Attaboy, Mike!

That'll show'em!

I kid, of course. Mr. Piazza has nothing to prove or disprove off the baseball field, and I really couldn't care less... but I'm still glad to read a news item which dispels that Sam Champion rumor I heard.

***

My initial reaction to the Cubs trading Sosa to the Orioles was that, in exchange for a declining and unhappy Sammy, they at least received fair compensation. A useful infielder on the good side of 3o is not such a bad haul.

Rob Neyer makes a good case that the Cubs did a bad, bad thing. In all honesty, I hadn't realized that an outfield of Hollandsworth, Kelton and Jerry Hairston, Jr. was even a remote possibility (should Patterson get hurt). I'm sure Jim Hendry will fill up the RF spot, most likely with Magglio Ordonez or Jeromy Burnitz, but the current OF situation is indeed sufficiently hideous to make the Sosa deal a calculated risk.

With the Orioles paying only $4.5MM of Sosa's $17MM salary in '05, it's hard not to like it from their side.