The Mets didn't get what they expected from Kris Benson tonight. Five innings and seven earned runs was not good enough to beat the Braves. Meanwhile, Jaret Wright, who any team could have picked up for a song last year, continues his comeback with seven shutout innings for the Braves. Not a good start to the "Let's Win This Year" era of the Mets.

Theo Espstein was just on NESN talking about the trade. He made the point that the Red Sox had been leading the league in runs scored and ERA over the last three months but were about a .500 team. The reason was the defense. The Red Sox are 41-39 since the start of may. They've scored 466 runs (5.8 per game) with an ERA of 4.44 (not that great) bu they've allowed 416 runs (5.2) per game. Sixteen percent of their runs allowed in that time have been unearned; the league average is 8%.

So Theo has identified the problem. He also took the blame for creating the problem. However, I really doubt this trade fixes the problem. First of all, between Nomar and Pokey, they've had good defense at shortstop all year. And as good as Mientkiewicz is defensively, defense at first doesn't make a big difference. And I don't think Dave Roberts is going to start, so his defense only helps late in the game.

Theo is trying to make this trade look good. But make no mistake, he did not get equal value in return. This was trying to get rid of Nomar in a market that was against him. He did the best he could.

I saw a headline, but no story on ESPN.com that Nomar has been traded to Cubs. Stay tuned.

Update: Fox just confirmed the trade, although I haven't heard details.

Update: Now ESPN is saying the trade is tentative. It's 4:55, how tentative can it be? I would assume the Cubs want a physical.

Update: Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com and the Sporting News has details of the trade. I'm still not sure it's a done deal.

Update: CBSSportsLine is reporting the story also.

The Red Sox sent Garciaparra, minor-league outfielder Matt Murton and cash to the Cubs. The Red Sox obtained shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Montreal Expos and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from the Minnesota Twins.

Chicago dealt shortstop Alex Gonzalez, relief pitcher Francis Beltran and infielder Brendan Harris to Montreal.

The Twins end up with minor-league left-hander Justin Jones from the Cubs.

This is going to take a while to sort.

Update: The following update disappeared, and I've tried to reconstruct it from memory.

Update: If I'm a fan in Red Sox Nation, I'm upset. The Red Sox would have been better off keeping Nomar and taking the draft choicewhen he left. It looks to me, from the trade, that the Cubs are the more serious team when it comes to breaking their championship drought.

Why isn't Jason Michaels leading off for the Phillies? Today, Rollins (.332 OBA) and Utley (.304 OBA) are in the the table-setter slots. Meanwhile, Michaels, with his .387 OBA and .381 career OBA is batting near the bottom of the order. The Phillies have this powerful heart of the order. They deserve to have men on base when they bat.

The two Mets deals are getting a very negative reaction in the comments to this post. I can sum it up as, "Why are we trading away the future for pitching when we can't score any runs to support that pitching?"

This New York Times article is a good reference for the deal.

Impersonating the Yankees, who traditionally sacrifice minor-leaguers for veterans, the Mets promptly dealt their best pitching prospect, Class AA left-hander Scott Kazmir, to Tampa Bay along with Class AA relief pitcher Joselo Diaz. Besides Benson and Zambrano, the Mets got two minor leaguers in return - Class AAA relief pitcher Bartolome Fortunato from the Devil Rays and Class AA second baseman Jeff Keppinger from the Pirates.

Heading into this season, the Mets advertised their plan to build from within. Owner Fred Wilpon even called Kazmir "untouchable." But in one day, the Mets gave up their two best pitching prospects in Kazmir and Peterson, and their best catching prospect in Huber.

The Yankees used to be able to do that because they first grew a solid core of home grown talent before they traded others off to win (Williams, Pettitte, Jeter, Posada, Rivera). I don't know how good the talent is in the Mets farm system. I know Benson and Zambrano are decent but not great pitchers. Maybe with a great pitching coach and a better stadium you'll see a big improvement. But the Mets have a tough road ahead of them if they are going to win this year. And I have to agree, that unless they get some offense, it's going to be difficult even for the best pitchers to win.

When I first heard of the Dodger-Marlins deal, my thought was great deal for the Dodgers. I based that on

1. The Dodgers get a good, young player for a good old player.


2. A starter being somewhat more valuable than a set-up man.


3. The Dodgers getting rid of a poor offensive player.

I watched the Tivo'd Baseball Tonight this morning, and Brantley was very negative about this trade for LA. He believes it has weakened them. I just don't see it. Even if they don't go on to get Randy Johnson, they've made themselves a better ballclub.

The biggest hole the Dodgers have offensively is right field. This trade gets rid of the reason for that hole, Juan Encarnacion and his .289 OBA. I assume Green will move to right, and Choi will take over at first. While Green has been an offensive liability at first, he'll provide more offense in right than Juan. And Choi has slightly more win shares than LoDuca. So, at worse, the Dodgers are about even in the trade offensively.

Penny and Mota each have 8 win shares. Win or without Mota, the Dodgers have a great bullpen. DePodesta traded a strength for a weakness. And the stronger your starting staff, the less you need your bullpen, and the better they'll look.

Robert Tagorda, in his excellent analysis of the deal, notes that the Dodgers are also saving a nice piece of change. And they'll save even more as Choi is still a while away from the big money, while to keep LoDuca (age 32) you'd have to shell out the big bucks.

I like the trade for the Marlins, also. With Mota and Benitez, they can turn contests into seven inning games. Lo Duca is a great hitter, and Encarnacion gives them depth off the bench. What I also like is that it shows the Florida fans that the Marlins want to win again, something they did not do after 1997. We'll see which of these deals worked best some October.

Jason Giambi has been diagnosed with a benign tumor. The type, location and treatment of the tumor have not been noted. It doesn't sound too serious, but we simply don't know all the facts. Regardless, this type of disease is still scary, and I wish him the best.

The Giants and Phillies swap Ledee and Felix Rodriguez. Off the top of my head it seems like a pretty even trade. I'll have more on all these tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, be sure to check out the Transaction Guy for the latest.

It looks like they are all coming at the last minute. The big deal so far has Choi and Penny going to the Dodgers for Mota, Lo Duca and Encarnacion. Off the top of my head, it looks like a great deal for the Dodgers. They may be doing more, so I'll hold off on more comments until it's done. I like the Mets deal, getting Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir. I saw Kazmir pitch in New Britian a couple of weeks ago, and he was hard to hit. Unfortunately, this means the Mets won't be trying to corner the market in Kaz's. :-) I'm sure more will come later.

Update: The Mets got Benson, also. That gives them a very deep starting rotation. Looks like they are trying to win this year and trading the future for that chance.

Will tonight be the final performance of Randy Johnson in an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform? Pitching in Colorado, will he go out with a bang, or will his pitches be banged out of the park? After having only 1 loss to show for 0.82 ERA over his last three starts, you'd think Randy might want to get out of town. Preston Wilson has 17 K in 38 career AB against Randy. If Johnson can strike him out four times tonight, 50% of Wilson's AB against Johnson will haved ended in strikeouts.

On the pennant race front, the San Diego Padres host the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight. The Padres are fresh off a series with the Giants that saw them take 3 out of 4 from Bonds' team and establish themselves as the wild card leader. A sweep of the Dodgers will give the the NL West lead. Jeff Weaver face Adam Eaton. Lefties have been pounding Weaver this year, hitting .310 off him with an OBA of .386. I suspect that Burroughs, Giles, Long and Klesko are in for a treat tonight. Eaton has pitched well since a disastorous May, going 5-2 with a 2.64 ERA since June 1. I get the feeling his ERA is worse that his pitching stats would indicate, but I also notice he gives up long hits with men on base. Opponents are slugging .452 with men on base against Adam. Since slugging average is a resonable proxy for the distance batters can move runners, it's not surprising that he's given up more runs that I would have expected.

My old friend Willie Weinbaum inteviews one of the survivors of the Thurmon Munson plane crash on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the crash. It's the first time either of the survivors have talked publicly about the accident.

The Texas Rangers had the chance to put some distance between themselves and their division rivals, and so far have failed to do so. They started a 12-game stretch against Anaheim and Oakland on 7/21. So far, they are 3-6, and the A's have regained first place after beating Texas 7-6 last night. The Ranges have scored 28 runs in those nine game while allowing 43. They did not pick an opportune moment to go into a hitting slump.

Meanwhile, the A's offense appears to be in full Moneyball mode. Since the All-Star break they are 10-5; their batting average is down two points, but their OBA and slugging are up about 20 points each. Funny, though, their runs per game really haven't changed. The boost has come from an ERA that's down 0.8 runs. But the process is right and we're looking at another strong 2nd half from Oakland.

The White Sox lost their fifth game in a row tonight, falling 3-2 to the Detroit Tigers. They've only scored 13 runs in that stretch. Amazingly, they've hit 7 HR to help score those 13 runs. It seems Thomas and Ordonez were also setting the table.

In a former life I was a biochemist. Francis Crick, along with James Watson, discovered the structure of DNA. Outside the Beltway has the news of his passing. If you've never read The Double Helix by James Watson, I highly recommend it. It tells a great scientific detective story.

One of the teams I'm quietly rooting for this year is the San Diego Padres. Although he's not usually recognized as one, Kevin Towers is a Moneyball GM. If you take them out of PETCO (which so far seems to be a pitcher's park), the Padres have the best road OBA in the NL (.347). Their slugging on the road is okay, 7th. The pitchers strikes out twice as many as they walk (their pitchers have walked the 2nd fewest batters in the NL). In looking at last night's starting lineup, there not a bad OBA in the bunch. They're sitting atop the wild card race this morning, and very much in the NL West chase. If SD, LA, Oakland, NYY and Boston all make the playoffs, you'll have five out of eight teams playing Moneyball. That's pretty good.

You it's a bad game for Schilling when he allows as many HR as strikeouts. He got two of each tonight as the Orioles scored four runs off him in seven innings. That might be good enough for a win on most nights, but this evening the Red Sox ran into Dave Borkowski. Borkowski pitched a Schilling like game, keeping the Sox scoreless through seven while striking out seven and lowering his ERA to 3.07. None of the pitchers issued a walk as the Orioles won 4-1.

What a tough game for Jamie Moyer. He pitches seven fine innings, allowing 1 run while striking out 9. But Oakland is able to come back against the Seattle bullpen. The difference; Moyer walked 1 in his seven innings. The pen walked 3 in their 1 1/3. A walk set up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

The Twins win an extra-innings squeaker 5-4, sweeping the White Sox and extending their lead in the AL Central to 3 1/2 games. Both teams tried to give the game away; if you want to see an example, take a look at the bottom of the 7th.

White Sox seventh. Jo.Valentin walked on four pitches. Uribe singled to left, Jo.Valentin to second. Jo.Valentin was caught stealing, catcher H.Blanco to third baseman Koskie. Uribe was caught stealing, catcher H.Blanco to second baseman Rivas. Crede singled to center. Romero pitching. Rowand pinch-hitting for B.Davis. Rowand walked on four pitches, Crede to second. Borchard pinch-hitting for W.Harris. Borchard walked, Crede to third, Rowand to second. Ti.Perez bunt single to first, Crede scored, Rowand to third, Borchard to second. J.Rincon pitching. Ca.Lee struck out.
Runs: 1, Hits: 3

Let's get our first two batters on, then have them run into outs. The Twins then allow four consecutive batters to reach, resulting in a tie game. Six baserunners that inning, but only 1 run. Ineptitude on both sides of the ball.

Bucky Jacobsen is certainly making an impression for the Mariners. He hit his 5th HR in 11 games today. He'll be 29 at the end of August, so I don't think he'll be breaking any career HR records. He's getting on base and hitting for power, which is just what you want from a 1B/DH. Soccer Dad has been following Bucky.

Morneau hit what at first appeared to be a HR in the top of the 2nd of the Twins game. It turned out that the ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into play. The umpires confered and made the correct call. (The play had originally ended with Morneau safe at 2nd with a double.) Justin was returned to 2nd, and Hunter immediately followed with an RBI single.

Nice play by Carlos Lee to start off the Twins-White Sox game. Stewart hits the ball between the third baseman and the line. It looks like a sure double, but Lee gets over quickly, barehands the ball and fires a strike to get Shannon at second.

Is it just me, or is the media not making a big deal about Gary Sheffield reaching the 400 HR mark? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that it was big news that Thome reached 400? I remember ESPN had a big picture of Jim and a headline that had the word "historic" in it. The link to the game story on the ESPN basebal page says "Posada HR rallies Yankees." Is it because Sheffield is two years older than Thome? Is it because it happened in Canada? I mean, where's the front page story about Sheffield and the Hall of Fame?

On a related note, the Hardball Times has Sheffield #1 in the AL in Win Shares Above Average. MVP, anyone?

The Twins go for the sweep of the White Sox today. The Twins are doing exactly what they need to do, taking advantage of the White Sox offensive injuries to try to bury the South Siders. This one could be a slugfest, however, as Carlos Silva faces Esteban Loaiza. Loaiza has not been able to repeat his successful 2003 season. His strikouts are down, his walks are up, and he's already given up more HR than all of last year.

There's a pretty good matchup in Pittsburgh where the Pirates are climbing back into the wild card race. They are 7-3 over their last 10 games and are now six games behind SF and SD. Russ Oritz takes the mound for Atlanta vs. Oliver Perez. Oritz is now 32-13 since joining the Braves. While he's not the best pitcher the Braves have ever seen, he's consistently good. If they ever get him to cut down on the walks, he could be consistently great. Oliver's strikeout numbers continue to impress; he's struck out 31 in 25 innings in July.

Enjoy!

I wanted to follow up on this post from last night. Bartolo Colon pitched a brilliant game against the high powered Texas Rangers last night. He went seven shutout innngs, allowing only 1 hit and 2 walks. I almost wanted to list that game as slugfest of the day, and I'm glad I didn't as the final score was 2-0 Angels.

Bartolo has been unhittable since the All-Star break, allowing just 7 hits in 20 innings while posting a 0.90 ERA. I wonder if someone had a "we didn't pay you all this money for a 5+ ERA" talk. Unfortunately, Colon came out of the game due to back stiffness.

There also appears to be some bad blood between the Angels and Rangers (from the same article):

Before the game, a fight broke out between Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy and Rangers catcher Gerald Laird, a carry-over from their dispute the night before.

Laird thought Kennedy intentionally tried to get hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning of Texas’ 6-1 victory Monday night, and said something to Kennedy when he came up again in the fifth.

Kennedy was standing behind the batting cage Tuesday and was approached by Laird as the Angels were concluding BP and the Rangers were finishing their pregame stretching. Moments later, the two were in a tussle that spilled over to the warning track between home plate and the first base dugout.

Soon every player from each team was involved, with players pushing, shoving and grabbing each other before order was restored approximately four minutes later.

"He kind of saw that I was making eye contact at him, and I expected a different response and a more cordial conversation than I got," Kennedy said. "It was a little misunderstanding that probably got a little out of control."

Greg Maddux reached 299 wins tonight. He pitched a strong six innings, striking out 6 and walking only 1. Why he came out after only 79 pitches, I don't know. You would think that if Greg wanted to get the win, he'd want to keep the probability of the bullpen blowing the game low. The relievers pitched well, however, and the Cubs got the 7-1 victory.

Bartolo Colon has gotten all six outs so far on strikeouts. Colon's strikeouts have been down the last couple of years. Maybe he's finding his groove again.

The Cardinals continue to look like the team to beat in the NL this season. I was going to question pulling Jason Marquis after seven innings. He had a shutout going and only threw 99 pitches. But Calero and Haren each pitched perfect innings, each striking out two, so I'll give La Russa credit for going to the bullpen there. The Cardinals get a 6-0 victory.

Roy Oswalt is pitching a gem tonight. Through six he's allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk as he's shutting out the DBacks on 73 pitches. He's gotten four HR in support as the Astros are drubbing Arizona 10-0. Eight of Houston's 11 hits have been for extra bases.

I'm looking at the Atlanta lineup tonight, and I'm wondering why they are still batting Charles Thomas 8th. I understand not wanting to put pressure on him, but this isn't the Yankees where the offense is so good it doesn't matter if you bat a rookie like Jeter or Soriano or Johnson at the bottom of the order. The Braves need offense, and grouping your best hitters together helps generate that offense. Get Thomas into the middle of the lineup until he proves he can't hit. His great OBA is being wasted batting in front of the pitcher.

Is attendance up at Skydome, or is it just the Yankees visiting? They have two waitresses working behind home plate, when they usually have one. The women who work the luxury boxes behind home plate probably get more television exposure in Cananda than most celebrities in that country. :-)

Major League Charts is a new web site that allows visitors to create a number of graphs using various statistics. I think they have something very good here, but it still needs some work. For example, it's too slow for a dial-up modem (I have a DSL line, and I thought it loaded very slowly). However, user feedback from a group as intelligent as the readers of Baseball Musings would help improve the site greatly. So, if you have broadband, take a look and send suggestions.

For fans of the Phillies and those of the Cubs, you might want to visit two blogs. Phanatic Phollow Up is Jane Conroy's look at the Philadelphia 9. George Kyroudis is writing about the Cubs at Behind the Ivy. They're part of the Most Valuable Network, a site that has a blog covering each team. It's a nice example of grass roots journalism.

I just turned on ESPNews and saw Brian Kenny interviewing Rob Neyer. It was a good segment, with Rob making his points with number, and Kenny challenging his conclusions with OBA and slugging percentage numbers. I hope to see that kind of segment more often, and I hope on Baseball Tonight.

Greg Maddux is approaching 300 wins, but the road to 299 won't be easy tonight as he faces Ben Sheets in Milwaukee. Both have 20 starts and a 9-7 record. However, Maddux's ERA is 1 1/2 runs higher. Both have been great lately, positing sub 3.00 ERAs over their last 3 starts. The Cubs have a 3-5 record against the Brewers this year despite a 2.35 ERA by the pitching staff. Both teams have only scored 18 each in their 8 contests.

The Twins and White Sox continue their series with a great matchup as Johan Santana faces former Mariner Freddy Garcia. Garcia's been great since joining the Sox, posting a 3.15 ERA. He's struck out 38 and walked only 8 in 34 1/3 innings for Chicago. Santana is leading the AL in strikeouts (!) and batting average allowed. Since June 1, he's allowed just 15 earned runs in 77 2/3 innings, good for a 1.74 ERA.

Enjoy!

Ryan Drese pitched an interesting game last night. He allowed 10 hits over 6 2/3 innings, but only 1 run. Most of the hits were singles, and most of the singles only moved a runner one base. Drese didn't add to his woes by walking anyone, but the defense didn't help as they turned no double plays. The Angels clearly missed the power of Anderson and Guerrero.

Every so often you see a game where the pitcher allows more walks than hits. Usually, these are pretty good games for the pitcher, since the lack of hits means the walkers don't go very far around the bases. But last night's game in Oakland was ridiculous.

The A's had 13 hits last night, a good offensive game for any club. But Seattle issued more walks than hits! Fourteen Athletics made their way to first by the base on balls. Seattle's starter, Travis Blackley, walked 9 in 4 innings and has now walked 20 in 21 2/3 innings this season. JJ Putz did not record an out, but managed to walk two batters and allow four hits. I'm sure his teammates were not using his name in a nice way last night.

Zito pitched a mediorce game, one that he would have lost on most nights. But with 14 runs and a good bullpen to back him up, he got the W.

Marinao Rivera blows another save tonight. The Blue Jays score two in the bottom of the 9th after the Yankees got an insurance run in the top of the inning. The Yankees have scored in the top of the tenth, so Rivera has a chance to pick up the win.

With Koskie on third with 1 out, Blanco at the plate, the White Sox were pitching expecting the squeeze. The first pitch was a pitchout, but the runner wasn't going. Blanco did not show bunt as the count went to 3-1. Blanco got a fast ball down the middle and hit it into the left field bleachers. The Twins lead 4-1 in the 4th.

Looks like the Expos are trying to end their stay in Montreal with a bang. They've won four in a row, and are beating up on the Mets tonight 10-4 as they bat in the bottom of the fourth. They've already earned their way on base 10 times by hits and six times by walks. Patterson's given up three to the Mets, but he could give up two or three more at this rate and still win the game.

At 27, Marcus Thames is at the point of his career where he has to make a splash or disappear to the Atlantic League. He's finally doing just that with the Tigers. He's 2 for 2 so far tonight with a HR, giving him 12 extra-base hits out of his 19 safeties. It's only 63 AB, however, so don't get too excited.

Philadelphia is doing it's best to keep the Marlins in the race. Florida comes into tonight's game 7-1 against Mr. Ed's favorite team. They're 16-3 against the Phillies and the Mets, 32-47 against everyone else. And almost everything they hit is dropping in for a hit off Millwood tonight, as they have a 6-2 lead after two innings.

Ken Stagg writes:

A bad Mariners season gets much worse.

Pineiro was giving up a lot more HR this year, especially on the road where he had allowed 12 in 67 innings. On a team that got old quickly, it tough to see them lose a young star for an extended period of time.

Jason Giambi is undergoing more tests today to try to figure out what ails him. The latest theory doesn't sound pleasant.

Giambi is being tested for a parasite called entamoeba histolytica, Alejo said, which can cause a potentially fatal condition called amebiasis. The parasite can be transmitted through water and food, among other ways, and it can embed itself in the intestinal lining, making it undetectable except by very specific tests, according to the Star Ledger's report.

Here's some details on the disease; it doesn't seem to be that fatal. Whatever he has, let's wish Giambi a speedy and full recovery.

Three important division battles are happening tonight. In the AL Central, the Twins have a slim 1/2 game lead as they visit the 2nd place White Sox. Brad Radke will face Mark Buehrle, two pitchers with almost identical ERAs. Both strike out about 6 per 9, neither walks very many, and they give up a few HR. Buehrle has gotten his HR number under control in July, allowing just two so far this month after giving up 9 in June.

The White Sox have three games in hand in the division race. That's means they'll play a more tiresome schedule down the stretch, but to a certain extent they control their own fate. This makes it incumbent on the Twins to try to sweep this series while both Thomas and Ordonez are on the DL.

The Anaheim Angels host the Texas Rangers tonight. Arte Moreno's new team is not doing as well as he probably hoped, given the money he spent in the off season, while Texas is exceeding Tom Hicks' best expectations. Ryan Drese takes on Kelvim Escobar; both pitcher have worse records than they deserve. They met five days ago, with Drese allowing 2 runs to Escobar's three.

The way the AL stands right now, Boston would play Texas in the first round of the playoffs. Given this year's presidential race, that would be a very interesting series. Politics and baseball; Keith Olbermann will be in his glory.

Finally, the Giants and Padres face off at PETCO Field, tied for 2nd in the NL West and 1st in the NL Wild Card race. Rueter and Peavy face each other as they did five days ago, which turned out to be an easy win for Jake. Peavy has an 0.43 ERA vs. San Francisco in three starts this season. Although he's walked 8 in 21 innings, he's only allowed 1 HR while striking out 13.

Enjoy!

The Diamondbacks are in a tailspin, having won only two game since Al Pedrique took over as manager. The Arizona offense is just terrible. They've scored only 57 runs in their last 20 games over a stretch in which they are 2 for 18. To see just how bad the Arizona offense is, look at their road numbers. They have the lowest BA (.231), OBA (.296) and slugging percentage (.373) in NL away from home. Their home numbers rank in the middle of the NL, which is also a sign of trouble. Good hitters playing in that park should be near the top of the league in offense.

The DBacks have won only 31 games this year. They are about to lose Luis Gonzalez for the season. They may trade Randy Johnson. Somehow, it's looking like it would be a miracle for Pedrique to get this team 50 wins.

I'm still under the weather. But I wanted to finish the Yankees-Red Sox thread from yesterday. Boston came back and won the game on a 2-run walk off HR by Bill Mueller. It's good for Boston that they won. A loss yesterday would have taken the wind out of the fans. The Sox won the fight, then battled back to take the lead. When the Yankees came roaring back against an ineffective bullpen, all that positive energy was about to disappear. While the Red Sox certainly would not have been out of the playoff race with a loss, I think the fans would have been pushed to the point of exhaustion in supporting the home town nine. They had every reason to believe they would rival the Yankees as the AL's best team, and instead they find themselves in a tight race for the wild card with little chance to catching NY. If they lost yesterday, I believe the terrific fan support they've seen all year would have evaporated.

On the NY side, it appears that A-Rod is now an official Yankee.

Rodriguez watched the ending on television and said he wished he could have helped. He was left with scratches on his cheek, neck and temple, tangible evidence of the nasty side of this rivalry.

"It's not your generic fight - New York against Kansas City or New York against Minnesota," Rodriguez said. "You could tell there was a residual passion from the past that I haven't been a part of. But I'm obviously in the mix right now."

Tim McCarver just commented that this Yankees-Red Sox game is the worst game he's ever seen. Buck replied it was the best-worst game he had ever seen.

I have to agree. The bullpens have been horrible. The Sox came back after the fight to take a 4-3 lead. The chase Arroyo in the top of the 6th and score 6 on 3 walks by Leskanic. The Yankees bullpen give it back in the bottom of the 6th as the Red Sox score four to make the game 9-8. But that's not it. The Red Sox come out in the top of the 7th, give up a leadoff HR to Sierra, then two errors have put runners at 1st and 2nd with none out. Looks like they are going for the record for longest 9 inning game, although I'm starting to doubt it will ever end.

Update: Nomar is given an error on a tough hop to load the bases. At least any runs that score won't hurt the pitchers ERAs.

Update: Embree can pitch! He gets out of a bases-loaded, no out jam. It's 10-8 Yankees going to the bottom of the 7th.

Paul Abbott got his first win as a Philly today as Philadelphia outscored the Cubs 4-3. All three Cubs runs came on solo HR off Paul. Abbott has now allowed 12 HR in 40 1/3 innings for the Phllies, and 20 in 87 1/3 innings for the year. That's not a formula for success.

Arroyo hits A-Rod, and a fight breaks out at Fenway. Somehow Yankees starter Sturtze gets attacked and is cut near his left ear.

The fight started between A-Rod and Varitek. Alex was glaring at Arroyo as he was walking to first, and Varitek got between them to protect Bronson, although Alex didn't look like he was going to do anything. Jason and A-Rod started jawing, A-Rod made a let's go motion, and Varitek hit Alex in the face with his glove hand. Both benches emptied, and little fights broke out, Sturtze ending up getting cut on the face as he battled two Sox.

The good news is that no elderly coaches were harmed in the course of the brawl. :-)

Varitek and A-Rod have been thrown from the game. I don't know what was said, but A-Rod got the short end of the stick here. He didn't rush the mound, he was just glaring. Varitek overreacted.

It will be interesting to see what Sturtze does in the next inning. Both benches have been warned, so if Sturtze hits somebody, he's gone.

Update: Sturtze went into the pile and grabbed Kapler by the neck and pulled him out of the pile and wouldn't let go. Ortiz tried to throw a punch to get Sturtze off Kapler. It's not clear how Sturtze got cut, but it looks to be about three inches long, and he's pitching with blood on his shirt. He's given up two hits to start the inning.

Update: The beauty of Tivo. Just watched it again, and Rodriguez did say something to Arroyo. Varitek said something back to Alex, which really set him off. I still don't think A-Rod was going to rush the mound, however.

Remember, too that Arroyo is a bit of a head-hunter. He's 2nd in the league in hit batters, 13 in 95 innings coming into the game. That's over 1 per 9 innings. It's only a matter of time before he hits the wrong person and gets clocked himself.

A happy 40th birthday to Barry Bonds. In looking at Bonds career, I can't find any examples of a bad season. His rookie year of 1986 was his poorest, yet he still showed his great eye for the strikezone, drawing 65 in 413 AB. It's also the only year he struck out 100 times in a season. A nineteen year career, and his worst season was his first. That's pretty good.

I sometimes wonder what Bonds' career would have been like if the Pirates hadn't taken him to arbitration after the 1989 season. Bonds spent most of his first four seasons as a lead-off man, scoring 72, 99, 97 and 96 runs in those seasons. He was developing into Rickey Henderson with more power. Somehow, the Pirates didn't realize what they had. Instead of signing him to a long term contract (at the time, they probably could have locked Barry up for 10 years at $10 to $20 million for the length of the contract), they went to arbitration and won after using his lack of RBI against him. (How Bonds' agent failed to convince an arbitrator that RBI are pretty meaningless to a leadoff hitter is beyond me.) Bonds' response was to ask to bat in a spot where he could drive in runs. They moved him to 5th, and Bonds had his first Barry Bonds season, driving in 114 runs while scoring 104, batting over .300 with a .406 OBA and a .565 slugging percentage. He's only had 1 season with his OBA under .400 since, and his slugging has stayed over .500, often way over .500.

But what would have happened if the Pirates had not gone the arbitration route? If Bonds had stayed a leadoff man, would he have concentrated on developing his power? Would he have concentrated on speed, and spent his time going for the steals and runs records? My guess is that at some point, a manager would have realized that Bonds was more valuable in the middle of the order and moved him there. But the Pirates winning three arbitration cases in a row against Barry certainly seemed to drive him, and ultimately it drove him to big money in San Francisco.

Dustin Hermanson has a no-hitter through six innings. He's only thrown 77 pitches, so he's in a good position to finish the game. His only mistake so far was a walk to Albert Pujols.

Bonds just hit a 3-run HR after going 0-2 with a walk. The Cardinals have a dangerous offense, however. As the Cubs learned Tuesday, you can't have too big a lead against St. Louis.

Update: With one out in the 7th, Pujols ends the no hitter with a long home run into the right field stands.

John Olerud has been released by the Mariners. He's one of my favorites. My guess is he can still help a team as he can still get on base.

I'm watching the Red Sox broadcast, trying to stay awake enough to take my medicine at 9. The announcers start giving out of town scores, and they're at least an inning behind. I have the live scoreboard up, and all the score they are handing out are old. What's going on? Do they not have computers in the booth? Why not just give the anchor a handheld with a browser and set it on a live scoreboard page? It's so easy with today's technology to give out good information, and broadcasters still act like it's 1990.

I have a very painful ear infection. I hope to be feeling better tomorrow. Meanwhile, congratulations to Christian Ruzich of The Cub Reporter, who is now a proud father.

Outside the Beltway has analysis of the story that the Expos players are being told they are likely going to be in the Washington area next year.

James at SoxBlog looks at the leadership capabilities of the Red Sox big three and finds them lacking. I'm not a big one on leadership making that much of a difference, but the comments of Ken Baumgartner are worth considering:

As impressed as I was with Ken, I couldn’t resist asking him once if the Bruins brought him in to be a team leader. He said that indeed that was one of the things the Bruins had in mind when they signed him, but the idea of him being a team leader was stupid. On a sports team, the best players are the leaders. Period. Whether they’re good at it or bad at it, the job falls to them. When a team struggles, the players don’t look at the guy sitting on the end of the bench for direction. They look to the stars. Ken knew he was literally the worst player on the team; while he could serve as a positive presence or perhaps even a mentor to some of the Bruins’ budding young stars, leadership would not be in his portfolio.

According to the post, Manny, Nomar and Pedro are acting like they don't care that much. I don't need players to be rah-rah guys (althought that's nice), but I do need them to care about winning and losing. They're setting a bad example.

It was a classic Greg Maddux game at Wrigley this afternoon. He completes the victory, using only 92 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. He strikes out 6 and walks 0. The Cubs offense made it easy, also, as they scored 13 runs.

Maddux is now at 298 wins. There will be added attention around his next few starts. :-)

A tremendously pitched game at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. Orland Hernandez went seven while striking out 10. Ted Lilly, returning to his old stomping grounds, struck out six over 6 2/3. Neither allowed a run. Neither bullpen allowed a run until there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth, when Vinne Chulk gave up a solo shot to Ruben Sierra. Yankees win 1-0.

There were only 9 hits and 3 walks combined in the game. Both starters threw strikes (Lilly, 68 out of 104 pitches; Hernandez, 70 out of 107). A real afternoon treat in the Bronx.

Abe Alvarez is making his debut for the Red Sox. He wears his hat askew, and in support, all the Red Sox on the bench are wearing their hats askew. Quite humerous.

Update: The hat isn't fooling anyone. Orioles have a walk, stolen base, double and a HR so far to lead 3-0 in the top of the first.

Once again, lots of action. The Marlins face the Phillies again as the Fish try to stay in the NL East race. A loss today drops them under .500 and four games out of first. Pavano will challenge Wolf in an excellet pitching matchup.

The Rangers try to bury the Angels a little deeper as the disappointing Bartolo Colon faces Ricardo Rodgriguez, who has found his stride with Texas. Colon has given up 28 HR this year; no team has hit more than Texas.

A great matchup out west as David Wells takes on Jason Schmidt. A win give the Padres sole possesion of the wild card lead. A good control vs. power matchup.

Enjoy!

A big win for San Diego last night as they move into first place in the NL Wild Card race by .001, and also gain a game on the Dodgers in the NL West. Jake Peavy continues to impress, lowering his ERA to 2.25, allowing 1 run over eight innings. Peavy and Neal combined to shutdown Bonds, who went 0-4 on the night. It's only the third time this season Bonds has gone 0-4 without a walk. The Phillies collared him on May 12th, and Boston did the same on June 19. Look for the next one in mid-August. :-)

Peavy is 18 innings short of qualifying for the NL ERA title. He's a stealth Cy Young candidate right now, but he could come out of obscurity to win the ERA crown.

Balls, Sticks & Stuff is a new sports blog, with an emphasis on baseball at the moment. Drop by and take a look.

The battle of the C. Lees was won tonight by Carlos Lee of the White Sox. In less than five innings, Carlos went 3 for 3 off Cliff, including two HR and four RBI. The Indians are losing 11-0, and Cliff Lee is in the showers.

Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts has solicited comments from around the baseball blogosphere on his beloved team.

Lots of good action today. The Cubs have fallen 1/2 game behind the Reds in both the NL Central and the wild card race as those teams face each other at Wrigley this afternoon. It's a good pitching matchup as Paul Wilson opposes Matt Clement. Wilson's walks were high in June, the only month he's posted losses. He seems to have his control back in July, along with a 2-0 record. Clement just keeps pitching well and losing. In his last three starts, Matt is 0-3 with a good 3.26 ERA.

The Indians are still in the NL Central race as they host a two game series with the Chicago White Sox. Four games behind the Twins, 3 1/2 behind the Sox, the Indians need to make a move on these clubs. They'll send Cliff Lee against Mark Buehrle. Both have been pitching well of late, Lee posting a 2.29 ERA over his last three starts vs. a 3.00 for Mark.

In the battle for the AL West, the Angels visit the Rangers and send Kelvim Escobar to the mound against Ryan Drese. Drese has only allowed 1 of 10 HRs with men on base this year, while Escobar has allowed 4 of 10.

Finally, in the battle for the NL West, the 2nd place Giants host the third place Padres. One game separtes the two wild card leaders. Jake Peavy brings his 2.38 into the Bay Area. He's an excellent strikeout pitcher, posting 64 in 68 innings so far this season. Neither of these strikeout much, however, as they are ranked 14th and 15th in the NL. We'll see how well the Giants put the ball in play vs. Peavy. He'll face Kirk Reuter, who has given up 17 hits in 9 innings vs. the Padres this year.

Enjoy!

I found this article quite amusing.

With San Francisco, Arizona, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Diego all playing in new or relatively new ballparks and St. Louis to follow in 2006, one NL city would have to wait until 2018 for an All-Star game should baseball stay with its traditional but no-longer mandatory rotation.

By contrast, only the refurbished Anaheim Angels ballpark and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg won't have been All-Star sites among the newer AL parks, once Detroit stages the 2005 game.

"I don't believe that it [the rotation] is as important as it used to be," Selig said. "I think the important thing is to try to be fair. In a perfect world, you would alternate NL and AL, but it's more important to reward franchises, I think, that really need to have the game because of their venue. There are so many great new ballparks, and that's the nice part."

So Bud is determined to keep the All-Star as the determining factor in who gets home field in the World Series, but he's willing to give the NL last licks more often to showcase new ballparks. How much longer do we have to put up with this nonsense?

If the All-Star game counts to the leagues, then you have to give the leagues equal chance to bat last and use the DH. If the game doesn't count, I don't care. Give the All-Star game to the team with the newest stadium every year. But doesn't Bud see the inconsistency in wanting it both ways?

A reader comments on the Smoltz save post from last night:

I wonder if last night's six-out save by Smoltz had anything to do with it?

Sure it did, but it doesn't change the criticism. The game needed to be saved in the top of the 8th. I'm willing to believe Smoltz couldn't go four outs. But he was able to go three. So why not the last out of the 8th and the first two outs of the 9th? So he doesn't get the save. At least the Braves win the game, which I believe is the whole point of playing major league baseball.

It seems that Larry Bowa isn't the only one who doesn't know when to bring in his closer. Chris Reitsma had a rough 8th inning. With two on and two out, it seemed a perfect time to bring in Smoltz for a four-out save. But Cox stuck with Chris, and the result is a tie game in the bottom of the eighth.

Update: So Smoltz is on in the 9th. A lot of good he's going to do now. If the game is tied after nine, it will be interesting to see if Smoltz comes out for the 10th. If he does, why didn't he pitch in the top of the 8th?

Travis Hafner joins Albert Pujols with a three HR game.

The Indians offense is great, but it will be interesting to see if they can make any moves to shore up the pitching staff.

It didn't take long for the Braves to find Eric Milton's weakness. Giles hits a two-run homer after a poor defensive play by Michaels let's Furcal reach base. It's 2-0 Braves in the bottom of the 1st.

It's a good day for Albert Pujols and the Cardinals. Albert has launched three HR and added a double. It's all part of a huge comeback. Down 8-2 in the third, the Cardinals have scored eight of their own over the last 4 innings to take a 10-8 lead in the top of the ninth. St. Louis is starting to look like a team of destiny.

Quite the pitching duel in Oakland this afternoon. It's 0-0 in the top of the 6th. Rich Harden has five K and allowed only 1 hit. David Bush has done him one better, allowing no hits so far. Bush is being very efficient, throwing only 62 pitches through five innings.

Update: Bush still has the no-hitter through 7.

Update: Damien Miller breaks up the no-hitter with 1 out in the 8th. It's still 0-0.

Doug Davis has a no-hitter through 3 innings against the Reds. While the chance of that lasting through 9 aren't good, Davis' chance of lasting through 9 are. He's only thrown 26 pitches through those three innings, 20 for strikes.

Unfortunately, the game's not on TV.

Update: The Reds break up the no-no in the fourth.

Update: It turns out to be Claussen's day instead. The rookie pitches 7 innings, allowing two runs to pick up the win. That's two starts, two wins, one in each league for the lefty.

I'm going to keep my eye on the Phillies at Braves this evening. Eric Milton takes the mound against Jaret Wright in this battle of former American Leaguers. Milton has not pitched as well as his record indicates. The Phillies are scoring for Eric, giving him 7.27 runs per 9 IP, second highest in the NL. That's helped Milton survive the 21 HR he's allowed. If you look at Milton and Wright, the biggest difference between them is their HR allowed:

2004	Milton	Wright
ERA	4.62	3.34
IP	109	105
K	84	87
BB	44	44
HR	21	6

I also read that the Braves surge started with Chipper moving to third base. The problem with this argument is that Chipper has hit worse since moving to third base. They should say that the surge came when slugging Charles Thomas was inserted into left field. This gave the Braves the power they needed, and somewhat improved offense at third, as DeRosa was useless as a hitter.

Meanwhile, we'll see what kind of moves Bowa makes tonight. If the Phillies lose, I expect the criticism to build.

Enjoy!

Stephen Smith in the Philadelphia Inquirer wonders on whom the blame for the Phillies phall should be placed.

He bobs and weaves like a prizefighter, perpetually dodging bullets, a shrapnel-proof vest at the ready. Larry Bowa doesn't concede easily. The same could be said about how he absorbs blame. So go ahead and chide his belligerence, his penchant for limiting his own accountability and passing the buck. Just don't forget to add Ed Wade to the hit list.

It's time for these two to officially tie the knot. They've been living together for quite some time.

Bowa may be the lone ranger managing this crew, the one who can't find a consistent quality starting pitcher to save Philadelphia's postseason aspirations, and probably his job. But he isn't the one who went out and spent a franchise-record $93 million on this roster.

That would be the general manager.

The problem is, Smith doesn't try to present any evidence that the Wade has mispent the money, or that Bowa has mismanaged the team. The article comes across as a Bowa fan trying to blame someone else.

Wade put a good team on the field. What I see when I read boxscores and listen to comments by readers is that Bowa does not make moves that increase the probability of the Phillies winning games. Bowa should be the first to go. Wade appears to me to be a weak general manager (a strong one would have found a way to keep Rolen in Philadelphia), but that may be built into the job. I don't know if Wade has the ultimate authority to hire or fire Bowa or if that resides in the owner. I have a feeling Ed Wade is caught between a rock and a hard place in Philadelphia, and is doing the best he can to survive and win.

There are Montreal Expos fans, and what has happened to their team over the last ten years truly hurts them. Jean-Pierre Allard is chronicling the last days of the Montreal Expos at Traveling Expos. Today's piece, reminding us of the 35th anniversary of men landing on the moon, posits that August 12th would be a perfect day to announce the new location of the Expos, as it's the tenth anniversary of the strike that brought about the club's demise.

The Braves beat the Phillies 4-2, despite Jim Thome's 31st HR. The Braves take sole possesion of 1st place. Just when you thought that some team in the NL East would break the Braves' strangle hold on first place, there they are again. They withstood the loss of Maddux, Chipper Jones' injury, Marcus Giles' injury and they're back in first place. No team does a better job of finding the parts that fit every year than the Braves.

Jim Edmonds has homered to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead over the Cubs. That gives him 161 of his 282 HR with the Cardinals. Edmonds was a good player with the Angels. Although age 30 when he joined St. Louis, he's been a consistently great player with the Cardinals. His OBA has been .385 or higher every year with the Cards; he never did that with the Angels. His slugging percentage has been above .550 every year with the Cards; he did that once with the Angels. Did he just get healthier? Did he mature as a ballplayer? Did he get a better hitting coach? Whatever the reason, the Cardinals made out like bandits in the deal that sent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy to the Angels.

I always wonder about the long term viability of hitters like Jack Wilson. Through the 4th, he's 1 for 1 with a walk to raise his BA to .334 and his OBA to .357. It was only his 12th walk of the year, and he's never drawn more than 37 walks in a full season. It strikes me that players who hit but don't walk should have a hole that pitchers can exploit. These players are surely swinging at pitches out of the strike zone; it seems to me that pitchers can move the ball farther from the plate and get these guys out.

However, there have been any number of successful hitters with low walk totals; Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter and Tony Gwynn come to mind from recent generations. Now, it doesn't matter where a batter's OBA comes from, and .357 is a perfectly good OBA. But if Wilson can lay off some bad pitches, he'll make fewer outs, have a higher OBA, and possibly an even higher BA. He's having a fine season, but there's still room for improvement.

The Mets have traded Karim Garica to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Mike DeJean. It seems to be one of those trades that hurt both clubs kind of deal. DeJean has had a rough couple of years, so the Mets have to think there's a chance that he will return to his pre-2003 form. He's struck out a lot of batters this year, but he's also walked a ton. Maybe the Mets believe they can fix that; if so, he'd be a good reliever.

The best pitching matchup of the day is at Wrigley Field as Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals faces Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs. Both are 9-4, and both teams as 12-5 in their starts. Despite an 8-9 record against the Cards, the Cubs' offense has played well, outscoring the Cardinals 82-76. Both teams have used the long ball each hitting 23 HR in their 17 encounters. This two game series end the matchup between these division rivals this year. What a poor piece of scheduling. I know it doesn't really matter when these teams meet, but for the fans, having the Cubs and St. Louis facing off in September is a very good idea.

The southsiders head south to Texas in a battle of AL division leaders. The Rangers have won four in a row and have opened up a 2 1/2 game lead in the AL West. The White Sox send lefty Scott Schoeneweis against righty Joaquin Benoit. Despite Blalock's falloff against lefties, the Rangers as a team hit them better than righties. Look for a slugfest tonight.

Enjoy!

The White Sox re-acquired Carl Everett from the Montreal Expos. Maybe they should just sign him so they don't have to keep giving up players. :-)

All kidding aside, I'm glad to see the White Sox want to win. They've gone out and picked up Garcia and Everett, both significant moves. It's my opinion that teams like the Cubs, White Sox, Red Sox, Indians and Giants have a responsibility to their fans to try to win a World Series as early as possible. When one of these teams have a chance to win, they need to make moves to improve their teams, to go the extra mile to win the world series, even at the risk of losing something in the future. The White Sox, the last two years, seem to realize this.

Fred McGriff's shot at 500 HR has come to an end. Good. I love McGriff; he's been a favorite of mine for a long time. He was a selective hitter who hit for power. But he didn't make it to 500 HR. So be it. Please tell me how 7 more HR make him more or less worthy of the Hall of Fame?

McGriff won't get in because he didn't take advantage of the offensive explosion of 1993. While players like Palmeiro took their games to a whole new level, McGriff's career leveled off. His number through 1992 were great numbers; since, they've just been good. But those 7 HR don't change that.

Talking Baseball posts on Manny Ramirez going for the triple crown.

A number of years ago Bill James wrote a piece about the difficulty of winning a triple crown. As he pointed out in that piece, it's very difficult to win a triple crown on your own team! Manny, as of this point, is trailing David Ortiz in RBI, so Manny doesn't have the crown on his own team either.

It's a battle of lefties in Queens today as the Phillies send Randy Wolf to the mound against Tom Glavine. Both have very good ERAs but mediocre records. Both, however, are not pitching well in July. Glavine is 0-2 with a 7.50 ERA. Players are getting the ball in play against Tom, who has allowed 19 hits in his last 12 innings. Wolf has given up 3 HR in 17 innings in July. This one may come down to the bullpens.

Enjoy!

Mike Maroth has a lot to be proud of tonight. He one-hits the Yankees, gaining a complete game shutout. He threw 127 pitches, 80 for strikes and he K'd 7. He's undefeated in seven starts at home this year.

It's a great night for the Tigers, also, as they match their win total of 2003. They are now 43-46. My guess is they'll finish close to .500, which would be a huge turnaround for this team.

Dayn Perry writes on the possibility of Bud serving another term as commissioner.

Jayson Stark has an excellent article examining various ideas for awarding home field in the world series, expanding playoff formats and making the all-star game attractive. Here's Al Leiter:

Leiter's pitch for this idea is that baseball needs to reach out beyond those traditionalist fans "who think we should go back to the 1950s, with two leagues, no divisions and eight teams in each league." The fans baseball needs to lure into into the fold are the fans who are spending Saturday afternoons watching skateboarding."

"We have to move forward," he says. "We have to be progressive. We have to have inventive ideas."

Leiter has a good idea for expanding the playoffs. Sandy Alderson raises a good objection to it.

"One of the concerns about extending the playoffs," says Sandy Alderson, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations, "is not what it does to the postseason time line -- but what it does to the nature of competition during the regular season."

What baseball is concerned about, Alderson says, is that, if too many teams make the playoffs, it could actually lessen the meaning and the drama of the season instead of adding to it -- as baseball believes the current wild-card structure has done.

The answer to Alderson's concern, of course, is more teams. If you want 12 teams making the playoffs, you probably need to have 40-48 teams to make the regular season meaningful. So let's really go outside the box and throw out all our preconcevied notions about leagues and try this on for size.

Let's start with 48 teams divided into four 12-team leagues. Each league has two divisions of six teams. So you'll have 8 division winners make the playoffs.
Each league will produce 1 wild card. That's 12 playoff teams.

The Leagues are not permanent. The divisions are based on the previous year's record. Let's call the four leagues Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, Sandy Koufax and Christy Mathewson. The teams with the six best records from the previous season go into the Ted Williams division of the Ruth League. The teams with the six worst records go into the Mario Mendoza division of the Ruth League.

The teams ranked 7-12 go into the Lefty Grove division of the Koufax League, and 37-42 go into the Bobby Witt division. I think you get the idea.

Teams play 90 games within their division (18 against each club). The play 36 games against each club in the other division in their league (a home and away series vs. each club). They play 36 games against another equally matched division. (So the Williams division would play the Grove division, and the Mendoza division would play the Witt division).

The good points about this system as I see it are:

• Every team has a chance to make the playoffs. Teams are mostly competing against teams at the same level. Tampa Bay's chances might look a lot better if they didn't have to be in the same division as the Yankees every year.


• The worst teams from the previous years get a visit from the best teams of the previous year, which should help boost attendance in those cities.


• The same teams won't make the playoffs every year. The teams in the Williams division all probably made the playoffs the year before, and four or five of them won't repeat. Different teams in the playoffs every year adds to fan interest in those cities. It also keeps the good teams from becoming complacent. They won't be able to say, "We killed the division last year, let's stand pat."

The negatives:

• Travel. If you end up with a Boston, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Diego, Texas, Florida division, air travel would be tough on those teams.


• People would argue that lots of the best teams not being able to make the playoffs was a bad thing. Of course, this happened many times in the four division system.


• Some traditional rivalries would be lost.

If you did the same sort of thing with the 30 existing teams, here's what the divisions would have looked like this year:

Ruth League

Williams Division

Atlanta Braves NY Yankees SF Giants Oakland A's Boston Red Sox

Mendoza Division

Milwaukee Brewers NY Mets San Diego Padres Tampa Bay Devil Rays Detroit Tigers

Koufax League

Grove Division

Seattle Mariners Florida Marlins Minnesota Twins Chicago Cubs Houston Astros

Witt Division

Colorado Rockies Texas Rangers Baltimore Orioles Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Indians

Aaron League

Mays Division

Chicago White Sox Toronto Blue Jays Philadelphia Phillies St. Louis Cardinals LA Dodgers

Gene Michael Division

Arizona Diamondbacks Montreal Expos Kansas City Royals Anaheim Angels Pittsburgh Pirates

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this whole issue.

Finally, I disagree with how Jayson ends the article:

So just when you thought baseball had reached that long-sought era of good feeling, it's clear there's still plenty for management and the union to argue about -- now and for years to come. Great. We can hardly wait.

No, it is great, because they are actually speaking with each other rather than shouting at each other. Leiter's ideas were given a hearing. Other's ideas are being given a hearing. Argument is fine, if people are willing to listen. This will only be bad if all sides are closed-minded about the possibilities.

Randy Johnson was showing off to the scouts last night as he struck out 9 over seven shutout innings. Of course, he probably wished he had stayed in the game, as Shawn Green lauched a grand slam in the 8th to beat the Diamondbacks 4-3.

The Cubs finally beat the Brewers. Unfortunately, Prior left the game with elbow pain.

Great bullpen battle at She last night as the Mets beat the Phillies 3-2. My question is, as I look at the boxscore and the play-by-play, where was Billy Wagner? Hernandez loaded the bases with one out in the 11th. If the Mets score, it's over. Isn't that the perfect situation for someone who can blow the ball by everyone? Does Wagner have an injury I don't know about? Or is Bowa just a lousy manager?

Update: Phillies Fan offers an interesting chart on reliever usage with runners on base.

A 2:02 game time in Oakland last night. The White Sox threw 121 pitches over 8 innings; the A's 116 over 9. I guess having Frank Thomas out of the lineup really speed the game along. :-) Harden and Garland were both throwning strikes, although Garland managed to walk five batters. I don't have the game on Tivo. Can anyone give me an idea if there was a lot of first pitch swinging?

Nice job by the Kansas City bullpen in a 3-1 win over the Twins last night. In a fit of over-managing, the Royals used five relievers to face 9 batters. The pen came through, with each reliever getting 1 strikeout each to end the game.

I was out last night as Randy Sabia invited me to a New Britian Rock Cats game. The game was uneventful, but there was three hours of terrific baseball talk with Randy, Jim Storer, Bill O'Sullivan and Bill Ryczek, author of two books on post civil-war baseball.

I'm looking at the boxscores this morning and notice that the Tigers threw a five hitter against the Yankees. Bonderman went seven, striking out 6 and walking one. The only problem, of course, is that all five hits were solo HR! Meanwhile, Jose Contreras was pitching like a man who had been reunited with his family. Eight innings, 7 K, 1 BB.

Bonderman has now given up 41 HR in 263 career innings pitched. That number is going to need to come down if he's going to have a successful major league career.

Transplanted Cubs Fan is a new blog by a Cubs fan living on the West Coast. Stop by and say hi.

Alex Belth at Bronx Banter posts another great interview, this time with Alan Schwarz, the author of The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics. I'm really looking forward to reading this book. Schwarz describes it:

I was trying to write something that doesn't scare away the wider audience. If you look at the book cover, you might think, "Oh, it's a stat book." But it's not -- in the way that Dava Sobel's "Longitude" isn't about compasses or Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman" is just about a dictionary. It's about people. It's about obsession and what drives people to answer longstanding, befuddling questions--that intellectual quest.

I also likes the way Schwarz sums up the Bill James vs. Elias book battles of the 1980's.

BB: We are so inundated with numbers these days. One aspect of your book that I appreciated was how the Elias annuals in the 1980s helped create this sense of random statistics that didn't necessarily mean anything, though Bill James was often the target of those who criticized statistics.

AS: It's okay that you used the word, but I would not use the word "random." Every number Elias printed was a fact. They were undeniable, correct facts. The problem, and I don't mean to pick on them at all, was that the books that they printed didn't not foster a sense of understanding about the game that Bill's did. Just because George Brett hit .382 in July of 1986, did that mean he was a good July hitter? Turns out it's pretty much trivia. A lot of the splits that they did didn't necessarily tell you anything about a guy's ability - they told you about what he did, but not about what he might do. They didn't make it clear enough--they put these statistics in the hands of people who didn't know how to use them. Bill taught you how to look at the game. Elias didn't do that. That's okay -- I'm not sure they intended to. I think they did try in various ways, and did succeed in various ways. Their books were not just meaningless tomes of numbers. But Bill did a far better job of arming people with an understanding of what the numbers might mean, rather than their mere existence.

That's about the best comparison I've ever heard on the subject. I bought the Elias annuals a couple of times and never could read them. I'd start into the first essay, read a few paragraphs and but the book down. They're very good at "the most" and "the first" but not "the why."

A very good pitching matchup in Chicago as the Milwaukee Brewers come into town and send Doug Davis against Mark Prior of the Cubs. The Brewers swept the Cubs last week, posting a 0.67 ERA in doing so. Doug Davis is a lefty that has been effective against righties, holding them to a .326 OBA and a .376 Slugging Percentage. The Cubs have had problems with lefties this year, hitting just .239 and slugging .360 against south paws, while hitting .277 and slugging .471 vs. righties. Davis has contributed to that, pitching eight shutout innings against the Cubs this year.

Two games of note on the West Coast. The Red Sox trek to Anaheim to face the Angels and send Derek Lowe to the mound to face Jarrod Washburn. Yes, Derek Lowe is pitching the opening game of the 2nd half. In a game with serious wild card implications. I've always thought that one of the advantages of the All-Star break would be that you'd manage to get your ace an extra start. Pedro hasn't pitched since July 7. Schilling hasn't pitched since July 8. What are the Sox waiting for Saturday and Sunday to send these two to the mound? To a certain extent, I understand giving Schilling some time to rest his ankle, but as far as I know, Pedro has no major injury. The Red Sox can't afford at this point to be giving extra starts to their worst pitcher.

Finally, the White Sox visit the A's in another game of wild card and division importance. Each team has had a big slugger return to the lineup in Eric Chavez and Magglio Ordonez. However, I've felt for a long time that the key to the White Sox is Frank Thomas, and we're waiting to hear if his ankle injury will keep him out for the rest of the season. Thomas was leading the team with 11 wins shares as of 7/5. His loss is a big hurt for the White Sox.

Enjoy!

Reports are that Jimy Williams has been fired and replaced with Phil Garner. Williams downfall appears to be related to the disapperance of power from Bagwell and Berkman. Since June 1st, the dynamic duo have hit .233 combined (58/249) with on five HR. The Astros are 17-21 over that time.

I'm not sure what Williams could have done better. I've always heard that Bagwell and Biggio took it upon themselves to be the motivators on that team. I find it hard to believe that Garner will be able to light a fire under Jeff, since he's so competitive anyway. If his right shoulder is hindering his ability to hit, then the Astros need to put Bagwell on the DL and find a first baseman who can hit. Phil Garner motivational skills won't put the strength back in Bagwell shoulder.

I guess Bud Selig said this before the actual game last night:

Speaking Tuesday at a meeting of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Bud Selig said he will push hard for an extension of the two-year "experiment" in which the winner of the All-Star Game gets homefield advantage for the World Series.

In fact, when asked if he was even interested in talking about the players' proposal to award home-field advantage in the Series to the team with the best regular-season record, Selig replied: "Not in my judgment."

The commissioner conceded that he's "always willing to talk." But he believes that adding postseason implications has restored the passion for "an All-Star Game that had lost its luster." And now he sees no reason to undo something that has helped ratings and generated attention.

"For years," Selig said, "we were accused of being a dinosaur that didn't care what our customers wanted. Well, we've done a lot of polling on this. And our fans like it. Our broadcast partners like it. Our sponsors like it. So what should we tell our customers -- that we don't care what they want? Those days are over in this sport."

The game last night reminded me of most all-star games of recent memory; get everybody in. Maybe because it was an early blow out; however, in these days of high offense, a five or six run lead is not insurrmountable. My guess is that if you take the poll today, the NL fans (especially those in St. Louis) would not be happy with the idea.

Again, there is a lack of creativity on the part of Selig. He sees only one way that is popular in polls, without thinking that there may be other ways to make the all star game interesting. For example, how about a winner take all game with a $30 million dollar purse? The team that wins gets to split the money; the team that loses gets nothing. That would get the competitive juices of the players flowing; you might get fewer opting out of attending, and the managers would definitely play to win. I'm sure other people could find other ways to attract attention to the game.

Lisa Gray attended the All-Star game last night and reports on the contest.

Not a great game, not a bad game. What was interesting is that both Torre and McKeon were managing as if it were an exhibition, as if neither expected that the NL could come back from the big deficit. I also wonder how many the AL has to win in a row before the NL teams want to go back to alternating home field in the WS by year.

Daniel Drezner posts about a survey by the Chicago Tribune of baseball players. One of the most interesting things to Dan (and I agree) is that 74% say having a gay teammate would not be a problem. I guess the players are more open minded than we think.

This has been bothering me all year. I think CC Sabathia looks shabby on the mound. I appreciate the fashion statement, and I can live with the crooked hat. But the baggy uniform has to go. He looks sloppy on the mound.

Update: And he's pitching sloppily tonight. He's given up four hits and three runs this inning, and Bonds can bring them within one.

Update: Sabathia pitches to Bonds, and gets him to pop up. CC gets out of the inning, AL up 7-4.

Sammy Sosa had a tough first couple of balls. Ichiro and Pudge each sent low fly balls to the fence in the right field corner, and Sosa couldn't come up with either. The double and triple end Roger Clemens streak of not allowing a base runner as a starter in the All-Star game.

The AL may hit for the cycle this inning. Manny just hit a 1-out, 2-run homer.

Update: After Giambi reaches on a Kent error, Jeter singles for the cycle. According to Fox, it was the first time a double, triple and HR had been hit in the same inning in the All-Star game, so it's also the first time a cycle has been hit in the inning.

Soriano follows up with a three-run HR, and the AL leads 6-0. Mulder gets to bat before he gets to pitch.

Update: Mulder strikes out to end the inning. Six runs, three earned for Clemens in the first.

Before the season started, I tried to do an analysis of each team using their core players (projected starting 9, starting rotation and closer) win shares. You can see the AL West here. This analysis had Seattle with the best core of players and Texas with the poorest. What happened?

The Hardball Times has win shares calculated through July 5th, which is just about the half-way point of the season. What I've found is that in Texas, young players improved, and when the projected core failed, players filled in well. In Seattle, there was a total core failure, and no one stepped in to take up the slack.

Let's look at Texas first. There's no surprise that Michael Young and Hank Blalock have been great. Young put up 21 win shares in 2003, and halfway through this season he's at 16. Blalock has 15 already this year, after 17 last year. Teixeira, Mench, Cordero and Nix are all ahead of the win share paces of last year. Kenny Rogers is probably the biggest surprise of all, posting 11 win shares last year, and 10 through the first half of 2003.

One disappointment is Soriano. He had 27 win shares last year, only 9 so far in 2004. The core, if they had performed like last year, would have put up 132 wins shares; they've already posted 87.

Texas has five non-core players who have also contributed a great deal; Barajs, Drese, Almanzar, Matthews and Delluci have added 29 win shares. That's almost 10 wins from players not expected to be in the everyday lineup.

Seattle is a different story. Only two players are exceeding where they should be based on last year; Dan Wilson (7 in 2003, 6 in 2004) and the traded Freddy Garica (8 in 2003, 8 in 2004 for the Mariners). Only Eddie Guardado is close to half of last year's win shares (15 to 8). Most core players from the Mariners are at 1/3 to 1/4 of last year's totals over the first half of this season. Overall the Mariners core produced 75 win shares last year; this year, only 26 so far.

And unlike Texas, there's no one who has stepped in. The most win shares a non-core player has added to the team is 4. The Mariners hitters got old fast, and they had nothing in reserve when the team went down the tubes.

Texas deserves credit for recognizing young talent that would improve, and Seattle deserves much criticism for too much old talent, and not being prepared for the decline.

Lisa Gray reports from the home run derby.

Tejada didn't have the muscle of Berkman, but he had the great swing. Miguel sets a HR Derby record with 15 dingers in one round. He started just putting them in the seats, but as the round went on, he started putting them over the left field wall into the street. An impressive performance.

Update: Berkman has no gas left for the last round and hits 4 HR. Tejada easily hits five to win the tournament. A great show.

Correction: Tejada had 15, not 16.

Berkman is just electrifying the Houston crowd. He hit three in a row totally out of the stadium. A few later, he added another. Pure power.

Update: That's five totally out, the last, 493 feet. And he's hitting right-handed vs. a right-handed pitcher.

Bonds didn't do as well in the second round of the HR Derby. As he left the field, he said he was tired. So by walking Bonds all the time, opposing managers are letting him rest. Make him swing at some good pitches, and wear him down!

Palmeiro knocks Sosa out of the HR derby.

Update: He's hit the most HR in the first round! Nothing like going out on top. :-)

Jim Thome was pulling everything. Three of his four HR were right down the lines. He hit a bunch that had the distance, but were foul.

Lance Berkman is hitting some shots onto the train tracks in left. Bonds was taking easy swings and hitting HR, Berkman appeared to be trying to muscle the ball. Bonds hit 8, Berkman 7. Blalock took the easy swing approach and hit 3.

I'm watching the HR Derby in High Definition, and it's fantastic. They have an incredible close-up of the batter, and you can really see the mechanics of the swing. Bonds is batting, and he's really locked in. He's hit two or three monster shots, high arcing shots that nearly hit the roof and laser line drives. Should be a fun broadcast.

Adam makes the following comment with respect to this post:

There's something of the fallacy in the analysis that says that because Bonds is scoring and the Giants are winning games that the strategy is necessarily backfiring. Opponents aren't necessarily expecting to see Bonds completely nullified by walking him--- they know what happens when you put men on base. But they look at what happens when you do pitch to him, and they figure that they've got a better chance of beating the Giants with a man on for Pedro Feliz than with Bonds swinging away. In other words, sure, Bonds is scoring and the Gints are winning. But if he weren't being walked so much--- at least in the (subconscious?) analysis of the opposing managers--- Bonds would be creating even more runs and the Giants would be winning even more games.

We actually can figure this out with a little math. The Runs Created formula tells us approximately how many runs a player generates. I'll use the 1984 formula, because it's simple and I know there are no restrictions on it's use. The formula is (hits+bb+hbp-gdp-cs)*(TB + .26*(bb-ibb+hbp) + .52*(sh+sf+sb)/(ab+bb+hbp+sf+sh). If we remove all Bonds 71 intentional walks, and assume he produces at the same rate if he's being pitched to in those 71 plate apperances, we should be able to compare runs created. Here it is in table format, and please feel free to check my math.

Bonds 2004	Actual	Without IBB
Hits	69	88
Walks	131	77
HBP	4	4
Total Bases	150	190
IBB	71	0
SB	3	4
SH	0	0
SF	1	1
GIDP	3	4
CS	0	0
AB	189	243
Outs	123	160
Runs Created	104.3	108.5
RC per Game (27 outs)	22.9	18.3

Seventy one intentional walks to save four freakin' runs. And it's worse than that. Although Bonds creates more runs, he uses up 37 more outs to do so. Those 37 outs come out of the team. Since the team score about 5.1 runs per game, those 37 outs costs the team 7 runs!

Let me make this clear; Bonds creates fewer runs because of the strategy, but the team creates more. Opposing managers are expanding the Giants offense to the point that the Giants are going to win 1 to 2 more games beacuse of Bonds intentional walks. In a division where the Giants are a half-game out, and in a wild card race where the Giants lead by 1 game, opposing managers are putting San Francisco in the playoffs. It's a poor strategy, and opposing managers should save it for game situations only.

I'm not sure why the Giants aren't showing interest in Rich Aurilia. Cruz and Perez are no great shakes at shortstop, and if Aurilia really is coming out of his slump, he could give the Giants a further offensive boost. For the price, it seems worth the risk.

Matthew Carroll has started a web log about the Expos. It may be a short lived blog. I hope Matt keeps it going if the team moves from Montreal.

Just in case you were trying to use my sortable win shares program, it was broken and is now fixed.

Lisa Gray is on the scene in Houston reporting first hand from the All-Star festivities. She strikes out a virtual Barry Bonds three times and finds that the difference between major leaguers and minor leaguers is their ability to field. Watch her site for most posts during the break.

John Perricone at Only Baseball Matters is very concerned about all the intentional walks Barry Bonds is receiving:

This is a disgrace to baseball. It is an insult to the spirit of competition. This situation has gotten completely out of hand, as National League managers have decided that they would rather cover their asses than accept the challenge of getting Bonds out. They have become quitters, en masse. In doing so, they are making a mockery of the game.

John goes on the blame the commissioner. As much as I like to bash Bud, I can't agree with Perricone here. John says:

In the history of baseball there have been perhaps five players so great that they have bent the game, distorted the way it is played. Never before has there been such a universal response to such a player. Never before has a whole league decided to quit, to take a pass on facing the challenge.

I don't know if this is true, for the simple fact that we don't know how many times Babe Ruth was intentionally walked at the height of his career. In 1923, when Ruth walked 170 times, were teams just afraid to pitch to Ruth? Did they try walking him all the time? And did they abandon that strategy because the Yankees won the World Series that year? In other words, the strategy didn't work.

And that's my biggest complaint about John's article. The strategy doesn't work. The Giants aren't losing because Bonds is being walked. They are winning. Bonds has a perfectly reasonable number of HR. He has a very high number of runs scored given his games played. He's helping his team win. If John wants to see Barry get more of a chance to hit, then the Giants need to find a Lou Gehrig to bat behind him. Of course, Gehrig had 23 grand slams in his career; I wonder how many times Ruth was intentionally put on because teams would rather pitch to Lou with the bases loaded.

Team should pitch to Bonds, not because of some appeal to bravery or manhood, but because walking him doesn't work.

The Tigers won their 42nd game of the year today, just missing matching their 2003 total before teh all-star break. Jason Johnson pitched a great game against the Twins, shutting them out in a complete game five hitter. He struck out 11 and walked only 1. Since the start of June, Johnson is 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA. He's only allowed 1 HR, vs. 13 in April and May. With Ivan Rodriguez leading the league in hitting, Guillen having a terrific season, and the team actually in striking distance of first place, Tiger fans have a lot to root for this year.

Orlando Hernandez made an emergency start for the Yankees today after Mussina's elbow did not permit him to play today. El Duque pitched okay; he allowed two runs over 5 innings while striking out five. It was his first MLB game since 2002, and he showed he can still pitch in the majors. What his role will be as the season progresses is not clear. I suppose it depends on the health of Mussina's arm.

If you're wondering why the Royals are doing so badly this year, a look at today's boxscore will give you a clue. They have four starters with OBA's under .300. The team came into today with an OBA of .314 the lowest in the AL by 10 points. Yes, superstars are expensive, but can't they at least find players capable of getting on base at a .330 clip?

Seattle two best starters this year go head-to-head this afternoon as Jamie Moyer faces his former teammate Freddy Garcia in Chicago. In two starts for the White Sox, Garcia has struck out 16 and walked only 2 in 14 innings. Unfortunately, he's also allowed 4 HR and a 5.14 ERA. Moyer's big problem this year has also been the home run ball. His career high in HR allowed is 28 (twice). He's already allowed 22, 2nd most in the AL behind Colon's 27.

The high definition game tonight features the return of Kerry Wood to the Cubs rotation. The Cubs need a shot in the arm (but not steroids) as they've lost five in a row and have fallen out of the lead in the wild card race. Wood takes on the 9-3 Chris Carpenter. Chris has been extremely effective in St. Louis this year, as he's posted a 2.14 ERA at Busch vs. a 4.36 on the road. The main difference is the long ball; he's only allowed 2 HR in St. Louis, 13 on the road.

Enjoy!

A nice win by the Braves today to make the NL East race even tighter. The Braves have been hanging in without any contributions from Giles, and with little contribution from Chipper Jones. Chipper was 0 for 3 today with a walk. It's interesting to look at Jones by month this year, as it provides a nice example of how adjustments are made to the ability (or lack thereof) of a hitter.

Jones started out April in his typical strong fashion, before succumbing to a hamstring injury. When he comes back in May, he can't hit, but pitchers are still careful with him, respecting his past accomplishments. He hits .200 in May, but draws 16 walks for a .385 OBA. Since the start of June, however, pitchers have figured out the Jones isn't healthy enough to hit. They're pitching to him, and he's hitting just .182 with only 13 walks for an OBA around .260.

Giles has started his minor league rehab assignment, and at some point Chipper will likely heal. If those two come back from the All-Star break hitting, the Braves are in a very good position to win another division title.

The Cubs try to stop the bleeding today as they once again face the Cardinals. They have lost four in a row, are seven games back in the division and are clinging to the wild card by percentage points. Matt Clement takes the mound against Jeff Suppan this afternoon. Clement, with a 2.83 ERA, deserves better than a 7-7 record. The Cubs have his last four starts, in none of which he gave up more than 2 runs. Suppan doesn't walk that many (28 in 99 1/3 innings) except against the Cubs. Eight of his twenty eight walks have been issued to the northside hitters this season in just 13 innings.

The Amazing Mets continue on their climb in the NL East and will try to drive the Marlins below .500 today (maybe the Mets should adpot the Amazing Spiderman as their team mascot. :-)). Lefty Tom Glavine matches up against Brad Penny. Both pitchers have strong ERA's overall, but both have been in a bit of a slump. Glavine has lost 3 in a row despite pitching well in two of those, while Penny has given up 10 runs in his last 11 innings.

In a bar in the Back Bay,
Across from the Fenway,
The Sox fans they wanted a ring.
They got them a closer
So it would be over
When the Foulke hero came in the game.
But Lowe has no splitter,
So all the big hitters,
Make a title just look like a dream.
It might be a laugher
For Texas and after,
The lefty named Kenny can win game thirteen.

Enjoy!

Chad Bentz, the lefty with a deformed right hand, just got his first major league hit, and roller through the shortstop hole. Congratulations Chad!

It's only the fifth inning, but Jason Bay has a double, single and home run. The Pirates are pounding the Expos 10-0.

Update: He hasn't gotten the cycle yet, but Bay hit his 2nd opposite field HR of the game in the 6th.

I couldn't resist this one. Teammates last year, Andy Pettitte faces Jeff Weaver as the Astros try to get back into the NL Central race while the Dodgers try to maintain their lead in the West. Pettitte was the Yankee pitcher everybody loved; Weaver was the one they loved to boo. Pettitte strikes out more batters, even though Weaver is thought to have very good stuff, otherwise, they're not that different in HR and walks. NY in LA tonight. Enjoy!

Soccer Dad has an educational post on the relationship of the Bird teams.

A few years ago (actually it probably was about 10 years ago), I was working at ESPN as opening day approached. As I walked by the mail boxes, I noticed the cover of USA Today. There was a picture on the front of a baseball stadium. Next to the picture was the headline, "Cardinals Come Out Against Abortion." My reaction was, "Why would the St. Louis Cardinals be making public statements about abortion?" It took me about a minute to realize the picture and the headline were not related.

There's a World Cup of baseball in the planning, and Scott Jefferies is writing a blog devoted to this subject, Baseball Cup. There are some interesting politics and financial dealings going on.

Bobby Abreu beat the Mets tonight with four hits, two doubles, and a walk-off HR in the 9th. He's putting together a very impressive season, and a very impressive career. I look at his numbers and think Rickey Henderson with more power. In a lower scoring era he would have had a lot more stolen bases; his percentage is very good (74%). If he can maintain the .300/.400/.500 averages, we may need to start talking about the Hall of Fame for Mr. Abreu.

This has to be a bit of surprise ending for the Red Sox faithful. You would think that Schilling having a 7-1 lead after five innings would pretty much guarantee a victory for the Beantown nine. But Schilling had a rough 6th and was out of the game after throwning 119 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. The the A's inched their way back, finally getting to Timlin and Foulke to tie the game in the 8th.

Nixon just tripled with two out in the 9th. Maybe a happy ending for Red Sox fans after all.

Update: They've gone to extra innings in Boston.

Update: The Red Sox win in the bottom of the 10th. Bill Mueller hits a gapper that with a bobble let Damon score from first. The A's and Red Sox are now tied for the wild card lead.

I was just talking to my good friend Jim Storer on the phone as I watched the bottom of the 8th of the Angels-White Sox game. Two outs, bases loaded, and Timo Perez at the plate. The Angels lead 8-5, so the White Sox need a big hit. Timo, in case you are wondering, is not a very good hitter. So I ask Jim if he would let Timo bat in this situation. His reply was that it depended on the options available. After looking at the roster, I pointed out to him that Magglio Ordonez had just come off the DL. Jim thought that this was a perfect situation for Ordonez coming off the DL. He doesn't have to play the field, but he can hit. Instead, Timo hits, and of course, he singles, Guerrero makes an error, and all three runners score.

Update: The White Sox win it in the bottom of the 9th on a Uribe RBI, breaking both their losing streak and their offensive malaise.

I have to remind myself that it's about the process, not the outcome. Well, the White Sox could use some good luck, and now the game is tied at 8 going into the top of the ninth.

The Texas Rangers are leaving the Indians in the dust today, with the score 9-0 in the top of the 8th. The Rangers have scored 8 of their runs on four home runs. Former Indian Ricardo Rodriguez is shutting down the Tribe on 3 hits and 1 walk. Rodriguez was unimpressive with Cleveland, but in his short stay with the Rangers he's improved his ability to strike out batters. If he turns out to be a decent pitcher, it's another reason to think Texas can win the West.

Update: Rodriguez pitches a complete game shutout, winning 10-0. He was efficient, averaging a little over 12 pitches per inning as he struck out 6 and walked 2.

John Moores responds to the Washington Post's three part series on moving baseball to Washington with high praise for Bud Selig.

Tampa Bay has an excellent chance to prove that they are for real this weekend as they open a four game series with the New York Yankees. They've climbed into the wild card race, but winning a series against the Yankees would show that they are serious contenders. They'll send Victor Zambrano to the mound against Jose Contreras tonight. This will be Zambrano's fourth start against the Yankees this year; he's 3-0, despite walking 11 in 17 1/3 innings and allowing 3 HR. Contreras has had one good start and one bad start since his family escaped from Cuba.

The Red Sox go for a wild card tie tonight against the Oakland A's. Schilling will attempt to bring the Sox even. He's been everything the Sox had hoped; striking out batters, not walking many, not giving up HR. Rich Harden, the Oakland starter, can match Schilling in K's and HR, but he's walked 42 in 86 2/3 innings. That's deadly against a team like the Red Sox. Look for Jim Storer at the game and if you see him, ask to hear his Joe Lieberman impersonation. :-)

Enjoy!

It was blow out Wednesday in the major leagues as eight of the fifteen games resulted in score differences of 8 runs or more. Least you think there was no pitching, there were four shoutouts (two by scores of 12-0 and one by a score of 11-0). Kazu Ishii threw a one-walk one hitter in the Dodgers blow out of the Diamondbacks, putting him in the lead for the title of the Great Kazu.

The Brewers sweep the Cubs to put themselves a game out of the wild card. Doug Davis pitches 8 great innings in a 4-0 win, striking out 9 and walking 2. Sosa and Alou were a combined 0 for 6 against Davis and 0 for 7 in the game.

What happened to the White Sox offense? Shutout 9-0 tonight, they lost their fifth in a row. They have not scored more than 2 runs in their last six games, accumulating no more than six hits in any of those contests. Instead of building on the momentum of their sweep of Minnesota, the White Sox have given the lead back to the Twins with their lackluster offensive performance. Just another example of why this is one of the unluckiest teams in the majors this year.

Update: A commentor suggests this has something to do with Ordonez's injury. I don't buy it. First, Magglio missed most of June, and the White Sox had their best offensive month of the season. Secondly, they're averaging 5.5 runs per game; you don't do that with one great player. Sure, it hurts to lose someone like Ordonez, but why did it take a month to feel the effect?

I don't know how many players actually retire. You have to have been pretty good for a while to actually leave the game and have people notice. Mike Schmidt retired. He came back for one more season, but his skills were gone, so he hung up his glove after a month and went home. Most players, however, believe they still can play, and it's not until no one wants them that they realize it's time for a new job.

I think we're witnessing the sudden descent of a player from useful to should retire, and that player is Rafael Palmeiro. Even discounting the slump he's in (anything can happen in 100 AB), he's no longer hitting like a first baseman. Despite a declining batting average since 1999, Palmeiro has kept his value with great OBA's and very good slugging percentages. But not this year. His OBA has dropped to .354 (not bad, not great) and his slugging percentage is .396. He's going to be in the HR Derby at the All-Star game. That might be a good place for him to announce his retirement. He's no longer helping the Orioles, and it's unlikely he'll help other teams in the future.

Ramon Martinez, shortstop for the Cubs, just made a neat catch. Jenkins popped one up into the outfield between third and short. Instead of getting under the ball, Martinez made an underhand/backhand catch to the side of his body, and he did it so nonchalantly that it looked like he did it all the time. That made 3-4 hitters 0 for 3 in the game so far, as Davis got Sosa and Alou in the first.

Harvard Magazine has an interesting article on the invention of the catcher's mask.

Not a good day for pitchers at Yankee Stadium. The youngsters Bonderman and Halsey gave up 6 and 7 runs respectively. The Tigers have seen a 10-3 lead cut to 10-8 after 7, including a three-run opposite field shot by A-Rod. Two more run scoring innings to come!

Update: Yan, Urbina and Quantrill quiet the bats over the last two innings and the Tigers win 10-8. Detroit now has 39 wins; a sweep of the Twins this weekend would match their win total from 2003.

Pudge Rodriguez gets called out on strikes, and gets himself and his manager thrown out of the game. The ball was pretty clearly over the plate; it might have been low, but it wasn't so low that you could really argue about it. Pudge should have watched his language.

A number of good pitching matchups today. The first has Jaret Wright of the Braves visiting the Montreal Expos and Livan Hernandez in San Juan. Wright is turning out to be another successful reclaimation project by the Braves. Every month this season his innings have gone up and his walks have gone down. It's good to see him return to being an effective starter. Hernandez has been an innings eater for the Expos, racking up 133 2/3 IP and four complete games to lead the NL in both categories. He has a 2.82 ERA in three starts in San Juan this season.

The Pirates winning streak is over, but that doesn't mean they're no longer an interesting team. Oliver Perez takes the mound against Carl Pavano in Miami. Perez leads the NL in K per 9 at over 11, almost a full strikeout ahead of Randy Johnson. Interestingly, Pavano has a better ERA and W-L on the road, despite the fact that he has better strikeout and walk numbers at home. For some reason, he's giving up more hits in Pro-Player Stadium.

The Brewers go for a sweep of the Cubs today, a sweep that would put them one game out of the wild card. Carlos Zambrano faces Doug Davis. Davis has done a real good job this year of keeping opponents' 3-4 hitters in check; he's held them to a combined .358 slugging percentage with 1 HR. Zambrano's been even better, allowing a .200 slugging percentage to the 3-4 hitters.

With only 59 innings, Jake Peavy isn't leading the NL in ERA, but his 1.98 mark is impressive. He's striking out 9 batter per 9 and has allowed only 3 HR. He'll host Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros in San Diego tonight. Oswalt has only walked 21 batters this season, and is fourth in the NL in fewest walks per 9. He has, however, given up a lot of hits, and is tied for the NL lead with 30 doubles allowed. Luckily for him, SD is not a doubling team.

Enjoy!

Will Leitch at The Black Table has posted his yearly first half score card. Click on the photos to reach his favorite blog about each team!

I think at this point in the season it's appropriate to ask, "What happened to Barry Zito?" Looking at his stats, two things are clear:

1. He's on a pace to set a career high in HR allowed.


2. For the first time in his big league career, he's giving up more hits than innings pitched.

The HR are his fault, and the number is not surprising given his grounder to fly ratio of .7. (AL average, 1.2). He's giving up a high percentage of line drives, 20% vs. 18% for the league. It seems to me Zito is simply putting his pitches in the wheelhouse.

He certainly did for the Red Sox tonight who collected 9 hits in four innings off Barry, including a HR by Mueller. The A's have a problem with their number three starter. Maybe it's something minor like tipping his pitches. But if this keeps up, the big three will be reduced to a dynamic duo. (Happy birthday, Burt Ward!)

Update: Looking at the Yankees boxscore, you could pretty much write the same thing about Mike Mussina, except Mussina gets a normal number of ground balls.

I've been known to attend an Atlantic League game in my old home town of Bridgeport, CT. Now, Atlantic Baseball Blog is covering the Atlantic League full time. Stop by and say hi.

Eric Gagne has blown a save. Hillenbrand, Luis Gonzalez and Tracy had consecutive singles with 1 out to score two runs and tie the game.

Update: Gagne was ahead 0-2 to Tracy. On the next pitch, Tracy hit one right between Saenz and Cora, and the ball deflected off Saenz's glove so Cora couldn't field it to prevent the run from scoring.

Clement and Sheets are locked in a 1-0 pitching duel in the bottom of the 7th. Clement has already thrown 110 pitches, but he's coming out to start the inning, losing 1-0. He'll bat in the eighth, so this should be his last inning. Sheets has thrown 115 through 7, and Brady Clark will pinch hit for him this inning. Sheets has 12 K and only 1 walk. Despite the 1 run, it has not been Clement's best performance, as he's walked 6 so far, although he's only allowed 3 hits. The one run came on a first inning HR by Counsell.

Update: Clement finishes the 7th and is out of the game. 1 run, 10 K, 6 BB.

Update: Vizcaino strikes out the side in the 8th. He allowed two hits, but both were poor defense rather than a mistake by Luis. Out of 59 batters in this game so far, 25 have struck out. with seven walks, only 27 balls have been put into play through the top of the 8th.

Update: Brewers win 1-0. They just made the wild card race a little closer.

A great pitching matchup in Milwaukee this afternoon has Matt Clement of the Cubs takes on Ben Sheets of the Brewers. Both have records out of line with their ERAs. Clement is 7-6 with a 2.93 ERA, while Sheets is a little better at 7-5 with a 2.58 ERA. Both strike out over 9 per 9, so it should be a relatively easy day for the defenses. This three game series offers an excellent chance for the Brewers to gain some ground in the division and wild card race.

There's a battle of lefties in Cleveland today as Kenny Rogers of the Rangers goes for his 12th win against CC Sabathia of the Indians. Milliliter is another pitcher who's record doesn't match his ERA. Rogers and Sabathia both get over 6 runs of support per nine innings pitched. The difference in the records come from the bullpens. Cleveland relievers have a 5.33 ERA and have saved just 13 games in 32 opportunities. The Rangers pen has a 3.67 ERA and has saved 25 of 32. Sabathia is going to need to complete games if he wants to get the wins and avoid the losses.

Finally, the Mets try to inch closer to first tonight as they travel down I-95 to face the Phillies. Tom Glavine will be opposed by Paul Abbott. Glavine has pitched great this year, but has a 7-5 record despite the best ERA in the NL. However, with a heart of the order consisting of Piazza, Floyd and Hidalgo, the Mets have been scoring runs, averaging 5.5 runs per game since Richard H. joined the lineup. They're 10-5 over that stretch. The Phillies offense is just as hot, scoring 28 runs in their first four games of July. They need to improve on their June ERA of 5.84, which brought their record in that month to 13-14.

Enjoy!

Congratulations to Barry Bonds for setting the all-time walks record yesterday. From the top 10 list on that page, it looks like 1700 walks is the cut off for the Hall of Fame. :-) It also shows just how good an eye Darrell Evans had.

Correction: It was Darrell Evans, not Dwight Evans, who was 10th in walks. Thanks to a commentor for pointing this out.

Hope you have a safe and fun Independence Day!

No Damn Three Putts, a new golf blog, has a suggestion for the Red Sox pitching staff.

The Sports Grinder looks at the difficulty of a save streak vs. a hit streak. It's a good seat of the pants calculation. I wrote about calculating the probability of hit streaks here.

It was a very good day in Pittsburgh for the Brian Giles trade. As noted yesterday, Oliver Perez had a terrific outing in the opener. Then in the night cap, Jason Bay drove in eight runs. Now RBI have something to do with your teammates setting you up, but Bay's stats so far indicate that if the Pirates get on base in front of him, he'll keep driving them in. He only has 134 AB this season, but he has a .619 slugging percentage. That will drive plenty of runners around the bases, as he demonstrated last night with 3 doubles and a homer. Of his 40 hits, 22 have been for extra bases.

I like the attitude of both players toward their work:

Bay, who drove in eight runs against the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader Sept. 19, 2003, battered the Brewers with three two-run doubles and a two-run home run in the second game after getting one RBI in the opener.

"The damndest thing I've ever seen -- eight [RBIs] in a game," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "That's awfully hard to do. I didn't think we'd see that again. Pretty impressive."

"I thought I set the bar kind of high last year," Bay said. "I thought that would be safe for a while. I have to give credit to my teammates for giving me a chance."

It's good Bay realizes that he doesn't get the RBI all by himself. As for Perez:

Perez squared his record at 4-4 with his first victory since May 13. He allowed five hits, a walk and a run in seven innings and has struck out 24 in his past 14 innings.

"I'm not concerned with strikeouts," Perez said. "I'm more concerned with throwing strikes and going deep into the game. Strikeouts will come now and then."

Strikeouts seem to come far more often than that for Perez, whose 113 strikeouts tie him with Milwaukee's Ben Sheets for second in the league behind another pretty good left-hander -- Randy Johnson.

"I don't want him to get caught up in the strikeouts," McClendon said. "If they come, that's fine, but his pitch count is much more important than strikeouts."

They seem to have their heads screwed on right in Pittsburgh, and that's a very good sign.

Horsefeathers comments on last night's Red Sox-Yankees game, much more eloquently than I could.

Cleveland is drubbing Cincinnati 15-2 in the 8th. The most encouraging part of the game, however, was the pitching of Kazuhito Tadano. In his first start, he went seven innings, striking out 10 while walking only 2. In his few relief apperances, he also had good K/BB numbers. It's only one start, but the Indians need another good pitcher to stay in contention. If Kazu can step into the #4 role, that's one less player they have to trade for.

Oliver Perez showed again today why he's leading the NL in K's per 9. He struck out 11 in seven innings vs. the Brewers, while walking only one. He's cut his walks down from last year, and it shows in his 3.22 ERA. Looks like the Pirates have themselves the making of a future star here.

Bob Brenly was fired today as the manager of the Diamondbacks. This has been in the air for a while. I thought that with managing like this, he deserved to go.

Al Pedrique is his replacement. Al was not a great hitter. In 174 major league games, he post a .298 OBA and a .298 slugging percentage. I guess he won't be a hitting coach. :-)

Andrew Godfrey of Baseball, Etcetera writes:

I don't remember the rationale for not including the GWRBI in boxscores any more. It was one of my favorite item to look for in a boxscore. Maybe you can clue me in to why it isn't used nowadays.

I love the Game Winning RBI not because it was such a great stat, but because it demonstrated how nearly impossible it is to define clutch ability. The people who wanted this stat included in boxscores thought that there was some unique ability to drive in runs in game situations that was being missed. The stat was defined as:

Credited to the batter who drives in the run that gives his team a lead that it never relinquishes.

Which I believe is a very good definition for the stat. However, the GWRBI proved to be a disappointment to some for two reasons:

1. The people who had the most RBI tended to have the most GWRBI.


2. A lot of GWRBI game in the early innings of games, which clutch proponents didn't think constituted a clutch situation.

The GWRBI showed something that sabermetricians had already known; the best players are the clutch players, and teams that get the early lead tend to win. Since the GWRBI brought nothing new to the discussion (and it was embarassing to the pro-clutch (Elias) stat keepers) it was dropped.

Miguel Cairo delivers his 2nd extra-base hit in as many AB to drive in Sierra from first with two out to tie the game. With the pitcher's spot up, Flaherty has to pinch hit.

Update: Flaherty hits a ground rule double to drive in Cairo and win the game. The Yankees sweep and now have a commanding lead in the AL East.

Anyone who tells you baseball is a boring game should be forced to watch this one. Almost anything that could happen in a ball game did. Heroics by hitters, heroics by pitchers, heroics by fielders, managing, manuvering, you name it. Both teams played like the entire season rode on this game; it was much more important to the Red Sox, but the Yankees didn't let up. I wish they all could be like this.

Depends on who you are rooting for. Manny Ramirez leads off the inning with a HR to make the score 4-3.

Update: A-Rod has moved to short and Sheffield is playing third. Sheff makes a bad throw on his first opportunity and the Red Sox have a man on with one out.

Update: Williams has moved to center for DH, so the pitcher has to bat.

I complain about Derek Jeter's defense a lot, but he just made one of those plays that makes it easy to forgive him for his limited range on ground balls. Men on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 12th, two outs, Nixon hits a flair down the left field line. Jeter went all out, caught the ball in fair territory, and then his momentum carried him head first into the stands. He came out bloodied, but he held on to the ball. He played it like it was the 7th game of the world series. Giambi will bat for him in the bottom of the 12th after a Cairo triple leading off the inning.

Update: Millar comes in from the outfield to be a fifth infielder. Big shift on Giambi, but Millar is playing as if he's at third.

Update: Giambi strikes out. He looks thin after his illness.

Update: They put a shift on for Sheffield, moving Millar to first this time, but Leskanic hits Sheffield. 1st and 3rd with one out for A-Rod, and Millar moves back to the outfield.

Update: A-Rod is walked to load the bases. Millar is coming back into the infield to play first and McCarty is moved between 2nd and 1st again. Bubba Crosby batting.

Update: Crosby grounds to Reese, who gets the force at the plate. It's up to Bernie Williams, who is 0 for 5 today, defense back to normal.

Update:Williams strikes out, and looked bad doing so. To the 13th. This is one of the best Yankees-Red Sox game I've seen in a long time. Both teams have had plenty of chances, but great plays and great pitching in tough situations have prevailed so far.

It's good to see the Red Sox using Keith Foulke in the 8th in a 3-3 tie. Many managers would have waited until their team took the lead so the closer could get the save. But to Francona's credit, he brought Foulke in to face Jeter, Sheffield and Rodriguez, the most dangerous part of the lineup. Francona is treating this as a must win game.

I've heard of one-pitch wins, but Lidge had a one-pitch loss today, as Sammy Sosa took the first pitch of the 10th into the cheap seats for the Cubs victory. Do-tel. :-)

Just saw something unusual in the Astros-Cubs game. Michael Barrett, with Ensberg at first called for the pitch out. Morgan started for 2nd, stopped when he saw the pitchout, and was hung out to dry. Barrett ran the ball at Ensberg until he committed one way or the other. By the time Ensberg started back to first Barrett was on his tail and tagged him out. Caught stealing, catcher unassisted.

The White Sox completed a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins this afternoon to extend their lead in the AL Central to 2 games. Johan Santana has to be shaking his head over this game. He outpitched Garland by a mile, but allowed a two-run HR to Carlos Lee, and the Twins could only manage one run despite eight hits and three walks. They had 3 runners removed with double plays and a caught stealing. The Twins need some offensive help. Ford and Mauer can't do it by themselves.

I'd like to recommend the pitching matchup between Victor Santos of the Brewers and Joe Kennedy of the Rockies as the game of the day. Santos has a very interesting home/away breakdown. Despite pitching as well if not better at home, his ERA is two runs higher there. His road ERA of 2.78 is good enough for a 5-0 record away from Miller park, and in looking at his stats, I believe the 2.78 is a truer reflection of his overall statistics. Victor improved his control this year, which has led to the improvement in wins and ERA. He pitched for the Rockies in 2002, and did poorly both in Coors and away from Denver. We'll see how he handles the thin air today.

The Patriarch, as noted here before, is becoming the Coors pitcher. He has a 3.75 ERA at home and a 4-1 record there. It's been my belief for a while that any pitcher who can post a sub-4.00 ERA while toiling half the time at Coors should automatically win the Cy Young award. If he's still at this level in a month, I'll start the campaign. :-)

Enjoy!

Soccer Dad takes a look at just how popular the Orioles are in the Washington area:

The other thing to keep in mind is that in the Washinton area the Orioles went from being broadcast on WTOP to WTEM to WTNT. In other words (according recent Arbitron ratings) went from a station with a 3.7 share to a 1.6 share to a .2 share. By this reckoning Orioles games in the DC area reach less than 1/18 of the audience that they used to! Clearly it wasn't a moneymaker for all news WTOP. It wasn't even a money maker for all sports WTEM!

It's my feeling that there's more than enough fans in the Washington area to support two teams. I agree with Soccer Dad that a little competition might make the Orioles better.

In my former job I worked for the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR) at the University of Massachusetts. One thing that lab experimented with was meta-search - searching a number of different databases (Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc.) and combining the results of those searches into one display. Blake Rhodes, who is a fan of this site, works for IceRocket.com, who has made such a search engine available on the web. I've tried a few searches, and it's fast and appears to be pretty accurate. Give it a try. I especially like the way the image retrieval takes you right to the web page with the picture, rather than adding a layer of indirection as Google does.