FanHouse DavidWells

Here's a shocker: David Wells probably didn't take steroids during his 21-year playing career. Boomer told the New York Daily News on Sunday that while Jose Canseco offered him HGH in 2001, he declined performance enhancers both then and at other other available venues during his career. Jose Canseco offering David Wells' steroids sounds more like a bad SNL skit than something that actually happened in real life.

Maybe my favorite part of this story is the money quote that Wells, who was (if you don't recall for some reason) rather fond of food and beer during his playing days, gave to the Daily News when discussing Canseco's offer, "That stuff is not good for the game and it is not good for your body." Yep. David Wells was all about what's good for the body.

Since Joe Torre's tell-all book, The Yankee Years, was leaked a bit early, we've seen tons of fallout. There have been back-and-forth arguments all over the blogging community about whether or not Torre was within his rights to do this, David Wells has taken Torre to task, while several other players and former players have attempted to avoid answering questions on the topic.

NEW YORK -- Joe Torre's name is on the book, but it's a fair estimate not even one-fourth of the words are actually his. He says he's read it six times, perusing line for line, scanning chapters for quotes or anecdotes that have caused so much fuss. It is clear the New York Yankees, Torre's former employer, aren't pleased with the book -- Torre's book -- and there is a decent chance their relationship is forever stained.

And yet, here is Torre, calmly navigating another hot-stove controversy the way he did for 12 always memorable, sometimes controversial seasons as manager of the Yankees. Taking refuge from a snowstorm building steam outside, Torre brushes a few icy flakes from his shoulder and tells me he "wouldn't change a thing."

First of all, I'd like to thank Tom Verducci and Joe Torre for providing us all with some baseball news in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Normally, we'd have a quiet go of things here in MLB 'House, which is why we decided to run The Next Big Thing this week. Instead, we've got tons of juice -- and I'm not talking about Barry Bonds.

Anyway, add David Wells to the list of people who don't necessarily approve of some of the material in the book, though it seems he wasn't a fan of Torre in the first place.

The Yankees' worst fears were confirmed this afternoon following an MRI on Chien-Ming Wang's right foot. He's been diagnosed with a sprained Lisfranc tendon and a partially torn peroneal longus tendon and will be confined to a walking cast for the next six weeks.

Once the cast is removed, he'll still need at least another month throwing bullpen sessions and making minor league rehab stats to regain his conditioning, which means that the earliest he's expected to return is September. Not surprisingly, Wang's teammates aren't optimistic about being able to replace him. From George King III of the New York Post:

"Nothing against (Alex Rodriguez) and (Jorge) Posada but when you lose a front-line starter, that's a big deal," [Mike] Mussina said Sunday. "There are seven other guys in the lineup. When you lose your No. 1 starter, that's very hard. He is the ace."

How will the Yankees replace him? Apparently from within, if you believe Brian Cashman. From Peter Abraham of the LoHud Yankees blog:

"There is no trade market at the moment," he said. "I'm not optimistic that something can get done on that front. We have to try and plug this gap internally and that's not going to be easy."

Earlier this week, when the MLBPA made public a formal investigation about collusion toward Barry Bonds, they included a handful of other veteran free agents to the mix. It seemed like a surefire way to weaken their case. Outside of Kenny Lofton, who will be playing for someone come July, using guys like Jose Mesa, Sammy Sosa and David Wells only proved that major league teams had common sense not that they were colluding.

Or so I thought. Today's New York Post reports that Wells has been working out and feels he could help the Yankees survive the less-than-stellar work from Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Wells did not pitch well for the Padres or Dodgers last summer and, at 45, doesn't really fit into the idea of building young players to lead you to the next taste of championship glory.

Perhaps we shouldn't write it off, though, since Hank Steinbrenner seems to have inherited his father's patience.

Everybody talks about the great players from the farm system that we had in the '90s, but it was the starting rotation. That was a huge part of the success. Huge."

They don't come any huger than Wells, so this signing could actually happen.

I kind of thought that after last season, David Wells' career was over and he knew it. At the age of 44 he managed to make 29 starts, but he didn't even get through 160 innings in those starts, he got routinely pounded, and the Padres unconditionally released him in August. Still, Boomer doesn't think he's through because just contacted the Cardinals and asked for a job. The Cards, however, don't seem too interested:

"He'd like to continue his career and felt that he would be a perfect stopgap for them as they got their guys healthy and ready," said agent Gregg Clifton.

"At this point, the Cardinals seem like they want to see how their younger guys look at camp."

Wells may want to continue his career, but I can't imagine there's a ton of interest in an overweight 45-year old without much left in the tank. The Cards are certainly better off going with internal options to try and fill out the bottom half of their rotation while they wait on Chris Carpenter than they would be shelling out even $2 million for a guy like Wells. I think most teams probably feel the same way.

It isn't exactly a shock to anybody who pays attention to baseball, but Tom Glavine is going back to Atlanta to pitch for the Braves.

He signed a one-year $8 million contract with Atlanta on Sunday.

The 41-year-old former Braves ace agreed to terms late Sunday on a one-year, $8 million free-agent contract to return to the team, a person familiar with negotiations told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Braves are expected to announce the signing at a news conference Monday afternoon at Turner Field, which Glavine is scheduled to attend.

Keep in mind that Glavine turned down $13 million to stay in New York with the Mets. Tom's made enough money in his career that the extra $5 million he left on the table probably won't hurt him much-though if you're determined to get rid of it Mr. Minaya feel free to give me a call-and Glavine would rather be in Atlanta with his wife and kids.

I'm happy that Glavine is going back to Atlanta, because no matter how many times I saw it, it never felt right to see him facing the Braves instead of pitching for them. I grew up during the era of Glavine-Smoltz-Maddux, and I was never happy to see the trio broken up.

As for how the Mets plan on replacing Glavine, there's another old left-hander they're reportedly interested in. This one's much rounder and drunker though.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

San Diego Padres (73-60) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (70-63)-10:05PM Est.

Way back, in the long long ago, David Wells played for the San Diego Padres. It was August 2007, and the world was a funny place back then. People were walking around the streets playing with their iPhones, debating who was more Now, and most inexplicably, the Cubs were in first place. They were strange days my friend, very strange days indeed, and I'm just proud I survived. Now, just over three weeks later, Wells returns to San Diego to face his former team. In his only start as a Dodger, Wells lasted five innings and gave up two runs to pick up a victory. The Dodgers are currently riding a four game win streak, and have gotten back in the race in the NL West. The Padres send Jack Cassel to the bump, and I had never heard of Jack Cassel until I just typed his name over there. The reason Cassel is in there is because he was called up from Triple-A to fill a void in the Padres starting rotation. A void that was created by the departure of David Wells. See that? It all comes full circle man. It's life. The circle of life.

Obviously when you're a 44-year-old unemployed pitcher, retirement is going to creep into your thoughts. But I didn't realize how close to accepting retirement David Wells was until reading what he said recently. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that after being cut by the Padres, he was about ready to retire:

"I was done," said Wells. "Really. And when you think you are done, you're usually done. I was surfing a lot and getting ready for retirement.

"We were at the Hoffmans' house and I was telling Trevor and Tracy about my plans to retire. I had told Greg to write up something and announce it and Hoffy and his wife were getting ready to congratulate me on my retirement when Greg called back and said, 'Not so fast.'

"The Dodgers wanted to sign me, but part of the deal was that I had to pitch in New York last Sunday. My reaction was, 'Are you kidding me?'

"I hadn't done a thing in three weeks. That's kinda shifting gears at this age. But I played a little catch with (son) Brandon one day, flew to New York the next and pitched two days later."

Let me get this straight, dude pitches perfect games with a hangovers, and he tops that off by beating the Mets without having thrown much in three weeks? He truly is a special talent, and sexy too. And now he has the chance to beat the team that cut him, and prove to them that he still has it going on.