More Cheese Being spent and Barry Looking for Employment...

Jason Schmidt: 3 years/47 mil - a move I can justify. A lot of money, and over three years, a good move for a pitcher in his 30's and won't cripple the Dodgers if it doesn't work out over time.

Greg Maddux: 1 year/10 mil - he's picked the perfect place, a pitcher's ballpark, great weather. If he could do what he did with the Dodgers, the move from the Padres is brilliant. At his age, anything can happen, but he's always been durable.

Ted Lilly: 4 years/40 mil - Ok pitcher. Reliable, and you know what you're getting. Chicago can be a brutal place, but I seem him keeping in line with his numbers, and maybe his ERA going down a tad with the factor being with the NL lineups. I don't like the salary, but the situation at hand is the situation at hand...

Joe Borowski: 1 year/4.25 mil - Low risk move. Does not have flashy stuff, but as long as he gets people out, no harm is done.

Vicente Padilla: 3 years/34 mil - Um, I don't like the money spent (see my thoughts on Ted Lilly). Had a good year in Texas, but has issue after issue. If he keeps his stats in line the past few years, he'll be ok.

***

It's kind of sad (ok, not really) that Barry has chronicled during the winter meetings as trying to find a suitor. For a man with his number last year (at any age, it would be productive and he'd be one of the better players on the Orioles), it's sad he has not been taken by anyone yet. Seeing him on ESPN last night after my softball game, he seemed like a person who was not ready to face reality and his smug, surly attitude said it all.

Perhaps part of it is his demand for a year, that being around 18 million.

However, when you're seen as a drug cheat, involved in one of the biggest drug scandals ever(BALCO), rude to almost every one, the media hates you, you're hated universally except in San Francisco (let's face it, he's the reason why AT&T Park is what it is today), has an ego the size of North America, and baseball wants you gone and not to break Hank's record, it should serve as little reason why no one wants you.

As much I respect him as an athlete (not as a person at all), I would not blame anyone for not wanting him around.

Anyone who wants Bonds in Baltimore needs their head examined.

Screw the stats, the protection in the lineup and the allure of the homerun.

After the trials, tribulations along with the embrassment of Palmeiro, Sosa and the allegations of Roberts, Gibbons and Tejada with drug use, do we need the circus and paparazzi to come to town? Have you thought about if he even approaches Hank's record?

Considering we have our own problems --- pass.