I'm still really pissed off about Friday's game in Milwaukee. I know we could have lost just as easily as won, but nothing irks me more than the MLB postponement rule.

I really think the MLB needs to rethink it’s postponement rule. Regardless of my still being mad about yesterday, I’ve always felt this way -- win or lose. It should be like little league and high school (I chose not to play college, so I’m not sure the rules there) where if it’s before 5 innings, you simply pick up and finish as part of a double-header the next time the teams meet.

I don’t understand why it’s not like that, and I think it’s unfair for players (like Rasmus) who maybe have an important personal success on a day and then it gets swiped away. Say Yadi miraculously steals a base -- he deserves to be credited for that stolen base. It's silly how the current rules work. How in any way does erasing what's already been played make more sense than continuing another day. The fans who had tickets can still come back for the second game, just like the current voucher system. Pitching rotations already get thrown out of whack as it is, so that doesn't change anything either. The only difference is that when you play that double-header, you resume play in the third inning opposed to the first inning.

Another issue with the current system is that it must affect the emotions of players during a game where it looks like it will be postponed. Even if they won't admit it, if it starts to rain in the first inning, I'm sure their effort will be less. But if they know that every out will carry over, they will play the same way as a typical game. It's a small mentality thing, but it seems worth noting.

I don't know -- how do you guys feel?

Time for an experiment.

Let me preface by saying that I'm aware this isn't a typical FanPost and doesn't really follow the typical FanPost guidelines. But with that said, I hope you all can see past that and participate in this project. Also, please do know that I do not intend this to become a habit and will probably never make a post like this again, but what can I say? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Over the past few months, a pretty wide sentiment has built up over VEB. We would really like Ben Sheets. Of course, there are some who do not want him, and that's totally understandable. But for those of you who do want him on our team, like me, this is the post for you.

Let's try to reach Mo. We know that some of the Cardinals front office reads this blog and that Mo somehow came across the mock-diary of him, so getting his attention isn't entirely impossible. But we can't expect him and his coworkers to the scour the rumor threads. Something like this will hopefully stand out to them. 

This is why I'm proposing that we start a petition, but in order for this to work, it's going to need to be a little different than the typical thread. What if every member of VEB who would like us to sign Ben Sheets made ONE post on this thread? Just one. Nothing carried away and no long discussion. But if we each were to make a post with a simple explanation for why we would want him and what kind of deal we would like (or no explanation at all if you'd rather leave it blank with a subject), it might send a pretty powerful message.

Again, I really don't want this to become common practice, and I'm not trying to start something that will get annoying to moderate over the years, but there seems to be generally wide positive sentiment for Ben Sheets on VEB and its not like we've been begging for people all off-season. Why not channel this want for a genuine shot at being right up there with the Cubs into something and get our voices heard? Who knows? Maybe if we have enough well-constructed thoughts in one hearty FanPost, then Mo will take notice.

(update) For those interested in the most recent roster matrix, it can be found here. Signing Sheets would likely be our last signing of the offseason, but that wouldn't matter . . . because we'd have Sheets.

EXCITING NEWS: Jerry Crasnick mentioned us on his ESPN Blog: "http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove08/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3846058" Even if he doesn't read this, maybe Mo reads ESPN?

I saw the post about Kawakami being shut down because it wasn't in the catch all thread, but there wasn't a catch-all thread in existence! So without further adieu, I created one for more rumors about Kawakami and any other rumblings we come across.

Haven't seen much else lately besides MLB trade rumors saying we have money to spend. Hopefully we spend that well!

Simple poll for this week. Now that less are out there, might as well narrow our choices.