Baseball Notes - Melky, Mills and the Lastros

Two stories are really bothering me this morning.

First, this thing with Melky Cabrera of the Frisco Giants has gotten weirder with this revelation about his fake website and the ways he tried to cover-up the use of steroids. I have been hearing people put forth the idea that the teams need to take a greater responsibility. I agree with this. And as such, the way teams should "take responsibility" is by vacating wins when a player tests positive for steroids.

How many of the Frisco Giants wins this year came with Melky in the lineup? We're in August. If you argue that Melky has been juiced-up the entire season, that's four and a half months. Every one of those games won should have been vacated last week when MLB suspended Melky. The teams need to take responsibility. Frisco is still in contention in the NL West, so aside from losing Melky for the rest of the regular season, they really haven't paid a price. This is wrong. Once the teams start taking ownership of solving the problem of steroids in baseball, I think this is going to be a huge problem and a black eye.

Second, the Houston Lastros disgraced themselves Saturday night by firing manager Brad Mills. For Mills' part, he parted ways with class. I'm not a Lastros fan, but being in Houston, I hear his radio show on occasion and I read about him in the little local paper. Brad Mills is a good guy. He had come from the Red Sox system, and he can recover from that. I hope someone picks up Brad Mills and puts him to work right away. Memo to my Dodgers: Make the call, there's a place in the system for Brad Mills.

As for the Lastros, you're a freaking joke. You gave this guy a team full of AA talent, at best, and you expected him to compete? Did you really need to make this crucial change in mid-August? Are you thinking you're going to compete next year in the AL West, and therefore you wanted to get a new manager in place? This is all laughable.