Werth every penny

In case you skipped last night's Packers-Vikings game, you missed this exchange between sideline reporter Andrea Kremer and Green Bay receiver Donald Driver: Kremer: "What's the team have to do to get back in the win column?" Driver: "Just win." Back to you. Former Ravens cornerback Frank Walker was called for defensive holding. No, seriously. But he didn't climb up a receiver's back and wrestle him to the ground while the ball was in the air, so that's a good thing. It still blows me away that the same Jayson Werth who was traded for John Bale is expected to command at least $15 million per year on the free-agent market this winter. Scott Boras is representing Werth. Who the heck is representing John Bale? Can't say the Orioles swung and missed on that draft pick, but it took a while for Werth to blossom. They weren't the only team to give up on him. He was a late bloomer, and now he joins Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford as marquee free agents. Maybe it's the beard. I remember the immediate concerns here about Werth "outgrowing" the catching position, which led to his conversion to the outfield. That was during my first full season on the beat. I always thought, "Well, why did you draft him?" It wasn't because the Orioles wanted to move him to the outfield. That decision seemed more like a concession. Would you rather have Werth or Crawford in your outfield? I'd love to have Lee atop my rotation, but that's not happening either. Shifting away from sports for a minute, can someone please explain why my smoke detectors are taking turns chirping? I replaced the battery in one of them and it didn't help, so I finally had to disconnect it from the ceiling. That was about a week ago. Last night, a second one started chirping. I replaced the battery and hit the reset button, it did no good and I had to disconnect it. Almost immediately, another one began to chirp. Each time I took one down from the ceiling and popped the battery to make it stop, another one would chirp. I'm talking five of them. I checked the circuit breaker, in case I was dealing with some sort of electrical problem, but everything looked normal. I'm out of ideas, but I do know that I need smoke detectors in my house. Nice, quiet smoke detectors - unless, you know, there's actual smoke.