Here's another edition of Peter Gammons' Thursday afternoon chat with The Mike Felger Show on 890 ESPN. Gammons unloads on both MLB and the Players' Association for the Boycott gate that put a circus type feel on Boston's departure for Japan, and also lambastes MLB for their attempted crackdown on the Cape Cod League Baseball teams that use MLB team names.

Some interesting thoughts on ideas of possible collusion involving Barry Bonds as well. If my sarcasm meter is working correctly, there's at least one veiled shot and then one obvious one at super-agent Scott Boras.

Enjoy:

I didn’t think the potential boycott by the Sox was a really valiant thing, and thought they just leveraged a powerful position with the only potential victims being the fans of MLB.
PG: There’s no question it came from the three most important leaders on that team: Lowell, Cora and Jason Varitek. And I thought it was really good. I talked to the Yankees and their coaches and players and I talked to the Phillies and they all thought it was a great thing because Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association don’t care about anyone unless they’re making millions.

They just don’t care.

 Look at Major league Baseball trying to put Cape Cod League baseball out of business. There are evil people on both sides of this. Kevin Youkilis learned a lesson as player rep, when it comes to the hatred and history between the Players Association and Major League Baseball you need to get it in writing. Because they made promises and then it was ‘Oh Geez we’re not going to do that now.’ I thought it was despicable what was done to the coaches and managers, and I thought [the Sox] did a great job and they are heroes within baseball…I can tell you that.

I’ve been with Major league coaches, players, clubhouse guys and the Yankees clubhouse guys were saying ‘You know what? [the Sox] are the best group of human beings in the game.’ They were really proud of them, and they’re the best acting, the best behaved and the tightest team, and I thought it was great that they pulled together. More than anything once it was exposed that Major league baseball didn’t tell the player the truth, they didn’t have any choice.

This is the first time the coaches, managers and the training staff weren’t going to get paid. In other trips -- Mets against the Cubs and Yankees against the Devil Rays -- they were getting paid. I just thought it was really good they went out of their way for something, and I think the players knew all along. What was Major League Baseball going to do? They had all these millions of dollars and they were flying all these people in charter flights over to Japan. What were they going to do, not play the games?

Was it as simple as it was not in writing?
PG: Yeah. I think the Red Sox players should have just assumed that you just can’t trust either side. The hatred and gap between the owners and players’ association right now because of everything that happened with the Mitchell Report is as wide as its been years.

There are a lot of really hard feelings and I don’t think there’s any question that someone they never got back and got everything in writing.

 [The Sox] are there and there’s no question that this has been really embarrassing for Major League Baseball. To make this whole huge deal that we’re going to take the World Series Champions over to Japan and they’ve got all these people flying over on charters to Japan from MLB to talk about how they’re growing the game universally and then talk about how they’ve taken the game from a $1.3 billion to a $6.8 billion industry over the last 12 years and then they’re going to nickel and dime.

I’m sorry, but it really frustrates me at the total lack of respect for managers, coaches and training staff and the lack of the respect for the game – which is obvious by what’s going on with the Cape Cod League.

It’s been suggested that there’s collusion involved with Barry Bonds not being with a team in Major League Baseball. Do you think there’s any chance that the owners got together and said ‘No Barry Bonds this year.”
PG: No…no. There are a lot of guys. Kenny Lofton doesn’t have a job. Sammy Sosa doesn’t have a job. It’s hard. I was having a long talk about Bonds with Joe Maddon yesterday and with Rocco Baldelli probably being out of baseball now maybe Bonds would make some sense in that order with the talent they have there. But the questions of the distractions and the media…I think teams are wary of him.

I think teams aren’t going to take on Roger Clemens and they’re not going to take on Barry Bonds. I’m not sure I understand the Sosa thing because he’s never been accused of anything, but he also had trouble hitting the fastball in the second half of last year. Every time something happens and an agent does a bad job of negotiating a player’s contract they start screaming collusion and it’s wearing me out at this point.

 There’s no collusion; people just don’t want to take on Barry Bonds. I don’t think a Tampa Bay would get the reaction you’d get in Boston or New York, or another big media town. There’s no question Barry would help the Devil Rays, but he’d help the Devil Rays be three or four games closer to Toronto in fourth place and maybe they finish 30 games ahead of Baltimore rather than 25.

But that’s not where they’re going. When you’ve got young players like Evan Longoria and you’ve got a leader in the clubhouse established like Carlos Pena and you’ve got BJ Upton coming and Carl Crawford is a great player, then Barry Bonds really isn’t what they need and want. The accusation of collusion to me is really silly. Is it collusion that Scott Boras turned down $30 million for Kyle Lohse and then he had to end up with $4.25 million. It wasn’t collusion; it just didn’t work out for the agent.

His agent has down a terrific job with Barry, but you’ve got the trial hanging over your head. If you’re the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and it’s the middle of August and you’ve got Evan Longoria going for the Rookie of the Year and you’ve got Carl Crawford already an All-Star and you’ve got all of those young pitchers blossoming and BJ Upton will probably be on the All-Star team…do you really want the subject to be Barry Bonds’ trial?

I don’t think so and I think people are very sensitive to that. I don’t criticize Bud Selig for sponsoring the Mitchell Report, but there’s no question that it did more harm than good for the game.

You’ve mentioned the Cape League and I wanted to give you the chance to address it and explain what’s happening?
PG: In the infinite genius of Major League Baseball’s licensing folks, they are now saying that the teams in the Cape League that are using the names of Major League teams have to pay a pretty exorbitant fee to use those team names. To which I say I have a pretty good idea.

Since the Harwich Mariners was in existence before the Seattle Mariners why doesn’t Microsoft give $1 million to the Harwich Mariners. Certainly a million is nothing to them as opposed to a league that really helps people, and [MLB} has also eliminated the $100,000 contribution which is what they pay minor league free agents to play in Triple-A. Now the Red Sox have said they would just about double that, but I don’t think that Major League Baseball will allow them to.

They just don’t get what baseball is and it’s brutally difficult to comprehend. In the end they don’t charge admission at Cape League games, and not only do they develop players at a tremendous rate but they also develop fans. Families can’t afford to take kids to Major League games in a lot of cases, so when you can for nothing go to the Cape League or go at the great prices in Pawtucket and Lowell and Portland then that’s where fans get developed.

We’re going to get a little more licensing money so we can help out Glass and Carl Pohlad. Pohlad is the richest man in all of Major League Baseball…a billionaire.

There was a poll on ESPN that said the Red Sox are the team to beat in Major League Baseball. Do you agree with that?
PG: I do. Having seen the Yankees a lot I think they’re going to be very good and their pitching is going to be a lot better than what it was last year. I love Ian Kennedy and I think Phil Hughes is going to be very good. With Chamberlain and Ross Ohlendorff pitching the seventh and eighth innings they’ll be much better there than they were last year.

You’ll remember last year that they went through 14 starting pitchers and 11 in the first seven weeks, but I also worry about their age and their defense.

As long as Josh Beckett is healthy, and you can say that about any top of the line starter on any team, and he can make 28-30 starts then I think they’re the favorites. You look at that team and you say Manny Ramirez was 100 points lower in his OPS last season than at any other full season in his career, and he’s in the greatest shape of his life.

He’s going to have a monster year.

David Ortiz is healthy. Lugo has regained the 20 pounds he lost before the season last year, and Manny Delcarmen – I think his emergence you’re going to see him be one of the best relievers in the game this year. I’ve seen a lot of really positive things, but we know that injuries can happen and the division is really tough. Toronto is much better and Tampa Bay is really dangerous.

Not only because of their young players, but when you can go Scott Kazmir, Jamie Shields and Matt Garza for a rotation and they finally have some bullpen. You have to play a ton of games in that division, and if you have a bad month in that division with some injuries then it could really hurt you. I think [the Red Sox] are the team to beat.

Is Bartolo Colon the steal of the offseason or is he going to be the next Wade Miller?
PG: I don’t know, but that’s a great comparison. A great one. I saw him the day that he couldn’t finish out the inning in Tampa [against the Yankees] but he was throwing better than he threw the year that he won the Cy Young Award. He’s going to start once or twice down here and he’s going to start one of the exhibitions in Los Angeles, so they’ll have some idea.

The arm has gone in and out, he’s had elbow and surgery problems in his history and the weight is certainly a concern in dealing with recovery from injuries. It’s a no cost signing.

I’m still not sure that Buchholz wouldn’t be better served starting out with a month in the minor leagues and get more confidence in his fastball. His stuff is tremendous, but he still lacks a lot of confidence in his fastball. Why, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just because he hasn’t pitched a lot because he was an outfielder when he played at a junior college.