This seems a good time for something frivolous and hypothetical, and nothing does frivolous and hypothetical better than a good baseball argument.

In honor of C.C. Sabathia winning a game despite his team having only one hit on Sunday, here's a scenario: Maybe you're in a bad way with your bookie or something, but you have to pick one starting pitcher to win one game to save yourself.

Who's your guy?

You can't mess around here, because there's a guy outside the door smacking an iron pipe into his palm waiting for your answer. There's only one rule: Anyone choosing Roger Clemens will feel the cold truth of iron.

Johan Santana is the obvious choice, but it's hard to shake the vision of him being outpitched by Barry Zito in last year's divisional series in a game that effectively decided the series.

Through the first three starts of the season, it's hard to ignore Sabathia. He's pitching deep into games, with three times more strikeouts than walks.

Felix Hernandez hasn't given up a run, and Brad Penny has a WHIP of 1.23.

If it's a five-inning game you're playing -- maybe you're guaranteed a rainout -- then it's an easy choice: Rich Harden. He's your guy. After five, you're on your own, but nobody in baseball is better than this guy the first two times through the lineup.

If there's a main point here -- and let's face it, there doesn't always have to be one -- it's this: None of the those guys is in his 30s yet.

This Week's List
• Oh, wait, can you hold a minute? I'm trying to conference in Jerry Lucas and Granville Waiters: Greg Oden's pending decision on entering the draft has been speculated upon by his father and Mike Conley Jr.'s dad, and each time this non-news is breathlessly treated as news.

• Not a relative or the father of a teammate, but I've got a guess: He's going in.

• Back in September, the fans in Dallas took out their pocket schedules, circled the April 15 game against the Spurs and said, "I'm going to that game 'cuz Joey Crawford's gonna be reffing": Crawford either did or didn't call out Tim Duncan, but he definitely threw him out of the game.

• Tale of the tape: If they did fight, Crawford would have to work hard to offset the reach disadvantage, but he does look like he could take a punch.

• Well, that didn't take long: Lou Piniella, unglued.

• Trust me on this one: It's a pretty short distance from a manager asking the writers, "What the hell do you think isn't working? You see the damn game," to a manager asking the writers, "What game are you watching?"

• Barely beating out World War II, as it turns out: On the new and infinitely unimproved Imus show, Mike Francesa called the Imus-Rutgers ordeal "the story of the ages."

• There's a solution for that, you know: For at least the second time this season, the Knicks got upset about their opponents' decorum during a blowout loss.

• Everything else was very nicely done -- especially the graceful eloquence of Rachel Robinson -- but one nagging question arose from the pregame festivities Sunday night at Dodger Stadium: Does anyone out there hear the name "Jackie Robinson" and think "Marlon Wayans"?

• I know, I know -- I can't understand why 40,000 people aren't lining up to watch it every night either: Last week my local paper had a front-of-the-sports-section Associated Press story documenting badminton's struggle to gain a following in the United States.

• Cal's DeVon Hardin, come on down! You're the next contestant on "College Basketball Players Who Overestimate Their Ability and Declare Early for the Draft."

• Oh, and one other thing: Don't trip over Nick Young on your way there.

• I understand the beauty of round numbers, but do we need a list of 100 prospects when only 60 get drafted? Just when I get to the point where I have Mel Kiper's top 100 memorized, along comes Chad Ford with an NBA top 100 for me to work on.

• Don't know how much it means, but it sure sounds good: Marco Scutaro's two-out, three-run, walk-off homer off Mariano Rivera marked the first time Rivera had blown a save after retiring the first two batters with nobody on.

• This stat, on the other hand, absolutely rules: As the Elias Sports Bureau can tell you, Scutaro's homer is the first Rivera has allowed on an 0-2 count in nearly 10 years (July 1997, Marquis Grissom).

• A first-round NBA playoff matchup worth rooting for: Dallas-Golden State.

• This week's wacky trip around the block: How in the world did Don Imus' stupidity become a referendum on rap music?

• And finally, all of this happened while their stadium, with its nifty little retractable roof to keep bad weather on the outside, sat empty: The Mariners had five games of a seven-game road trip postponed because of weather.

Tim Keown is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Sound off to Page 2 here.