Jeremy takes on baseball’s current events, and the Yankees call-up of Joba Chamberlain.

So I had a whole different plan for today’s column, but recent historic baseball events have prompted me to scrap that idea and address the importance of this occurrence.

I speak of course of Joba the Hutt joining the Yankee bullpen.

Of course not, although I will address that later on. And yes, he will ALWAYS be Joba the Hutt to me. Just like Larry Walker was always “Sky.” If only there was a ballplayer named Calrissian or Detoo.

There are tons of other things in baseball that need comments, so let’s get started.

1 – Barry Bonds. Sigh. I must admit that I actually did watch the HR on Tuesday. Not that I sought it out or anything, I just put on ESPN 2 after I watched my DVR of The Bronx is Burning (totally worth a watch simply for John Turturo’s Billy Martin and Oliver Platt’s George Steinbrenner…and for Jeffrey Maier as Graig Nettles. Yes, THAT Jeffrey Maier) and there was the game. When he hit the dinger, I kind of felt nothing. No outrage, no excitement. It was like I had just watched an episode of CSI – interesting, but not that exciting. Except in CSI, Grissom, or the guys Caruso and Sinise play, usually catch the criminals in the end.

Simply put – Bonds is our new homerun king like it or not. Personally, I don’t like it. I think he cheated and I find that sad. Bonds would have been an easy Hall of Famer without anything added, and he would have had tons of HR to his record as well. But here he is, and it couldn’t have happened to a less likable person as well. Evil won out in baseball – it’s like Voldemort took over the wizarding world, Sauron reclaimed the ring, the Emperor killed Luke and Dick Cheney became King of the US.

2 – Alex Rodriguez. A side effect of the Bonds business is that when A-Rod gets to the point that we all expect him to in a few years and he challenges Bonds’ record, the whole baseball world outside of San Francisco will finally root for A-Rod. He will finally get what he has truly craved all this time – he will be loved by the fans. We may have to put the lightning scar on his forehead at some point.

I was pleased that A-Rod hit his 500th homerun when he did because if he waited any longer he may have imploded before our very eyes. However, watching a 500th HR is no longer as exciting as it once was as we now await Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Gary Sheffield’s addition to the club and tons more on the horizon.

3 – Tom Glavine. It is the problems with the 500 HR Club that makes what Glavine did that much better. Of course, the camera teams on ESPN had a very unhealthy relationship with Mrs. Glavine in the crowd. Seriously, she got more face time than Paris Hilton. Anyway, Glavine is now a 300 game winner and has two Cy Youngs and a World Series MVP and no one truly knows how he managed to do it! Goes to show that you don’t need a blazing fastball to get people out – isn’t that right Kyle Farnsworth? (Soon to be starring in the new YES reality series – The Next Ed Whitson).

So who is next for 300 wins? Can Randy Johnson get there with a back as fragile as the Middle East? Who knows. He will try next year, but I think he will fall short and retire in the Bert Blyleven range of wins. Of course, Randy gets in the HOF and for some reason Bert still waits for his call. I don’t get it; did Blyleven “circle” (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) all of the writers’ wives or something? But that is a debate for another day.

Or maybe for today…the next on the list is Mike Mussina. His will also likely fall into that range of wins. Randy Johnson won a gaggle of Cy Youngs and was truly dominant in his day. He gets into the HOF. Mussina becomes interesting when compared to Blyleven (who I feel deserves inclusion) and similar winners Tommy John and Jim Kaat.

Mussina (as of today) - .636 WPCT, 3.67 ERA, 3316 IP, 1.18 WHP, 2639 K, 743 BB – zero 20 win seasons
Blyleven - .534 WPCT, 3.31 ERA, 4970 IP, 1.19 WHP, 3701 K, 1322 BB, - one 20 win season
John - .555 WPCT, 3.34 ERA, 4710 IP, 1.28 WHP, 2245 K, 1259 BB – three 20 win seasons
Kaat - .544 WPCT, 3.45 ERA, 4530 IP, 1.25 WHP, 2461 K, 1083 BB – three 20 win seasons

Personally, I think John and Kaat are not HOFers, but interesting that they have more 20 win seasons among them. The numbers are a lot closer between Blyleven and Mussina than I thought they would be when I started writing this. Once Moose is done, he may have stats eerily similar to Bert’s. Perhaps it is watching him up close that has soured me on his HOF chances – I feel Moose has been one of the most overrated pitchers of his era – and having just Blyleven’s numbers to look at that has made me think Blyleven is one of the most underrated pitchers of his era. Weird. I am complicated sometimes – kind of like the plot of Lost. But with much less depth.

Finally, Joba the Hutt. Mighty Joba. Savior of the Yankees. Seriously, Joba’s addition to the team could be the spark needed to propel the Yanks into the playoffs this year where they would be a dangerous foe for anyone. If he is as good as advertised, he could provide them with the compliment to Rivera that he once was for John Wetteland. That would make Yankee games shorter and permit their starters to be a whole lot more effective. Plus, in the playoffs they could have young arms in Chamberlain and Phil Hughes in the pen to get tough outs.

From a fantasy perspective – as I tended to get off topic today – Joba won’t be too valuable in shallow leagues since barring injury he won’t get anything except strikeouts, but he is a great investment for keeper leagues. Of course, investing in young pitchers is as volatile as investing in the real market these days,

Doesn’t matter to me - I’ll be watching Joba the Hutt all the way, and hopefully he’ll find someone to put on the gold Princess Leia bikini. I wonder if Mrs. Glavine has some free time…

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