Here’s rotoworld.com’s take:

“Tony Womack tonight is making his first start since July 5. He’s starting in center field and batting ninth.
Womack has had just two at-bats since his last start. Maybe the Yankees are hoping to showcase him for a late trade. Then again, he probably has more value when he isn’t playing.”

Painfully true.

Gillette speculates this is the key to Mo’s ’05 dominance = now even patient hitters (like the Sox) can’t just sit and wait for a cutter in the zone. It was an interesting read.

BTW, I’ve found Gillette to be a pretty good writer/reporter, though I only happen to get Insider access due to my ESPNtheMag subscription. I wouldn’t shell out $40/year for it.

Seeing as how Mo is striking guys out at a much higher rate than in previous years, I was wondering what this could be – I’m inclined to think that it was Mo going back to the things he did earlier in his career before Mel asked him to make a few tweaks. Still, I’d just like to know if it’s just a fluff piece or if there’s really something in the article as to what Mo has changed.

Chacon can be very wild, but at times wildly effective. He’s never been all that impressive against good hitting teams, I don’t think.

I loved the ending to LaPointe’s story. He may be good enough to write for Bronx Banter!

But I could see the Mets valuing Cameron and Sori equally. Both have power and speed (and lots of Ks), neither has a great AVG, both can play positions (CF, 2B) where offense is usually at a premium.

That said, the Mets would be stupid to trade Cameron (not to say anything besides just Cameron) to get Sori. Cameron is a superior fielder. Cameron may strikeout, but the man knows how to walk. Sori doesn’t. Worst of all, with his declining speed (hamstring problems), Sori’s offensive contribution is really in his AVG and his power. But Shea suppress AVG and power (esp for righties) a ton.

Putting Sori in Shea – and effectively gutting his primary offensive contributions – would be a mistake of colossal proportions. The Mets doing this wouldn’t surprise me at all.

BTW – I don’t mean to sound like I’m knocking Sori because I really like him – we named our pet cockatiel Soriano – but he is what he is, and Shea is what it is.

btw, i really like O’Neill in the booth. He doesn’t share much in the way of analysis, but he does seem like a genuine person.

Just look for this as a foreshadowing of the offseason where the Red Sox will be definitely shopping him around.

Lucchino is just doing damage control in a season that was almost perfect until Manny opened up his big mouth. Sort of reminds me of Wells in 2003.

In other news, I just read from cbssportslin.com that “Rumors are rampant in newspapers from New York to Dallas about a trade that would send Texas 2B Alfonso Soriano to New York. The Mets apparently very interested, but are finding the Rangers asking price, which includes OF Mike Cameron, too high. “

Am I the only one that is lost here. Why does everyone have Cameron at such a high regard. The Mets compared the quality of Cameron to Sheffield, now Soriano? Man, Soriano got traded for AROD! Did we not forget that?

I hear you about Manny, but remember too that the gargantuan salaries are because MLB players transcend being just athletes. They make that money because of their ability to entertain millions of people at a time. And Manny is entertaining. Even if he pisses you off, you watch to see what he’s gonna do next. It’s the Howard Stern syndrome.

You make an excellent point in that, if A-Rod or Sheff or Jeter pulled any of that crap that Manny pulls they’d be decried as everything that’s wrong with baseball. Manny somehow gets “loveable goof” status. The reality is probably somewhere in between.

(And I did think that Manny disappearing into the Green Monster was hilarious.)

One other point, I can’t imagine why Manny wants out of Boston. What’s his beef?

Winfield was the only guy I remember hitting home runs that never seemed to get more than 20 feet off the air, and they left the park in warp speed. Sheff is definitely in that same league.

Man, I just imagine being an opposing pitcher and having to face this Yankee lineup. With Giambi hitting the ball again (hope that’s not starting to trail off …), there’s four guys in a row who can just murder you. Even if you get three of them out in one inning, there’s one waiting for you next time out. Everyone talks about Manny/Ortiz, but I’ll take Sheff/Arod/Matsui anyday. Three of a kind always beats a pair.

BP

I can believe it. Winfield always swung out of his shoes, too.

What gets me, though, is that he swings so hard, you’d think he would be hitting the moon shot homers. But no – that’s A-Rod. A-Rod looks like he hits a lazy fly ball to center field, and it lands about 10 minutes later some 450 feet away. How does he do that?!? I swear – at least 5 times this year he has hit a shot to center or right where I think “crap – fly ball” and it’s GONE. Geez. Deceptive.

The only time this year where I noticed he looked like he swung hard (and made contact) was the shot off Wakefield where he hit it over the wall. They had a great camera shot of his swing for that one. Blazing fast.

Remember some folks saying early this year that A-Rod’s bat had slowed down ’cause of all his off-season weight training. I remember someone in the booth saying “those extra 15 pounds of muscle can actually slow a guy’s swing down quite a bit”.

Uh – yeah. It shows. (smirk)

BP