WHITE NOISE

There are times when extreme focus sounds like white noise, you know, that fuzzy noise when the TV would 'go out' back in the good old days?

There will be no Eric Chavez contract issue to deal with in 2004. There will only be the issue of will he be able to tread water, FINALLY, against left-handed pitching.

Susan Slusser, in an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle, was waxing about the bare minimums in the contract talk surrounding Chavez. Her estimate, in the article, is a fond 5 year $50-$60 million deal. That's about right.

And when you see multiple articles about a story that really wasn't a priority - you start to wonder. MLB.com's Mychael Urban has a fluff piece on Chavez...with spinklings of contract talk and the status.

Elsewhere, there have been whisperings of 6 years and a high figure of $65 million. But that could all be the white noise fading and the rest of the world leaking in,again.

The numbers are coming into place. It's only a matter of language and when to announce. The A's can start stocking the shelves with #3 - CHAVEZ jereseys for a couple more years.

So I guess our faux telephone conversation between Billy Beane and Dave Stewart was almost, but nowhere near, accurate.