With the winter meetings beginning on Thursday this should be a week of baseball transactions instead of one highlighting grand jury transcripts and steroid use.

Jason Giambi’s days in New York appear to be over. Not only are the Yankees letting the press run wild over their 120 million dollar first baseman, but they are intensifying their efforts to sign Carlos Delgado to replace Giambi at first base.

This means Seattle will be all over Richie Sexson as they try to upgrade the offense.

So where does this leave Giambi? Right here in Oakland, the only franchise in America that will take him back and allow him to recover the baseball skills that were evident, steroids or not, here in the Bay Area.

The Yankees will pay the bulk of his salary and the risk for the A’s will be minimal.

Right fielder for Oakland? How about Reggie Sanders? Juan Gonzalez will sign for peanuts, no down side. Go after Kevin Millar, he would be great in the clubhouse too.

Will Tim Hudson be moved?

Click below for the answer. [Read more →]

I just watched the 20/20 program about the use of steroids. What bothered me was the attitude that because other athletes were cheating, it was okay
for everyone to use illegal substances to gain an edge. Victor Conte was doing wrong and he knew it. He did not care one iota about the effects that the steroids or growth hormone would have on the
athletes. As a pharmacist, I can tell you that there is a place for the proper use of certain legal steroids and administered by a physician. I cannot believe that the medical staff or the trainers for the A’s,Giants or any sports team would ever approve or condone the use of drugs that were not for an
appropriate medical purpose.

Click below for more from Jerry! [Read more →]

Marty; It’s not difficult to resist the temptation to weigh in with many words of purported wisdom. The New York Times carried the Barry story on it’s front pages today, the sports section had a story with the caption “They Don’t Make Heroes the Way They Used To”, another story recounted once again the disaster the Yankees have encountered in Giambi and the 82 million still owing to him.

The Chronicle, which obtained the leaked grand jury transcript and proceeded to fill it’s pages with thousands of words, including nine different comments today from papers all over the country, has had a publisher’s orgasm. This is not surprisng from a paper which has difficulty in keeping up with the news emanating from Iraq.

Has anything changed since the invasion of the grand jury’s deserved sanctity? Not really. Any ordinarily perceptive individual knew before this outpouring that Giambi had taken steroids, which probably accounted for his physical breakdown last year. Bonds’ relationship with his close friend, Anderson, left small doubt that he was a user at some time in the past. We could go on and on, but will not.

There doesn’t seem to be much point in pursuing this any longer on this page which generously offers us the privilege of writing about the baseball scene. If the performance of players is affected as a result of all this it may be appropriate to reflect on it. Otherwise, let the press furies rage. We will try to keep this in proper perspective.

Ed Stern

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Allright, the BALCO Labs
story is hitting the fan
and everybody has
an attorney now.
But after all, these
are grown up athletes
(nobody under 21 here)
and if steroids was
not illegal what
wrong did they do ?

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

It seems that this scenario has played out before in Oakland with Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, and Eric Chavez. Finally one of the big three is on center stage. What value does a pitcher have? One considered to be a leader of the team. What should the A’s do? Is Rich Harden ready to be the newest member of a revamped big three?

Click below for my thoughts!

[Read more →]