MLB Notes: It's hard for them to say they're sorry

By Matt Smith

It’s no secret that we live in a country that is very forgiving, especially when it comes to celebrities. Sports fans might even be more guilty of forgiving their heroes when they screw up than, perhaps, a music fan or a movie fan when an artist or an actor they like gets caught doing blow, or found with a stripper or doing both at the same time.
That is why the baseball players who took HGH, steroids or another type of performance enhancing drug, have a great opportunity.
We are ready to forgive you. We are ready to cheer for you the very first time you step onto the field. We are ready, once again, to welcome you back into our family.
So when you get players who the general public assumes are guilty, but yet continually make themselves look even more so with every move the make, it seems even more baffling because all we want is an apology and we’re ready to move on. We know a lot of people did it, and we aren’t about to disillusion ourselves and say it was just Barry Bonds.
Most baseball fans assume Roger Clemens and Jack Cust juiced, it’s as if they can feel it in their heart of hearts and even if some fans want to believe them, they look worse and worse in the court of public opinion with each day that goes by.
Guys like Andy Pettitte, F.P. Santangelo, Paul LoDuca, Brian Roberts, Jay Gibbons and Matt Herges (just to name a few) have done the right thing by admitting usage and apologizing publicly. These guys are now back in the circle, according to most fans.
You still have a few guys with work to do, like Jose Guillen and Eric Gagne, who have basically acknowledged that they made a mistake, but they didn’t apologize specifically. Still, it’s a start and once they say “I did it, I screwed up and I am sorry,” the slate is clean with most fans.
With Spring Training less than a week away, fans are ready for this to be over. We want a clean slate as much as the players who used PED’s do.

The Cards are gonna party like its 2005: Well, not exactly…… The Cardinals sure wish it was 2005 because three of their big named pitchers would be busy combining for 50 wins, if they were all suiting up for the Red Birds then.
St. Louis wishes it could have a time machine and have Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder and Matt Clement all at once during that season. Carpenter won 21 games, Mulder 16 and Clement 13.
In 2008, you can count on them combining to win zero games for at least the first couple of months, maybe until at least July. Last year, they combined to win zero games as Carpenter and Mulder missed most of the year for the Cards. Clement missed the whole season with the Red Sox, yet the Cards opted to bring him in and join the other two former aces in the infirmary.
The Cardinals have a history of reclamation projects when it comes to pitchers, but they are counting on three guys whose careers are in jeopardy, to make comebacks and be successful at the Major League level.
Cards fans should brace for having Braden Looper and Joel Piniero in their rotation for 2008, and they should hope the pixie dust that most Cardinals pitchers get for a season or so, doesn’t wear off.
Speaking of pixie dust……well, this is kinda like wishing upon a star. The Cardinals are hoping another player can make a comeback and that is Juan Gonzalez.
The former slugger hasn’t played a full season in the bigs since 2001, he is injury prone and now he is 38, going on 39.
So the St. Louis is hoping he can provide them with a bit of a spark, and that is all fine and dandy, but it forgot that it is a National League team and he will have to play somewhere on the field. Yikes.

Winner, winner, really expensive dinner: Players were 0-for-5 in arbitration cases heading into Ryan Howard’s case, but now you can make that 1-for-6. A big 1-for-6.
Howard received the highest payday of any arbitration case that has ever been won, matching Alfonso Soriano’s figure from 2006, winning $10 million, which is considerably higher than the $7 million the Phillies were offering.
I guess it pays to have hit 105 home runs over the last two seasons, while driving in 285 runs. Who cares that the guy is averaging 190 strikeouts over those two years?
If you break it down in by HR’s and K’s, he will get paid approximately $2.8 million for all his home runs ($56,000 per) and 7.2 million for each strikeout ($37,895 per).
Speaking of the Phillies, can anyone else wait for Apr. 18, when the Phightin’ Phils take on the New York Mets?
All the smack talk, all the drama from last year’s pennant race…..it just makes for good television and let’s hope it makes for good baseball.
I do have to say that Carlos Beltran has a point because Jimmy Rollins is forgetting that Pedro Feliz and Geoff Jenkins were there big pickups of the year while the Mets landed the best left-handed pitcher in the world.

The only Barry in town: With the surname Bonds being gone, Barry Zito is now the biggest Barry in San Francisco, and fans are hoping that this leads to him bouncing back and actually earning his millions upon millions of dollars.
Zito has the ability to be great, he obviously won a Cy Young in 2002, but he is throwing slower than ever and is not locating.
Last year he tied his career high in losses (13), he pitched fewer innings than he ever had in a full season (196 2/3) and struck out a career low (131). He also had a 4.53 ERA, which was the highest of his career.
The alarming thing is this came after a switch to the National League where he remained in a pitcher-friendly park.
This is a big year for both Zito’s psyche and the for the Giants front office after giving him $136 million.