ESPN.com columnist Jayson Stark offered a note on looming free agent Mark Teixeira, who doesn’t seem long for Atlanta:

“The sad part is Teixeira is a guy they’d love to keep, and Teixeira never acts like a player who wants to leave. But Scott Boras has already sent signals that the free-agent asking price on Teixeira this winter will start at $23 million a year (theoretically for eight to 10 years). So the Braves know the one thing certain about Teixeira’s trip through free agency is that it won’t end with a return to Atlanta. Which will only make them more prone to hit the ‘ejector’ button in this month if they think they can’t win.”

Twenty-three million a year? Really?

One shudders to think of what it could cost the Cards to have Albert Pujols finish his career in St. Louis.

Elsewhere on the pricey free agent front, the Mariners released Richie Sexson with $14 million left on his deal. His four-year, $50 million free-agent signing was just another in a long list of colossal M’s management mistakes.

Sexson has a loooooooooong swing. He was strikeout-prone in his prime and he failed to make the necessary adjustments as he got older.

Worst of all, Sexson had a terrible attitude. He frustrated his managers, skirmished with reporters and earned the derision of fans. When Miguel Cairo started playing ahead of him at first base, you knew his time in Seattle was growing short.

Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley summed it up: “He will be remembered not for the 39 home runs he hit in 2005, or the 34 he hit the following year. He will be remembered for the strikeouts. For the boos that followed him like bill collectors these last two seasons. For the rallies he killed. And for the way confidence leaked out of him like helium from a balloon.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering when was the last season the Cardinals had 10 players make the major league debut before September:

How has Tony La Russa been able to manage his ever-changing roster without issuing name tags?

Who could have possibly guessed Jamie Moyer would carve up the Cards with his patented slowballs?

With the Mariners looking for a first baseman, could the Cards get into the Erik Bedard sweepstakes once that Seattle hurler comes off the disabled list?

THE JOYS OF FATHERHOOD

ESPN.com notes how the New York Mets are playing more relaxed since Jerry Manuel replaced Willie Randolph as manager.

“I don’t want to bash Willie, because I liked him,” reliever Billy Wagner said. “But before, it was more of The Yankee Way. It wasn’t The Mets Way. There was no facial hair. You could never have music in the clubhouse. You couldn’t have kids around. Believe it or not, some of us in here actually like kids.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Two 78-year-old grandmothers on mobility scooters got into an argument at a grocery store in Crawley, England, and police had to be called when they started ramming each other’s carts, the London Daily Telegraph reported. One was arrested on suspicion of assault, the other was treated for an arm injury — and both were advised to quit watching so much NASCAR.”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “You want to know the funniest thing about Alex Rodriguez and Madonna being a romantic item? If they get married, she might actually make him sign a pre-nup.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Our greatest challenge in the steroids era is to resist cynicism, and to be as generous with our benefit of doubt as we once were with our unmitigated adulation. We can give it our best try, but there is a small sign now in the window of our fan’s soul, a small sign we see flashing with every astonishing performance and every record that falls. The sign reads: ‘Believer beware.’”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game saw seven hit batsmen — and not a single punch thrown. Somewhere, Thurman Munson is turning over in his grave.”

Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, after Elton Brand bailed on the Clippers: “He has always talked a good game but never quite walked it. He was a supposed team leader, but the team followed him to only one playoff berth in seven years. He was very visible when they were winning, but very quiet when they were losing. Maybe by telling the Clippers what he thought they wanted to hear, he was only taking the same Teflon approach that has marked his career.”

Jerry Greene, Orlando Sentinel: “Raise your hand . . .if you think it’s just coincidental that T-Mobile is using Brett Favre in a commercial with the tagline ‘Say Goodbye To Goodbye.’”

MEGAPHONE

“Cuba announced they will send a rowing team to the Olympics. They started training last month and haven’t been seen since.”

NBC funnyman Conan O’Brien.