Is Brian Cashman a point guard, and Omar Minaya a shooting guard? Is Cashman a scrappy, middle infielder and Minaya a swing-for-the-fences slugger?

In short time, I gave up and decided to play it straight. My point is this: Cashman, in my humble opinion, has more of a long-term vision for what he wants to do with the Yankees than Minaya does with the Mets, and Cashman possesses more patience, too. But Minaya makes far more trades that make you say "Wow!" in admiration.

Where would the Mets be without Ryan Church so far? Would they even have a winning record?

As you know, Church, who excelled again last night _ here he is congratulating Carlos Delgado at game's end _ became a Met last November 30, when Minaya acquired Church and Brian Schneider from Washington in return for prodigal outfielder Lastings Milledge.

Like most of my media brethren, I panned the trade, and trust me: It was hard to find Mets support in the baseball industry. It's too early to rip the Nats _ Milledge has obvious talent, as he showed in running down that Delgado blast last night _ but it's not too early to already praise Minaya. I just don't think Milledge could've had the impact on the Mets that Church has so far, this season. And Schneider has proven the perfect replacement for Paul Lo Duca, both in his strength as a defensive catcher and in his more laid-back personality.

A "Wow" trade, in my mind, is one that is surprisingly high-impact. The Mets' current active roster features the products of three such trades: Church and Schneider, John Maine and Oliver Perez. Maine was a virtual nobody when the Mets acquired him and Jorge Julio from Baltimore in return for Kris Benson on January 21, 2006. And Perez appeared a has-been when he and Roberto Hernandez joined the Mets from Pittsburgh on July 31, 2006, in return for Xavier Nady.

Three "Wow" trades, in roughly three and a half years on the job, is pretty good. I can't think of a Cashman move that blows me away similarly, and Cashman has been on the job far longer.

Now, to reiterate, I think Cashman has put the Yankees in better condition, long-term, than has Minaya with the Mets. And Omar has to be accountable for his share of bombs, most notably Brian Bannister to Kansas City for Ambiorix Burgos on December 6, 2006 and Heath Bell and Royce Ring to San Diego for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson on November 15, 2006. Moreover, the decision to not protect Jesus Flores in the 2006 Rule 5 draft (Washington selected him) was an awful one.

But Minaya admits that he'll employ his instincts in some deals, and while those instincts are far from perfect, they have produced some real beauties in the trade department.

In Friday's Newsday, I'm going to compare our two local organizations, from players to on-field staff to front offices to management. Whom do you think is the better GM, Minaya or Cashman?

Translate that sentiment over to baseball, and you have "When Boston Still Had The Babe: The 1918 World Champion Red Sox." It's a new book by a group of SABR members, and it exhaustively researches everyone who so much as played in one game for those World Series champs, the last Red Sox team to win it all prior to 2004.

What amazed me is just how different these players' worlds were. Yes, we know that players didn't make big money until the advent of free agency in 1976, but stilll. These guys would play exhibition games on off days, just to make a few extra bucks. They would play minor-league ball for years and years after their time in the majors, because it's not like they saved enough money to retire comfortably.

And it was an entirely different game, of course, since the Babe had yet to become a full-time hitter; he hit 11 homers in 317 at-bats and went 13-7 in 20 games on the mound. There was so little power in the game. There were no people of color in the game, either.

What this book made me appreciate more than anything was how futile it is to compare eras in baseball. Each has such a dramatically different context. That's why it's very valuable to have statistucs like ERA+ and OPS+, for they allow us to see how each player performed among his own contemporaries.

I happen to know one of the book's writers (there are roughly 30), Rob Edelman. Rob teaches fiim history at the University at Albany, and he has become a regular contributor to the "Pop Quiz" I run every week with my Seventh-Inning Stretch. Rob wrote about Lore Verne "King" Bader, who pitched in five games for those 1918 Sox. He would never pitch in the majors again.

Rob dug up countless details about a man who pitched a total of 22 games in the major leagues, including how he spent his final years (farming in Kansas). Bader died on June 2, 1973, and his funeral service was held at LeRoy's Mattingly Funeral Home. The proprietor was named Don E. Mattingly.

"The Bader piece took a couple of months of intense research," Rob e-mailed me, after I inquired how much work he put into this profile. "I love doing this sort of thing. During the next few months, I'll be writing similar pieces for SABR-produced volumes on the New York Mets and Brooklyn Dodgers."

I am a complete sucker for this kind of stuff. I love that there are people willing to invest so much time and effort to learn about players from the past, both distant and recent. If you're like me, I recommend this book (or, you could wait for the Mets and/or Dodgers books that are coming).

Anyway, I've been to two of Johan Santana's starts this season, and in both, he labored like crazy against bad teams. On April 29, he threw 114 pitches to the Pirates and lasted just 5 2/3 innings, needing Pedro Feliciano to bail him out of trouble in the sixth. And on Saturday, the Mets' new ace fired 116 pitches for six innings in a victory over the Reds, and if he hadn't struck out Corey Patterson with Reds on first and third, he might have been lifted.

So I now admit: It is somewhat vexing that Santana isn't mowing through the NL with more ease. Yes, his overall numbers are just fine, and yes, we know he historically improves alongside the warm weather. But still. I'm surprised that Santana has needed to work so hard to not even get very deep into games.

Consider this: Santana has thrown 110 or more pitches in four of his eight starts this season. Last year, he reached that number in just six of his 33 starts. And it's not like Willie Randolph and Rick Peterson are pushing Santana late into games. They're just trying to get him to finish six innings.

What do you think, Mets fans? Something to shrug off, or not? I'm beginning to get a tad curious, myself.

1. The Yankees will drop two of three to the Tigers at Comerica Park, with Kei Igawa picking up the lone victory tonight in his 2008 major-league debut. On Saturday night, following the game, Jose Molina will recommend that a group of players go see "Iron Man," but Joba Chamberlain will shake off Molina three times and insist on seeing "Made of Honor." Bad things will ensue.

2. The Mets will take two of three from Cincinnati at Shea Stadium. The Reds Ken Griffey Jr. will hit his 598th career homer on Saturday, then pine for a return for Seattle in his post-game conference, then wonder on Sunday what all the fuss over his comments was about.

3. Alex Rodriguez, rehabilitating his strained right quad in Tampa, will drive by a hospital and instantly faint.

4. The highly disappointing Mariners will get swept by the White Sox, despite a total of 10 hits in three games by Miguel Cairo. Seattle will fire manager John McLaren and replace him with his predecessor Mike Hargrove, going with the philosophy that every good manager has a good nickname.

5. The rationalization comes after reading David Lennon's Mets Insider on Aaron Heilman: It's not good that Heilman has switched from the Mets' eighth-inning pitcher to their sixth-inning guy. But on the bright side, he's moving closer to his eventual goal of pitching in the first inning.

Of course, of course, it's still early, and Jeter historically hits better in the second half. He also missed a week with a quad injury. But still, are any of you alarmed by Jeter's lack of power? Wally Matthews discussed that with Jeter in his column today.

Here is the best explanation I've seen for how VORP is calculated. It's a particularly relevant stat given the Yankees' injuries. We're seeing how much their lineup is hurt by the absence of Alex Rodriguez (who led all of baseball last year with a 96.6 VORP) and Jorge Posada (who was eighth overall, and first among catchers, with a 73.4). VORP doesn't factor in defense _ for that, you need WARP, or Wins Above Replacement Player _ but right now, offense is the Yankees' problem.

When Giambi had a strong start to the game, beating out a double play in the first inning and ripping an opposite-field, RBI double in the fourth, I thought, "Perfect!" I began to put together a column reflecting my belief that, while Giambi has been anything but relentless when it comes to his work ethic, he is resilient. I was going to bet, and I'll do it now, that Giambi will indeed finish this 2008 season in a Yankees uniform, although I'll also bank on a visit to the disabled list.

Yet as I was finishing up this column, David Dellucci came up as a pinch hitter against Joba Chamberlain with two outs and two on in the eighth inning. And the next thing I knew, I was calling Newsday's king of the night, Jeff Weinberg, and informing him that I was going to have to write about Joba. When someone as popular and buzzworth as Chamberlain picks up the first regular-season blown save of his career, and allows his first ever runs at Yankee Stadium, that's not something to be ignored. Even if the game-turning homer takes place at 10:00 and you have to have the column in by 11:15.

Here is the column. The point I attempted to make was that, whether he winds up as a reliever or a starter _ and I think it's a no-brainer that he should be a starter _ Chamberlain has some growing up to do.

So that's a brief glimpse into the nature of my job. Next week, I'll explain to you how I choose my clothes.

The issue about Clemens pitching in 2008 came up. "They were totally undecided," McLane said. "They said they'd let us know when they were ready to talk."

That meeting took place before Clemens' case snowballed into the monster it is now, of course. At that time, it seemed feasible that Clemens could make a go at another half-season, especially back in the National League, after his 2007 with the Yankees left some people disappointed. And hey, there are Mitchell Report perpetrators all over the major leagues. The Astros shortstop, Miguel Tejada, is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice for perjury, just like Clemens.

Now, however, you can probably bet against such a comeback. A person close to Clemens told me that a fifth "unretirement" seems very unlikely, since Clemens is battling multiple battles with the DOJ investigation, the defamation lawsuit against Brian McNamee and the reports dealing with his infidelitities.

Gotta run right now. I'll try to check in later with more...

UPDATE, 12:54 p.m.: Very sorry about that. I intended to start this blog last night, after the Mets game, but I fell asleep around the fifth inning. So I didn't have enough time this morning, and I had to take my son to school and run a few errands...yada yada yada. Here I am.

Back to Clemens, it sounds like it's for the best that he's retiring. The Yankees can't take him back, not after they were hurt more than anyone else by the Mitchell Report, and not with Andy Pettitte in their clubhouse. As for the Astros, McLane wouldn't rule out bringing back Clemens, but it sounded like a longshot.

"I think a lot needs to develop, in my opinion," McLane said. "I think there's got to be a lot of questions answered."

When asked, in a follow-up e-mail, what those questions would be, McLane responded, "1) Does Roger want to pitch again; 2) What will result from the congressional investigation; 3) What are the Houston Astros’ needs, etc."

The answer to number 1 appears to be "No." Number 2 could take years to answer. As for number 3, the Astros would certainly be a better team with Clemens taking the ball every fifth day. But it appears to be a moot issue.

I was chatting with one of Newsday's copy editors, Greg Gutes, yesterday, and we were wondering how much better off Clemens would've been if, the day the Mitchell Report was released, he put out a statement confirming the illegal PED usage, with something like, "As a competitor, I couldn't handle not being the best anymore, so I bought into the culture at the time. I wish I could do it all over again."

Greg thinks that Clemens would be in dramatically better shape. I think that he would still be in pretty bad shape. Obviously, Clemens' family wouldn't have been dragged into this, but his Hall of Fame candidacy, and his status as one of the best pitchers of all-time, would be shattered nonetheless. Thoughts?

But there are times when the Mets are playing well, and I put my hand up and declare a moratorium on Mets complaints for the day.

So in that spirit, with both the Mets and Yankees coming off strong weekends, I'm declaring it a No-Complaint Monday.

(Disclaimer: Of course, this is all just for show. Of course I want you to complain, if that's how you're feeling. What, I'm really gonna encourage people not to post comments? I'm just trying to make the point that the New York teams both registered good weekends. I'd do anything for comments, just like Sonny would do anything for Cocoa Puffs).

The Yankees finished off a sweep of the Mariners yesterday. Here is the column I wrote off of the game. I found it interesting that, on the day the Yankees demoted Ian Kennedy to Triple-A Scranton, another homegrown product whom we once all wrote off, Melky Cabrera, further asserted himself as an offensive force.

Darrell Rasner, yesterday, proved the perfect antidote to the demoted Ian Kennedy and injured Phil Hughes: He threw strikes. Mike Mussina, meanwhile, continues to display signs that he's not quite dead yet.

The offense, despite the continued absences of Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez and the continued incompetence of Robinson Cano and Jason Giambi, has woken up some. You can thank the quintet of Cabrera, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui for that.

Now, with all of this kept in mind, I wouldn't throw too big a party if you're a Yankees fan, as the Mariners looked awful. I can't believe some people picked Seattle to win the AL West. The Mariners just don't seem to get the most out of what is now an above-average pitching staff. I knew their offense would be no better than average _ and it hasn't been even that good _ but I didn't anticipate the lousy defense, to boot. They played like they didn't care.

As for the Mets, there are no qualifiers necessary. They went into the home of the best team in baseball, a team that hadn't so much as lost a home series this year, and they won two out of three.

I listened to yesterday's crucial top of the ninth on WFAN, as I drove from the Bronx to Manhattan, and it sounds like they caught a big break. But hey, good teams capitalize on their opponents' mistakes, and that's what the Mets did. That top of the ninth was a thing of beauty. The first two outs advanced runners, and Marlon Anderson's pinch-hit single was the kind of knock that could spark a winning streak.

I want to see this Ryan Church throw in the eighth inning, meanwhile. Like everyone else on the planet who doesn't draw a paycheck from the Mets, I ripped the Lastings Milledge-for-Church and Brian Schneider trade, but so far, it looks pretty smart. Look at Milledge's pedestrian numbers in Washington.

Now, let's see where this goes with Willie Randolph and his Teases. Joe Torre's Dodgers are tough, and Oliver Perez goes tonight in trying to wipe out his awful last start that drew Wagner's wrath.

2. The Mets will rebound from Wednesday's abomination by sweeping the Diamondbacks in Arizona. But when the team arrives in Los Angeles Sunday night for its next stop, and Billy Wagner gets a hotel room close to the noisy elevator, the Mets' closer will blame Oliver Perez.

3. Carlos Delgado will see this play Saturday night in Phoenix, and he'll grow enraged when the actors decline to come out for a curtain call.

4. The beleaguered Roger Clemens, a longtime friend of George H.W. Bush, will find sympathy from the other side of the political aisle. Hint: It's someone who will feel his pain.

5. And now, the correction. I have been communicating with Gary Mintz of South Huntington for probably about three years now. Gary is a huge Giants fan, and he is involved with the New York Giants Baseball Nostalgia Society. In my Midweek Insider on Wednesday, I improperly connected some dots, and I concluded that Gary rooted for the Giants back in their Polo Grounds days.

Gary politely notified me this week that he's 47; he roots for the Giants in honor of his late dad, Louis. So Gary doesn't remember the 1962 World Series, let alone the days in Harlem.

My apologies to Gary.

Happy May Day. No longer can we dismiss the results of our favorite sport with the "It's only April" tag.

Just for the heck of it, let's look at where baseball stood at this very moment last year, to get a feel for what we can expect in terms of the trend/aberration percentage.

Thanks to Retrosheet (link on left), we see that these were the division leaders at the end of play on April 30, 2007:

NL East: Atlanta 16-9
NL Central: Milwaukee 16-9
NL West: Arizona 16-11
NL wild card: Mets 15-9

AL East: Boston 16-8
AL Central: Cleveland 14-8
AL West: Angels 15-11
AL wild card: Detroit and Minnesota, 14-11

So that's four of six division leaders (all three AL clubs and Arizona) that proceeded to win their divisions. Although, it should be noted, the Indians and Diamondbacks fell out of their division penthouses for extended periods before regaining their respective leads. The Phillies, whom, you might have heard, won the NL East last year, were 11-14. The Cubs, who overcame the Brewers, were 10-14.

None of the three wild cards went onto the playoffs, and the two teams that did wind up capturing the wild cards, the Rockies (10-16) and Yankees (9-14), both had losing records.

For the individual stat leaders, I called the Elias Sports Bureau, which was kind enough to provide this info. I am violating my own rules by posting traditional stats here.

Joe Mauer was the AL batting leader at .369. He finished at .293. Magglio Ordonez (.344 on April 30 - thanks to baseball-reference.com) won it with a .363.

Alex Rodriguez led the AL with 14 homers and 34 RBI, and he finished with league-leading totals of 54 and 156, respectively.

Dan Haren led the AL with a 1.60 ERA. He finished with a 3.07, third in the league behind John Lackey's 3.01 and Fausto Carmona's 3.06. Lackey had a 2.19 on April 30.

Josh Beckett led the AL with five wins, and he went onto record a league-high 20 wins.

In the NL, Derek Lee was hitting a sparkling .392. He wound up at .317. Matt Holliday (.385 on April 30) led the league at .340.

Jimmy Rollins had an NL-high nine homers, and while Mr. Team to Beat won the NL MVP award, he finished with 20 homers. Prince Fielder (six homers on April 30) topped the NL with 50.

Jeff Francoeur and Adrian Gonzalez were tied for the NL RBI lead with 25. Neither finished among the top 10, as Francoeur tallied 105 and Gonzalez 100. Holliday (19 RBI on April 30) led the NL with 137.

John Maine had the NL's best ERA, a sparkling 1.35. He finished at 3.91, well behind Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy (2.06 in April) at 2.54.

Finally, Dontrelle Willis, of all people, had a league-leading five victories last April. He picked up just five more for the season, while Peavy (three April wins) won 19 games.

Any predictions on which teams and players can keep this up, and which can't?

Santana pitched adequately in picking up a no-decision against the Pirates, in a game the Mets won, 5-4, in 11 innings. I attended this game, and Santana worked hard, throwing 114 pitches over a season-low 5 2/3 innings. He mentioned the cold weather as a deterrent. He also mentioned that the Mets' scouting report indicated that Nate McLouth, who homered in the first, was supposed to take a few pitches, and that he got a few bad calls on the at-bat that produced Jason Bay's fifth-inning homer.

Over in the Bronx, meanwhile, Phil Hughes pitched horribly in losing to the Tigers, and from reading colleague Anthony Rieber's story, it sounds like Hughes' next start could be for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barres.

Does this mean that Yankees GM Brian Cashman goofed, when he passed up the opportunity to deal Hughes for Santana? In my humble opinion, it is way too early to make such a judgment.

It's hardly a shocker that Santana is posting a vastly superior 2008 to Hughes. Cashman's commitment to Hughes, Ian Kennedy and the rest of the organization's youngsters is about anything but 2008. It's about the hope of building the proverbial "player development machine," so that they don't have to overspend on the free-agent market to fill needs. The possibility that Hughes and Kennedy would need minor-league time was part of that commitment. If the Yankees don't make the playoffs in 2008, so be it. Cashman will sleep well, even if the decision costs him his job.

As stated here back when the Mets made the Santana trade, Omar Minaya performed an excellent job in waiting for the Twins to settle for what still looks like an uninspiring package of players. Have you seen Carlos Gomez's numbers? Yeesh. As you can see here, Kevin Mulvey is pitching decently for Triple-A Rochester, while Phil Humber is not. Deolis Guerra is pitching all right at Class A Fort Myers.

But you can bet that Minaya, who is set to ignore baseball's slotting system for the amateur draft after adhering to it the last couple of years, wants to build his organization to a point where it doesn't have to invest nine figures in a pitcher from another team in order to pick up an ace.

I think that the Santana trade will allow the Mets to close Shea Stadium with their first World Series title since 1986. Yet that high will last for only so long. In 2005, Red Sox fans, fresh off the first title in almost all of their lifetimes, resorting to booing 2004 heroes like Keith Foulke and Kevin Millar. Now the Red Sox, thanks to a strong farm system, are set to make a strong run every year, thanks to their commitment to player development, which includes patience. Last year, Dustin Pedroia hit .182 in April. The Sox stuck with him, and he proceeded to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.

If Hughes ultimately bombs, then sure, you can fault Cashman for not dealing him. But we need much more time here. If Hughes re-discovers himself in the minors, comes back and pitches like the guy who beat the Indians last October, then all will be well. And let's make sure that Santana justifies the Mets' long-term investment in him, beyond just this year and even next year and 2010.

Not only did the tape fail to vindicate Clemens, but it turned McNamee from The Rocket's conflicted whistle-blower to his mortal enemy. McNamee knew so much about Clemens that he didn't disclose to Mitchell, and that information has trickled out for months, slowly, painfully.

Now, I don't know who leaked this latest story about Clemens' extra-curricular activities, but let's face reality. Who benefits from this? McNamee and his attorneys, and the singer, herself, who is now, (not) shockingly, confirming the report. After all, I had never heard of this singer before, and I've spent two weeks of my life in Nashville.

I agree with what Wally Matthews wrote in his column today, and I'll take it a step further: Not only is this irrelevant, but if McNamee's lawyers actually called this woman to the stand in Clemens' defamation case against McNamee, it would backfire.

History has proven that people don't like going into other people's bedrooms. Look at how Bill Clinton ended up benefiting from the Republicans' dogged pursuit of the Monica Lewinsky stuff. If this Clemens case actually goes to trial, and either Clemens or McNamee requests a jury, I think a jury would feel reviled by this information. The jurors would get upset not with Clemens, but with McNamee's lawyers, for trying to tie this into Clemens' credibility.

I feel no sympathy for Clemens. He opened this door when he released that tape. But my hunch is that McNamee's attorneys are too smart to introduce this information to a jury. They'll be content with the short-term public humiliation that Clemens and his family might feel right now. This will prove to be not a news story, only a gossip item.

Let's catch up quickly:

Anyway, here I am, breaking my self-imposed embargo, following the tradition of the vacation-ignoring Watchdog. Figured I'd check in to see what was on your minds.

I've been following the scores and basic news on my Blackberry and complimenary copy of USA Today. I watched the last inning and a half of last night's Yankees-White Sox game, since it was on ESPN, but that's been it for me since the game when Kyle Farnsworth earned his suspension.

So, some quick thoughts: