ADD DESTROYING CRIMINAL EVIDENCE TO A-ROD’S RAP LIST?

On Friday afternoon, Michael Schmidt of the New York Times broke the story and identified Alex Rodriguez as the player who allegedly purchased documents from a former employee of Biogenesis of America in an attempt to destroy evidence linking him to the anti-aging clinic’s distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.

When the Miami New Times broke the story in January, I remember saying “this is the White Whale. This is the one that will blow the lid completely off the entire steroid and PED scandal.”

Since that day more than a dozen players have been implicated and tied to Biogensis including Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal and 2012 MVP Ryan Braun.

While they all continue denying everything and scrambling for and convenient excuse they can find, the plot keeps thickening and the sordid details are piling up by the hundreds. Real details and real documents that even MLB themselves are trying to illegally buy at any price to get to the bottom of this and protect what little integrity the game has left.

The person charged with the role of Super Spy is none other than Bud Selig himself who has been authorizing and signing off on huge sums of cash that is being used to secure whatever documents they can get their hands on from former employees of the lab who are now all seeking to pay off their significant mounting legal fees.

And while Alex Rodriguez is no less guilty of doing the same thing, there is a huge difference.

MLB wants those documents so they can go after every player that is implicated and try to clean up the game.

A-Rod on the other hand, was seeking to get those documents and destroy them before the FBI or MLB got a hold of them.

But wait, there’s more…

Of course, Rodriguez flatly denied the accusation through a spokesman, but then he dropped another bombshell alleging that it was the New York Yankees that were paying for and buying those documents from the rogue former employee. Wow…

Oh and one more thing… Let’s stop calling them documents and lets start referring to them instead as illegally obtained evidence to hinder an ongoing federal, state and MLB investigation.

These are all allegations at this time, but when this is all over, I think more than a few people, including players, will be looking at life from a different perspective…

After mugging with several friends on the Venezuelan WBC team, Santana long-tossed in the outfield, and followed that with several pitches off the mound from where he fielded bunts.

The timetable is a bullpen session, then batting practice and possibly pitching in a game, March 14. That would leave three starts before the start to the season.“We’re not worried about April 1,” Collins said. “We’re worried about 30 starts. … This is about protecting him.’’

Collins and Santana didn’t appear on the same page Sunday when the latter threw off the mound and the manager questioning his reasoning later, saying he had nothing to prove.

MUPRHY UPDATE: Daniel Murphy, sidelined with a strained right side muscle, played catch, took grounders and hit in the cage. He followed that up by saying he didn’t have a timetable for when he’d take live batting practice and appear in a game. “I want to play,’’ Murphy said. “But, I want to be smart. There’s three weeks left. There’s time.’’

THE GAME: Jon Niese gave up four runs on six hits in 2.1 innings, and Carlos Torres was hit for seven runs on eight hits in 1.2 innings as the Mets were beaten, 14-10, by the Venezuelan WBC team. Collin Cowgill continues to impress, going 3-for-4 with two RBI as the DH. … Marlon Byrd hit a three-run homer and Lucas Duda was hitless in two at-bats.

K-ROD SEEKS REDEMPTION: Former Mets reliever Francisco Rodriguez did not distinguish himself during his tenure with the Mets. It wouldn’t be a reach to say the highlight of his stay was general manager Sandy Alderson’s ability to trade him the summer after his fight with his former father-in-law outside the family lounge at Citi Field. The punch cost Rodriguez an injured hand and night in jail.

Yesterday, he visited with Collins as a member of Venezuela’s WBC team. He told reporters after the game he would like a chance to make amends with the Mets.

“I would love to,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got a great coaching staff over there. To come back and redeem myself would be great, because I’ve got to be realistic and honest. You would have to be real blind to not see that I fell when I was there. That’s not even a question. To be able to get one more shot and get it done would be great.”

JUST WONDERING: With Mark Teixeira out eight to ten weeks, and to open the season on the disabled list along with Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez, nobody is projecting a hot start from the Yankees. The media is expected to crush the Yankees assuming a slow start, which could take some of the negative attention away from the Mets.

METS NOTEBOOK: Despite the Mets scoring ten runs, Collins said he’s concerned about the offense. “We’re not swinging the bats very good,’’ he said. “But, we still have around 40 at-bats (per starter) to go.’’ … Kirk Nieuwenhuis is getting treatment on his bruised left knee and said there’s no timetable for his return. I’ll have something with Nieuwenhuis in the morning. … The Mets are in their 25th spring in Port St. Lucie, the seventh longest tenure in the majors. … Matt Harvey will start Thursday against Miami, followed by Greg Burke and Brandon Lyon. … Dillon Gee, Bobby Parnell and Josh Edgin will pitch Friday against Detroit at Lakeland. … Former Mets bullpen coach Guy Conti lives in nearby Vero Beach and is a guest instructor.

I laughed out loud when I read one of the teams should be the Mets. Seriously, how could anybody write that and have the readers keep a straight face?

Regardless of Fred Wilpon’s desire to spend money next year, it won’t be on Cano for four significant reasons.

First, the Mets won’t bring in anybody for more than the $138 million package they gave David Wright. He’s a homegrown franchise player and nobody will beat that amount, at least not in the next year. Five years from now, maybe. But, not in 2014.

Secondly, the Yankees would never let them be beaten out by the Mets for a player they both sought. The Mets can’t go toe-to-toe with the Yankees financially regardless of how much money Wilpon wants to spend.

Both the Mets and Yankees wanted Carlos Beltran, but the Yankees cooled at the end. Even after getting his final offer from the Mets, Boras went back to the Yankees one last time. Boras wanted the Bronx, but for that price the Yankees were concerned about Beltran’s mental toughness in the New York market.

Third, if the opening figures are to be believed – $175 million over seven years from the Yankees and a $225 million demand over ten years from Boras – there’s no way the Mets could, or should, compete on that level.

Both numbers are excessive, and the Mets have too many holes that can be filled for that amount.

Which brings us to the final reason: As good as Cano is, he’s not enough to be the missing piece of the puzzle for the Mets. Cano will go to a team capable of winning in the present, not in two or three years. The only exception is Boston. The Red Sox are antagonistic enough to go after Cano in part to aggravate the Yankees, but also know losing him hurts the Yankees. That’s what they did with Bernie Williams andAndy Pettitte, and it is easy to see that happening with Cano.

Cano is a marvelous talent, even if he doesn’t always run out ground balls or work the count, but he’s not worth that much money. Hell, the Yankees would be smart if they told Boras their offer is of the take-it-or-leave-it variety.

Considering how they are being burned by the Alex Rodriguez contract, and the rebuilding they have to do when Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, C.C. Sabathia and Pettitte are gone, they’d be smart to spread those dollars around and let Cano go, even if it meant Boston.

Being labeled as being the most valuable in any aspect of life is a pretty special occurrence. It’s not every day that you or I get an honor like that, and the same goes for professional sports. There have been plenty of players in Major League Baseball that have extraordinary careers and get elected to the Hall of Fame, yet either fail to win an MVP award or possibly just win one. When a player has the honor given to him more than once, then we have a special athlete on our hands.

There have only been 29 players in Major League history that have won multiple league MVP awards, with only 10 of those 29 winning the award three or more times. Barry Bonds is in a club by himself since he won the NL MVP award an astonishing seven times. The three-time winners include: Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, and Mike Schmidt.

Even though I’m from the school of thought that Barry Bonds took performance enhancing drugs during the later part of his career, being named the best player in your respective league for 31% of your entire career is pretty amazing, especially since the last four times he won the award, he did so consecutively.

I can only imagine what it would be like if Bonds accomplished all that he did in his career without using performance enhancing drugs. He is the all-time and single-season home run leader, with 762 and 73 home runs, respectively. He finished with a .298 career average, 1,996 RBI, 514 stolen bases, 2,935 hits, 2,227 runs scored, and 2,558 walks (another record). Along with his seven MVP awards, he holds 12 silver slugger awards, eight gold gloves, and was selected to the All-Star game 14 times.

If I look at these statistics without knowing the name of the player and I was asked whether this player is a Hall of Famer, I would say yes without a hesitation. However, with the PED cloud following him for the rest of his days on this Earth, I’m quite positive that he won’t even come close to getting the necessary 75% vote needed to be inducted into the Hall- and I don’t want him in there.

Being in the Hall of Fame is an honor and those who cheated to get ahead of their competition (McGuire, Sosa, and Clemens also come to mind) don’t deserve to be honored with the best players in the history of the game. It’s too bad because before Bonds started putting up these ridiculous power numbers, I would have considered him a Hall of Famer anyways. Do you think he should be inducted in Cooperstown?

The last question I ask every week is a simple one: can this record be broken? I actually think there is a small chance. I don’t think A-Rod will be winning anymore of these as he’s entering his late-30s and is already showing signs of slowing down. However, Albert Pujols has the opportunity to challenge this record because he’s such an amazing player that he is somehow involved in MVP discussions on a year-in-year-out basis. Who do you think has a chance to challenge this record?

But why I’m writing this is because you have to know this has been coming all season.  The Yankees led the majors in home runs with 244, while the Phillies led the National League with 224 (tying the Rangers for second place in MLB).  The Phillies only batted .258 while our Mets hit .270, but the Phils had the 224 homers and 788 RBI, while we had a paltry league low 95 homers and just 631 driven in.  The Yankees had CC Sabathia flat out dominate the American League all season, and even though AJ Burnett was not at his best, he was far better than anything we had at the #2 spot.  Heck, we limped home with three or four #4 guys.  The Phillies had all world Cliff Lee and then playoff tested Cole Hamels as the #2 starter, and lookie here…they got seven innings of two hit ball from none other than Pedro Martinez last Friday.

So a Yankees/Phillies series was inevitable if you look at it all that way.  The numbers don’t lie.  Even with guys like Jimmy Rollins not hitting the cover off the ball and shaky closer situation, the Phillies find a way to win, as they did in the ninth inning Monday night.  They’ve been doing that all year.  The Yankees, well, they just haven’t stopped winning since A-Rod came back in May.

I guess we’re going to have to suck this one up, because you can’t deny how talented these two teams are, and the fact that if they do reach the Fall Classic, they truly deserve to be there.  So let’s try to enjoy it for what it is, two teams we hate beating up on each other.