Reading Between the Sheets

Maybe the most significant implication of Nick Piecoro's recent Ben Sheets speculation has less to do with Sheets and more with Brandon Webb - and an increasingly compelling assumption the club wont extend the latter beyond 2010. It just seems unlikely, after the club spent the winter whining they had less cash on hand than a typical Good Humor man (culminating in a startling $3M lowball to Randy Johnson), that a relatively cautious beat reporter would unilaterally envison a severely backloaded $27M commitment to a pitcher with a daunting health history, were the reporter not prompted by a highly placed, inside source. Nick can fill in the blanks as well as anybody, but is this really his brainchild?


This all doesnt mean the Sheets deal is going to happen, in fact, I suspect it will not. The point is someone relevant in the FO appears to be talking - maybe acting - on the assumption Webb is gone. It wouldn't be the first time that's been publicly broached, but Piecoro's curiously detailed initiative compels me to believe the FO is either spinning themselves as more active in the FA market than they really are - or - are, in fact, curently approaching roster construction under the practical assumption Webb is gone. In a world of finite, contending resources, an outlay to Sheets all but ensures Brandon Webb's desert departure.

**********
Song of the Day - Between the Sheets (Isley Brothers)