Mark Prior was expected to be back in the majors around June 1, but his back may keep him out longer:

In his last rehab outing, he threw 10 or 15 pitches and had a feeling "like a firecracker going off in his back."

Prior, who has a career record of 42-29 with a 3.51 ERA, is seeking a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews.

You can set your watch by Prior's injuries.

For the third game in a row, the Rays pitchers shutdown the Yankees offense. They manage just two runs, but tonight it''s enough as New York takes the contest 2-1. The Yankees have scored just four runs in the three games. Mike Mussina continues his comeback, allowing just one run in 6 1/3 innings. Robinson Cano, mired in a Mario Mendoza like slump (he came into the game slugging .303) knocked out four hits to raise his batting average to .205.

The Rays end their home winning streak at 11, but stay in first place with the Red Sox loss. They continue to pitch lights out at the Trop, lowering their home ERA to 2.82.

The Reds shutout the Marlins through eight innings. Mike Lincoln pitched the eight, and got a chance to finish the game, but the first four batters reached base in the ninth. That brought Cordero into a 6-1 game with the bases loaded. A Treanor single and a Ross homer later, the game was tied.

All was not lost, however, as Pinto walked two Reds in the tenth, then gave up the game winning single to Janish. The Reds take the first three games of the series, in close, high scoring games.

Earlier today I linked to a post at Sabernomics looking at temperatures in April to see if they contributed to the fall off in home runs. My good friends at STATS, Inc. were able to supply me with the actual game time average temperatures for the same period. Here's the outdoor stadiums only:

Season	Avg. Outdoor Temp
1997	59
1998	61
1999	61
2000	63
2001	63
2002	62
2003	61
2004	64
2005	63
2006	64
2007	60
2008	62

While the average US temperature in April was lower than in 2007, at baseball games it was higher. However, this data does show a big falloff over the last two Aprils.

For a good laugh, check out The Cubs Brickyard.

The Braves established an 8-0 lead early, but the Phillies fought back, falling just short 8-6. Chipper Jones goes two for four to raise his league leading batting average to .418. It continues to be a very loud .400 he's hitting as the hits were a double and a home run, raising his slugging percentage to .705.

On the other side, Chase Utley moved back into the home run lead by hitting his 14th of the season. Ryan Howard homered also, extending his hitting streak to six games.

For the fifth game in a row, the Indians did not allow a run in the first nine innings of the game. C.C. Sabathia shutout the Oakland Athletics 2-0. He allowed five hits and two walks while striking out eleven. Whatever problem Milliliter had earlier in the season is gone now.

It seems the Indians pitchers are taking this team on their back. If you get them one run, they can get you a win.

As the A's continue to slip, pitchers are discovering that as long as they put the ball in the strike zone, Oakland can't do much damage. Keep their walks low, and you keep the Athletics from scoring.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

Baseball Digest Daily writes:

The Tampa Bay Rays and pitcher Scott Kazmir have agreed on a four-year contract extension.

The first three years of the agreement covering 2009, 2010 and 2011 are guaranteed with the team holding an option for the 2012 season. The contract guarantees Kazmir $28.5 million and has a maximum value of approximately $39.5 million.

More on this during the radio show.

It takes twelve innings, but the Mariners defeat the Rangers 4-3. Balentien singled, was sacrificed to second, went to third on a long fly ball, then scored on a Cairo single. Putz gets the win, and Washburn, the eighth pitcher of the game gets the save, the first of his career.

The Orioles stage a comeback with two out in the seventh inning. With Lester out of the game after a fine performance, Baltimore loads the bases against Lopez and Hansen. That brings on Okajima to face Jay Payton. Okie was not dokie as he gives up a grand slam, and Baltimore takes a 6-3 lead. Sherrill is on in the ninth now for the three-run save.

The Red Sox seem to be blowing leads lately. That's three games in a row in which they blew a three-run lead.

Update: Sherrill puts two men on, but a double play helps him to a scoreless inning and a save. Boston falls to 10-14 on the road, and Baltimore is just 1 1/2 games out of second place.

My latest column at SportingNews.com examines the different paths the Marlins and Athletics followed to generate runs.

Richard Durrett made the case this morning in the Dallas Morning News that the Rangers did what they needed to change themselves for the better, including defense:

The club that bobbled balls, missed cut-off men, made errant throws and beat itself to start the season has morphed into one that is putting together an impressive highlight reel of defensive plays, adding four more to the collection Tuesday.

And it isn't just the defense. These Rangers are manufacturing runs, running the bases smartly, delivering key hits, and, most important, pitching well. Consequently, they are winning games.

That's true, but everyonce in a while the wind shifts back to the old ways. A bobbled ground ball and a mis-read line drive lead to two innings in the seventh inning today, giving the Mariners a 3-2 lead. Scott Feldman pitched very well today, but the two unearned runs mean he's now in line for a loss.

Update: Hamilton makes up for the misplayed line drive with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at three.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show comes your way via TPS Radio tonight at 8 PM. This week the show moves to a new broadcast platform, UBroadcast.com. They do require you to download their player, but it's easy to install and they don't appear to push ads at you with it. TPS Radio is on channel 100. You'll be able to chat as always, so I hope you'll tune in.

As always, the show will be available as a podcast shortly after the broadcast finishes. If you have any topics you'd like to hear discussed, please leave a comment.

It seems Cubs fans aren't too happy with the likely signing of Jim Edmonds. I wonder how they would feel if he could actually contribute?

Clay Buchholz goes on the disabled list with a broken nail. His manicurist provided no information on how long it will take to heal. :-)

While it's easy to joke about something that's a staple of sitcoms, it's sad that something as small as a finger nail can stop a pitcher from throwing effectively.

Sabernomics compares the home run rate in April over the last decade to the temperature in April. The last two season, home runs are down and so is the temperature. The temperature he uses, however, is mean US temperature. I'd like to see someone use actual game time temperature to do the same study.

Ryan Doumit fractured his thumb last night. That's bad news for the Pirates, as their fine offensive performance is built around the excellent hitting of four players. There's not a lot of depth in the lineup to cover that injury unless Freddy Sanchez starts hitting again.

It appears Eric Gagne was tipping his pitches:

Still, it was another step forward according to Yost. The manager was pleased with a mechanical fix that Gagne made Monday night, even though he needed 28 pitches to get through his second inning of work and surrendered a run.

What exactly that fix was, Yost will not reveal. It appears that Gagne had been tipping his pitches.

"If I tell you what it was, opposing teams could pick up on it," Yost said. "It was a simple adjustment, and he made it. It was really basic."

So Gagne closed last night and succeeded in holding a two run lead against the Dodgers. He did allow a hit and a walk, but threw 16 of 23 pitches for strikes. We'll see if he can keep this up over a few more outings.

Larry Stone says it's time for some introspection from the Mariners:

It's not quite accurate to say no one saw this coming, the monumental debacle that has marked the first quarter of the M's season.

There were, indeed, analysts who predicted this team was dangerously overrated, that it wasn't the "one piece away" that the Bedard trade suggested -- that the Mariners were, basically, a disaster waiting to happen. And they had the statistical evidence to back it up.

Kudos to them, most of whom come, it must be said, from a sabermetric bent, looking at the vast storehouse of numbers in nontraditional ways. And shame on me, who bought into the popular wisdom that last year's 88-win record plus this year's addition of Bedard equaled a championship run.

I must admit that I too saw this team as pretty good. My feeling was that predictions of the hitters demise was being overstated, but that turned out to be wrong.

The Red Sox and Orioles continue their series this afternoon with Jon Lester facing Daniel Cabrera. Cabrera is coming off two nice starts in which he combined to walk three batters in 16 1/3 innings. The selective Red Sox hitters will be a good test of his new control. The Red Sox should be concerned with Lester's fall off in strikeouts. Last season he struck out 50 in 63 innings. This season he has just 29 in 51 innings, with no decrease in walks.

Jake Peavy takes on Ted Lilly as the Padres visit the Cubs. Peavy hasn't lost a step from last season, with his ERA a few points lower than in 2007. Last season, however, he was equally good home and away. In 2008 he's allowed a 4.58 ERA on the road. Lilly, too, isn't pitching that differently from last year despite a higher ERA. It's luck turning from good to bad. In 2007, he allowed a .220 batting average with runners in scoring position. This year, .300.

Finally, John Lackey returns to the Angels rotation tonight. LAnaheim weathered his injury well, their starters posting a 4.18 ERA in his absence, 7th in the AL. His first test will be against Jose Contreras of the White Sox. Jose is having his best year keeping the ball in the park, allowing just two home runs so far this season.

Enjoy!

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Peter Abraham has the latest Hank Steinbrenner quotes:

"This is going to get turned around. If it's not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have to."

By force? What does that mean, executions at dawn for anybody not trying hard enough?

Until Hank came on the scene, I had forgotten how much I missed George. If nothing else, Yankees fans know their owner wants exactly what they want, the team to win.

Chris Young of Arizona went three for four Tuesday night against the Rockies, raising his OBA to .343. Young seemed a bit miscast as a leadoff hitter in 2007, posting a .295 OBA for the season. In 2008, he's raised his batting average a bit, but increased his walks. Less than a quarter of the way through the season he's already drawn half as many free passes as he did in 2007. In addition, he's accomplished this without hurting his power. His slugging percentage is 14 points higher than his final 2007 mark, and he's on his way to another 30+ home run season. Just the kind of improvement you want to see from a young Young.

Matt Cain mounts a challenge to Micah Owings as the best hitting pitcher with his second home run of the season Tuesday night. Cain is now slugging .706 on the season. This is the second year in a row Cain homered twice, and in his career eight of his 18 hits went for extra bases. Giants pitchers now have more home runs (2) than Giants second basemen (1).

San Francisco defeated Houston 4-2 as Cain last eight innings.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ryan Braun didn't hit two homers tonight, but he did knock out a double and a triple. That helps the Brewers to a 5-3 win over the Dodgers. It's his fourth consecutive game with two extra base hits, and over the game he's raised his slugging percentage from .444 to .563.

The Angels load the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, no score in the game. The White Sox bring in Dotel to face Aybar and Guerrero, and he strikes out both batters. If clutch is in the eye of the beholder, that was clutch pitching.

Jered Weaver has a one hitter through seven, but with seven hits and two walks, the Angels haven't generated a run.

Congratulations to Shawn Estes. He makes his first start in two season and picks up his first win since 2005. He didn't pitch great, but he didn't break either. In 5 1/3 innings he allowed seven hits but only three runs, two earned. That was enough as San Diego found some offense. Greene hit his third home run of the month after none in April. The resulting three RBI tied the game, and Gerut doubled in the go-ahead tally in the same inning. The pen allowed just one hit over 3 1/3 innings to secure the victory.

The Cardinals just went to extra innings with the Pirates, so a St. Louis win means a tie with the Cubs for first place in the NL Central.

Update: The Pirates have scored four runs in the top of the tenth (still batting), so the Cubs may stay in first place.

Update: Pirates win 8-4.

The Rays win their eleventh home game in a row, defeating the Yankees in extra innings 2-1. Floyd singled, Gomes ran and stole second, then scored on a Gross single. It was the first run allowed by Mariano Rivera this season, out for his second inning of work. Tampa Bay allowed just 22 runs in the 11 games, pitching three shutouts. The win moves the Rays into first place in the AL East 1/2 game ahead of the Red Sox.

There were 16,558 fans at the game tonight. Rays fans, you finally have a good team. Get out and support them! The new ownership worked hard to put this group together. Reward their effort with a couple of sellouts!

The Orioles defeat the Red Sox 5-4 as Guthrie and the bullpen hold the lead given to them in the third inning. The Orioles go to 11-6 at home versus a 9-13 record away from Camden Yards. The Red Sox drop to 10-13 traveling, having dropped four of their last five. The Red Sox are scoring a run less on the road than at home this season, and allowing a run more per game.

Ryan Church continued his May slugging binge, knocking out a double and homer in for at bats as the Mets down the Nationals 6-3. Church is slugging .780 on the month, with 32 total bases in 41 at bats. He also drove in four runs tonight, one of the few Mets hitters able to take advantage of men on base. New York only plated six runs despite collecting fourteen hits and two walks.

The latest BlogPoll results are up at Baseball Happenings.

Ryan Howard went two for four in the Phillies 5-4 win over the Braves tonight. He picked up a single and a double to give him six hits in his last five games. Howard also struck out twice. However, with half of the hits in the streak for extra bases, Howard appears to be getting his stroke back. Maybe it just takes him six weeks to warm up.

Chipper Jones stayed hot with three hits to raise his batting average to .415. I'd love to see him go deep into the season with a .400 average.

With the Yankees down 1-0 in the ninth, Hideki Matsui hits a one-out solo home run against Troy Percival to tie the game. It's Troy's second blown save of the season.

Baseball Digest Daily writes:

On a foul ball in the second inning of tonight's game vs the Marlins, Jeff Keppinger fouled a ball off his left knee. X-rays revealed that the Reds SS suffered a fractured left kneecap. He will undergo an MRI tomorrow.

Something else going wrong for the Reds.

For the fourth game in a row, the Indians pitching staff held a team scoreless for nine innings (game 2 on Monday was scoreless through nine innings, the Indians lost in the tenth). In their last five games, they've only allowed runs in two of 46 innings. That's a great pass through the rotation. Cleveland wins tonight 4-0.

Prosecutors rewrote their indictment of Barry Bonds and he's now charged with fourteen different lies. I guess they just need one of them to be real for a win.

Eric Hinske gets Edwin Jackson in trouble in the sixth inning. He dives for a line drive by Jeter, and it gets by him for a one-out triple. Jackson, however, gets Abreu to ground to short and Matsui to pop out to strand Jeter at third and maintain a 1-0 lead. Jackson has walked just one and struck out four tonight.

For the second night in a row, the Red Sox score three in the first inning only to have their opponent come back quickly against them. Tonight, Luke Scott hits a three-run homer off Josh Beckett in the bottom of the third to give Baltimore a 5-3 lead. Not only is Beckett giving up homers at a higher rate than last year, he's giving up a higher percentage with men on base. In 2007, 13 of Beckett's 17 home runs came with the bases empty. This season, three of five came with men on base.

Terry Francona will miss two games due to the death of his mother-in-law. My condolences go out to Terry and his family.

William Burke and Joe Sheehan try to tackle the puzzling question of why the AL is scoring less than the NL, in what appears to be an article available to everyone. My SportingNews.com column looked at this last week, with Burke and Sheehan commenting:

I'm not entirely convinced, but he lays out an interesting case.

These two researchers dig deep into the number and present evidence that fewer fly balls are leaving the park in the AL this year, leading to a large reduction in slugging percentage. However, I'm not convinced as to their why:

I think there may be some selection effects happening here. I've written about this when it comes to playoff baseball. Playoff games are generally lower scoring than regular-season games. However, part of the reason for that is that managers play as if they will be lower scoring, using more one-run strategies than they normally would and emphasizing defense to a greater extent. It becomes, if not a self-fulfilling prophecy, one that gets helped along.

Over the last year or so, we've heard a lot about teams getting away from the style of baseball played during the peak of the high-offense era, and trying to play better defense. Personnel decisions along the lines of playing Tony Pena Jr. or Asdrubal Cabrera add up, and they start to impact the league's statistics. Teams have been choosing defense over offense, and that is probably the biggest reason for the drop in offense in the AL: personnel selection. Managers and GMs are putting lesser hitters on the field in an effort to prevent runs, and they're getting just that result--for themselves and the opposition.

The only place I can see where a team truly traded slugging for defense was at shortstop in Baltimore. Asdrubal Cabrera sparked the Indians offensively last season. The Royals didn't exactly have offensive power houses at shortstop before Pena. Torii Hunter stayed in the AL. The Tigers moved their great defensive third baseman to the bench for more offense. The Yankees play Giambi at first to improve their outfield defense, but they still keep all those hitters in the game. Maybe if you look over a few season it's there, but I don't see it. I notice a lot of old Firstbase/DH types not producing.

The Mets DFA'd Nelson Figueroa today, and the Washington Nationals get a good chuckle:

If he reads an account of his reaction to the Nats razzing of him from the dugout, he mocked their lowly position in the standings by saying "they are who they are," it must be particularly painful. The Nationals may be bad but they're major leaguers, something Figueroa isn't anymore.

Yankees Chick runs down the top ten Baseball Player endorsements. My guess is that Ford gives Jeter a very nice car to drive.

Two pitchers doing better than expected take the mound in Cincinnati as Mark Hendrickson faces Edinson Volquez. I scoffed when Hendrickson got the opening day nod for the Marlins, but he's now 5-1 with a 3.56 ERA. He's not doing things that differently in terms of strikeouts and walks, which suggests he may have a better defense behind him or the balls put in play against him are easier to field. Since his line drive percentage is down to 16.5% from 23% last year, it looks like the latter. Volquez upped his strikeouts, and despite playing half his games at GAB allowed only one home run so far this season.

The may be some fireworks in Texas tonight as Felix Hernandez and Kason Gabbard square off in Texas. Five days ago, Felix hit two Texas batters. When Gabbard threw one high over the plate to Richie Sexson, the big first baseman charged the mound and threw his helmet into Gabbard's back. Richie will continue serving his suspension tonight. With luck, they'll stick to pitching well. Hernandez is coming off two poor starts in which he allowed 10 runs in 10 2/3 innings. Gabbard continues to test the limits of how few strikeouts a pitcher can accumulate and still have a sub-2.00 ERA. He's walked 13 and struck out nine in 24 1/3 innings, but with only four extra base hits against him, those free passes haven't led to many runs.

Two years ago, Justin Verlander was the up and coming star and Zack Greinke was trying to get his head on straight. Now, Verlander is struggling to keep runs off the scoreboard and Greinke is fulfilling his potential. Zack's main weakness is the long ball, but four of his five home runs allowed came with the bases empty. Verlander has seen his K per 9 drop by over one this season from his career average. Opponents are putting more balls in play, and more are finding the fences at inopportune times as four of his seven homers allowed came with men on base.

Enjoy!

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Gaslamp Ball wonders if teams really need coaches:

This allows me to, again, bring up something that's always bothered me. Jbox and Jonny Dub (and sometimes Kev) and I debate this all the time. Basically, it's always bothered me that baseball, unlike every other professional team sport in the world, apparently does not actually have a need for their coaches. Or at the very least, there's the idea that baseball players should be able to "figure it out" on their own.

When the team's not hitting, the hitting coach gets fired, but there's always a vocal argument that firing the hitting coach doesn't actually do anything because the hitters have to know what they're doing on their own. The base coaches get a little more credit, but we've seen players routinely miss (ignore) signs and signals. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but couldn't the players play base coach just as well and save some money? There, I saved some money for the Padres. Make the guys who made the last outs play base coach. We've all done it. It's easy.

There's something to be said for this approach. David Mamet found he didn't need a director:

I wondered and read, and it occurred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just seem to. How do I know? From experience. I referred to my own--take away the director from the staged play and what do you get? Usually a diminution of strife, a shorter rehearsal period, and a better production.

The director, generally, does not cause strife, but his or her presence impels the actors to direct (and manufacture) claims designed to appeal to Authority--that is, to set aside the original goal (staging a play for the audience) and indulge in politics, the purpose of which may be to gain status and influence outside the ostensible goal of the endeavor.

Maybe teams don't need a manager either. Make the players responsible to each other. The seven guys standing behind the pitcher likely have a better sense of when he's tired than the manager in the dugout. It might take some time to make strategic decisions on bunts and hit and runs, but those sorts of things could be discussed before the game or a series. Or the players could just decide that one or two of them have the best strategic sense and leave those particular decisions to those individuals.

There would be no more excuse that things were the managers fault. Players who didn't get with the program would be fired instead. In a way it would be a throwback to the early days of baseball.

Of course, it won't happen. The managers position evolved for a reason, probably so players could concentrate on hitting, pitching and defense, leaving the worries about strategy and press relations to someone else. Still, it might be fun to see what would happen. Maybe the next time a manager is fired late in a season, the team will just let the players take over for a month to see how it works.

Today seems to be the day to complain about antics. First, old fogey Goose Gossage complains about Joba Chamberlain:

"There's no place for it in the game," Gossage told reporters Monday during a tour of the Hall of Fame, according to MLB.com. "I will stand by that and I love Joba Chamberlain. I'm with him down in Spring Training. He's a great kid, but no one is passing the torch today. Nobody talks to them. When I broke into the big leagues, I didn't say two words all year."

Chamberlain's antics again drew attention after he celebrated after striking out the Indians' David Dellucci last Thursday. Two days earlier, Dellucci hit a game-winning pinch-hit home run off of Chamberlain.

Nelson Figueroa is miffed!

After getting the third out of the third inning, Figueroa turned toward the Nationals dugout and made a mock clapping gesture into his glove in response to what he perceived was the Washington bench's rhythmic clapping for his walk and error during the inning.

Figueroa was not happy afterward.

"They were cheering in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls," he said. "I am a professional, I take great offense to that. ... They won tonight, but in the long run, look who they are, a last-place team."

Milledge defended his teammates: "We didn't try to rattle him. We're trying to get our guys going."

Gossage has a point, but I always thought the respect your elders aspect of rookies was silly. Goose didn't say two words because when he came up, the veterans pitchers on the team saw him as a threat to their jobs and wouldn't talk to him. With long term contracts, it's easier to see a rookie as someone to help the team win, and therefore nurture. That's what Mussina tried to do with Hughes and Kennedy. Still it's never a good idea to anger your opponents. Joba will learn that eventually.

As for Nelson, that's just sour grapes. And you know the softball quote is going up in the Nats locker room. It sounds to me that the Nats are a team, and that's a good thing.

After watching last night's double header in Cleveland in which the four starters dominated both games, I wondered what teams posted the highest average game scores. Game Score was invented by Bill James and allows you do to a quick calculation off the numbers in the boxscore to determine the quality of the start. Anything above 50 and there is a good chance of a win, with 100 being among the best starts ever. I averaged together the game scores for starters in each game. Here are the top five:

Best Teams, Average Game Score, 2008

Team Starters	Record	Average Game Score
Blue Jays	16-14	54.7
Indians	15-13	54.5
Braves	16-11	54.4
Diamondbacks	20-8	52.9
Athletics	15-14	52.3

I should go back and look at this in previous years, because except for Arizona, high average game scores ar