Pitchers and catchers is by my best calculations, approximately seventeen more years away. Which, on the Hot Foot and Metsblog alone, will result in a minimum of 4.3 billion articles containing rumors about one Minnesotan pitcher, Johan Santana. The madness needs to end.

I think as a community, we the bloggers must create some sort of contract in which we agree to cease writing articles containing speculation towards where said pitcher will be. The Yankees have the players. But the Mets are in the NL, so the Twins wouldn’t have to worry about facing him. But the Red Sox. But but but. Every point has been made. Every idea has been written and read. Even the craziness of 51 player deals involving 8 teams in which Santana ends up as the new starting QB for the Giants and Eli Manning is in goal for the Quebec Nordiques.

What I propose: no posts about He Who Shall Not Be Named that are based upon an unnamed source. So no ‘person within the Twins organization.”. No ’someone familiar with Omar’s way of thinking.’ No ’senior official’, ‘person close to the player’, or ’senior ballboy and clubhouse attendant in charge of batting glove repair.’ Until a senior official (GM, Vice President of baseball operations) is willing to go on record, the story is meaningless. The senior official also cannot be a Steinbrenner, since Hank seems to make a statement once a week reversing his previous statement, presumable just to keep himself in the news. Back in my day, GMs who wanted to get in the news just fired someone, or partied with Lindsey Lohan.

Rule two: no articles on why he’d be worth trading Reyes. No explanation needed.

There is no rule three.

So there we have it, a simple plan to help end the never ending cycle of sourceless rumors involving one man who may or may not even be traded before the All Star break. Granted, now there will be only one update on most baseball blogs a week, but maybe we can start rumors about some different players, or finally read Metsgal’s Book Review and Recipe Corner. Unless of course, you have some inside scoop.