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Yahoo! Sports – MLB – D.C. official says baseball returning to Washington; announcement Wednesday

If it becomes clear Wednesday that the Expos will finally be leaving Montreal after this season, will more fans or fewer fans show up for the last game that night?

If baseball announces that the Expos are moving, will they have to pay off the extremely limited partners Jeffrey Loria left behind in Montreal, who are presently suing because they believe he ran the franchise he was sheparding into the ground? And if they don’t (or if they have not yet), might not the announcement eventually become yet another embarrasment for the lords of baseball?

We shall see.

There’s a lot of finagling going on behind the scenes, we can be sure. If there wasn’t, this deal would have been done long ago.

ESPN.com – MLB – Bonds randomly tested for steroids Friday

An ESPN SportsNation poll, with 34,000 respondents, and 57 percent say that even if Bonds tests negative they won’t be convinced he’s clean.

There is an issue here. Under the current rules, it won’t be announced if he tests positive. Which I suppose means that when he gets the results he’ll announce the negative results himself. Baseball has done itself no favors by leaving this issue unaddressed for so long, but even after a few years, when the current program has a track record, the public will still know that the tests can be gamed. And they won’t trust the results when they think they know better by what they see with their unaided eyes.

I think that’s too bad, and yet I can’t say I blame the public. But if that’s the way you think I don’t see why you would remain a sports fan.

Baseball Prospectus | Articles | Breaking Balls: A Game of Numbers

Derek Zumsteg does the math that confirms what I already knew: Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter of all time. And he does it gracefully, as he should, without dismissing the awesome spector that is Babe Ruth. Hardly essential reading, but a good job.

Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

This one is feeling bad, with the recommended Paul Byrd already taking a hit, but there is much to say about the Marlins’ rotation, hitter keepers for next year, a thought about replacing Alfonso Soriano, and a musical question: Is it really collusion if no one gets hurt?

The Fantasy Huddle’s Message Board

Because of some timing issues and because I’m busy putting the baseball magazine out in October and November and thus have little time for writing about football, I’ve changed the links for the football discussions to point to The Fantasy Huddle.

Jesse, who runs the Huddle, will be posting updated links each week for free football info on the front page of his site, and will host the discussions using the same fine Boards2Go software we’ve been using at Ask Rotoman for baseball.

And speaking about baseball, the usual gang should be checking in at the Ask Rotoman discussion board, where the Cy Young awards are already a subject for debate.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Box Score

Great games pitched by Ryan Vogelsong, Chris Young, Aaron Heilman and others are a reminder that late in the season pitching performances generally improve. Pedro Martinez owners will surely disagree, but when the games don’t mean anything the pitchers definitely get the upper hand.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Mets’ mess: Howe and why

There are some provocative statements in this story. Black Jack’s conclusion that a team only wins when it builds through the organization stokes some flames. And then it seems wholly reasonable.

Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

The new one is up, with a list of potential keeps for next year, a look at whether Abreu, Sheffield or Berkman is the guy to commit to for three years, and discussions about Bobby Madritsch and the Joses Reyes and Contreras.

Ask Rotoman’s Football Message Board

Someone asked for it, and it’s up now. Rotoman’s Football Discussion Board. There’s a link now at the top of www.askrotoman.com. Or bookmark the real page.

Ask Rotoman Home Page

Some long overdue tweaks of the design (but still yellow) and the adoption of Blogger’s commenting system lead to the loss of a lot of comments you have made over the past year. I’m sorry about that, but I hope this new system will be more stable.

Note also the direct link to Football Discussions in the top navigation bar.