The Rays won the AL pennant last year and they would have done it even without Jonny Gomes.

However, there's not a chance they would have won it as colorfully if he weren't around.

Gomes batted a dismal .182/.282/.383 in '08, easily the worst of his four seasons in St. Petersburg. He had only 11 plate appearances after Aug. 4 and was inactive for the entire playoff run. Therefore it came as no surprise that Tampa Bay non-tendered him on Friday, sending Gomes to free agency.

Non-tender is an excellent way of putting it because it's very un-tender to cut someone who's been with your organization since turning pro in 2001. And Gomes, despite a paucity of good statistics this past season, was important (yes, we're stretching the word's definition here) to the Rays rise to power in the AL East.

Gomes had a strong rookie season in '05, and owned the club's record for home runs by a first-year player until some guy named Longoria came along. Gomes has struggled at the plate since, but he

Cole Hamels still has the Mets' number, and it's 660 on the AM dial in New York City.

Hamels, in the obviously comfortable position of being the reigning World Series MVP, called the Amazins "choke artists" in a radio interview on the Mets flagship station, WFAN, on Thursday.

Well, at least he thinks of them as artists. Here's Hamels (left) offering Carlos Delgado his brush back. (Get it? Brushback?)

Hamels was referring to the past two seasons, when the Mets blew late leads in the NL East and watched the Phillies overtake them for the division title.

When the hosts tried to get Hamels to back off a little, he didn't, saying, "For the past two years they've been choke artists." (Listen here)

There probably are a few million Mets fans, even, who agree with Hamels, but his comments still are bound to go over well (sarcasm) in Gotham City. Here's a story in the New York Post, which never plays up anything (sarcasm).

For a lovely 1-2 punch, Hamels comments can be coupled with Ruben

All video games and no suitable contract offers make Manny Ramirez an irritated boy.

Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown already reported on the weak Manny Market, and now Ken Davidoff in Newsday says Manny is telling friends he might play the Retirement Card if a proper deal isn't presented soon.

Roll your eyes... now.

Too much attention, Manny believes, has been paid to CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeira and Jake Peavy (might agree there), and not enough interest funnels toward ManRam's services. He doesn't understand the league-wide fatal unattraction.

The Dodgers reportedly offered Manny a $45 million, two-year deal and pulled it off the table when Manny's agent, Scott Boras, didn't call back.

And that's been the extent of the Manny activity.

Well, he has his own activities, the Newsday piece continues: "Manny spends most of his time working out, watching cartoons and playing video games. He'd much rather be speaking to his agent Scott Boras about high-stakes negotiations."

C'mon. He'd

Jake Peavy remains dressed in camo, for now.

After weeks and weeks of tough negotiations that also included (approximately) every other team in Major League Baseball, the Padres did not trade Peavy to the Cubs.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, after a shakedown for the change in his pockets, writes that the Peavy non-deal has become the Brian Roberts misadventure of this off-season.

Heck, who's to say that Roberts, this time around, wasn't part of the Peavy process?

Jim Hendry, by reports, was the one to back out, Padres' Personnel Poobah Kevin Towers says.

"The more Jim looked at it, the more he decided he wasn't going to do the deal," Towers said.

That could have been because Hendry didn't want to pay Peavy the $63 million still owed, or trade Mark DeRosa as part of the package, or maybe he just wanted to get on with his life.

Now, we all can do just that, until we get some juicy Peavy-to-the Yankees or Angels rumors.

Hendry plans to pursue Milton Bradley, or Bobby Abreu, or an

This and every weekday a.m. during Major League Baseball's winter meetings, let's rise and shine together with the latest news and rumors of news coming from the Las Vegas desert. Today's Roll Call starts in the Mets bullpen, which now has K-Rod and J.J. Putz but no longer several of the folks who helped the team compile 29 blown saves in 2008. No Putz for the Tigers? Well, they gotta trade Matt Joyce (right) somewhere, don't they?

Deal of the Day: Mets gain a Putz, lose an Endy

A day after the Mets sign K-Rod, a massive three-team trade sends Shea transgressors Aaron Heilman and Joe Smith, along with outfielder Endy Chavez, off to the wild for another closer, Putz. The Mets also lose some minor leaguers, but I'm going to miss Endy Chavez, more, on behalf of the Amazins. He made one of the best plays in playoff history against the Cardinals in the '07 '06 NLCS.

Other Deal of the Day: Edwin Jackson for Matt Joyce

Good, old-fashioned trade here, folks, and that's the way we like it: the

If the Mets are still blowing saves in the eighth and ninth innings next season, a bunch of fresh faces will be doing it.

A day after signing Francisco Rodriguez to a $37 million free-agent contract, the Amazins traded for Mariners closer J.J. Putz — presumably to be K-Rod's setup guy — after other teams had coveted Putz as a ninth-inning fellow.

Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown has the story (and he also has 100 career touchdowns).

It's a three-way deal, also including the Indians, and the Mets appear to have given up fan fave Aaron Heilman and Quite Average Joe Smith, along with minor leaguers to be discovered.

Update: MLB.com's Jim Street has more details on the who's and where's.

A season ago, the only teams with more blown saves than the Mets (29) were the Cardinals and the (oops) Mariners, who both had 31. Putz, actually, had eight blown saves in 23 opportunities (double oops).

Putz was 5-for-5 in saves in September, which the Mets probably would have taken.

Further, J.J. had one of the

This and every weekday a.m. during Major League Baseball's winter meetings, let's rise and shine together with the latest news and rumors of news coming from the Las Vegas desert. Today's Roll Call starts near San Francisco, actually, where Yankees general manager Brian Cashman signed CC Sabathia and is going after more big-name starting pitchers.

Deal of the Day: CC to Yanks; Opt-out clause key

Just when it looked like the Yankees might come away empty in the CC Sabathia sweepstakes, Cashman put on his best stalker suit and followed the gigantic left-hander to his home in the Bay Area. Cashman, who offered $140 million to CC almost a month ago, apparently helped ease Sabathia's fears about playing in the Bronx by adding another year and $21 more million to the deal. New York isn't as big and scary for $161 mil. What is big and scary: what the Yankees might do next.

Jon Heyman of SI.com says that the Yanks also might be fixing to sign A.J. Burnett and — AND — Derek Lowe. That would

Yahoo! Sports sluggers Jeff Passan, along with Gordon Edes and Tim Brown, are reporting that the Jake Peavy-to-the-Cubs trade might be just one detail from actually happening. It certainly will have been worth the decade-long wait when it does come down. In the meantime, one has to wonder exactly what else caused the delay for Cubs general manager Jim Hendry and Padres' GM Kevin Towers? As the following speculative list suggests, pulling off a big deal at MLB's Winter Meetings is harder than just swapping some names. Here are the hidden hang-ups in the Peavy deal:

10. EMTs struggling to keep the EKG leads hooked up to Hendry's chest

9. Complicated multi-team transaction gets bogged down even more when Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich insists on throwing Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat into the deal.

8. Can't pull Towers away from Bette Midler show at Caesars long enough to take a dang phone call.

7. An avid rifleman, Peavy refuses to stop picking off Vegas showgirls he