According to ESPN.com, MLB home-run king and former San Fransisco Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates OF Barry Bonds has been charged with 14 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.

In 2003, Bonds said in front of a grand jury that he denied unknowingly taking illegal performance enhancing drugs.  After that, he was charged with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.

Bonds has not officially retired and remains a free agent.

According to Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News, Atlantic League President Joe Klein has offered OF Barry Bonds a chance to play in the Atlantic League, in order to stay in shape for the MLB.

Players such as Jose Conseco, Ricky Henderson and Jose ‘It’s’ Lima ‘Time’ have all played in the Atlantic League.

This would seem fitting, only adding to the circus that has become the Barry Bonds saga.

According to the AP, the players union is going to investigate why no one wants to hire Barry Bonds. Union head Donald Fehr will look into whether collusion between the owners was involved in Bonds lack of work.  Bonds agent has said publicly Bonds is still interested in playing baseball for a living, in exchange for money.

Collusion? Thats what we’re going with? Now I’m no baseball expert per se, I’m just some guy they let blog about the Mets, say crazy things, and make occasional jokes about ways to properly store Moises Alou (answer: vacuum sealed glass case).  Point being, the federal perjury indictment, the chance he could end up in jail shortly might play in. The fact that everyone who has ever watched any sports is pretty sure Bonds used steroids could come into it. The media circus that follows him. His total uselessness in the outfield. He’s not a team player, he doesn’t run out grounders, he’s injury prone, he’s the poster boy for the Steroid Era. He’s a jerk, even compared to other Jerks in baseball. He probably wants a lot of money. Some of these could play into it too. Nobody seems to be signing Mike Piazza now either, and he’s at least likable. No collusion cries there. Nobody but the Giants have wanted anything to do with Bonds for years, he was openly booed on the road, and teams just don’t want the incredible bad PR they’d get by signing him. Its not collusion.

In a recent chat on ESPN.com, baseball analyst Rob Neyer answered questions from readers.

The only question about the Mets was:

Andrew (London): Rob, can you explain to me why the Mets won’t approach Barry Bonds, other than the Wilpons aversion to controversy? Have him split time with Endy Chavez/Marlon Anderson until Alou is healthy - when he is, platoon them on a left/right split, since neither can play 100 games - and they’d have an OPS of almost 1.100. Isn’t this a no-brainer, considering how cheap Bonds would come relative to his performance?

To which Neyer answered:

Rob Neyer: I don’t think New York is the best venue for Bonds at this point. Remember the Worst Team That Money Could Buy?

I swear that Andrew who asked the question isn’t me.  Bonds is a great hitter, but I don’t want him on my team.  Especially because we need a righty.

Also in the chat, this made me laugh:

chris (michigan): Okay Rob, ESPN trades for another blogger and makes you their “utility player” to earn the rest of your 3yr-$19million contract. Do you ask to be traded to CNNSI or happily get coffee for Keith Law and take out Peter Gammons’ trash waiting for a finger injury to put you into starting lineup again?

Rob Neyer: I ask for the trade, but if that doesn’t happen I do the best I can. But see, the difference between me and a professional athlete is that in the back of my mind I’m just a heartbeat away from delivering pizzas. Joe Major Leaguer is set for life, which does alter one’s outlook.

I really enjoy reading what Neyer writes, he’s a collegue of Bill James in the school of Sabermetrics, which I support. 

Also, this is something I came across recently in Neyer’s blog, which I find fascinating: Observational Analysis.

With Moises Alou likely out for at least the first month of the season, it remains somewhat of an open question who’ll be filling Mo’s shoes and playing left field for the Mets to kick off 2008. Here’s my take on some of the names that have been tossed around. I’ll give you the perspective both as a stats guy, and purely as a fan.

Barry Bonds

Stats guy says: Fantastic! This guy has a career OPS of 1.051, and his OPS last year was even higher! That shouldn’t really even be possible. We can play him in left for a few weeks, spelling him in the late innings and in day games with Endy Chavez, and it will be even better than if Alou were healthy. Come to think of it, why don’t we just sign this hitting machine to be our left fielder for the entire season?

Fan says: Barry Bonds? Are you kidding me? You want me to root for Barry F’ing Bonds? This guy is not only a cheater, he desecrated one of the most sacred records in all of sports and did it with a smile on his face. Plus, haven’t you noticed he’s just a tad on the surly side? I was booing this guy back when he had a normal-sized head. And now I’m supposed to root for him? I want a world championship as much as the next guy, but I seem to remember renouncing Satan somewhere along the way. Also, we’re not seriously thinking of replacing Moises Alou with a guy older than Moises Alou, right?

Endy Chavez

Stats guy says: Meh. His career OPS is under 700, and even during his renaissance of the last three years it’s 720. Sure, he’s a great glove and a good baserunner—an excellent choice for a fourth outfielder. But Chavez doesn’t have the bat to be an everyday player.

Fan says: How can you not love Endy Chavez? Don’t we all remember that catch he made? When Scott Rolen’s ball was heading towards the wall, even though we all knew it had the distance, we somehow all believed that Endy would make that catch. It’s not just that, though—he won a game with a drag bunt last year, and he hit a homer against the Yankees, and he made about a million other awesome catches that weren’t quite as well remembered as that other one. Yes, let’s make Endy Chavez the left fielder. That will have me smiling every day.

Kenny Lofton

Stats guy says: He did a very serviceable job in the AL last year, compiling a 781 OPS and 23 stolen bases to go with only 7 CS. He’s a lefty, though, which would mean we’d likely have a lineup that goes SSRSLLLLP (S = switch, P = pitcher), if you care about such things. Still, he’d be a fine fit for a month, in my opinion.

Fan says: You really want to replace Moises Alou with a guy who’s almost as old as Moises Alou?

Xavier Nady

Stats guy says: Well, at least we know he can hit left-handed pitching—to the tune of an 881 OPS over the last three seasons. He would give us the lineup balance we’ll be missing in Alou’s absence. But it’s not as though we can just go out there and grab Xavier Nady. The Pirates are now run by someone intelligent, and why would he hand over Nady without us giving him something of actual value in return? And since we’re not looking to give up any value, we’re just looking to plug a hole for a month, we probably shouldn’t be trading for Xavier Nady.

Fan says: I love Nady! Remember when he was here and he hit the hell out of everything? (Stats guy interrupts: actually, his numbers last year were basically the same as his numbers with us.) And the only reason we ever traded him in the first place was because Duaner Sanchez got in a car accident. And remember when Nady had that appendicitis? We all felt bad for him then. We should do whatever it takes to get Nady back. I miss him.

You can imagine that overall I’m a little conflicted about the whole left field situation. I’d probably be in favor of just living with Endy and the rest of the bench for a month. What I’m really in favor of is getting Alou healthy as soon as possible.

ESPN reports that Federal prosecutors mistakenly filed court papers Thursday that incorrectly stated Barry Bonds failed a steroids test in November of 2001.

U.S. attorney spokesman Josh Eaton now says that the reference in Thursday’s government court filing regarding Bonds testing positive was actually referring to a November 2000 test that was previously disclosed in the indictment of Bonds and had already been reported.

The mistake was spread on television and websites around the country, including this one.

Thats a pretty big OOPS.

The ESPNEWS Bottomline is reporting that according to sources, former Giants OF Barry Bonds failed a drug test in 2001.

 More News to Come.

It’s just three short days until pitchers, catchers, and David Wright report to Port St. Lucie to start their work. What a glorious time to be alive! The expectations for the 2008 season might be higher than any I’ve experienced in my 24 spring trainings as a fan. This is a Mets team that is supposed to win the National League, and is supposed to have an excellent chance of taking the whole damn thing. Wow.Some might say that nothing short of a World Series win can be considered a success for this club. It’s true that a championship would be the ultimate accomplishment, and gratify us as fans for years to come. After all, none of the teams I root for, in any sport, has won a championship since 1986—and even if they had, I would trade any number of victories in the lesser sports for just one more New York Mets World Series championship. Having said all that, I disagree that nothing less than a championship will do. I tremendously enjoyed the 1999, 2000, and 2006 seasons. Sure they were bittersweet in the end, but they were great rides while they lasted.

How much better is it, then, to have not just a great ride, but a title to go with it? I mentioned in my last column that it’s hard to evaluate how good a trade is from a fan’s standpoint, because we don’t really have a metric for measuring fan gratification. Indeed, most of the analysis of the Johan Santana trade fell into two camps: “Yeah, we got Johan!” or “Boo, we spent way too much to get Johan.” In my view, neither camp has it quite right. The “Yeah!” camp overlooks the idea that it might be tougher for the Mets to compete in the future because of the Johan trade and signing. The “Boo!” camp overlooks the idea that Mets fans don’t care if we paid a little too much to get Johan, so long as we still have money to spend, and so long as Johan brings us a championship.

The fans mostly only care about what happens to the product on the field, not what it cost to put it there. To evaluate the Johan trade in terms of dollars doesn’t really make sense. It would make more sense to evaluate the trade in terms of what it brings to us, as fans. In an attempt to come up with a measure to accomplish this feat, I propose the following totally arbitrary point system for fan gratification:

World Series championship: 1,000 points
LCS win: 50 points
Divisional series win: 50
Division title: 100 points
Wild card playoff appearance: 50 points
Regular season win: 1 point

The championship is the mother lode, but getting to the playoffs is still far better than not, and winning a playoff series enhances a fan’s enjoyment that much more. The 1999 season is far more memorable to me because of Todd Pratt’s walk-off homer in the divisional round, and the 2000 season would sit far differently in my mind without John Franco’s strikeout of Barry Bonds, or Mike Hampton’s complete-game shutout against the Cardinals. Also, even if you don’t win a playoff series, getting to the playoffs as a division winner is better than getting in as a wild card. (The clinching celebrations in 1986, 1988, and 2006 seemed far more warranted than those of 1999 and 2000.) To fans, getting to the playoffs matters, how you get there matters, winning playoff series once you’re there matters, and winning world championships matters a lot.

Based on this system that I just made up, here are fan gratification point totals for some Mets seasons.

2007: 88 points
2006: 246
2005: 83
2003: 66
2000: 244
1986: 1,258
1969: 1,250

The two championships are each more than five times better than any other season in our history—as it should be. 2007’s dismal ending made it only about a third as gratifying as 2006, but still 33% more gratifying than 2003, when we won a mere 66 games. If we ever do win a World Series in the current playoff system, it will likely be more gratifying than the championships of 1986 and 1988 because of the extra playoff series involved. This seems right to me. It’s a lot tougher to win three playoff series than two. Also, even though we got to the World Series in 2000, that season scores about the same as 2006. The playoff run in 2000 was great, but so was the regular season/division title of 2006. The scores reflect this fact.

The system isn’t perfect; for example, Robin Ventura’s grand single is nowhere accounted for, and that ain’t right. But while it’s not perfect, and while I completely pulled these numbers out of…the sky, I like this system that I’ve invented. If someone could tell me accurately what our chances of winning a title, a division championship, a playoff series, or a playoff berth were before and after the Johan trade, and then do that for every season of Johan’s contract, I would feel comfortable applying my own system to form an opinion about the trade. Without that information, however, I think I might’ve just wasted some time playing around with numbers before the season starts. Oh well. I guess the point I was really driving at is this—let’s win the World Series this year, shall we?

Tim Dierkes at MLB Trade Rumors lists the top 50 remaining free agents.

Barry Bonds, Mike Cameron and Bartolo Colon are listed as the top three in that order. Dierkes had originally predicted Colon would land in Seattle, which he believes could still could happen but sees the Royals, Nationals, Mets, Rangers, and Phillies as possible destinations as well.