I'll steal an idea from our own Andy Kehe and do some short, quick hits from the past few days in the sports world and one from here in the city:

Phil Dumatrait. A middle reliever has the worse job in major league baseball. I'd rather be a bullpen catcher then be called in to pitch with runners on base and no outs, and be expected to keep the damage to a minimum. The former Ridgeview High and Bakersfield College pitcher has had some great outings, and laid two eggs this season in relief. I wanted to see him succeed with the Reds last season, and I'm hoping he can pitch well with the Pirates.

Jimmie Johnson. I know I wasn't the only one in the office Saturday night that was waiting for a breaking news item from ESPN to come across that read, "Jimmie Johnson's car failed post-race inspection." When your crew chief is the biggest cheater in sports, you always suspect he'll get caught, AGAIN.

Kevin Harvick. It's too bad Fox didn't show what happened on Harvick's last pit stop in Phoenix. He dropped way back, and they mentioned he stalled, but show a replay or something.

Casey Mears. Talk about a surprise. He almost snuck into a Top-10 finish at the Subway Fresh 500 with the same fuel strategy as Johnson. His 11th-place finish pushed him to 25th in the points standings and out of danger of having to qualify his way into a race for a few more weeks.

Trevor Immelman. Congrats on the Masters championship. The South African has come a long way from choking away a lead at the Wachovia Championship in 2006. He lost to Jim Furyk in a playoff in the event, the last major event I covered for the Gaston Gazette.

Bakersfield Motorcycle Cop. Next time STOP at the four-way stop on Main Plaza Dr. and Granite Falls behind the Promenade early Wednesday morning. Apparently, the "I'm a cop, I don't need to stop," applies to some BPD officers. No lights, no sirens, no nothing. We've had two motorcyclists or riders killed in the past 7 days, and this guy didn't want to stop for traffic. You expect citizens to follow the rules of the road, yet you can't seem to do it. He got a one-finger salute for his driving skills.

No ground rules were set out when colleague Andy Kehe approached me about an idea of creating our own All-Overprice and All-Bargain team.

But, I wanted to keep my 25-man roster as true to a major league roster as possible. I wanted to build my team like any general manager and skipper would. Andy has three first baseman, and couldn’t believe he needed a second catcher. There’s really the big difference in the makeup of our teams.

I don’t want to go the rosters and compare player-by-player. But I’d like to touch on a few points, and you can draw your own conclusions:

As far as Alex Rodriguez, let me clarify the statement. Is he worth 28 million dollars? No.  No athlete is worth that type of money. But is he worth being paid the highest salary in baseball. Yes. The guy can mash.  He’s a top-3 in every major hitting category. He’s the best third baseman far and away, and he’s worth being paid No. 1 money. The market just so happens to say its $28 million.

While I don’t have A-Rod, I do have my share of Yankees. Jason Giambi is not worth $23 million-plus, because he’s not if the top guy at his position. He’s been an albatross to the Yankees. Unfortunately, Steinbrenner can’t cut or trade him without eating all or most of his salary. Kyle Farnsworth ($5.9 mil.) was signed as a setup guy for Rivera. He’s not even the setup for the setup guy, anymore. Carl Pavano ($11 mil.) pitched one game last year. Nuff said.

And I’ll take Kendall’s salary over Brian Schneider’s inflated one anyday. Schneider (5.4 million) only makes that kind of money because he has to live in New York. He’s not worth anything close to that. Kendall has had 3 All-Star appearances. Schneider just one All-Star game.

Eric Gagne is not worth $10 and neither is Francisco Cordero worth $8.6 million. They are not the top closers in the game, which is a bad sign for our bargain closers. Bobby Jenks, Jonathon Papelbon and Matt Capps will likely command that kind of money when they’re eligible for arbitration.

As Andy pointed out, I splurged a little bit when it came to our bargain guys. But I don’t consider an extra $4 million ($3,438,550 To be exact) that much of difference, until you look at my roster. I’ll take my starting rotation, and bullpen guys over his group anyday. Justin Verlander ($1.13 mil) is an 18-game winner with 183 Ks, and Francisco Liriano (327,000) has Cy Young potential. Former Blaze player James Shields ($1 mil) struck out 184 for a terrible Rays team.

I built my team around speed with Weeks ($1,056,00), Hanley Ramirez ($439,000), Granderson ($1 mil), Victorino ($480,000) and Chris Young ($406,000) all threats to steal 30-plus bases.

Only guy on Andy’s bargain list that I have a serious problem with is Keith Foulke. Foulke hasn’t pitched well since the White Sox one the World Series in 2003. Don’t know what kind of a bargain that is.

Also, we both agreed that former Bakersfield Blaze outfielder Josh Hamilton ($396,000) might be the pick of picks. He’s making the league minimum and has 40-HR potential. It’s nice to have a guy with a local connection on both teams.

And, you’ll notice I selected Bakersfield’s own Phil Dumatrait ($390,050). The kid is going to have a breakout year. Mark it down.