Some things you might not know

Things people might not realize at this very moment:

-- Freddy Adu will be to the MLS what Wayne Gretzky was to the NHL. Granted, the situations aren't quite the same -- the MLS has only been around for seven years, while the NHL has been around since 1917. Plus, the NHL was already popular when Gretzky came into the league -- he just launched it to an entirely new level.

Freddy Adu will launch the MLS to an entirely different planet.

Nobody likes the MLS. Essentially nobody, anyway. The MLS is basically the NFL Europe of the soccer world. There are a few players who could make it on European clubs, but for the most part the MLS is where players go after they get cut everywhere else.

Well now the MLS has something that every other club in the world wants - Freddy Adu. Manchester United wanted him, and the MLS got him. Talk about bizarro. Freddy Adu gives the MLS a ton of street cred, if you will, because this kid is good. And he's not just good in the US, he's good anywhere in the world.

More importantly, he's an instant fan draw to a league that, while it has done better recently, struggles in a country dominated by football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. You can bet that I'm gonna go next year when DC United comes to Foxboro to play the Revolution, and I don't even like soccer all that much. And I won't be surprised if DC sells out a few of its games next year, either. With the hottest young soccer commodity in the world, DC United will suddenly be one of the hottest tickets in town.

If Freddy Adu turns out to be the real deal, then the MLS is in for a huge growth spurt in the next ten years or so. Just trust me on this one.



-- There is no way in hell Freddy Adu is 14 years old. If he's 14, then I'm 47. There's just no way. A 14-year-old kid is not developed like Adu is. I don't how anybody who has ever seen a picture of this kid could possibly think any differently. But hey, if it brings in more fans, I guess that's what really matters, right?



-- Either Billy Beane is on drugs, or I'm an idiot. If you choose to go with "I'm an idiot," I can't really blame you, because chances are that Billy Beane knows a lot more about what he's doing than I do. But I just can't figure out the logic behind sending all-star catcher Ramon Hernandez and Terrence Long to the Padres for Mark Kotsay.

Mark Kotsay? What has Mark Kotsay ever done besides a few web-gems on Baseball Tonight? Usually when you can't understand a Billy Beane trade you look at the economics of it, plus the OBP, OPS, and walks of the players. Well if you do that with this one, it still doesn't make any sense.

The A's get Kotsay, who is due to make $5.5 million next season, and get a career .281 hitter, with an OBP of .338 and OPS of .756.

If Oakland could have gotten someone to just pick up Terrence Long's contract (Terrence Long had to go -- he is a whiner and an underachiever and never really brought a whole lot to the table anyway), and kept Ramon Hernandez, who is due to make $2.9 million next season, it would seem to be a much better deal. The A's would have gotten, for $2.6 million less, essentially the same numbers in average, OBP, and OPS, but they would have gotten 14 more homeruns and 40 more RBI. Plus they would have an experienced catcher who knows how to work with the league's best pitching staff. Now the A's have Adam Melhuse behind the plate, who has been shaky at best.

Maybe I'm not taking everything into account. Maybe Kotsay's numbers will go up if he moves up in the lineup, which he will in Oakland. And maybe Ramon Hernandez had his one good year and that's it. Or maybe Billy Beane wanted to get rid of Terrence Long so badly that he would do anything to do it. But I just can't figure it out.



--Alex Rodriguez is the opposite of valuable.

How can you call a player valuable when he's the reason why a team is going to be miserable as long as he's there? Rodriguez is apparently the league's most valuable player, even though his contract is, at least in part, the reason why the Rangers can't field a winning team.

By giving A-Rod a contract that's bigger than the GDP of most developing countries, the Rangers essentially eliminated any future flexibility that they might have had in regards to building their team. Texas has no pitching, and it seems to me that it's going to have a lot of trouble putting together a decent staff as long as it has that $252 million contract staring it in the face.

A-Rod is so valuable, that there's probably not a team in the league that would pick up what's left of his contract.

Texas GM John Hart told the Associated Press that "I don't see much opportunity on the trade front." The best player in baseball, and he might be un-moveable.

So again, just how is A-Rod valuable to the Rangers? His gold glove and his 47 homeruns brought the Rangers all the way up to last place. And next year, when they have no pitching again because they couldn't afford anybody, and A-Rod hits 58 homers, knocks in 180 runs, and wins another gold glove, they might even move up to last place again.

A-Rod is the best player in the league, but he is not valuable.