MLB's original 16 meeting in the World Series

What a run for these Giants, playing six games in which they faced elimination, and winning each one. In their long and storied history, they'd never won a Game 7 until last night (not counting Game 7 of the 1921 World Series, which was a best-of-nine).

In the 108th World Series, they'll face the Tigers -- another of the original 16 franchises from 1901 -- for the first time. That seemed surprising to me, but it's pretty common, especially when you consider that of the Cubs' infrequent appearances, four were against Detroit, or that while the Dodgers have 18 World Series visits -- ALL of which were against one of the AL's original eight -- 11 were against that team from the Bronx.

But all of this is more easily digested in table form, so here's the breakdown:

TEAMS	Braves	Cardinals	Cubs	Dodgers	Giants	Phillies	Pirates	Reds
A's	1	2	2	2	4			2
Browns/Orioles*		1		1		1	2	1
Indians	2			1	1
Red Sox		3	1	1	1	1	1	1
Senators/Twins	1	1		1	2		1
Tigers		5	4		1		2	1
White Sox			1	1	1			1
Yankees	4	5	2	11	7	2	2	3

*The Browns/Orioles franchise played one season, 1901, in Milwaukee as the Brewers before moving to St. Louis and then, in 1954, to Baltimore.

Thanks, Carlos

It was a pleasure watching you. Looking forward to another postseason tear.

Willie plays all fields

11:29 p.m. update -- The Daily Show interview was great, of course, and Jon Stewart's New Jersey roots made it unique, when Stewart mentioned Mays' days with the Trenton Giants in 1950. Back when the Trenton Thunder came along in 1994, the coverage of the city's baseball history had featured that connection, but I'd completely forgotten it. Mays was the first black player in the Interstate League, which was noted on this baseball signed by Mays that year.

Willie Mays is making the rounds in New York this week -- he's even on The Daily Show tonight -- to promote a new biography, the first that he has authorized. Last night's sit-down with Bob Costas on "Studio 42" was a joy to watch for someone who wasn't born until after Willie ended his career with the Mets in 1973.

My favorite Mays story has always been his afternoon stickball games on the streets of Harlem before he'd head up to the Polo Grounds for the game. In this day of SUVs with tinted windows and underground players' parking lots, you're not going to get that kind of interaction anymore. Though with blogs and Twitter and camera phones, who can blame the players?

Another thing that struck me during the two-hour program was that New Jersey's own Larry Doby was the runner when Mays made the catch on Vic Wertz's drive to center field in the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds. Mays said that he was more worried about making the throw to the infield -- knowing that he had scored from second on fly balls to the ballpark's vast center field -- than making the catch, but Doby had already rounded third, so by the time the ball got back to the infield, Doby was just getting back to second.

Two more segments of the interview are here and here, but they don't include one moment from early in the show when Costas refers to Mays' "classic Giants cap" on his head. It's bothered me for several years now that Mays regularly wears the hideous batting practice cap at his public appearances. But he must like the feel of it, because he wore the Mets version at the closing ceremonies for Shea Stadium. But Costas' reference to it as "classic" was grating. A cap with the SF logo would be nice to see, and a New York Giants replica lid would be truly classic.

I'll update this post tonight with the Daily Show clip -- if Willie's able to get there in all this snow. And though I have dozens of unread books around the house, someday I may have to get the Harry Potter-sized bio that has prompted this look back at Willie's career.

Most valuable losers

When Chase Utley hit his second home run in Game 5 of the World Series, giving him five against the Yankees, the discussion began about who had been named Series MVP from the losing team. Since the award was first given (in 1955 to Johnny Podres), only one player had ever earned the honor but not a championship ring: the Yankees' Bobby Richardson in the 1960 Fall Classic.

Of course, that's the year that Bill Mazeroski ended the Series at Forbes Field with the only Game 7 walk-off homer in history. Mazeroski's numbers in the seven games were decent: .320 batting average, two homers, five RBIs, two doubles, four runs. But Richardson's topped that: .367, one homer, 12 RBIs, two doubles, two triples, eight runs. In fact, Maz's somewhat pedestrian numbers were the best across the board on a Pittsburgh team that lost the Series in pretty much every category other than games won.

The Bombers outhit the Bucs, .338 to .256; outscored them 55-27; outhomered them 10-4; outslugged them 27 extra-base hits to 15; outpitched them 3.54-7.11 in ERA; and outWHIPped them 1.18 to 1.76. The Pirates won their four games by scores of 6-4 (Game 1), 3-2 (Game 4), 5-2 (Game 5), and 10-9 (Game 7). The Yankees' winning scores were 16-3 (Game 2), 10-0 (Game 3) and 12-0 (Game 6).

Mazeroski's five RBIs led the Pirates alongside Bill Virdon, but his five came with just a .241 average on seven hits. For New York, Richardson wasn't a one-man show, and if anyone in the press box kept track of the voting that year, I'd have to think that Mickey Mantle lost by one vote. Mantle hit .400 with three homers, 11 RBIs, a double, eight runs and eight walks. One way or another, the MVP of the 1960 World Series was going to a Yankee.

The Pirates' best candidate for MVP would have to be right-hander Vern Law, who started and won Games 1 and 4 and allowed one run in five innings after starting Game 7. In 18 1/3 innings, he allowed seven earned runs for a 3.44 ERA. The only other mark below 4.00 for Pittsburgh was Harvey Haddix's 2.45 (two earned runs in 7 1/3) that he accumulated by starting and winning Game 5 (6 1/3 innings, both runs) and pitching the ninth to win Game 7. (He came in with runners on first and second and no outs, gave up a single to Mantle that allowed Richardson to score and move Dale Long to third, then blew the save and allowed Long to score the tying run on a groundout to first by Yogi Berra.)

The most dominant pitcher in the Series was Whitey Ford, who won Games 3 and 6 by pitching 18 scoreless innings, allowing just 11 hits and two walks and striking out eight -- certainly MVP-worthy numbers. It makes you wonder why Casey Stengel, whose Yankees won the AL by eight games over the Orioles, pitched Ford for two innings in relief in the season finale on Oct. 2 and didn't use Ford until Game 3 on Oct. 8. Ford's last start had been on Sept. 28, five days before Game 1 of the Series on Oct. 3. For the season, Ford was 12-9 with a 3.08 ERA and an 85-65 K:BB ratio in 192 2/3 innings. Stengel's Game 1 and 2 starters were Art Ditmar (15-9, 3.06, 65-56 in 200 IP) and Bob Turley (9-3, 3.27, 87-87 in 173 1/3 IP). Had Ford started Games 1 and 4 and been available had it gone to seven, it may have been a different story.

In this year's Series, I think any chance Utley had of winning the award hinged on the Phillies forcing Game 7 -- especially if Utley played into a Game 6 victory in even the smallest sense. I think even to consider a player from the losing team, the Series has to go seven games. The most common simple way to evaluate whether a player is the valuable to his team may be to consider the team's fortunes were that player removed from the lineup. Take away Utley's solo homers in the third and sixth innings of Game 1, and it's scoreless into the eighth -- maybe Cliff Lee changes his approach in some situations in a scoreless game as opposed to having a 1-0 and 2-0 lead. And in Game 5, Utley's three-run shot in the first inning kept the crowd at its fever pitch from the start and pretty much gave Lee the freedom to pitch his game. (And, of course, Lee's performance in the Series would've earned him consideration for MVP as well, especially since he almost certainly would've had some role in a Game 7.)

So Utley fits the definition of a player most valuable to his team, but with just a six-game Series, it's hard to seriously consider someone from the losing side. For one thing, the Phillies never found themselves one win away from the title. And though they won Game 1 on the road, once the Yankees took Game 2, it was clear the momentum had shifted and remained on the Yankees' side through Game 4 and their 3-1 Series lead. The Phillies got it back to an extent in Game 5, but only for the first seven innings. After Utley's second home run of the game to lead off that inning and Raul Ibanez's shot three batters later, the Yankees fought back with three runs in the eighth and another in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate in the form of Mark Teixeira before falling, 8-6. In my mind, any shot the Phillies had of forcing Game 7 hinged on their jumping out to a moderately comfortable lead (in Yankee Stadium against these Bombers, that would have to be at least three runs) with Pedro Martinez starting Game 6 for them. It didn't happen -- Hideki Matsui's two-run homer in the second put the Yankees ahead for good, and though the Phillies got one back in the third, Matsui essentially put the game away (and earned his MVP) in the bottom of the third with a two-run single.

Since the MVP was introduced in 1955, a total of 59 players have won the award in the 55 Series that have been played. Those numbers account for three Dodgers -- Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager -- and two Diamondbacks -- Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson -- sharing the award in 1981 and 2001, respectively; they also account for the absence of a Fall Classic in 1994. Out of those 59 players, 23 have been starting pitchers, or 40 percent. Of those 55 Series, 23 have gone seven games, and in seven-game Series, the MVP has been a starting pitcher 14 times, or 58 percent. (Three relief pitchers have won -- Rollie Fingers in 1974, John Wetteland in 1996 and Mariano Rivera in 1999 -- but none of those Series went seven games.) So when the Series goes the distance, giving starting pitchers a chance to have an effect on three games instead of just two, they seem to have a greater chance of winning the MVP award.

Here's the list MVPs from World Series that went seven games:

Year	Player	Pos	Team
1955	Johnny Podres	SP	BRK
1956	Don Larsen	SP	NYY
1957	Lew Burdette	SP	MIL
1958	Bob Turley	SP	NYY
1960	Richardson	2B	NYY
1962	Ralph Terry	SP	NYY
1964	Bob Gibson	SP	STL
1965	Sandy Koufax	SP	LAD
1967	Bob Gibson	SP	STL
1968	Mickey Lolich	SP	DET
1971	Roberto Clemente	OF	PIT
1972	Gene Tenace	C	OAK
1973	Reggie Jackson	OF	OAK
1975	Pete Rose	3B	CIN
1979	Willie Stargell	1B	PIT
1982	Darrell Porter	C	STL
1985	Bret Saberhagen	SP	KC
1986	Ray Knight	3B	NYM
1987	Frank Viola	SP	MIN
1991	Jack Morris	SP	MIN
1997	Livan Hernandez	SP	FLA
2001	Randy Johnson & Curt Schilling	SP	ARI
2002	Troy Glaus	3B	ANA

But I think the other obvious choice for an MVP on a losing team was another slugger, and one who played in the last seven-game Series, in 2002. Glaus won the award for hitting .385 (I'm using batting average because it's likely that most -- if not all -- of the voters in the press looked at that instead of OPS) with three home runs, eight RBIs, three doubles and six runs scored. He doubled in the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the eighth of Game 6, when the Angels were down to their final six outs of the season. He then went 0-for-2 with two walks and two strikeouts in Game 7.

Yet the most valuable player of that Series had to have been Barry Bonds. He hit .471 with four homers, six RBIs, eight runs and two doubles. Six of his eight hits were for extra bases (1.294 slugging percentage) and he was walked 13 times (vs. three strikeouts) for a .700 on-base percentage and a 1.994 OPS. He reached base via hit or walk in every game, and Game 4 was the only one in which he did not get a base hit. He went 0-for-1 with three walks, all intentional, and did not score in the game. The first two free passes worked; the Giants were held scoreless in those innings. But in the fifth, with the Angels leading 3-2 after two runs had scored in the frame, Mike Scioscia ordered John Lackey to walk Bonds with one out and Rich Aurilia on second. Benito Santiago then singled in Aurilia to tie the game. Anaheim got out of the inning, but San Francisco won, 4-3, with an unearned run in the eighth, an inning in which Bonds did not come to bat. (Bonds had batted in the seventh against Francisco Rodriguez and grounded out to first on a 2-2 count.)

That Series was at the height of Bonds' influence on how the game was played, evidenced by all of those walks -- he had an impact simply by forcing the opposing manager to take the bat out of his hands. Clearly, no one was more valuable. Had the Series ended in six games, he would've won the MVP (he went 1-for-3 with a walk, no runs or RBIs, in Game 7), and he probably should have anyway. No pitcher on either team was worthy.

We're overdue for a seven-game Series. There have been seven played since the last one went the distance, easily the longest drought in history. Compare that to 1955-1965, when eight of 11 Fall Classics went the distance. And maybe our next seven-game season finale will come with another MVP debate. Imagine the postgame trophy presentation on Fox if the winner played for the losing side.

Key stretch for the Mets

A coworker and Mets fan IMed me last night as the Braves finished off their sweep of the listless Mets.

"So the next 17 games -- 3 in COL, 3 vs. FLA, 4 vs. LA, 3 in SF, 4 in SD ... What do we need? That's 10 games against three of the worst teams, record-wise in the NL."

I thought about it for a moment, and we agreed:

Two out of three in Colorado, with an average of eight or nine runs a game. I'd be able to stomach a 13-11 loss.

Two out of three against Florida. Yeah, they're in first place, but they're the Marlins. And it's at Shea.

A split against the Dodgers. They've struggled at times, but they still have some decent pitching (perhaps Clayton Kershaw in those four games) and some nice young hitters.

And they need to take six out of seven in San Diego and San Francisco, home to two of the NL's worst teams at the moment.

That's a 12-5 run through what should be some pretty easy competition.

It remains to be seen ...

2008 preview: NL West

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

In general

There is only one certainty in the NL West this year: The Giants will not win the division. And they probably will finish last. After that, this group is a tossup. Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles and San Diego can each win this thing, and each could finish anywhere from second to fourth. We could see all four within five games of one another at the end. Or we could see one or two of them crash and burn and fall a dozen games or more off the pace.

I don't feel good about this one, but I'm going with Arizona because I like their balance. If Randy Johnson is healthy and can win 12 games -- he needs 16 to get to 300 -- that's not a bad fourth starter, and a fourth starter is probably what you have to consider him to be now. Putting him behind Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and (my choice) Micah Owings gives the D-backs a deep rotation, and Doug Davis as a fifth starter is more than a lot of teams have. In the 'pen, tabbing Brandon Lyon as the closer soon after Jose Valverde was traded was a move questioned by some -- OK, maybe mostly fantasy folk -- but if he can hold the job, it makes the relief corps that much deeper, because it keeps hard-throwing Tony Pena in a setup role. But if the two are switched, they might not see that much of a dropoff. They've also got Chad Qualls, acquired in the Valverde deal.

Arizona's West title in 2007 was a bit of an anomaly. The D-backs went 90-72, but gave up more runs than they scored -- scoring, on average, 4.40 runs per game but yielding 4.52. Baseball Prospectus put their expected record with that run differential at 79-83. In 2006, the Padres allowed more runs than they scored in winning the division, but in '07, they collapsed down the stretch and gave up the Wild Card spot to the Rockies. But the young lineup Arizona enters 2008 with is similar to the one it finished '07 with, meaning these young guys have a year under their belts and should see some improvement. They've experienced first place, a pennant race and two playoff rounds. Eric Byrnes, Chris Young and Justin Upton may be the finest young outfield in baseball and Stephen Drew will soon emerge into an infield leader as Orlando Hudson passes the torch. Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson at the corners still have a little to prove over the course of a full season, but this does have the makings of a strong young infield. If Chad Tracy can recover from his injuries, he's a viable backup or replacement at either third or first base.

What I'm looking forward to seeing

The Big Unit is the lynchpin. If he's healthy and can fill out the rotation -- pushing Edgar Gonzalez or whoever back into the bullpen -- they're better off. I'd like to see him get to 300 wins, but 16 this year is asking a lot. How will Haren handle the change from one of baseball's best pitcher's parks to one that's not so forgiving? Can Lyon hold onto the closer's job? Is Chris Young a 30-30 guy in his second season? Just how good will Upton be? And do the D-backs have a budding rivalry with the Rockies that will provide plenty of great moments for years to come?

COLORADO ROCKIES

In general

I love this club and I wanted to put them first, but with three-fifths of their starting rotation still having a lot to prove and the nature of their playoff appearance last year -- winning 20 out of 21 in September and October will not happen in 2008 -- I have to bump them down a notch. I'm tempted, in fact, to put them third, but I'm not going to; I'll explain when I get to that third-place team.

I love the Rockies because they have two of the best hitters in the division. Matt Holliday is the top player out West and Troy Tulowitzki may soon battle him for that title. Tulo is 6'3", 205 pounds -- the same height and 20 pounds lighter (currently) than another former young shortstop star who began his career in the Pacific time zone. That would be Alex Rodriguez, and while I'm not saying Tulo is going to go on to hit 700 home runs over his career (as everyone can pretty much agree A-Rod will, I think), to me there are a lot of similarities between the two. Tulo is just as good a defender at short as A-Rod was, and in his first season he developed into a threat at the plate and a leader on the field and in the clubhouse, prompting the Rockies to come forward with the biggest contract for a player with such little experience in Major League history. Like the American League was in the 90s, the NL is now stocked with young star shortstops. With Tulo, Drew, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez and Jimmy Rollins, at least two deserving players will soon be left out of most All-Star Games.

Jeff Francis will finish his career as, by far, the best pitcher ever to wear the purple and black and aside from the aforementioned sluggers, perhaps the best draft pick in the organization's history. Yes, better than Todd Helton. But behind Francis and Aaron Cook, the Rox will be turning to Ubaldo Jimenez and two of these three: Franklin Morales, Mark Redman and Josh Towers. So that's two youngsters and two veterans who don't raise too much excitment in any fan. In relief, the emergence of Manny Corpas as the closer allowed three-time All-Star Brian Fuentes to become a setup man. Taylor Buchholz has had a strong spring, and Ryan Speier, Jose Cappellan and Luis Vizcaino help to make up a solid stock of reserve arms.

What I'm looking forward to seeing

Tulo, Tulo, Tulo. Love that guy. Plus, how does this team follow up last year? And how do opponents react? I can tell you that no one in the New York City area expected Colorado to sweep the Mets and Yankees out of Coors. In recent years, I'd looked at the Mets' annual Denver trip as a chance to win two out of three or three out of four, with the ERAs taking a hit but the averages getting a boost. Now, it's not such an easy W.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

In general

Joe Torre switches coasts and takes on a new challenge. I wanted to put the Dodgers second just because of him. I considered them for the top spot as well, but I'm scared off by all the innings they want to give to Esteban Loaiza, Chad Billingsley and the unknown in Hiroki Kuroda. I don't like all the at-bats they have tied into Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra and Juan Pierre, either. We want to see the kids play -- James Loney (he will), Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. Takashi Saito, despite the 1.40 ERA in '07, is considered shaky at 38 and no one ever praised Torre's handling of the bullpen those last few years in the Bronx. Scott Proctor must've felt a slight sense of dread when the Dodgers signed Torre, figuring he had escaped him last year in the Wilson Betemit trade. Hopefully Torre doesn't overuse Jonathan Broxton and ruin him for all of us.

That said, Torre pretty much did it all with the Yankees. He won when he had everything he needed and was able to coast through a season and he managed against injuries and adversity to recover from early deficits to reach the postseason. I'd like to think he can come to L.A. and be a quick fix, but he clearly doesn't have the personnel he did when he arrived in New York.

What I'm looking forward to seeing

Saturday's exhibition game against the Red Sox at the L.A. Coliseum. I love the historical nod to kick off the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the team's move west. Also, can Torre make this a memorable anniversary? Does Andruw Jones bounce back after a tough final season in Atlanta? Do Nomar and Kent have anything left? Can the rotation veterans -- Brad Penny, Derek Lowe and Loaiza -- put together a full season? Penny's had second-half issues in the past and Lowe's in a contract year at 35 (on June 1) after going 12-14 last year, albeit with a decent 3.88 ERA.

SAN DIEGO PADRES

In general

When the minor leaguers show they're ready for the Majors, yet the organization insists on sending them down to start the season, it frustrates us as fans. Imagine what it does to the players. We saw it with B.J. Upton in Tampa, and a bit with Delmon Young, too. Young spoke out about it and Upton took three years to finally stick -- and thrive. So it's maddening to see Chase Headley sent to Triple-A in favor of Jody Gerut in left field in San Diego. It's understandable that the Padres want to see him gain more experience in the outfield (they have Kevin Kouzmanoff at third base, Headley's natural position), but for a team that could use a strong outfield bat, it's a tough decision. San Diego's starting outfield -- Jim Edmonds (when he's in there, and he probably won't be to start the season), Brian Giles and Gerut -- should probably be batting sixth, seventh and eighth in the lineup. It remains to be seen if they actually will, so if they don't, that may not be a good sign. Particularly if Giles is the leadoff batter.

There's more to like in the infield, where Kouzmanoff, shortstop Khalil Green and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez are all capable of 20-30 home runs (or more, in Gonzalez's case) and 90-100 RBIs. Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi brings a little speed and a contact bat to the equation.

But pitching is this team's strength, as it should be in the hurler-friendly confines of Petco Park. A defending Cy Young winner leads the rotation (Jake Peavy), a potential one follows (Chris Young) and a former one is third in the rotation (Greg Maddux). Fourth starter Randy Wolf is now entering his second season after Tommy John surgery (always a benchmark). If Mark Prior reaches the Majors this year -- and stays there -- then what a steal. San Diego is also home to one of the best bullpens in the game, so if you manage to knock out the starter, you're going to have to deal with career saves leader Trevor Hoffman, setup men Heath Bell and Cla Meredith and a group of other reliable arms.

What I'm looking forward to seeing

Does Headley come up to stay? Ever since I heard a minor league report mentioning Gregg Jefferies on a Mets postgame show in 1987, I love watching careers bloom. Does Young win 20? Been a fan of his since 2002, when he pitched for the Hickory Crawdads in the South Atlantic League and a road trip to Lakewood, N.J., just happened to come on the weekend of Princeton's graduation, which meant Young got to attend the ceremonies with his class. Does Hoffman still have it? His struggles in the final week of the 2007 season cost the Padres the Wild Card. They had it sewn up with a win on the final Saturday, but Tony Gwynn Jr. doomed his dad's former team with a triple off Hoffman. And then T-Hoff couldn't keep the Rockies off the board in the Wild Card playoff (whether or not Holliday has yet to touch the plate).

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

In general

Bye-bye, Barry. No one is sorry to see him go, including, I suspect, team brass. They may be out a few million in revenue from an empty ballpark with a last-place team, but even with the stadium payments to make, they may prefer at least one season of quiet despite the financial issues. Plus, they get to finally see what the future holds as they weed out the past-their-usefulness ("prime" has long passed some of these guys by) holdovers like Ray Durham and Omar Vizquel. Another one of those, Rich Aurilia, is penciled in as the third baseman; Dave Roberts takes up left field with OK speed but little else; and Randy Winn is in right. Bonds' departure brought the team's average age down a bit, but not by much. Oh, and they overpaid for Aaron Rowand, who most certainly was bouyed in 2007 by the extremely favorable conditions of hitting in Citizens Bank Park in a contract year.

There's more to like on the mound, at least after you get past Barry Zito. OK, that's not fair -- it was just one year in San Francisco. But AT&T Park isn't that much more of a hitter's park than Oakland's Coliseum, and he didn't have to face the DH anymore. He shouldn't have been that bad last year. This was also a team on which Matt Cain went 7-16 with a 3.65 ERA -- with Barry Bonds. Now, Bengie Molina is hitting cleanup. Coming off a season with 19 home runs. Yeah.

What I'm looking forward to seeing

Mainly, do they make a trade for a third baseman? That speculation would be more exciting than some of the Giants' games. And the club is high on outfielder Rajai Davis, so does he wrestle a starting gig from someone? After Zito, Cain and Lincecum, I have little interest in the rotation, but with each five-run outing, I'm happier and happier that the Giants opened the bank and scared off the Mets. If Zito was in New York now, Johan Santana wouldn't be. And does Brian Wilson keep the closer's job? I only care for fantasy purposes.

Saying no to Zito

As far as I'm concerned, the Giants can have Barry Zito. Seven years?! $126 million!? Dude's not Randy Johnson in '98. He's not even Nolan Ryan in '88. He's a curveball pitcher, a soft-throwing lefty with good control who benefits from a strong defense and pitch location. He's Tom Glavine, minus 12 years, and the Mets already have one of those.

Zito would've benefitted from coming to Shea Stadium, from playing for a team on the verge of the World Series with a good, young core. He still gets the move to the National League, which will help, and he's playing for a team in an even but weak -- save the Dodgers -- division that gives the Giants a chance at the postseason just for playing. But the Giants don't have the supporting cast that the Mets do, and once the injuries start hitting the ancient bodies of Barry Bonds, Ray Durham, Omar Vizquel and even Pedro Feliz and Matt Morris, Zito and Matt Cain and others will be doing all they can just to keep San Francisco in games without giving up more than three or four runs, hoping the offense can manage to scratch out just one more run than the opposition.

Zito would've been a good fit for the Mets at their price -- five years and $75 million, probably 80 -- but not at his price, which is to say Scott Boras' price. That prick can have his money, and Zito can too. Good for him for getting it, and if he'd rather be rich than have a ring, that's his choice. But to think that the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history (at least according to one contract) is Barry Zito is astonishing when guys like Johnson, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens (perhaps) are still pitching.

As for Zito and the Giants, we'll see how it works out. It worked for Kevin Brown and the Dodgers and Mike Hampton and the Rockies, didn't it?

Oh, wait ...

A hypothetical travesty

So Barry Bonds returns tonight.

He returns to an aging, veteran Giants team that, this morning sits seven games behind the Padres in the NL West. San Francisco is tied with the Diamondbacks and one game behind the Dodgers. They're 13 games under .500. A week ago, the earliest it was expected Bonds might play this month, they were 11 games below break-even and two games closer to first place.

The first question, of course, is, Why? Why is Bonds bothering? What's he trying to accomplish? He's not going significantly help the Giants this year, so why risk a career-ending injury for 20 meaningless games? (That's 20 team games. I doubt Bonds will play in each one.) Is it to bring the fans out for the final seven home games in a ballpark that already draws pretty well as it is? Is it to see if he can hit 11 home runs in those 17 games to tie Babe Ruth this season? Is it a selfish decision, either on his part or the part of the ballclub?

But the second question, in my mind, is tougher to answer, though much more hypothetical. I first thought of this a week ago, when his presence in the lineup for -- at the luckiest best -- six more games would have meant more. Say the Giants go on a tear of historic proportions. Say they win 17 of their last 20 against a schedule packed with NL West (and, by definition, weak) opponents, plus the Washington Nationals. Such a run would make the Giants 81-81. Is he that good? Some may say so.

Now say the three teams in front of San Francisco -- the Padres, Dodgers and Diamondbacks -- all play .500 ball the rest of the way. That puts the Padres at 81-81 as well, forcing a one-game playoff. Perhaps the Giants win that game with Noah Lowry going up against Jake Peavy, or perhaps Woody Williams, if Peavy's arm troubles turn out to be significant enough to affect him the rest of the way. Maybe Bonds plays a big part in that win, whether it's at Petco Park or by the Bay in San Fran.

Say all that happens. Say Barry Bonds plays as many as 17 of these 20 games, gets 70 plate apperances, give or take five or 10, and hits eight home runs while scoring 20 (owing to a dozen or two walks).

If all that happens, is Barry Bonds the NL MVP?

Unlike the Cy Young Award, which is intended for the best pitcher in the league for each season, the most valuable player award carries within it a definition of who should be eligible for the award. It doesn't say how that value should be measured, and while I would contend that the most valuable player in the league is the one whose numbers surpass -- or at least stack up with -- those of the best players in the league over the course of the entire season. A healthy player, to me, is more valuable than an injured one, no matter how well the injured one plays when he's in the lineup. There is virtually no situation, at least this year, in baseball in which an MVP-caliber player who misses significant time with an injury is replaced by a player of equal caliber.

Bonds is a great player, and he may have a significant impact during these past few weeks, but if he's still that good, wouldn't he have been more valuable to the Giants had he been healthier this year and given them more than 70 at bats? The team is 64-78 as of Monday morning; perhaps a full season of Bonds would have meant that they were 78-64 at this point. That record would be good enough for a seven-game lead today. I don't think a 30-game turnaround is that much of a stretch when we're talking about Bonds, at least not over 142 games.

But would he deserve the MVP? Clearly such a turnaround by the Giants would be attributed to his return. This is clearly an abnormal season in the NL when the entire East Division has a good chance of finishing at or above .500 while the West Division leader could earn that title with the same .500 mark. Had the Giants still gone 64-78 but the Padres managed to win just six more games than they have, it's doubtful the Giants would have a shot to make up 10 games over the last 20. My point there is that, yes, the Giants have an outside shot to win this division with Bonds back, but I think that has more to do with the ineptitude of the rest of the division to win games than it does with the Giants ability to stay in the race without their slugger. I believe that the Giants (and Diamondbacks, too, at 64-78) are "in the race" simply by default. First and foremost, it's de fault of the Padres.

To answer my own question, I agree that Bonds' return, if it does trigger a 17-3 run to close the season, would solidify him as one of the league's most valuable players this year. But no one disputes that. No one questions you when you say he's the Giants' MVP, or the most valuable player in the West Division. But is he the most valuable player in the National League for 2005? More valuable than Albert Pujols, who has helped the Cardinals to a 14-game lead and a magic number of 6 as of this morning despite injuries to just about every starting position on the field in St. Louis over the course of the season? Would Bonds be more valuable than Andruw Jones, who carried the Braves on his back when they were calling up players from Double-A to start in the place of veterans like Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan, or when they lost three starting pitchers to injury?

I don't think so. If I happen to be prescient enough to predict San Francisco's 17-3 season-ending tear, I think Bonds receives an alarming number of votes, but should fall behind Jones and Pujols (who has unfairly followed Bonds in this voting in previous years) in the final tally. What those two players did for their teams over the course of the full season have been more valuable than what Bonds could do in three weeks. In my mind, the five-and-a-half months he missed hurt the team more than the three weeks he'll provide.

Where do I apply?

Maybe it's from too many years of playing fantasy baseball (combined with a close reading of Moneyball), but I'm starting to think I could do a better job at running a team than some of these executives in the major leagues.

I think trading Kaz Matsui for Edgardo Alfonzo would be a low-risk move for the Mets, but there's no way the Giants should be considering a trade involving Jason Schmidt. He may be 32 and struggling this season (with a few injuries), but on that Giants team, 32 is young. He's the best they've got to build around for 2006, if not beyond. This is the time they've got to start building for the era A.B.B. -- after Barry Bonds -- and it's not like they've got a slew of young studs throughout the lineup. Pedro Feliz is 30 and Jason Ellison is 27 -- they're both late bloomers. The only other regular with more future than past is Lance Niekro, and though his start (.308-7-23) is promising, his big-league career is just 117 at-bats old, so I don't know if you can tell whether he's the kind of player you will be building your team around in the near future.

Now the Devil Rays' designation of Alex Sanchez appears even dumber, but the truth of the matter is Sanchez should have never been signed in the first place. I mean, this guy was cut by the Brewers and Tigers, two teams that, at the time they booted him, had a greater need for outfield and top-of-the-order help than Tampa Bay. Lou Piniella had a point when he ripped the Devil Rays' owners. Why go out and sign a twice-released veteran like Sanchez when your minor-league system is considered one of the better ones in the league? What's the point of bringing in a guy like Sanchez or Roberto Alomar when you could be giving Joey Gathright or B.J. Upton a shot? At least the fans would come out to see them. Surely there will be growing pains, but if you're going to suck, why not suck with some promise?