Interview with Jayson Stark

ESPN's Jayson Stark, who has a new book out called "The Stark Truth: The Most Underrated and Overrated Players in Baseball History," was nice enough to stop by and answer a few questions for the site.


Baseball-Rumors: Let's start with a non-baseball question, who are your picks for the Super Bowl?

Jayson Stark: Colts and Cowboys. OK, maybe not. Sorry, no upsets coming from me. Pats and Packers


Baseball-Rumors: Who are your winners and losers of the offseason and were there any moves that made you scratch your head?

Jayson Stark: Gotta love what the Tigers did. No player who changed teams this winter will have more impact than Miguel Cabrera. And I think Dontrelle Willis is definitely salvageable. Pretty good lineup, huh? Their No. 8 hitter will probably be making $13 million a year (Pudge Rodriguez).

And I really admire the way the Diamondbacks have been able to retool and upgrade (Dan Haren) without spending one dime in the free-agent market. Hard to do these days.
Finally, I think the Padres have quietly had an excellent winter. Randy Wolf and Tadahito Iguchi are terrific under-the-radar signings, and for one year to boot. They bought some serious upside in Mark Prior, brought back Greg Maddux, got Jake Peavy extended and might get lucky on Glendon Rusch. I like that team.
Biggest losers (so far): Mets, Cardinals, Marlins (at least in the short term). If the Mets trade for Santana, get back to me -- fast.

Most head-scratching winter: Astros. Drayton McLane doesn't believe in rebuilding. So they've blown up their system to trade for Miguel Tejada and Jose Valverde, and it's tough to be sold on either of them. Think they'd like a muligan on that Tejada deal right now?


Baseball-Rumors: Not getting into specifics of the Congressional hearings but is the whole steroid issue turning off fans at all?

Jayson Stark: I always say that I think most fans have a filing cabinet in their brains. And while they care about this issue, the ones who like baseball still like baseball and still go to baseball games. So what they do is put their feelings about steroids in a file folder in that cabinet. They might get angry at times. They might stop cheering for players they used to love. But they still like the sport. The attendance numbers and ratings show that's exactly what's happening.


Baseball-Rumors: With all the talk about Johan Santana being traded to the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets, will he change uniforms prior to the 2008 season or do you expect him to start the season with the Twins?

Jayson Stark: I don't think they'll keep him, no. Their problem is that they're going to have to change philosophies because the deal they thought they had to have -- three or four centerpiece, big-league-ready players -- isn't out there, and they're not going to get that deal. But here's why logic says they have to trade him:

If they keep him and take the two draft picks, those picks will come in the 2009 draft. Knowing the Twins, they'll probably take two high school players who wouldn't get to the big leagues till like 2014. But if they make one of these deals, even for younger players, that's four or five players who can help them by the time they move into their new ballpark in 2010.

So sooner or later, don't they have to find a way to make a trade? But if they don't change their stance on this, they'll take him to spring training. My bet is still that he'll wind up with the Mets.


Baseball-Rumors: Last question, your new book "The Stark Truth", tell me a little about that and what fans should look forward to with it?

Jayson Stark: Let me ask you something. What do we love most about sports? That we can argue about them, right? Well, this is a book about the most overrated and underrated players in history. And overrated/underrated is the greatest sports argument in the history of arguments. So it's a very lovable book, even speaking as an author who is clearly engaging in shameless book hucksterism right now.

There are some controversial picks here. I know that: Sandy Koufax as the most overrated lefthanded starter of all time. Nolan Ryan as the most overrated righthanded starter. Andruw Jones as the most overrated centerfielder. Etc., etc. But this is not a mean-spirited book. It's meant to be a fun book. It's meant to make people think and debate and laugh. And judging by the response, it's done all that.

It was the No. 1 baseball book on Amazon for much of the summer. And there was a column last week in a Connecticut paper calling it the best sports book of the year, and maybe the best of the last decade. If you haven't read it, check it out. It beats sitting around watching Congressmen mispronounce their favorite baseball names, anyway.