if he commands a contract in the same ballpark as Santana, it won't be accompanied by the loss of the cream of the farm system's crop.

I know that the union and a number of players and pundits got their backs up when Theo Epstein and Larry Beinfest had a GMs-only closed door meeting to discuss needs and wants in December, but since the initial barking their has been no bite in any form. To go further, both Theo and Brian Cashman are smart enough individuals to arrive at the decision to hold their cards instead of throwing them all away on one man. They don't need to talk to each other to make what were ultimately wise decisions.

Bill Smith screwed the pooch on this one. He waited too long and was unable get what he wanted. Come to think of it, Smith may even have been better waiting until midseason to try and trade Santana. At least then there would be teams in the position to say "OK, Santana will put us over the hump and in the best position to win." Instead he blew it, and can only hope that Delmon Young ends up a lifetime Twin and Hall of Famer.

Move Over, Menino: Boston's New Mayor

In filling their last infield need with veteran lefty first baseman Sean Casey, the Red Sox look like they're just about ready for Moving Day and the reporting of pitchers and catchers on Valentine's Day. Casey's contract, pending a physical, is for a reported $800,000, and came without the loss of a draft pick due to Detroit's decision not to offer the former Mayor of Cincinnati arbitration. The addition of Casey means "Thank you, and good night," for Eric Hinske in Boston and maybe the rest of the league, as Hinske was just awful. 

As you've no doubt heard by now, Casey's nickname "The Mayor" came from a great clubhouse presence and personality. His dedication to his teams and to those less fortunate took center stage in 2005 when the Globe did an exposé on Casey's community service work with Lawrence priest Father Paul O'Brien when the Reds were in town to recreate 1975. After the fractured clubhouse persona that took root in 2005, Casey should certainly be viewed as welcome reinforcements for locally heralded Mike Lowell.

On the field, Sean Casey is no slouch. Unlike previous manifestations of our backup first-sacker, this guy can hit. Although he's never cracked the 200 hit benchmark, he's also never racked up more than 88 strikeouts in a season. It's an impressive feat for someone who has nearly 5000 career ABs over a twelve year career whose line hums at an impressive .301/.366/.450. He'll never belt 40 home runs or steal 3o bases, especially at his ripe age of 33, but he's prime for part-time and shared duties at first with Kevin Youkilis.  Want a comparison? Think Lyle Overbay with five more years of service time but only 79 more K's. Casey is ideal for this sort of situation. His puts good wood on the ball so much that we won't have to wince in pain every time he's asked to pinch hit or spell Youk for a day, like we did with Hinske.

Contract for less than $1 million, good contact, great clubhouse presence, and no draft pick forefeited? Let's call this what it is: a good deal.