cable news news Keith Olbermann Has Reportedly Been Negotiating His Exit for a While 
 
 After Keith Olbermann suddenly announced his departure last night, some speculated that the impending NBC-Comcast merger played a role. NBC executives quickly denied any Comcast involvement in the decision. But how did it all really go down? Details are trickling in, and early anonymous sources say Olbermann was not flat-out fired. However, most outlets are also reporting that Olbermann and network brass have long been butting heads. 
 
 According to TMZ, the exit was partially about money: "Olbermann's agent went to NBC complaining that Keith was underpaid," the site reports. "NBC execs told Olbermann's agent they would not cough up more money. Network execs were well aware that Comcast wanted Keith gone because he was 'a loose cannon that could not be controlled.' It became clear to both sides that Olbermann's days were numbered and they began negotiating an exit, completed just before airtime Friday night." Under the deal, Olbermann is allegedly barred from appearing on television for a certain period of time, but he will reappear soon with "a presence on the Internet," where all fugitives of the television end up. 
 
 Deadline reports a similar story: "This was all Keith's choice. He has said several times over the years said that he wants out of his contract." The site says he began negotiating his out a few months ago, but, "because of all the false threats in the past, it was impossible for the network to know if he was really going to sign the final document." Even his own staff learned he was quitting when they heard him say it on TV. 
 
 And the New York Times concurs that NBC and Olbermann have been in negotiations to end Olbermann's run for weeks. The Times notes: "Mr. Olbermann had butted heads with his superiors long before the Comcast deal, including Phil Griffin, the top MSNBC executive ... and NBC’s management had been close to firing Mr. Olbermann before." One executive said Comcast "dreaded the prospect" of being blamed if Olbermann were to quit soon after the takeover. 
 
 Only the New York Post reported that Olberamnn was "unceremoniously dumped," but the paper also repeatedly refers to him as "a garrulous gasbag." So. ||||| The ball was chopped slowly and to get the out the first baseman would have to pick it up barehanded in the grass corner between the foul line and the infield dirt. The pitcher would have to hustle over but as the game’s most abused cliche reminds us every 43 minutes, that’s why they have PFP in spring training. With a speedy runner it would still be close but this was the majors and he who executes best laughs last. 
 
 The fans at Yankee Stadium didn’t think twice about it when it happened in the top of the fourth yesterday. The play was difficult, but the pitcher was CC Sabathia and his hustle and athleticism have been one of the under-publicized aspects of the franchise’s success since 2009. And of course, the New York first baseman for exactly the same length of time has been Mark Teixeira and the goaltender-like whip-lash catches he makes at the bag and his other defensive wizardry obscures the fact that if that comparatively ordinary slow chopper is hit to him 500 times over a decade he’s going to pick it cleanly at least 499 times. 
 
 Except the Yankee first baseman yesterday wasn’t Teixeira, it was Kevin Youkilis. And no offense to Kevin Youkilis, but when he reached down to scoop up the Jose Iglesias chop and toss it to Sabathia for the out he got nothing but grass and air. 
 
 An inning later Jarrod Saltalamacchia shot one into the corner in left, where Brett Gardner should have made an adroit pick-up of the ball as it rattled around. Except Gardner was in center because like Teixeira, Curtis Granderson is hurt and it was Vernon Wells. And no offense to Vernon Wells, but when he waited for the straight bounce off the fence that never comes out there, it didn’t come, and he was left to play ‘go chase’ for awhile. All things considered Saltalamacchia probably would’ve gotten a double out of it anyway but there would have been a play and every tenth or twentieth time – an out. 
 
 In neither case did the Red Sox score. But those two plays alone added ten pitches or more to Sabathia’s count and send him packing after five innings down 4-to-2, which opened things for the Yankee bullpen, which may be the least recognized problem among the cascade of them that started yesterday, and soon it would 5-to-2 and then 8-to-2 and then just as in “Young Frankenstein,” it got worse – it started raining. 
 
 The effect on the offense of the subtraction of Teixeira, Granderson, Derek Jeter, and even Alex Rodriguez is obvious. What will kill the Yankees – and I mean last place kill the Yankees; this is not the collapse of 1965, that was last year in the ALCS, this is 1966 – will be its effect on the defense. Bad defense is not only its own punishment but it makes bums out of the best of the pitchers. And to re-use yet another old joke, kid, these aren’t the best of them. 
 
 And much of this mess will never show up in the box score. The Iglesias and Saltalamacchia plays were both clearly to be scored base hits. Unfortunately this Yankee team – the Muddlers’ Row of Brennan Boesch, Ben Francisco, Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay, Wells, and Youkilis – has been assembled through (in the memorable phrase of the equally memorable San Francisco baseball writer Hank Schulman) dumpster-diving. And defensively they’re just bad enough to not make the plays, but just good enough to not get the errors. 
 
 It’s hard to say how this impending disaster will be received in the Bronx. The Yankees haven’t had a losing season since 1992 and they’ve either won or been in contention every year since 1993. Hal Steinbrenner was still at the University of Florida Business School then, and the Yankees could and often did draw half of what they draw these days. A front office with no memory of the Bad Old Days never mind experience with alleviating them is likely to panic and throw some babies out with the bathwater (heck, the Yankees began panicking about mild media criticism more than a year ago). And the front-running fans who have filled the place during these later glory years will not know what that they were seeing, and never fully realize the implications of the fact that their new platoon third baseman was guy who had been released by the Red Sox exactly a week ago today. 
 
 Toronto: I’m not one of those stick-in-the-muds who looked at the Dodgers last year and tut-tutted “you can’t parachute in four new guys in mid-season and expect to form a team.” I mean, for one thing I’m an entirely different kind of stick-in-the-mud. But more importantly, that conclusion ignores the reality that the Giants have won two World Series while parachuting in four guys (last year) and five guys (2010). 
 
 So my refusal to jump on the Bandwagon going doing Blue Jay Way is nothing about team chemistry or parachuting or trying to meld a team while competing or Jose Reyes’s hamstrings on turf. I just think that the laudable effort to rebuild a once-great franchise has somewhat obscured some remaining problems – like a very average bullpen, very average production out of the DH spot, and trouble at third base until Brett Lawrie returns. 
 
 Plus there’s this little scandal from last year that sneaked in under everybody’s radar. The big trade for the noble Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey? It came less than a year after Dickey became one of a handful of major league pitchers to admit to taking painkiller injections during the season (Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, and Clay Buchholz were among the others). In Dickey’s case this was 2011; I’ve seen no reporting about him and the drug – Toradol – in 2012: 
 
 Dickey is among the players who believe Toradol is more effective than taking over-the-counter pain pills. He said he believed the injections helped keep him on the field to pitch 2082/3 innings last season (2011), despite his injured foot. Some doctors, though, said athletes might believe Toradol to be more effective only because of the way it is commonly administered. 
 
 The emphasis there was mine. 
 
 Giving your starting pitcher a series of anti-inflammatory pain-dulling injections all seasons long is ok because the drug, while requiring a prescription, supposedly only has a slightly greater impact than a couple of Advil (injected directly into the source of your pain). Except, oh by the way, that pesky drug insert sheet references limiting its use to five days in pill form and two days for injections, and oh by the way in England physicians are instructed to start patients on Toradol only in a hospital, and oh by the way when Clay Buchholz was in a hospital with internal bleeding last June he said he thought his use of the drug contributed to his crisis and the fact that doctors had to transfuse him with three or four pints of blood. 
 
 Dickey is hardly deserving of being the only one with a finger pointed at him. My understanding is there isn’t a rotation in the majors that doesn’t have at least one regular Toradol, and that some of them may be in new uniforms this year in part because of their teams’ fears that the painkiller could mask necessary pain, the kind that warns you of impending injury. For as with any drug that dulls pain, or covers up muscular damage or exhaustion, or which neutralizes tiredness, the possibility is increased of sudden serious injury. You don’t know you’re hurting and you push it to far – and something snaps. 
 
 In short, if a Toradol scandal, or a Prescription Drug scandal, breaks in baseball this year the guys on the record as (past) users are few and far between. And only one of them is a defending Cy Young Winner. 
 
 Almost as an aside I also have doubts about the efficacy of Toronto’s rotation. Dickey went from 8-13 in 2011 to 20-6 last year. His strikeouts soared from 134 to 230 in only 25 more innings. His offensive support went up 8/10ths of a run. I don’t know if any of that is sustainable or repeatable this year – especially without the joy of facing pitchers every ninth batter. Tell me how much you’re willing to rely on Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, to say nothing of Ricky Romero, currently of the Dunedin Blue Jays. 
 
 Boston: The gift of Jackie Bradley being ready as much as a year early – and it is a gift, his at bats are those of a 10-year veteran who draws 100 walks every year – may hide some dubious free agent signings. When your key acquisition does so poorly on his physical that you (and he) agree to cut the deal from three years to one, that’s a problem. When you are hoping that Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, and Ryan Dempster all had ‘blips’ last year, that’s a lot of high-odds wagering. 
 
 The Red Sox probably did themselves a favor by sacrificing the stability that was Adrian Gonzalez in order to offload the franchise-sinking contracts of Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford. But as has been noted elsewhere, they were left with a lot of contract room and not that many people to spend it on. Instead of a Josh Hamilton they went for “Clubhouse Guys” – which is great for long road trips, flights, bus rides in traffic, rain delays, etc. – but rarely seems to be the corrective folks assume insomuch as the last time I checked the game was still played out on the field and very rarely in the clubhouse. 
 
 Bradley, of course, is the real deal (though I’ve never seen a player whose Dad didn’t reach the majors use the “junior” on his uni – his reads “BRADLEY JR.”). Will Middlebrooks is legit too. If Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia stay healthy that’s four of nine positions that will excel offensively and defensively. But with David Ortiz hurt and presumably waning there is no longer a feared hitter in this line-up and given the depth of this division that’s a serious impediment to contention. 
 
 Baltimore: As mentioned in the AL Central preview the Orioles could’ve easily offed the Yankees in the ALDS last year even though they were relying on two outfielders – Lew Ford and Nate McLouth – who had been released earlier in the same season (Ford, by a team in an independent league). The O’s were reshaped by two guys who were largely viewed as having been bypassed by the proverbial parade, Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette, and featured the contributions of only a couple of homegrown guys (Markakis, Machado, Wieters, Jim Johnson). 
 
 What becomes of the Orioles when the revivified farm system begins to contribute? Dylan Bundy was arguably the game’s top pitching prospect, until this spring when he was bypassed by his teammate Kevin Gausman. Will they step into the rotation or be used out of the bullpen a la David Price? Could WBC-tested infielder Jonathan Schoop help out? Or outfielder L.J. Hoes? Could any American League team add more key parts from its own farm system as 2013 rolls along? 
 
 Tampa Bay: Well, yeah, actually. 
 
 Even while trading off Wade Davis and James Shields, the Rays still have a complete back-up rotation (Jeff Niemann in the bullpen, Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and Alex Colome in the minors) to say nothing of a Cy Young Winner (David Price) and two possible future candidates (Jeremy Hellickson and Matt Moore) at the front of Plan A. 
 
 And if the primary bounty in the Shields trade, Wil Myers, is not summoned into the Tampa line-up it will only be because of injury, or because the traditional small-ball line-up is producing satisfactorily and there’s no need to squeeze out James Loney or the platooners at second or DH. 
 
 The key Tampa weakness would seem to be behind the plate. They kept Jose Molina intact enough to appear in 102 games last year and one wonders if that can be done again, or if Jose Lobaton is a satisfactory alternative. There isn’t a catching prospect in the system and despite the sense that the Rays hit the bullseye with every one of their very few economic darts, the minors are thin generally in terms of position players (2009 was a bad draft, and every year that passes makes the 2008 selection of Tim Beckham as the overall number one pick instead of some kid named Posey look that much sillier). But the arms keep appearing, the down-market free agent signings keep producing (you realize that Loney could out-hit his predecessor Carlos Pena by a hundred points and still not hit .300?), and the veterans get transformed either into more draft choices (or guys like Wil Myers. Good grief, the team with the thinnest tightrope in the sport was somehow able to trade for Wil Myers). Marc Topkin has a superb and concise explanation of how the Rays keep the machine turning here and I offer the usual disclaimer here that I went to college with the future Mrs. Stuart Sternberg and their oldest son was an intern for me one summer. 
 
 The Division: I know this is viewed as a three, four, or even five team race. I just don’t see anybody seriously challenging the Rays, especially when Myers comes up. I’m not certain on whether the Orioles’ Tampa-like structuring and youth flood can overcome the value of Toronto’s mass additions in the race for second place; either way it’ll be close. The Red Sox are not likely to compete but also not likely to be challenged by the Yankees who – even in the disaster of last place – will still be the division’s lead story. 
 
 Tomorrow we’ll finish it up with the Tarot Card reading that those one-game wild cards make trying to predict the playoffs six months in advance. ||||| Keith Olbermann -- The Rich Get Richer 
 
 Keith Olbermann -- The Rich Get Richer 
 
 scored an even sweeter exit package than previously reported. Sources connected with NBC tell us Keith is pocketing "well in excess" of $7 million.Sources tell us ... Olbermann was due for two salary hikes during the last two years of his contract, which would have netted him just over $17 million. The exit deal, we're told, gives Keith much more than $7 million, though our sources would not be more specific.And we're told ... Olbermann agreed as part of his exit deal not to do television, but our sources say he'll be benched for less than 4 1/2 months.had to sit out twice that amount of time.And speaking of Conan, we're told attorney Patty Glaser, who negotiated Conan's exit from the same network, did the heavy lifting for Keith, along with his agent and manager. We're told negotiations for the exit went on for seven weeks. ||||| Image Credit: Olbermann: Amy Sussman/Getty Images; Sorkin: Valer Now that Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC, could he be setting his sights on Hollywood and Aaron Sorkin’s next TV project? The Golden Globe-winning scribe behind The Social Network has long had a pilot script in the works about a cable news show, and Olbermann could be tapped to contribute rants, says a source familiar with the project. 
 
 Sorkin spent time on Olbermann’s set while penning the behind-the-scenes script (think Sports Night meets Countdown), something he did while juggling The Social Network and working on an early draft of the upcoming film Moneyball (starring Brad Pitt). Sorkin recently told BBC News that he also shadowed Chris Matthews and Fox News and that he’s working with HBO on the project. (Unfortunately, the pay cabler is not confirming anything.) 
 
 Any network giving serious consideration to Sorkin’s next series may want to wait until Tuesday’s Oscar nominations to make a bigger publicity splash since it seems all but guaranteed that Hollywood’s premier scribe will snag a screenplay nod for The Social Network. Sorkin already won a Golden Globe for writing the movie, which was also recognized as the year’s best drama flick by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In addition, Sorkin scored a BATFTA nomination. 
 
 Should the behind-the-scenes script become a series, it’s practically a given that Sorkin would call upon his trusted allies to help carry out his vision. Besides Olbermann’s potential contribution, Emmy-winning scribes like Kevin Falls (Franklin & Bash) and Eli Attie (House M.D.) — both of whom worked on The West Wing – could help Sorkin run the show, while Thomas Schlamme would be a natural to direct. And what do you say, Sorkin; how about Bradley Whitford as Olbermann’s doppelganger? Stay tuned. ||||| Since joining Twitter early last year, now-former Countdown host Keith Olbermann has become one of the platform’s most loquacious users, tweeting more frequently than a meth-tweaked canary. All of that came to an abrupt end in the hour before his Friday announcement that he, and his show, were leaving MSNBC. 
 
 Saturday night, though, Olbermann-watchers saw the first sign of post-Countdown life from his Twitter feed: an update to his profile which read “WATCHTHISSPACE MLB.com Baseball Nerd blog returns 2/14.” 
 
 At this point, very little should be read into this, but that won’t stop people from trying. The New York Daily News speculates that maybe the update signifies a return to sports for the former Sportscenter co-anchor: 
 
 Since his sudden split with MSNBC, Keith Olbermann could be going back to his roots – at least on Twitter. “W A T C H T H I S S P A C E MLB.Com Baseball Nerd blog returns 2/14,” he wrote on his biography line– the only update he’s written on his usually prolific account since Friday evening. 
 
 They go on to note that a return to ESPN is unlikely, for a variety of reasons that Sportsgrid details here. 
 
 The problem here is that promoting the Baseball Nerd blog is nothing new to Olbermann’s Twitter feed, and so “Watch this space” isn’t necessarily related to it. If Olbermann does remain silent until February 14, though, you can bet that will be the most widely-read edition to date. 
 
 In any case, those watching Olbermann’s feed for dirty laundry, or laundry of any kind, regarding his departure from MSNBC are likely in for a big disappointment. As much as it’s probably killing the normally-outspoken Olbermann, news accounts from respected journalists generally concur that the terms of his exit include some kind of gag order. 
 
 Much more likely is the prospect that Olbermann will share, in fairly short order, some level of detail about his future plans. Ironically, his departure has elevated his Twitter feed to near-Sarah Palin status, anticipation-wise. The parallel has been noted by some conservatives on Twitter, who wondered if Olbermann could continue to slam Palin for resigning the Alaska Governorship, which caused Olbermann to dub Palin the “former Half-Governor.” (This says more about their attitudes about the gravity of elected office than anything else.) 
 
 In that vein, it would be a satirical masterstroke if Olbermann emerged from Twitter exile to tweet about “Death Panels,” as they relate to cuts to transplant funding in Arizona. 
 
 Either way, Olbermann has to be aware that his status as a Palin-level Twitter celebrity has a short shelf-life, and if he wants to use the platform to promote his next move, sooner is better than later. 
 
 Update: On Sunday, perhaps in response to the Daily News’ speculation, the message on Olbermann’s Twitter profile was tweaked to more clearly separate the messages. It now reads “W A T C H__________T H I S__________S P A C E (Also: MLB.Com Baseball Nerd blog returns 2/14)”
– Details of Keith Olbermann’s abrupt exit from MSNBC—as well as what’s in store for him now—are trickling out. The latest: Olbermann’s exit package was “well in excess” of $7 million, sources tell TMZ. The deal includes a clause that benches Olbermann for a while—at least when it comes to television—but sources claim he’ll only have to sit out for four-and-a-half months or less. The New York Times has a different estimate, citing executives involved in the deal: Olbermann must stay off TV for six to nine months, and can’t talk about his departure, although he can work on the Internet or in radio. His exit comes after years of behind-the-scenes conflict at MSNBC, the Times reports, noting that Jeff Zucker was one step away from firing him during his campaign contributions brouhaha in November. The usually prolific Olbermann has tweeted only once since his departure, and the message—apparently since removed—read “WATCHTHISSPACE MLB.com Baseball Nerd blog returns 2/14.” Of course, that sparked all sorts of speculation that Olbermann may return to his sports roots. But Olbermann has often promoted his Baseball Nerd blog, Mediaite notes, so the message could mean … nothing. Next up for Olbermann: Writing for TV with Aaron Sorkin? A source tells Entertainment Weekly Sorkin has a pilot script about a cable news show in the works—he even shadowed Olbermann while writing it—and he might tap Olbermann to contribute rants. Click for more on what may have been behind Olbermann’s departure.