I really don't understand why Mark A. gets kudos for this. Doug Melvin, yes. But Mark A.? Yes, thank you, Mark, for reaching EXXXTTTRRAA deep into those pockets to pull out the 7.5 Million it took to seal the deal. By today's baseball standards, that is just not a lot of money. If i were to find out that we DIDN'T get Hoffman because we only wanted to give him 6.5, i would be furious. This type of move, from an ownership standpoint, is to be expected. In 2004, we decided to give Sheets about 10 million per. He was one of the best pitchers in the game at that point! Even in that year, it could be argued that 7.5 wasn't an extraordinary amount to pay a closer. Fast forward to 2009, and we will be looking at between 12-15 million to retain Sheets, who isn't as healthy as he was in 2004. He's not as good as he was in 2004. And he's not about to get any better. He has peaked, yet we would potentially pay him 12-14 million. Inflation, Suppy and Demand, call it whatever you want to call it. If Mark A. dishes out THAT kind of money for Sheets, I will personally write him a thank you note. Not that Sheets deserves that much, but we need Sheets if only for the possibility that he could have two out of three somewhat injury free seasons of <3.33 ERA.