Yup.....They're giving Howard the Bonds treatment (finally). The guy was treating major league pitching like he was still playing Home Run Derby.

Anyway.....Yeah, I'd be in big trouble had A Rod been A Rod all along, but I have a few players I could say the same thing about.

I got somewhat less than I could have reasonably expected to get from guys like Chavez, Cantu, and Burrell.

Also, Andruw Jones had an entire month in which he did basically nothing, and Tejada had an entire month with no power, although in all fairness he did keep his batting average up there.

And Dunn had a long slump, too.

Remember also that I had to scramble all season to put together a regular starting rotation (Hence all the extra starts I now have) because of season-ending injuries to two guys I was really counting on: John Patterson for one, but to a much greater extent Rich Harden, who was 10-5, 2.53 last year and arguably the second best starter on a team (Oakland) that many – myself included – were picking to win the division because of their outstanding rotation (Zito, Harden, Haren, Blanton), and possibly one of the best starting pitchers in the majors.

In all fairness, of course, I had guys who exceeded their expectations just as you had guys who did better and guys who did worse than what you were figuring on also, and it’s not my intention to sit here and analyze who got the shorter ends of their respective sticks over the course of the season.

You lost Sheffield for the year, I lost Matsui. You had guys who slumped, I had more key guys who were lost for the season.

And so it goes. It’s all part of the game, in both fantasy and reality…..