Sorry if the posts appear in different fonts, I’m still messing with them to see which one looks the best.

Anyway, a very distressing piece of news was passed along via Sportscenter, oh, maybe a couple days ago.

They reported both the Mets and the Yankees are interested in acquiring Mark Prior.

I’ll repeat, the Mets are interested in acquiring Mark Prior.

After the Mets traded Lastings Milledge, I foreshadowed what the Mets usually do in this situation and it could happen. The Mets would likely go after an aging star to trot out as a “big name” because of their failure to obtain Johan Santana from the Twins.

Here we have it. The grand mistake that will create a wasted season in Queens in 2008. Mark Prior comes to the Mets, throws one pitch and blows out his elbow. The Mets scramble to find a starter to replace him for the rest of the season, likely resulting in the early promotion of Philip Humber to major-league starter (he’s not ready).

The Yankees can afford to make the mistake of procuring the injury-riddled Prior. They have pretty much set their rotation next year with Wang, Chamberlain, Kennedy, Hughes and #5 starter du jour (Mussina, Igawa or someone else). Anything Prior gives them is a bonus, they can’t really lose much by trading for him unless they deal the wrong prospect or are stupid enough to give the Cubs someone like Melky Cabrera.

The Mets, on the other hand, cannot afford to do this. You may as well rely on Pedro Martinez to make 30 starts. It could happen, it has more of a chance to happen than Prior, anyway.

I don’t have much more in the way of details, so I’ll have to keep an eye on this. The semester is over for me and I have much more time on my hands.

Like this needed to be said again, but the George Mitchell report was released today and with it, over 70 names of players that have received steroids or taken steroids. I don’t know, anyone else tried to read that thing? Its 400 pages long. I’m a college student with final exams. Needless to say, I’ll have to crack into that document during winter break.

So, I am going to keep it relevant to New York in the mean-time until I can fully absorb the scope of this investigation.

This investigation ultimately begins and ends with Roger Clemens. The best pitcher of certainly my generation, one of the best all-time, and he was juicing. Clemens has vehemently denied ever taking any kind of steroid or growth hormone.

Okay, here it is. This is arguably the worst trait in a human being. This is what I like to refer to as “Barry Bonds syndrome”. You’re guilty, you know it and you lie about it anyway. Why are we so incapable of keeping ourselves accountable for our actions? I don’t believe Clemens for one second. What reason have I to believe him? He dominates hitters at an age where he should be playing golf in Arizona. Up until this year, anyway, when he finally looked human. He was obviously off steroids at this point. For the first time in his career he looked fat, out-of-shape and tired and he was being hit hard by the American League.

The trace of steroids is quite obvious with most players. Unfortunately, its only obvious after a player has done their best work, for the most part. Bonds’s transformation from rail-thin lead-off hitter to a freak happened in such a short amount of time and at such a late age that anyone could tell he was juicing. Look at the guy’s head, it swelled to at least twice its previous size. And, no, it wasn’t the physical manifestation of his ego inflating his melon.

Anyway, back to Clemens. Clemens’s steroid use wasn’t as immediately detectable, though for quite some time there has been doubts in the minds of fans about whether or not he was clean. He always looked essentially the same. His body never really changed. Short of being around him every day and being able to notice little changes, its not too hard to be fooled.

Nevertheless, how could anyone, a writer, a manager, another player, accuse The Rocket of being on the juice? No one who was anyone could afford to say that. Especially without the proof of a steroids test. They couldn’t. No matter what anyone says now, no matter how many people come out and say “Ah! I knew it all along!” None of them until now could even think about breathing those words aloud. Don’t believe anyone who says they knew for sure this entire time. Some doubts? Yeah, maybe. But no one knew for sure.

Some other players, past and present, from New York have been named in this report. Andy Pettitte, Paul Lo Duca, David Segui, Ron Villone, Todd Pratt, Mike Stanton, Lenny Dysktra and Todd Hundley.

Hold it, did I say Andy Pettitte? Yeah, I can’t believe it either. A couple names could be mildly surprising, but Pettitte? Really? Yup. According to the report, Brian McNamee traveled to Tampa at Pettitte’s request and spent about ten days assisting Pettitte with his rehabilitation. McNamee recalled that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone that McNamee obtained from Radomski on two to four occasions. Pettitte paid McNamee for the trip and his expenses; there was no separate payment for the human growth hormone.

This one was very difficult for me to swallow. I’ve always held Pettitte in high regard, and it doesn’t seem that he took the hormone to enhance his pitching ability. Nevertheless, its still cheating, he paid someone to give him a substance which gave him an advanatage, even if its merely in the injury recovery process.

Lo Duca. How can you tell? He’s got ‘roid rage even when he’s not on steroids. But, it does make sense that he had one great power year in Dodgers stadium and never really got close again.

Villone. Doesn’t matter, he wasn’t any good anyway.

Dykstra? I might die of shock. Please, he was a little skinny lead-off guy that all of the sudden looked puffed-up like a balloon. And anyone that knew anything about Dykstra knew that he had absolutely no self-discipline to stick to a training regement or even go to the gym on a regular basis.

Hundley’s career-arc smacks of steroids. He got steroids in 1996 and hit 41 home runs. He hit 16 the previous year. Enough said. To his credit, he was smart enough to stay on the roids and he would do better than 24 home runs three more times in his career.

Segui is interesting. He never hit more than 21 home runs in a year. At least he admits to it. Can’t say that about alot of guys.

I guess this is my initial take on the Mitchell report. Before I finish I would just like to admonish Don Fehr for his transparent statement and answers during his press conference. The real winner was him claiming to not have read the report yet.

What? He’s about to go on ESPN and read a statement and take questions on behalf of an entire players’ association and he’s hasn’t read the document? Granted, he probably didn’t read the whole thing. Who could? But then, why make a statement at all? Until you know something, why go out onto television and make a fool out of yourself? Especially after one of the ESPN analysts said to expect him to come out with fire and brimstone and rail against the document to no end.

Whoops.

I’ve had some time now to digest this trade and really gather my thoughts on the subject. This is older news by now, but I usually feel I need time after a trade to fully gather my thoughs.

My opinion remains the same as my first reaction: this was a horrible trade by the New York Mets.

The Mets traded outfielder Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for outfielder Ryan Church and catcher Brian Schneider.

This sort of trade has been a hallmark of the Wilpon-era New York Mets. Milledge was young, ultra-athletic, had a great personality, and was either loved or hated. No one is indifferent to Lastings Milledge, and that would’ve meant excitement and publicity for the Mets.

Whether you liked him or not, there was no doubting the fact that Milledge has some serious talent.

Church is a good hitter, that, at one point, I thought was going to blossom into a tremendous hitter. Church is now 29, by no means finished, but never became that player. Ryan Church is boring, he’s not as athletic, though, he did play centerfield in a large pitcher’s park and makes few errors. His range isn’t fantastic, but it won’t have to be with Beltran in center. An immediate red-flag about Church: He couldn’t play for Frank Robinson. Robinson benched him several times in his brief tenure with the Nationals.

The problem is this trade was incredibly stupid on so many levels and so typical of this team in the past 20 years.

1. Milledge was supposed to be a key piece in trading for a front-line starting pitcher. Wave goodbye to that, as the Mets now have nothing to offer anyone for Johan Santana, Dan Haren, Joe Blanton or Erik Bedard. The rotation for the 2008 seasons currently stands as Martinez, Maine, Perez, Hernandez, Pelfrey. Not exactly a bad starting five, but its tough when your ace is prone to injury the way Martinez is. Should that happen, Philip Humber will almost certainly be pressed into starting duty in the majors before he is ready.

2. It is now almost certain the Mets will make another stupid trade. The Mets, desperate to trade for anyone who could be seen as an ace (read: a Mike Mussina-type. A former ace way past his prime), will almost certainly move one or more of Humber, Heilman, Pelfrey, Gomez or (Fernando) Martinez for an aging veteran.

This team keeps getting older, less athletic and boring by the day. The Mets still have not learned anything from the dismantling of the ‘86 team that ultimately resulted in the worst team money could buy (the ‘92 Mets, there’s also a wonderful book by the same name). Instead of getting younger, they traded and signed for the likes of Bobby Bonilla, Eddie Murray and Willie Randolph. I could go on forever about that team.

3. This trade just smacks of boredom. It was so unnecessary on the part of the Mets. They had just pulled nothing short of a miracle by sending Guillermo Mota away and getting a decent-to-good catcher in Johnny Estrada. What did we need Schneider for? Ramon Castro is certainly good enough defensively to catch every day and once in a while his bat lights up like a christmas tree. That isn’t good enough to be a backup and temporary starter when Estrada gets hurt?

4. Trade your top prospect to within your own division? Thanks. Now fans can be reminded 18 times a year the kind of player they don’t get to root for and a player that could’ve been traded for a someone far better than Ryan Church.

5. Paul Lo Duca signs with the Nationals and all of the sudden, they look like geniuses. We really had to let Mike Piazza leave town for this guy? He had a great first season, he battled injuries his second, but he was a gamer and he never quit. That’s wonderful to see in a player and I will never fault a player for it. But, really, Piazza was the heart and soul of the Mets for eight years. Lo Duca was never that, fiery as he was and respected as he was.

Then there’s GM Omar Minaya. Anyone who blames Minaya solely for this whole mess is misguided. There is only one common denominator in all of these blunders. It is the Wilpons. Steve Phillips was a puppet. He may not be the smartest guy in the world, but anyone who listens to him speak can atleast see that he’s not devoid of common sense and has some knowledge of the game. Certainly enough to have been against the Scott Kazmir trade.

Joe McIlvane had some control for a while which resulted in some decent teams, but the Wilpons eventually took control of that operation and it looks like it will be the same for Minaya. Watch what Minaya had done previously. In two seasons he transformed the Mets from a joke to a contender. While he does have to take some heat for last fall’s historic collapse, he has still done some great things for this franchise.

Finally, poor Ryan Church. He now has the whammy of being the guy we traded a possible superstar for (only time will tell). He hasn’t done anything wrong and likely won’t. But, I can’t imagine his popularity will soar too high with this team, at least, not with the Milledge faithful, which was a bigger fan-base than management thinks.

Here’s to hoping Church hits .320 with 25 homers and 80 RBI. I’ve always liked him and wanted him to succeed. He needs to now, more than ever. Or it will be a long, long year for him and us, the fans.