If Mark McGwire can be taken at his word, his initial motivation for taking steroids was to combat a number of painful and career altering injuries. A timeline supports this. He also came clean that he did take steroids during his record-breaking 1998 season.

Sadly this morning, none of this pleases the media.

McGwire’s appearnace last night with Bob Costas on the MLB network revealed a contrite and humbled man. McGwire teared up when talking about the potential of hurting the little people involved if he had publically denied using them. It is here where McGwire departed from the pariahs Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

A man stayed incarcerated for the former while the later waged a smear campaign against his trainer who was caught in a legal web. These two wrote the whole new chapter in throwing someone under the bus. This McGwire clearly will not be doing.

Steroids – like any medication we put in our bodies – are a mystery at first when taken. Folks just don’t know how their bodies are going to respond. We are just now finding out that these things work – and better than we beleived that they would back when the steroid era began at the end of the 1980′s. Still it’s likely that they helped some more than they did others.

Its no secret that McGwire played in pain during a large portion of his career and for him steroids quite simply kept him playing the game he loves so much. Unlike Bonds, McGwire had been a homerun hitter his entire career. It could be that during the record breaking seasons of 1997 and 1998, McGwire was just able to play realtively pain free and at his own best.

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Jason Bay’s statement that the Mets were the first team to contact him reveals that the Mets were serious about getting better this off-season. Despite significant criticism there has been no panic as evidenced by not bidding against themselves on Bay and apparently on the catcher they want in Bengie Molina. The market has come back to them and the free agents they still desire have come back to them in potential costs. If Minaya upgrades the starting staff before spring training and brings in Orlando Hudson (no matter if he has traded Luis Castillo or not) it will have been a successful winter. Best of all is that the perception in camp will be one of hope and not of a organization in dysfunction.

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Marty Noble does it well in dismissing the notion that the Mets can’t or won’t hot homeruns in Citi Field.

How many people have expertise about Citi Field? I believe the Mets were spooked by the field last season. Perhaps if Carlos Delgado had remained available and hit two or three more to the bridge beyond the seats in right-center field, Citi would have been tamed a bit and not developed any mystique. The place is bigger than some parks, but it’s a fair park. Sluggers hit home runs in fair parks.

Ralph Kiner, who knows a thing or two about home run-hitting and pitcher-friendly parks — Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, where he played, was so big that the batting cage was left on the field in left-center — doesn’t consider Citi’s size insurmountable. I’m sure Adam Dunn and Mark Reynolds don’t either. Reynolds might hit it out of the place if he plays one more series there.

If Luis Castillo can reach the second deck, David Wright can hit 12 home runs there. I wouldn’t been stunned if Wright, Bay, Carlos Beltran and Jeff Francoeur combine for 50-55 at home.

Like all the injuries, David Wright’s power drop-off was an aberration. Beltran and Jose Reyes have got to be ok, though, for the offense to be ok.

This is the hand that the Mets are forced to play. The ambiguity of the season-long injuries to Beltran and Reyes leave a big uncertainty in the future of the Mets. There just wasn’t any way around it in the ability of the Mets to plan over either the shot term or the long haul.

If Minaya is able to bring in more talent that improves the club, the big questions next month will be about the health of Beltran and Reyes. It is with these two – and not in the uncertainty of the rotation – does the season success depend on. The Mets just won’t be able to win without Beltran and Reyes in the line-up everyday.

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From River Avenue Blues via MLBTradeRumors comes the order of the June 2010 free agent draft.

The Mets have the 7th, 51st, 83rd and 116th pick. If they had kept Billy Wagner, a Type A free agent, they would have also had the 20th pick.

It’s hard not to question the wisdom of the Mets’ move. For Wagner, they received a 26 year old AAA outfielder in Chris Carter and a 20 year-old 1B in Eddie Lora. With the Mets being notoriously tightfisted in amatuer signing bonuses – they were 3rd fom the bottom last year, its easy to conclude that they didn’t want to have another expensive slot to pay for next summer.

Maybe the Mets have good reports on Lara from their scouts in the Dominican Republic where he played in 2008. Coupled with Carter they may feel that the trade off in talent with a potential 20th pick is a good one.

I wonder what they will be thinking in their draft war room in June when they see a player they really, really would have wanted at 20. To be fair, it will take some time to judge this move. But I’d really like to have had the opportunity to take a player that has such an upside as the 20th best player. Chances are, the scouts in the room will see a player that had rated much higher than the slot.

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Texas Tech Head Trainer Steve Pincock’s version of the management of Adam Jones injury sheds important new light on the events which eventually led to Mike Leach’s dismissal. With it clear that the physician who cared for Leach stating that no harm was done to Jones in the management, Pincock’s
statement strongly support Leach and put the James’ actions and motivations under scrutiny.

Pincock’s version of events is going to be the key one in sorting all this out. Furthermore, it puts into question whether or not Leach should have been suspended in the first place. As Tech officials were sure to have interviewed Pincock who’s version supports the conclusion that Leach indeed did nothing wrong, it’s small wonder that Leach fought his suspension. And I believe that if Pincock’s version of events are accurate, Leach had no reason to apologize to the James’ as requested by Tech officials.

Moreover, Pincock’s statement calls into question the credibility of Adam James. It could be that the younger Leach fabricated his now U-Tubed video of himself in a closet. If it’s found out he lied about being put into the closet as Pincock’s statement seems to indicate, all parties concerned have a big mess on their hands.

Craig James was clearly a hands-on father in his relationship with the Tech football program. It’s neither good nor does it foster anything positive. Parents – no matter how well connected – cannot get involved in the inner workings of a team. Craig James should know better. If he was constantly baggering coaches about his son, it’s likely to have affected his son’s attitude toward the staff and the way he conducted himself.

Craig James actions are being questioned in other quarters as well. From Jimmy Burch writing in the Fort Worth Telegraph:

And as the father of a 19-year-old, I would have questions for Leach if my son shared tales of being confined to a darkened equipment closet after suffering a concussion. But I’d like to think we could have settled things in a closed-door meeting, followed – if necessary – by a transfer request. And no public skunk fight.

From all indications, Leach did not place his hands on Adam James or verbally embarrass him in front of teammates. That’s a huge distinction and a line reportedly crossed by former Kansas coach Mark Mangino.

This story will now move in another direction. The statements by the team’s head athletic trainer put to rest any question that Adam was either abused or mistreated. It will no longer be about concussions as James’ was managed properly. This will become about a questionable decision by Texas Tech officials and the actions of one well placed family. Leach will end up a sympathetic figure who’s been vindicated.

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