What does it say about the state of the Mets’ pitching staff that they had to turn to a rookie making his major league debut (Carlos Muniz) in middle relief last night and now have to give Philip Humber his first major league start in the final week of a furious pennant race? The Mets’ bullpen has become so overworked that Willie Randolph went to Muniz as a replacement for struggling starter Tom Glavine. Muniz gave up two runs in an inning and a third, and those proved to be critical tallies in a 10-9 loss at Shea Stadium on Tuesday night…

Play-by-play man extraordinaire Gary Cohen provided a nice nugget of information on Monday night’s Mets broadcast. In referencing former Indians pitcher Jack Armstrong, Cohen discussed one of the right-hander’s best years, in which he pitched phenomenally well for the Reds over the first half of the season. (It must have been 1990, when Armstrong won a career-high 12 games and earned selection to the All-Star Game.) And then, as Cohen pointed out, Armstrong became full of himself. During a trip to New York, Armstrong decided to hang a sign in front of his locker at Shea Stadium. The sign read, "If you’d like to interview me, you’ll have to contact my agent first." What a putz. After that bit of haughtiness, Armstrong turned back into a pumpkin, endured a poor second half to the 1990 season, and never came close to being an effective pitcher again. Somehow, after hearing Cohen’s story, I don’t feel too sorry for Armstrong…

How desperate are the Padres for outfield help after that disastrous Sunday afternoon that essentially removed two-thirds of their starting outfield in Milton Bradley and Mike Cameron? Well, they decided to take a flyer on Jason Lane, who has been absolutely brutal for the Astros the last two seasons after being mildly productive in 2005. Other than an occasional home run, Lane offers little on offense—he doesn’t hit for average, doesn’t walk, doesn’t steal bases, and strikes out way too often. I also don’t know that he can play a serviceable center field. The Padres would be better off playing Brady Clark, Rob Mackowiak, or Terrmel Sledge in center field, bookended by Scott Hairston and Brian Giles. Hairston, by the way, has been one of the game’s best midseason pickups this summer. In 23 games for the Padres, he’s slugging at a .771 rate, with an on-base percentage of .418. And for what it’s worth, it looks like he could emerge as the best player in the expansive Hairston family, which has roots all the way back to the days of the Negro Leagues…

On a personal note, I’ll be a regularly featured guest each Tuesday morning on KBME, an all-sports radio station in Houston. Co-hosts Brad Davies and Craig Roberts will grill me each week during the postseason.

So where will Barry Bonds end up next spring, now that the Giants have decided to move in a different direction for 2008? Bonds’ lack of range in the outfield, coupled with the increased possibility of injury that comes with playing the field, make him a long shot to land with another National League team. So let’s assume that he heads to the American League for the first time in his career. In spite of what some skeptics say, the lowly Rangers appear to be one of the candidates. Owner Tom Hicks loves to make a big splash and can make room for Bonds at DH (where he belongs) by letting Sammy Sosa’s contract expire. Skeptics say that Bonds won’t want to play for a non-contender, but that didn’t stop him from playing for the Giants this summer. Another real possibility is the A’s, who have a general manager that appreciates Bonds’ full impact on an offense. Oakland needs a major jumpstart offensively; there is no other free agent hitter that comes close to carrying the resume of Bonds. Bonds would also prefer to remain on the West Coast, a condition that the A’s can obviously meet. Two other West Coast teams, the Angels and Mariners, are also rumored to have interest in Bonds, but some observers discount that possibility. The managers of those teams, Mike Scioscia and John McLaren, are both old-school baseball guys who would seem to have little interest in pandering to the wants and needs of Bonds, who will likely demand preferential treatment wherever he goes…

Forget all the weekend talk you heard about Alex Rodriguez signing a contract with the Cubs that contains a provision for future ownership with the club. Major league rules not only prevent active players from being part owners in a franchise, but also disallow teams and players from engaging in agreements that promise future ownership in the club. The Cubs might still pursue a more standard contract with A-Rod, but the Yankees and other teams will be looking closely to make sure there is no mention or provision for future ownership…

Speaking of the Yankees, the bending of the "Joba Rules" over the weekend figures to be a sign of things to come. Look for GM Brian Cashman to allow Joe Torre to use Joba Chamberlain on back-to-back days during the postseason, as long as he keeps his pitch count below 30. Cashman recognizes that Torre will need Chamberlain at full capacity if the Yankees are to return to the World Series for the first time since 2003.

We’ve been out business since last Wednesday because of the Labor Day holiday, so let’s make up for the lack of currency with lots and lots of volume…

Anyone who has read this space over the last two years knows I’m no fan of pitch counts, which have become overused to the point of nausea. Now I’m not calling for a return to those halcyon days when starting pitchers routinely threw 140 or more pitches. Yet, the pendulum has swung over so much to the side of caution that teams are losing games in the late innings because of a reliance on bad relievers without any discernible reduction in injuries to their starters.

Here’s my beef with pitch counts, which really should be described more accurately as pitch limits. Sabermetric types are forever stressing context in applying statistics—and rightly so—but context doesn’t seem to apply as vigorously to pitch counts. A guy hits 100—or 110 pitches—and the red flags go up, the sirens sound, and the pitch count preachers start chanting. Well, I have a few questions. I want to know if the pitcher labored in reaching100 pitches. What were the weather conditions, warm and humid or cool and comfortable? How were the pitcher’s mechanics that day, were they sound, or were they strained? How was he pitching at the tail end of those 100 pitches, as opposed to the first 40 pitches? Was he sailing through the batting order at the end of the 100 pitches, and if so, why did the manager take him out? Was it simply because the abacus turned from 99 to 100?

If baseball would use pitch counts as a guideline, while considering some of these other questions, I’d be much more open to considering the real validity and value of pitch counts. And I believe that pitching coaches and managers should be able to provide answers to these questions, in terms of a pitcher laboring, his mechanics, his strength at the end of the game. I mean, that’s what pitches coaches are paid for, at least in part, to detect these tendencies in their pitchers.

If pitch counts were used in such a way, as a guidepost, rather than as a hard and fast rule with absolutely no flexibility, I think teams would be extracting more quality from their starting pitchers. And maybe, just maybe, we’d see the return to something like the ten-man pitching staff…

Just a week ago, after the Mets had lost four straight games to the Phillies, we heard some ridiculous talk that Willie Randolph might be on the verge of losing his job. This angered me to no end, considering that Randolph has had the Mets in first place for virtually all of the past two seasons. He’s done this without a dominant starting rotation, and for much of this season, without much help from an aging Carlos Delgado or an oft-injured Moises Alou. Lo and behold, the Mets have won five straight games since the Philly fiasco, opened up a sizeable five-game lead in the National League East, and have quieted all the rumors of managerial change. Frankly, those rumors should never have started. It’s an insult to a fine manager like Randolph, who still finds ways to extract effort from veteran players and manage a scattershot bullpen while keeping the brushfires of controversy still at Shea Stadium…

My kingdom for an impact pitcher! What does it say about the state of available pitching when the best that contending teams can come up with over the last week are trades for Steve Trachsel (Cubs), Brett Tomko (Padres), and Ray King (Brewers)? None of the three has an ERA below four and a half, and all carry baggage (Trachsel has a reputation as a quitter, Tomko hasn’t pitched decently since 2004, and King weights 230 pounds, at least.) And what does it say that each of these three teams was actually excited about these acquisitions? Yeesh…

Last Saturday night, the White Sox slept walk their way through another defeat, but patient viewers who sat through till the end were treated to a video gem from the 1970 season. After the Sox’ latest loss to the Indians, WGN aired a tape of a hilarious exchange featuring Sox broadcaster Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. The tape, which was filmed in 1971, showed Harrelson and his then-Indians teammate Sam McDowell running through their own interpretation of Abbott and Costello’s "Who’s on First?" Harrelson and McDowell delivered the lengthy skit as if they were trained theater performers—flawlessly executing their lines while displaying the impeccable timing of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello themselves. Hawk and "Sudden Sam" even strayed from the original script from time to time, giving the performance a unique interpretation while also managing to poke fun at their own 1971 struggles. (Harrelson hit .191 in what was his final big league season, while McDowell went an uncharacteristic 13-17 and was traded to San Francisco.) It was wonderful theater, the kind that I’d love to see more local teams incorporate into their broadcasts. Just terrific.

Baseball’s leaders, be they the commissioner, the head of the players union, or superstar players themselves, often take their share of heat for having unpopular opinions, but it’s refreshing that no one prominent in the game has seen fit to defend Michael Vick for his horrendous treatment of animals. Thankfully, there don’t seem to be any Stephon Marburys or Jamie Foxxes in the baseball world. I wasn’t a big fan of Foxx to begin with, but now I’ll never pay to see one of his films after his idiotic comments—saying that Vick didn’t get the "handbook" that tells black athletes how to act—over the weekend. Here’s some news for Foxx. That "handbook" is called The Law. And if you don’t understand the immorality of electrocuting, hanging, or drowning dogs, then you’re beyond help…

Mike Mussina could be making his final start of the regular season on Monday night. If Mussina is hit hard by the Tigers, expect the Yankees to drop "The Moose" into the bullpen and replace him with Triple-A prospect Ian Kennedy, who has been dominant at three minor league levels this summer. The Yankees have grown frustrated with Mussina’s inability to adjust to lost life on his fastball. His unwillingness to pitch inside, long a criticism of the veteran right-hander, has never hurt him more badly than it has in 2007. One would think that Mussina would have learned something from the late-career transformation of Tom Glavine, but the lesson has not apparently sunk in. The Yankees are regretting their wintertime decision to give Mussina a two-year while not making a harder pursuit for a free agent like Ted Lilly…

How’s this for a blast from the past? Over the weekend, the Royals called up Billy Buckner from their Triple-A affiliate at Omaha. No, that’s not the Billy Buckner, he of the smooth swing and 1986 World Series infamy. This Buckner, who turns 24 on Monday, is a right-handed pitcher who bears no relation to the original "Billy Buck." The rookie pitched creditably in his major league debut on Saturday, allowing one run over five innings in a start against the Indians. By the way, the original Buckner did play for the Royals at the tail end of his major league career, appearing in 168 games in 1988 and ’89.

Jim Bowden often makes outrageous demands in trade talks, a strategy that usually produces nothing but inertia, but he made himself a steal of a deal on Friday, when he picked up Wily Mo Pena from the Red Sox for what will likely be an inconsequential player to be named. Red Sox fans couldn’t wait for Theo Epstein to part ways with the raw and erratic Pena, but they will likely come to rue this trade one day. Still only 25, Pena is the kind of raw and unrefined talent who is simply unsuited to the role of playing as a fourth and fifth outfielder. He has the kind of big swing that requires everyday use; he needs the rhythm of playing on a daily basis to hone his timing at the plate. Pena will require some patience; he will go through stretches where he strikes out two to three times a game and looks like Rob Deer on a bad day. But there will be good stretches, too, like he had over the weekend, when he picked up a home run and two walks in his first two games for Bowden’s Nationals. If the Nats are patient—and if Pena supplies the needed work ethic—they will eventually find themselves with a player capable of hitting .260 to .270, hitting 35 home runs a year (assuming that the Nats’ new ballpark isn’t more of a pitcher’s park than RFK Stadium), and slugging somewhere in the range of .500. That’s the kind of player that is worth the investment of time and patience—and that’s what the Nats will be getting in Wily Mo…

Injuries continue to pile up on the Mets, who had to add two players to the disabled list over the weekend. Ramon Castro and Damion Easley have joined the ranks of the unavailable, leaving the Mets desperately short in catching and infield depth. Finding a catcher at this late stage of the season is probably close to impossible, but Omar Minaya has already located a capable right-handed hitter who can pick up a little bit of the slack left by the losses of both Castro and Easley, who have quietly combined for 19 home runs this season. Conine’s ability to play first base, his skill as a pinch-hitter, and his experience in the postseason should all help him become a subtle contributor to the Mets down the stretch …

Don’t look now, but the Red Sox have signed a shortstop with the last name of Dent. This one isn’t Bucky Dent, but Ryan Dent, who was one of Boston’s supplemental draft choices earlier this summer. Dent, who is regarded as a terrific athlete with excellent speed, might eventually be converted to either second base or center field. By the way, Ryan Dent has the same initials as Bucky Dent, whose real name is Russell Dent. Yes, that’s a little bit eerie.

At a time when records and milestones are falling like drunken sailors, the White Sox’ Bobby Jenks has quietly tied a little known record by retiring his last 41 consecutive batters. Think about that, 41 in a row, which is the equivalent of a perfect game followed by 14 additional batters! As the lone bright spot in a dismal Sox bullpen, Jenks has equaled a highly underrated record set by the Giants’ Jim Barr in 1972. Barr is one of those 1970s era pitchers that is long forgotten, even by some of those who saw him pitch. (I remember him best for fighting with his manager, Frank Robinson, in a particularly ugly altercation.) Other than his ERA, Barr’s 1972 numbers were nothing special—he went 8-10 and struck out only 86 batters in 179 innings. He split the 1972 season between starting and relief, but unlike Jenks, he set down his 41 consecutive batters as a starter. On August 23, Barr retired the last 21 Pirates batters he faced, and then on August 29, he shut down the first 20 Cardinals batters to face him. The Cardinals and Pirates had pretty good lineups in ’72, making Barr’s feat that much more impressive…

It’s a strange story that hasn’t received much play, but the Players Association is considering the possibility of filing a formal complaint against USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale for allegedly "misleading" two star players for stories that received national exposure. The stories, both of which came out earlier in the season, quoted Jason Giambi as essentially admitting steroid use and Gary Sheffield saying that the commissioner was a liar. Giambi was called onto the carpet by Selig for his comments while Sheffield recently received a fine. The union isn’t contending that the players told Nightengale that their remarks were "off the record," but rather that each player was somehow "misled" by the reporter. Frankly, I don’t see how the union has a case here. If the players didn’t indicate their comments were off the record, then Nightengale had every right to print their remarks. Giambi and Sheffield are both veteran reporters who should know, by now, how to handle to the media. They’re not rookies; they have no excuses for being misled by anyone in the print, internet, or television media…

What is wrong with Eric Gagne? In five relief outings with the Red Sox, he has already given up 10 hits and looked little like the pitcher that was making a case for Comeback Player of the Year honors with the Rangers. The Red Sox don’t seem concerned with Gagne’s velocity or health, but might be wondering about Gagne’s ability to adapt to middle and set-up relief. Almost exclusively a closer throughout his major league career, Gagne hasn’t pitched in a non-closing role since 2001, when he was mostly a starter for the Dodgers. We often talk about the difficulty in adjusting from set-up relief to a closer’s role, but the change the other way can be difficult, too…

As well as Jorge Sosa has pitched since being moved to the bullpen, it looks like the Mets will need at least one more solid relief pitcher if they’re to safely maintain their Eastern Division lead down the stretch. Guillermo Mota has been simply awful, Aaron Heilman too inconsistent, and Scott Schoeneweis simply unmentionable. Unfortunately, Omar Minaya, who has been reluctant to give up any notable prospects, now faces the additional problem of hoping that a quality reliever will sneak through waivers. Someone like Kansas City’s David Riske might; the 30-year-old journeyman has pitched exceedingly well in middle relief, with an ERA of 2.19 in 50 games, for the non-contending Royals. Or how about Mike Myers, recently designated for assignment by the Yankees. Though Myers has struggled against left-handed bats, he’s pitched better than Schoeneweis and would have little trouble blending into the Mets’ clubhouse…

Do you want more evidence of the enormous ego and lack of class exhibited by Pete Rose? As if Rose’s recent X-rated performance at a kids camp wasn’t bad enough, there’s this little nugget left over from the Hall of Fame induction. During the recent Hall of Fame weekend, a local reporter and friend of mine approached Rose on Cooperstown’s Main Street. He asked Rose if he would be willing to do a short interview. Rose responded by asking my friend what his newspaper’s circulation was. When he told him that the number was 21,000, Rose responded, "Not big enough." Therefore, no interview. Do us a favor, Pete, don’t come back to Cooperstown next year. Our small town isn’t big enough for your massive ego. Besides, Hall of Fame Weekend is more fun without you…

Sometimes authors, like me, welcome desperation. At the CVS Pharmacy here in Cooperstown, pharmacist Brian Loucks has put up a photograph of my baby daughter, Madeline, next to a stack of copies of Tales From The Mets Dugout. The photograph has a balloon caption saying, "Please buy this book that my daddy wrote because I really need a pony." Now, as to where we would put the pony, that could be a problem. But thanks, Brian.

In a way, it was fitting that Barry Bonds hit his record-breaking home run against Mike Bacsik. The Nationals’ left-hander provides a direct link to Hank Aaron through his father; in 1976, right-hander Mike Bacsik, Sr. faced Aaron during the home run king’s final major league season. Pitching in a game for the Rangers against Brewers about one month after Aaron had hit his 755^th and final home run, the senior Bacsik fared better against Aaron than his son did Tuesday night against Bonds. Bacsik allowed only a single to Aaron, who didn’t hit a home run during the final two months of the 1976 season.

While I’m less than thrilled about the Bonds achievement, a lot of my thoughts today are about Barry’s father, Bobby Bonds. To his credit, Barry made a point of talking about his late father during Tuesday night’s on-field celebration. When the elder Bonds burst onto the scene with the Giants in the late 1960s, there were probably a few observers who thought that he might one day challenge the likes of Aaron, Babe Ruth, and his outfield mate, Willie Mays, for home run supremacy. Bobby had enormous talent, arguably more than Barry—power to all fields, gamebreaking speed that played well in center field, and enough of an arm to handle right field—but he didn’t take care of himself, abusing his body through a fast-lane lifestyle littered with alcohol and cigarettes. Still, Bobby was a darned good player, a legitimate 30-30 man who early in his career played like a superstar. Much like his career, Bonds’ life ended way too short; lung and brain cancer claimed him at the age of 57 in 2003. I hope that a few other people stop to consider his achievements on this, a day that revolves almost completely around his son…

Tuesday night’s fifth installment of The Bronx Is Burning included one of the more disturbing scenes I’ve ever watched in a sports film. Yankee manager Billy Martin and newly hired pitching coach Art Fowler sat in a bar leering at younger women while making some offhand remarks. Decked out in mid-1970s polyester, the middle-aged pair of Martin and Fowler made for quite a spectacle. As my wife said out loud while watching the episode, who would have wanted to pair up with those two?…

Yankee phenom Joba Chamberlain made his highly anticipated debut on Tuesday night and did not disappoint in a two-inning mop-up stint. In striking out two and holding the Blue Jays scoreless, Chamberlain unveiled fastball after fastball in the 95-98 mile per hour range, along with a kneebreaking slider that looked like a right-handed version of Ron Guidry’s out pitch. Have the Yankees finally found a reliable eighth-inning bridge to Mariano Rivera? Maybe, if early returns are to be trusted…

The Yankees’ prime rivals, the Red Sox, made a nice pickup on Tuesday. The Sox quietly signed Bobby Kielty to a minor league contract with the idea of bringing him to Boston after rosters expand on September 1. The Sox might even recall him sooner if they can find a taker for the enigmatic Wily Mo Pena. Kielty hits left-handed pitching well, making him a platoon option with J.D. Drew in right field. Kielty’s ability to handle all three outfield positions could also make him a valuable reserve player down the stretch.