The thing that "Mainstream" media has that blogs typically lack, is access to the talent. No interviews with coaches, players, GMs.

Pete may be in a unique position to bridge this gap, because he has at least peripheral access to talent. I'd love to see an interview with reader generated questions for Cahsman, or one of the players.

Congrats Mike!!!

I would have liked to see Unit get his 300th win in pinstripes, but c'est la vie. I noticed that Pete A. said the prospects for the deal hadn't been agreed upon yet. I continue to hope that a hitting prospect (or more) is (are) on the way, if not in the Unit deal, then in the next one.

Pete's site, along with BB, Was Watching and RLYW are a must nearly every day (even during the dark days of counting down to pitchers & catchers -- now at 44 days.)

One question though; on the Randy Johnson trade update, Pete mentions getting some wins from a "Carl Pavano." Who is this guy? I haven't seen his name come up in the transactions this year, and I don't recall seeing his name on the Clippers' roster.

Ernie Koy died. Obit on ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2716882) laid out two important baseball tidbits: hit a homer in his first AB and appeared in the first televised game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barber). which of these accomplishments carries more weight?

I can't think of a better way to bring in the New Year. Congratulations Mike! Health, wealth and happiness to one and all.

It's good to have a new baby at the Banter.

If it happens, I think replacing Unit with Rocket is an overall upgrade for the rotation. I do think it is a little strange that Clemens, who is probably the best pitcher of his generation and in the conversation at least for best ever, ends up being the one who "follows" Pettitte around.

philadelphia rocks.

http://tinyurl.com/vt7d4

All the more reason for us to push the politicians to get off their asses and give us the world's best health care system that is available to everyone, regardless of economic and social class.

Also, Sal Fasano rules!

But Sal Fasano does rule.

The irony is, the American government designed this health care system in the wake of WWII. God Bless America! And, Sal Fasano.

i just found that donald arthur mattingly has a blog.

is this newsworthy? probably not, but as someone who still plays in a hardball league, even though he was never any good in his younger days and is always looking for a tip or two to potentially level the playing field, i share the following quote:

"I am also very excited about the book we have coming out in the spring. The book is about hitting. I am not much on doing books, but the idea was to wrap up all the fundamentals of hitting into one book. I hope this simplifies the thought process of what hitting is all about. This will give you a simple base to work on. When I talked to so many people growing up I would always get confused, so I hope this book simplifies things and roles [sic] it all in one nice package. I thought I would mention those things as I am very excited about them."

http://www.donmattingly.com/blog.php

i am so excited...

One reason communism didn't/doesn't "work" as a mode of economic and financial organization is that it maintains no efficient price mechanism through which goods and services can be valued and produced. As an economy grows it becomes increasingly more difficult to determine what should be produced and in what quantity. Planners ultimately have no idea if they should produce more toilet paper or underwear or both. Market failure is essentially built into the system.

One can argue effectively that the oligopolistic system of private third party controlled insurance and product delivery has already resulted in a similar set of market failure conditions in our healthcare system. We spend approximately 14% of our GDP on healthcare in the US. That's about twice what Canada spends per capita yet our system is approximately equal to the Canadian model in terms of quality. What we have on our hands is a relatively inefficient expensive mess.

Be careful what you ask for you may end up with more of the same.

End Rant/

Uhm. Someone oughtta explain to him how this whole internets web deal works. Links in particular.

i just started posting here (rather poorly, i might add!), somewhat recently though i've been an avid reader of both BB and Cliff's BRB, for years. i haven't posted anywhere else. i have emailed peter a few times - off-blog, if you will - and he was always kind in his replies, when one wasn't even necessary.

the banter is THE place for commentary. period, end of.

btw, the batters box (blue jays) have some great commenters...

I've given up on trying to make comments in that space.

While Abraham does have a lot of inside information, his analysis leaves a lot to be desired. I can't say I often agree with anything he has to say that goes beyond inside scoops.

"That's about twice what Canada spends per capita yet our system is approximately equal to the Canadian model in terms of quality."

Having moved to Canada a few years ago and having made considerable use of the health system here, this statement is laughable. I never fail to be either stunned or appalled by the level of care when I make a trip to the doctor or hospital, or when I hear a story from a colleague who goes.

It is not that the doctors are bad--far from it. But the system is thoroughly strained in terms of both manpower and hardware/equipment. I moved from a moderately sized midwestern US city: my health care is now a notch worse than it was before, and between taxes and employer benefits (taken from the ol' paycheck) I pay more now than I did before.

That's the crux of it. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries take such a huge cut of the pie thanks to frivolous law suits, and designer drug development that the low income American either goes hungry or suffers the worsening of whatever medical condition they are enduring. Socialized medicine has its flaws to be sure, but there isn't a soul in Japan (for example) that is worried about where their medicine is going to come from, or if they can eat or pay their rent because they got sick. Just my two cents.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/20/3/10.pdf
Note our per capita expenditure.

Now, back to baseball. I knew posting that rant was a mistake the moment I hit submit.

On a baseball Note: Petes blog is great... he is an 'insider', and so has access to info that sets him apart. However, BB is really more then a Blog... it has turned into a community. We celebrate marriages and births here, and at times even get sidetracked with debates on topics ALMOST as important as baseball. I have no doubt that if 20 of us met on the street, there would be man-hugs all around, and we would share some time, beers, family photos and Yankee stories. For me, living in the woods, BB has become an important source of connection... and if for some reason it was no longer, would definitely leave a hole in my life.

OFF THE FACADE also has some good info and opinions.... and seems to have some inside track.
YANKEES CHICK does not have fantastic analysis or editorials, but is at times thoughful, creative any funny. I mean ya gotta love a good looking young girl who's blog features the headline "Pardon Me, Are You Interested in My Unit?"

... In these conversations, changing the word Communism to Socialism helps, and then changing Socialism to 'Social Programs' allows us a less threatening debate.
... I read a few years ago, that an estimated 50% of all colected health care monies go to advertising, profits, and other NON care/overhead related costs. FIFTY PERCENT goes to things that have NOTHING to do with healthcare. Our system allows YOUR monies to go directly into stockholders pockets.

... For all us good Capitalists, please remember we have one ittt-bitty socialized program in the USA that, you could say, defines socialism.
1) TOTALLY FREE... no direct/individual costs
2) EVERYBODY is in... the very poor, handicapped, all colors, all races, all religions... everybody
3) ITS SUPER EASY... hardly any work, tests or forms. Just walk in, say "I Want" and basically you get. Very few questions asked. If you can't get there, they will even go get you and bring you to it.
4) IT RUNS SMOOTHLY year after year. While it has many, many problems as any/all systems do, in the by-and-large, as a system, it has been in place a long time and basically something that keeps working.
5) STUDY HISTORY and you will find that this little piece of pure socialism (no profits, no stock, free for everybody) is probably the biggest factor in America's greatness, in terms of productivity and America's national defense.
Unfortunately, due purely to neglect and being taken for granted, this sytem is falling on hard times. It is still a great system, but needs some serious help and participation.

In trying to name this system, all kinds of fancy 'Socio-' names were tried... but they couldn't agree on a good one, so instead, we simply call it:
The American Public School System
Capitalism LOVES to motivate and generate profit. There are some things however, where the product/service is more important then profit.

Anyone want to take fake bets on when we'll get the word on the RJ trade, and which prospects we get? I say Friday at 2pm EST, Medders, Owings, Ohlendorf.

Ohlendorf is a sleeper to me. I don't know why, but I think he's going to be a good MLB pitcher.

Regarding access to health care, any resident with a low income in NYC can sign up for free healthcare via Medicaid and other programs. Some of the "evil" profits do flow to those in need.

I've seen so much stuff over the last week on this (thanks for your breakdown btw) that they are all starting to look alike to me. I would have liked to get a 1b bat out of this. That kid Clark appears stuck behind Jackson. If we're really facilitating this deal as so many think between Unit and the Snakes I'd like to see us get more than the 3 arms mentioned. The Clark kid looks like he can rake and I like us to get him if we can.

http://tinyurl.com/ybwkso

"So perhaps the rumors are true - the Yankees are stockpiling prospects to ship to Minnesota when it becomes inevitable the Twins cannot resign ace Johan Santana in a year or two."

Doesn't sound right, but I do think Cashman has something in mind for his big basket of prospects other than playing all of them. They have to be 'chips'.

You can take a chance with Merck and Pfizer developing a cure for cancer and AIDS (even though they would most certainly hurt their profit margin by developing a cure), but there's nothing uncertain about the fact that they'll develop myriad treatment cocktails whose prices will rise four times the rate of inflation, they'll spend as much on marketing and administration in support of hair loss and erectile dysfunction drugs as they will on R&D, and that 25% of seniors will skip prescriptions because of the cost. There's no chances there. Those conditions are certain.

If you needed something sent across the country overnight would you use FedEx or the US Postal Service? You might choose the Post Office if the package was not very important. But what if the package was needed to save your life, who would you choose?

I admit that our health care system could use some changes but I am not sure that a government run system would be much of an improvement over what we have now.

1st: I also read what Pete has to say. Good guy. I don't post there, though. I guess that explains why you guys don't like to read the comments section. No me. Sucks, huh?

2nd: I agree with the notion that this is a Yankees blog, not a social/political/medicinal blog. I will say this, though. My friend Sam has beaten leukemia twice. I don't know much about worldwide healthcare, but I do know that that wouldn't have happened in a lot of other countries. You can't put a price on that. She is the most honest person I know and she's only 15. Is any of this relevant? I don't know and I don't really care. Responding, however, would be futile as I've only read an 1/8th of the posts so far. Baseball, my friends, baseball.

My mother has had MS since she was 35, she is now 61. She was fired from her (professional, corporate) job because she could no longer compete. Social Security requires that she live under the poverty line so that she can receive benefits. That means she no longer has any savings, she can barely afford her medications (Medicaid does NOT pay for everything she needs) and her mortgage. She gets no welfare, no food stamps. She takes loans from friends which most likely she will never pay back, just so that she can have a place to live. She can only work part time because of the income restraints (she is mostly physically able and so COULD work more). Last month she received a holiday bonus and went $40 over the SS limit so she now has to pay back her SS benefits for that month. Merry f'in Christmas.

This is a former professional, hard working American. This is us. Yes, we could do better. Over 40 million Americans have NO health coverage, and they're not all lazy, lower class, whatever. Apologies for the rant, but this issue hits close to home.

B) I've fought till blue in the face with fiscal conservatives about universal health care, and how it'll ruin progress and scare our doctors away and blah blah blah. Well I'm not a health care expert, or an economist, but there are people who are, and those people need to work out the kinks somehow. The status quo is approaching half of Americans without health care, and that is a travesty. That's all I'll say. If anyone wants to discuss it away from a baseball forum, I'd be happy to, hit me at this name on gmail.

C) Speaking of off topic things.... hey Bama, what do you think of your shiny new coach? Personally, I love any turmoil surrounding the too-proud-of-themselves Dolphins, though how does it feel to inherit a rival's coach? Would kinda be like Tito replacing Joe Torre, no?

I was hoping that we'd move this comming surplus of arms Texas way and bring back Texiera; this Minky madness would seem to put the kybosh on that dream. Oh well. There's always Santana to distract me from my work!

Additionally, Medicaid and Medicare are paid for by our taxes more than "evil" profits. Most companies hire very good CPAs to avoid paying their taxes as much as possible. This doesn't mean they are evil -- just maximizing their profits.

Also, if you make above the threshold for Medicare and Medicaid but your employer doesn't offer you healthcare, then you don't have access to free healthcare. That's where the 46 million uninsured come in. They aren't poor, but lower middle class.

Here is an interesting article about pharmaceuticals written by a Harvard doctor and researcher. She was the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244

Right now, there is some skepticism about his health