Autonomy is to Brian Cashman as Sanity is to Milton Bradley

Apparently, Brian Cashman didn't think highly of the move his organization made by signing Rafael Soriano. Cashman made this clear to the media, at the press conference announcing the signing.
Well, that's just super. Word is the Yankee front office believed it has a duty, passed down from God himself, to spend copious amounts of money every off-season regardless of talent, history or common sense. If any other team in baseball pulled a move like this, a tar and feathering at a public forum would be in order.

In other news, board game tycoon turned psychotic DH Milton Bradley was arrested for making threats towards an unidentified woman. Craig Calcaterra looks into whether or not the Mariners can void Bradley's contract, here. Unless this story turns out to be false, I think it's become quite clear that Bradley just isn't psychologically capable of handling a position on a major league roster.

More Randomness...

Royals pitcher Gil Meche is calling it quits after more shoulder troubles. Meche had some talent but injuries and inconsistency stunted any chance of real stardom. That being said, Gil got paid and big-time. Baseball has this funny economic cycle that sees it's "marquee" free agents get paid anywhere from a ton of money to a shit ton of money, depending on the year. Meche had 2 things working for him when he signed that deal; he hit the market at the right time and he was a marginal starter who was relatively young and had potential without the actual history of success. Often times those who fit that profile receive deals beyond their worth (cough::JARET WRIGHT::cough). Anyway, good for Gil.

Here's a nice article about the faultiness of ERA. And you can supplement that with MY post about FIP from last season. Come on, you know you want to...

Hardball Times has 5 winning moves of the off-season. My favorite part of the article: Yunieksy Betancourt's name in the title of number 4 put in parenthesis, then he isn't even discussed in the trade evaluation. The guy is a glorified sandbag.