Writes Ben,

I am officially a blank on the Beltran issue and could probably offer better insight to Iraqi voters at this point. This FOX story hints at some limits to the Yankee payroll. With the Tigers out, I think the Mets may have the biggest offer out there, but there’s that other story from the New York Daily News that says, once again, Beltran would just not like NYC, which has been a common thread in this story.

Steve Phillips was on ESPN News this afternoon, helpfully echoing the sentiments of John Harper’s anonymous source, wondering aloud just how brutal a slump Beltran will go into the first time he’s booed at Shea (because after all, no player has ever been jeered in the history of the Kansas City Royals or Houston Astros). Phillips’ TV analysis has been solid most of the time, and it’s unfortunate that he’d go out of his way to cast doom & gloom on a potential signing by his former employers.