Raul is where my irrational hopes and impossible fantasies come from.  When somebody jumps on this team–your Pete Orr’s or your Michael Martinez’s–Raul is why there’s always that notion, after they’re debunked as secondhand trash or at most, “nothing special,” that maybe, they will be the awesomest they have ever been for no reason at all.  As a 37-year-old outfielder who was noticeably not Pat Burrell, the bar was very low, but Raul grabbed that bar and used it to clobber his way into a first ever All-Star appearance.

That’s probably the problem, though.  And like me, on this topic, Charlie Manuel has gone insane. (more…)