The Texas Rangers came back from a three-run deficit to take an 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Westbrook and Padilla each pitched six innings of four run ball, but Westbrook couldn't get an out in the seventh. The Indians relievers didn't help much, allowing the hits that tied the game and giving up four runs of their own. The bullpen now sports a 5.83 ERA, a 3-4 record and nearly half of their inherited runners have scored, 17 of 36.

The Baseball Zealot has the dope on Freddy Garcia at the WBC.

It took until the ninth inning, but the Padres stopped their losing streak today. Down 5-0 early, San Diego stormed back with five in the bottom of the ninth. Six straight batters reached in the ninth before two sacrifice flys tied the game. Then after two walks in the tenth, Bellhorn singled in the winning run to snap the losing streak. The Dodgers bullpen issued five walks and five hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Jake Westbrook retires the side in order in the first. He struck out two while using just eight pitches in the inning, all strikes.

Where Have you Gone, Andy Van Slyke attended the Pirates game today and reports on Oliver Perez's problems:

Also, it's very obvious that Oliver Perez is struggling with just about every pitch he throws. From the first base side up that close you can get a nice view of his mechanics, and they're flat out bad. When he pitches from the windup he does some strange double or triple hitch with the glove. He's clearly constantly frustrated with his inability to just rear back and bring the heat like he used to and he constantly fidgets on the mound. It's just an all around bad situation, and I don't see it getting better any time soon.

Brandon Webb and Johnny Estrada combined defensively and offensively today to defeat the Gaints 8-2. Webb pitched eight innings, allowing just two runs. He threw 102 pitches, 67 for strikes, and even drove in a run. His battery mate went four for four at the plate, including a two run homer, drove in four runs and threw out a base stealer. The Giants loss puts the Rockies in firm control of first place at the end of the month. Arizona is hanging in with a 12-13 record.

Chris Capuano pitches the first complete game of his career, and it's a beauty as he shuts out the Cubs 9-0. He allowed just five hits while striking out six and not issuing a free pass. The Brewers supported him with eight extra-base hits, bring the team total to 90 for the year. At the moment, that's fourth in the majors.

The White Sox edge out the Angels 6-5 to claim their second straight 1-run victory. That brings their record in those close contests to 3-3 and keeps them ahead of the surging Detroit Tigers.

It was Joe Crede's day as he banged out three hits, two of them doubles. So far, Crede's upped both his OBA and slugging percentage well over his career averages, another reason the White Sox tend to win big this year.

The Nationals gave Albert Pujols the Bonds treatment today, walking him four times. St. Louis got around that with the batters surrounding Pujols getting hits. The 1-2 hitters were 4 for 8, and the 4-5 hitters were 4 for 10. Putting Pujols on just expands the offensive context for the rest of the team, and the Cardinals took advantage of that today to score nine runs to win and move into a tie with the Reds for first place in the NL Central.

The San Diego Padres keep sliding farther behind the NL West. They're well on their way to their sixth straight defeat, as they're down 5-0 in the sixth inning to Derek Lowe and the Dodgers. The Padres have been outscored 26-5 during the streak, including this afternoon. They've managed just one hit and two walks vs. Lowe so far.

The Braves defeated the Mets 8-5 this afternoon, so the Mets will finish April six games up in the East. Two interesting developments in the game among young hitters. Jeff Francoeur still hasn't walked, but went four for five today, including a home run. It doesn't matter how you get on base; four hits are just fine. We'll see if this was just luck, or if Jeff is adjusting to the way he's being pitched.

Meanwhile, Jose Reyes drew three walks! It's the first time he's drawn three walks in a game in his major league career, and only the third time he's drawn more than one in a game. He's starting to walk like a major league leadoff hitter.

After getting off to a very slow start, Ichiro Suzuki is hitting again. Since April 19th, he's 20 for 46, a .435 BA. Despite all those times on base, however, he's only scored six runs, showing how weak the heart of the Mariners order remains. Even with the 4-3 win over the Orioles today, the Mariners are just 5-6 during Ichrio's hot streak.

Is really tough to watch the Devil Rays bullpen here in the ninth. They came into the inning up 5-3 on the Red Sox, but Chad Orvella gave up back to back one-out homers to narrow the lead to one. Walker comes on and issues a walk, which is followed by a stolen base and error to put the tying run at third with one out. Snow is then hit by the pitch. Camp then twice tried to pick off Snow, but great catches by Lee at first saved errors both times. Camp comes back to strike out Youkilis, then with Loretta at bat Cora steals second to take away the force. But Loretta grounds to short to end the inning and the game.

Maddon's happy to get the win, but he'll need a new supply of Maalox after that performance.

Update: The Yankees win 4-1, so the Red Sox and Yankees will meet tomorrow tied in the games back column, with the Yankees in first place by winning percentage .562 to .560.

Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher continue to generate most of the offense for the Oakland Athletics. They both went deep today and drove in all five Athletics runs. They now total 19 home runs. That ties them with Gomes and Wigginton for most home runs by an AL duo. The Athletics are up 5-2 on the Royals in the fourth inning.

Oliver Perez continues to see his control deteriorate. He managed to last just 3 2/3 innings, but walked five along the way. That gives him 23 walks in 28 2/3 innings. Amazingly, 7.22 walks per 9 is only the fifth worst in the majors among pitchers with 20 IP.

Andy Phillips went deep for his first home run of the season to help the Yankees to a 2-1 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. That should be it for Andy, as he's hit exactly one home run in each of his first two seasons.

The Tigers are up 6-0 on Minnesota Twins in the seventh inning. Nothing working again for the Twins as Kenny Rogers is spinning a one hitter. Kyle Lohse was hit around again, allowing all six runs and raising his ERA to 8.77. That gives the Twins three starters with ERAs well over 8.00.

Corey Sullivan continues to hit the long ball. He tripled for the fourth time this season, raising his season total to four. That matches his triples from last year. Sullivan now has 15 extra-base hits on the year in 24 games; he had just 23 last season in 139 games.

In addition, most of Sullivan's extra-base hits came on the road so far 2006 (13 of the 15). Imagine what his total will look like when he starts swinging like that at Coors.

Tomas Perez just struck out on three swings and misses. On each one, Perez's bat came flying out of his hand down the first base line ending up at the feet of Kevin Youkilis. I've seen the bat come out of the hands of hitters many times before, but never three times in the same at bat.

The Devil Rays lead the Red Sox 3-1 at the end of four. Schilling is doing okay. He's struck out 7, but has thrown 70 pitches. A two-run homer by Hall was his big mistake so far.

Lance Berkman moves into double digit territory in home runs as he gives the Astros an early 2-0 lead over the Reds. It's his seventh home run with men on base this season.

The Mets go for a sweep of the Braves in Atlanta today as Steve Trachsel faces Kyle Davies. The Mets aren't hitting all that well against the Braves this season; Paul Lo Duca is the best with an 8 for 16. Andruw Jones is doing the damage against the Mets, with four home runs in five games against the New Yorkers.

The Reds try to sweep the Astros in Cincinnati this afternoon and extend the Cincy win streak to seven games and the hot streak to 10 of 11. Taylor Buchholz gets the nod for Houston against Elizardo Ramirez. The opposition has just nine hits against the Houston rookie in 20 innings of work. Ramriez's problem in his short big-league career is the home run ball. He's allowed eight in 44 1/3 innings over three seasons so far.

Scott Kazmir lost his awe for Curt Schilling over recent comments the veteran made about Scott hitting batters. The two go head-to-head this afternoon in Tampa Bay. Schilling is back to his old self, striking out lots of batters while walking very few. He did throw over 130 pitches in his last outing, however, so we'll watch to see if that has any effect. Kazmir has the strikeouts, but his walks and homers need to come down to reach Curt's level of achievement.

Enjoy!

Scott Downs infant daughter is ill in the hospital, and he's taken leave from the Blue Jays. It sounds serious. Let's hope she makes a speedy recovery.

The Baseball Report talked to me about April surprises and disappointments. You can hear the discussion on their interview page.

The Mets 1-0 win over the Braves last night assure the New Yorkers of the biggest NL East lead at the end of April:

Coupled with the Phillies' loss, the Mets (16-7) have opened a historic seven-game division lead. No NL East team had ever led by more than five games in April - and that team happened to win the 1986 World Series.

That's a nice way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your last championship. There are two things that stand out to me when I look at the team statistics for New York. The first is their stolen base success. They stolen 28 of 30 for a 93.3 percentage. The only person caught is Reyes! Whoever is picking the spots to run is doing an excellent job.

Secondly, not only do the Mets have the best ERA in the majors, but they have the best road ERA in the majors. It's easy to be at the top in ERA when you play in a stadium favorable to pitching. But when you shut down teams away from home, that's something special. The Mets are looking like the real deal at the moment, especially given the weaknesses of the rest of the division.

Ron Gardenhire is looking for something positive to say about the Minnesota Twins:

"I would worry if we didn't have character," Gardenhire said. "They're not going to quit, because if they do, they won't be here. We don't do that around here. I believe in them. There's going to be a lot of people not believing in you, and if you can get through stuff like this, it can make you stronger."

Character is nice, but good pitching and three-run homers win ball games. Ron is definitely channeling Sparky Anderson here, forcing me to pull out Bill James' 1983 comment on Enos Cabell:

I mean, I would never say that it was not important to have a team with a good attitude, but Christ, Sparky, there are millions of people in this country who have good attitudes, but only about 200 or so who can play a major league brand of baseball, so which are you going to take?

Good pitching and three-run homers win ball games. Right now, the Twins have the highest ERA in the majors, and 14 of their 20 homers came with the bases empty. And the 20 home runs are third lowest in the AL.

The optimistic view is the Twins are a much better team that's in a slump. The view that's closer to reality is that there's been a decline in talent. If it's a slump, it's Gardenhire's job to find a way out of it. If it's talent, then Ryan needs to step in. But noting that players are working hard isn't the answer. The work needs to be directed toward fixing weaknesses, or this team will continue losing.

Miguel Tejada's consecutive game streak is in danger as he's nursing a bad knee. It's part of a spate of injuries the Orioles suffered over the last couple of days:

Having already scratched Javy Lopez before the game due to back spasms, the Orioles lost first baseman Kevin Millar in the second inning when he was hit by a pitch on the right hand. They were forced to take out shortstop Miguel Tejada in the sixth after the star shortstop hobbled into first base on an RBI single, the left knee he injured the night before hampering him all day long.

Second baseman Brian Roberts , the player who scored on Tejada's RBI single, cutting the Mariners' lead to 7-5, also was removed after the inning as he hurt his groin stealing third base.

None of the four players are certain to be available today for the finale of the three-game series with Seattle. Tejada, who played in his 943rd straight game yesterday, the longest active streak in the league and the seventh longest all-time, said that he'd volunteer to DH, but likely won't be able to play the field. The others are considered day-to-day.

Given the daily grind of playing shortstop, I'm impressed with how many are in the top seven in consecutive games played. Ripken holds the record, and Everett Scott held the mark before Gehrig became the ironman.. Number six on the list is Joe Sewell, a shortstop from the 1920s. That's four of the top seven from a very demanding fielding position.

Albert Pujols won the game for the Cardinals last night with a home run in the bottom of the eighth that ended up being the difference in a 2-1 defeat of Washington. Number 14 sets the record for the month of April. I remember Graig Nettles setting the AL record with 11 in 1974. Since the season starts earlier and earlier, that marks been passed or tied a number of times since then. Jonny Gomes is at 11 this year; one more puts him fourth on the April list as no one's ever hit exactly 12 in the month of April.

Albert Pujols is now 1/3 of the way to his total last year or 41. Even if he goes back to averaging seven home runs a month, he's likely to hit 50 this season. Maybe it's Albert's turn to save baseball. Fans love and respect him; there's no hint of scandal. Although some have speculated that Albert is older than published, if he's 26 Pujols should be hitting his peak. Griffey missed 50 by one home run when he was 26, then had his back to back 56 seasons at 27 and 28. His home run production taking a jump now indicates to me that his age is believable.

So as Bonds struggles to pass Ruth for his career, does Albert drown out the question surrounding Barry by setting the single season record? Someone should start to think about a camera crew following around Pujols all day.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kevin Mench had a hit, a run and an RBI tonight but no home run. His home run streak stops at seven games, but his hitting streak goes to 13 games.

More importantly, the Rangers pulled out a 7-5 win. Millwood pitched an excellent game against his former teammates, striking out seven in seven innings while walking none. And Brad Wilkerson, off to a bad start, knocked out two hits, including a home run.

The Reds move 1 1/2 games ahead of the Astros with a 6-3 victory. They're 17-7 after 24 games; the 1976 Reds, the Big Red Machine, was only 14-10 at the same point in the season (they were 12-12 in 1975).

Aaron Harang pitched into the eighth, allowing three runs and striking out seven. His ERA is down to 4.35, which given the ability of the Reds to score runs is more than adequate.

The Brewers are having a laugher at the expense of the Cubs today. Milwaukee is up 10-0 in the fifth, and already power six balls out of the park. The Hardy Boys, Hardy, Weeks and Fielder all homered, with Prince smacking two. Fielder is hitting .356 so far in his rookie year with a .400+ OBA and a .500+ slugging percentage. Just what you want from a first baseman.

Johnny Damon is both setting the table and cleaning it up today. He's reached base four times and scored four runs. He's also hit two homers, driving in three. Despite another poor performance by Randy Johnson against the Blue Jays, the Yankees are up 12-6 in the bottom of the sixth. Johson's walked more batters in this game (4) than he did in his previous starts this season (3).

The Tigers are destroying the Twins today. It's 15-1 in the bottom of the seventh and Detroit is threatening again. The Tigers banged out 21 hits so far, nine for extra bases.

Carlos Silva pitched another horrible game. Silva and Radke seem to be suffering from the same maladay. It strikes me that they're so intent on not walking batters, they're putting the ball in the strike zone and getting hit. Silva did not walk a batter, but he allowed 9 hits and 9 runs in 2 2/3 innings. The Tigers just drew their first walk of the afternoon as Shelton earned his way on to load the bases with two out in the seventh.

Update: The Tigers score two more on an error by Juan Castro. It's 17 to 1.

The American League East is very tight this morning, with three games separating the Toronto Blue Jays on top from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on the bottom. The Blue Jays try to hang onto first place today with another win over Randy Johnson. The Big Unit was hammered by Toronto on April 18th, allowing seven run in 3 1/3 innings. Johnson's record is 0-3 with an 8.50 ERA against Toronto since joining New York in 2005. Tower pitches well against the Yankees, he just doesn't win. In his career, his record against the Yankees is 1-6, despite a 3.88 ERA.

Kevin Mench goes for his eighth straight game with a home run tonight against the Indians and rookie Fausto Carmona. (I hope Carmona's nickname is "Doctor.") Fausto's allowed a .545 slugging percentage in his brief major league career, so Kevin has a shot.

The best pitching matchup of the day is in Anaheim where Jose Contreras and the White Sox take on Kelvim Escobar and the Angels. Jose leads the league with a 1.55 ERA. He's taken advantage of the White Sox defense to allow just 19 hits in 29 innings. It's a good matchup for Jose as the Angels like to put the ball in play. Kelvim controls the strike zone well, allowing just a .311 OBA to his opponents. His mistakes come with runners in the scoring position, where he's allowed a .400 batting average.

Enjoy!

A strained back will keep Rich Harden out of action for three to six weeks:

Harden was on the disabled list from May 15-June 21 last season with a strained left oblique muscle. He was out most of September with a pulled "lat" muscle, located under the right shoulder. Harden also underwent surgery to repair a strained left labrum shortly after the season.

The A's were 3-11 in starts Harden missed last season.

"Our team is undefeated (5-0) when he starts," manager Ken Macha said. "That's pretty significant."

Are we starting to see some anti-Gardenhire sentiment in the Twins Blogosphere?

Kevin Mench homered in his seventh straight game in the eighth inning last night, and is now just one homer shy of the record shared by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey, Jr. As you can see, the three in the Day by Day Database are all impressive streaks.

It turns out the probability of hitting home runs in nine straight games is about equal to the probability of a 56-game hitting streak. So a seven game home run streak is pretty amazing, an eight game streak is on par of slightly better than the 44 game hit streaks, and if someone can go nine straight games, they'll be on par with DiMaggio.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

A fascinating game in Florida tonight as the Rockies hold on to first place in the NL West with a 3-2 victory in ten innings. The Marlins sent forty four men to the plate, nine of which reached by a walk. They also struck out 14 times. That's only 21 times they put the ball in play. While Girardi should be very happy with the nine walks, the high number of whiffs is one reason they didn't bring in many runners to score.

Kudos to the Rockies relievers. They allowed one run over 4 2/3 innings while striking out 8, lowering their ERA to 3.22. They Rockies' good pitching on the road continues and is a very positive sign for the ballclub.

It looks like another attack is underway. You can always check the backup site. There are two posts there, one on the Blue Jays/Yankees, and one on Chris Shelton/Brad Radke.

Jose Reyes drew his eighth walk of the season in the first inning off none other than John Smoltz and game around to score on a Wright sacrifice fly. That's eight walks in twenty two games for Jose; at that rate he'll get close to 60, more than double the 27 he drew in 2005. Maybe Rickey had an influence after all.

Ben Kabak just informed me that Steve Howe died this morning in a car accident. Ben supplies the links to the stories at Off the Facade. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

My good friend Jim Storer called me this afternoon and asked who would be pitching the second inning for the Yankees tonight. He may not be far from wrong as Jaret Wright allowed 2 walks and 1 homer in the first while not striking out a batter. That's pretty much the exact opposite of what you want from your pitcher in the first. The Blue Jays are off to a quick 2-0 lead.

The Cubs defeat the Brewers 6-2, earning Maddux the first 5-0 start of his career. It wasn't Maddux's strongest outing of the season, but both times the Brewers threatened to take the lead, Maddux found a way out of the inning. Kudos to the Cubs relievers, who tossed three no-hit innings while striking out six. The Cubs bullpen is pitching very well, lowering their ERA to 3.56 and they're now striking out batters at a rate of 8.3 per 9. It looks to me that the money spent on the bullpen this off season was well worth it.

It looks like the minor league umpires strike is getting close to a settlement. The rank and file need to approve the deal.

Jose Mesa earned a four day suspension for hitting Omar Vizquel. It should be more given that it's a personal vendetta. I hope Mesa received a warning that the next time he hits Vizquel the penalty will be much harsher.

Greg Maddux loaded the bases with one out in the first, but came back to strike out Fielder and retire Koskie on a fly ball. He's struck out five through four innings and the Cubs have staked him to a 3-0 lead. Once again, he's being efficient, throwing about 14 pitches per inning.

Update: Of course, Maddux gives up two runs in the fifth. It's 3-2 Cubs.

Update: Ronny Cedeno doubles his career home run total with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth to bring the Cubs lead back to three.

Correction: Ronny, not Roger Cedeno.

For those of you with time this afternoon, take a long late lunch and watch Greg Maddux battle David Bush as the Brewers visit the Cubs. Maddux is leading the league in ERA by nearly one run at 0.99. Bush found his strikeout pitch this season, something he lacked last year, and his ERA is down with that.

The Reds host the Astros in a battle for first place in the NL Central. The upper hand belongs to Houston based on the pitching matchup as Roy Oswalt faces Brandon Claussen. Roy is attempting to go 5-0 in April, while Claussen is coming off a shellacking by the Brewers. Houston batters are having a field day with left-handed pitchers this year, sporting a .412 OBA and a .574 slugging percentage.

If Toronto is going to win the AL East, they need to beat the Yankees and Red Sox in head-to-head matchups. They're 4-2 vs. Boston this year, and hope to be 2-1 against New York after tonight's game. The starters favor Toronto as Roy Halladay takes on Jaret Wright. Halladay pitched well against Boston in his first start off the DL, allowing one run in five innings. Wright is simply getting hit. He's struck out four in five innings, but with 11 hits allowed, opposing batters have no problem reaching base when they connect.

It's Pedro vs. Smoltz in Atlanta. It's always fun to see two great pitchers going head-to-head. Smoltz, however, is getting creamed by right-handed batters this year while getting lefties out with ease. Pedro is getting plenty of run support, and has struck out 19 batters in his last 13 2/3 innings.

And in San Francisco, it's Bonds against Batista. Barry's hit four home runs in twenty-six at bats against Miguel.

Enjoy!

There was a denial of service attack against the hosting company I use today. It looks like things are back to normal now.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

There appeared to be a fire at the new Busch Stadium. It was in left field in the second or third level of bleachers, where a box caught on fire. I believe that part of the stadium is still under construction.

C.C. Sabathia pitched well in his rehab assignment.

Sabathia, who strained an abdominal muscle on opening day, allowed six hits and two runs -- one earned -- in five innings. He walked one and struck out five, getting the victory in Buffalo's 8-4 win over the Syracuse SkyChiefs.

Sabathia threw 51 of his pitches for strikes, and his fastball topped out at 95 mph.

"They just told me 75 to 85 pitches. I could have gone longer," he said.

That's good news for the Indians. The team is sporting a 5.43 ERA entering today's action.

Last night the Yankees put 20 men on base and scored just two runs. The Indians figured out how to get those men home as they've earned 10 hits and 9 walks to score 14 runs against the Red Sox. They're 4 for 11 with runners in scoreing position, and scored six runs on homers.

And it's just in the 7th inning.

Derek Jeter is 2 for 2 with a walk so far tonight, raising his batting average to .400 for the month. It looks like he'll have the best April of his career. His previous high in BA was .378 (31/82) in 1999.

Jeter not only is hitting well, his OBA sits at .511 and he's slugging .667 with a dozen extra-base hits.

Josh Beckett ptiched a poor first inning against Cleveland, giving up two walks and three hits, including a grand slam to Broussard. Beckett's now allowed a .481 OBA in the first inning, by far his worst inning so far this year. The Indians lead 4-0.

Patrick Arnold, the inventor of "The Clear", is going to plead guilty according to this AP story.

A San Francisco federal grand jury indicted Patrick Arnold in November of conspiring with BALCO founder Victor Conte to distribute the once-undetectable substance tetrahydragestrinone.

Since he was charged with three counts of illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs, Arnold has maintained his innocence. But a source familiar with the case said Arnold will likely plead guilty to at least one charge in exchange for the others being dropped.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the proposed plea deal was confidential.

I wonder, with the fall of BALCO and Arnold, who is taking their place?

Garret Atkins homered in the eighth inning this afternoon to give Colorado a 5-3 lead over the Phillies. Atkins might be the poster child for how the Rockies are trying to build a winner. He's 26 years old. He played a bit in the majors in 2003 and 2004, then at 25 was a full-time player in 2005. He was okay, but not great. But he's hitting the majors when he's hitting his peak. And we're seeing that rapid improvement this year. With the homer, his batting average sits at .358, his OBA at .429 and his slugging percentage at .556. The Rockies are full of players like this, young but in their prime of their careers. Maturing at once, they're fighting for the division lead in the NL West.

Update: The Rockies win 6-3. Their pitchers allow just two earned runs and lower their road ERA to 4.14, which would put them 8th in the majors. That's impressive, given that the Rockies usually have a very bad road ERA in addition to their expected high ERA at home.

The Twins received eight good inning from Santana today. He stuck out ten and walked just one, although it appears he tired in the 8th and allowed two runs. Yes, it was against Kansas City, but it's the kind of outing the Twins needed from their ace. He lowers his ERA to 4.45.

Scott Miller collects interesting quotes from former teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine about the other. It's truly a mutual respect society.

The Johan Santana/Mark Redman matchup doesn't last long as the Twins score five in the second inning. Redman gives up six hits and three walks to the 13 batters he faced. Reliever Mike Wood isn't doing much better as he's allowed a run in the third to make the score 6-1.

An Ode to the Devil Rays pitching staff.

Johan Santana is winless so far in 2005, and if he can't beat Kansas City today there's something wrong. He'll face Mark Redman. Santana is walking batters at twice the rate of his career. However, the Royals don't walk much, just 45 times in 19 games. That should help Johan this afternoon.

Do you think the Indians should invite Morris Day and the Time to perform when Paul Byrd pitches? Byrd takes on Josh Beckett on getaway day. Josh is chewing up lefties so far; they're hitting just .167 off the righty. Byrd, however, is getting hammered by the sinister hitters. They hit him at a .424 clip with 9 of their 14 hits going for extra bases.

A Boston loss this afternoon give the Blue Jays a chance to move into first place tonight. They're send Casey Janssen to the mound to make his major league debut against Kris Benson and the Orioles. Through 2005, Janssen posted great minor league numbers. Benson's averages are pretty blah this season. Given his walks, home runs allowed and strikeouts, I'd say his 3.70 ERA is better than it should be. He's not great, he's not terrible. He's pretty much the definition of a .500 pitcher.

Enjoy!

Delmon Young is in a lot of trouble:

Durham Bulls outfielder Delmon Young threw a bat into the chest of the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes in the first inning of Wednesday night's game at Pawtucket.

There's no place for umpire intimidation at any level of baseball. Otherwise, we'll be back to the 1890's where the game was full of cheaters on the field. Replacement umps or not, Young deserves a long suspension.

Update: Young's been suspened indefinitely as the case is investigated. There's video of the incident from the in-house taping.

The ejection prompted Young to flip his bat toward the umpire. One observer who spoke on condition of anonymity said that while Young didn't flip the bat hard, he clearly intended it to hit the umpire.

It's not the first time Young was suspended for touching an ump, either:

It's the second significant run-in with an umpire for Young, who was suspended last season while with Double-A Montgomery for bumping an umpire almost a year ago to the day. He was suspended for three games for that incident.

Update: Here's an eyewitness account by a Devil Rays fan. (Hat tip, Deadspin.)

The new Washington D.C. stadium is going to be a bit more costly than anticipated:

Three Wall Street bond rating agencies gave the D.C. baseball stadium project low investment-grade ratings yesterday, saying the $535 million in revenue bonds have narrow coverage from a business tax that will pay for most of the project.

That means higher cost in interest, or in this case, insurance payments.

D.C. officials said they will purchase insurance that will allow the bonds to be sold at an AAA-plus rating.

We'll keep our eye out today for the results of tests on Rich Harden's back.

Sabernomics does a good job of explaining why Jeff Francoeur hit much better than he should have in 2005, and why it took so long for major league pitchers to exploit his weaknesses:

And why is it that minor league pitchers figured him out? Well, look at the incentives for the pitchers in double-A versus those in the majors. If a double-A pitcher wants to move up, he has to get outs. The best way to do that is to prepare for the guys you’re going to face, especially the best players on the team. These pitchers saw he liked to swing at everything—a friend of mine who watched him in high school said this was no secret then—and they stayed away from the zone without fearing the free pass. But for major league pitchers, Francoeur was just another rookie. Why worry about him when you’ve got to face the Jones boys? And that’s when Frenchy’s window for success opened.

Hat tip, Baseball Think Factory.

Metsblog.com comments on Mike Piazza's 400th home run. Piazza's place in the Hall of Fame is pretty well cemented, so this milestone is simply another reason to vote for the catcher.

However, that greatness appears to be a thing of the past. Piazza so far is not hitting for average, nor is he getting on base. The hits go for extra bases, but they don't come very often. The Padres did a poor job this winter of stocking their catching corps. And the Mets did the right thing replacing Mike with Lo Duca.

Mark Buehrle picked up a loss last night as the Seattle Mariners defeated the White Sox 5-1. Buehrle allowed four runs over seven innings, but the most interesting thing about the game is that Mark did not strike out a batter. Buehrle's never been a high strikeout hurler, but he always had a reasonable number of Ks. This season, his K per 9 stands at 3.08 with 12 whiffs in 35 innings.

This type of low strikeout pitcher pretty much vanished from baseball after the 1994 season. Between 1995 and 2002, no pitcher with 162 IP struck batters out at a rate less than 3.1 per 9. In 2003, Nate Cornejo of the Tigers managed the feat, but was out of baseball after the 2004 season. In 2004, Kirk Rueter did the same, and he's not around anymore, either.

However, this used to be quite common. There were 48 such seasons in the 1970s, 31 in the 1980s, 5 in the 1990s, and only two so far in the aughties. In each decade, however, the pitchers with the low K rates have higher ERAs than the pitchers with K per 9 above 3.1. Buehrle is making the most of the White Sox defense. But if that defense should crack, I suspect his ERA will start ballooning.

	ERA, 162 IP
Decade	K < 3.1 per 9	K >= 3.1 per 9
2000	4.70	4.10
1990	4.27	3.90
1980	3.96	3.67
1970	3.60	3.44
1960	3.93	3.29
1950	3.78	3.61
1940	3.50	3.30
1930	4.18	3.78
1920	3.76	3.62
1910	2.88	2.67
1900	2.91	2.52

It's always better to have pitchers with higher strikeout rates.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Yankees drew more walks tonight than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays put men on base, yet lost 4-2 in 10 innings. New York batters received a base on balls 14 times; Tampa knocked out seven hits while drawing five walks. The Yankees were 2 for 15 with runners in scoring position.

Not only was the offense only productive in the on-base category, but Mariano Rivera allowed six base runners (2 on walks) and two runs in two inninngs. His ERA is now 4.91 with a .333 BA allowed. A topsy-turvy night at Yankee Stadium.

Chris Burke won a rare start at shortstop tonight. If the Astros were trying to get the offense back on track with the move, it worked as Burke hit two doubles to help Houston to an 8-5 win over the Dodgers. Once again, a great start was followed up by poor relief pitching as Astacio faced three batters and allowed three runs. The pen's ERA is now 6.30. It appears opponents should try to chase the Astros starters early.

Josh Bard allowed four passed balls tonight as he teamed up with Tim Wakefield in a 7-1 loss to Cleveland. That gives Bard 10 passed balls on the season, seven more than any other catcher in the league. Last year, Bengie Molina led the majors with 10. In this century, only Jason LaRue has as many as 20 in a season. No one's had over 30 since Gino Petralli in 1987. Bard's on a pace for 60.

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A two-out error by David Wright brings Barry Bonds to the plate against Billy Wagner with two on and the Giants down three runs. Bonds hits another opposite field home run to tie the game at 7. He didn't look like he hit it hard, but it carried out to left center.

First base was open, but I'm glad they pitched to Bonds. It looks like if you get the pitch up and a bit outside, Barry can drive it the other way.

Update: Woodward doubles in the go-ahead run in the 11th, and Reyes follows with an RBI single. The Mets lead 9-7.

Update: Bonds flies out the center to end the game. The Mets pull out a 9-7 victory. I just heard Bannister was injured, but I don't have details yet.

John Lackey held the Detroit Tigers to one hit through eight shutout innings this afternoon. It was a bend, don't break game as the Angel starter walked five, but didn't let the Tigers take advantage of that wildness. Vlad Guerrero added his fifth home run of the year. He still has yet to hit a double or triple. The Angels win 4-0.

Julio Franco just singled in two runs to put the Mets up 6-4 in the top of the 8th, then steals second. He's 4 for 10 with four RBI.

Through five innings, Orlando Hernandez has whiffed nine Padres. A big difference between San Diego this year and last is their level of strikeouts. In 2005 the Padres batters struck out the fifth fewest times in the NL. Coming into today, they saw strike three the six most in the league. Arizona leads 2-1 in the middle of the sixth.

Kevin Mench extended his home run streak to six straight games today as the new shoes appear to be ruby slippers. His grand slam in the fourth gave the Rangers a 4-1 lead on the Athletics.

However, the A's fought back to tie the game at four and in the 10th Jay Payton drives in two to give Oakland the 6-4 lead.

Update: The Rangers load the bases in the bottom of the 10th but don't score, and the Atletics take home a 6-4 victory. Joe Kennedy gets a very tentative save on a very tentative afternoon by the Athletics bullpen. They gave up seven hits in 6 2/3 innings but allowed just one run.

How often do you see a double switch go wrong because of the fielder? Dusty Baker brings in Bobby Howry to face Treanor, and sends Mabry to right on the double switch. Helms pinch hits and hits a high fly ball down the line in right. Mabry had time, but couldn't see the ball well and it drops for a double. The hit drives in two and sets up a sacrifice fly. They Marlins break the 3-3 tie in the eighth and now lead 6-3.

The Pittsburgh Pirates put eleven men on base via a hit or walk today, but erased four of them with double plays. They've now hit into 28 double plays on the season, the most in the majors. Look at it this way; without the DPs today, the Pirates OBA was 11/32 or .344. With the double plays, their effective OBA was 7/32, or .219. Which team would you rather face? The Cardinals eeked out a win, 4-3. The DP's could easily have made the difference in the game for the Pirates.

Bronson Arroyo tossed eight shutout innings this afternoon in Washington to push his record to 4-0 and lower his ERA to 2.34. The change of scenery certainly did Bronson a lot of good. He's now struck out 30 in 34 2/3 innings while walking just eight. The one hit he allowed today lower his opponent's batting average to .194. He's exactly what the Reds needed for their rotation, a solid anchor for the staff.

Ben Sheets seems healthy as he struck out nine Braves over six innings to earn his first win of the season. Corey Koskie continues to look like an excellent pick-up for the Brewers. The third baseman knocked out two more hits today to raise his batting average to .328, one of them a two run homer. The Brewers at 12-10 are staying right in the hunt for the NL Central in what's looking like a strong five team division.

It's 1:21, and they've already completed three half innings in Washington. The starters are averaging less than 12 pitches per inning so far.

Update: Everyone's hitting in Cincinnati. David Ross just put the Reds up 1-0 with his third home run of the year. His seventh hit of the year is also his fourth extra base hit.

Update: In the top of the fourth, with the score 4-0 Cincinnati, the Nationals walk Ross to load the bases and get to Arroyo. This could get interesting.

Update: Arroyo gets wood on the ball but flies out to left.

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The Tigers send Mike Maroth to the mound this afternoon against John Lackey of the Angels in an effort to go 6-3 on this west coast swing. Maroth holds a 0.49 ERA, but needs to go deep in a game to keep himself in the ERA lead for a whole pass through the rotation. As part of the Tigers road warrior crew, Mike's allowed just a .136 batting average away from Detroit. Lackey's been tougher at home this year, allowed a .167 BA in Anaheim vs. .262 on the road.

The Astros offense is sputtering a bit, scoring just 21 runs in their last six games. Odalis Perez takes the mound for the Dodgers to see if he can keep the Astros from scoring. Wandy Rodriguez stands in his way in this battle of 3-0 pitchers. Perez is keeping righties off base, allowing just a .302 OBA to batters with the platoon advantage. Wandy is keeping everyone off base, with batters collecting a .305 OBA against him.

Enjoy!

Dontrelle Willis lost for the first time in April last night, 3-1 to the Cubs. It's one of those games that make you realize that even though the L goes to the pitcher, sometimes the offense deserves the loss.

It should also be noted that Sean Marshall deserved the win. The 6-7 lefty was dominating, striking out seven in seven innings while allowing just two hits and no runs. The young Cub has his own April streak going at 2-0.

Claudio Vargas pitched seven shutout innings last night as the Diamondbacks easily beat the Padres 7-0. It was even more impressive since the win came against Padres ace Jake Peavy. Jake's ERA now sits at 5.17, 5.92 in his four starts at PETCO.
Tom Krasovic thought Jake was trying to hard to make up for the Padres feeble offense:

Peavy (1-3) denied that he felt he had to pitch a shutout last night to win, but he strained and grunted even louder than he usually does. Vargas threw both harder and more smoothly.

Laboring early, Peavy threw 60 pitches in three innings while falling behind 2-0 on two-out hits by Luis Gonzalez in the first and Conor Jackson in the third. Peavy's whiplike arm flashed through and around, then recoiled in front of his chest like a bungee cord. It was enough to make a spectator's arm hurt.

“I was just a tad bit off,” said Peavy, who said he will work with pitching coach Darren Balsley to achieve a smoother delivery before the next start.

The Padres are in last place, but it remains a weak division and San Diego is just three games out of first.

I don't think this is needed:

Bob Watson, head of discipline for Major League Baseball, is expected to be at Citizens Bank Park today to meet with right-handed pitcher Jose Mesa and discuss disciplinary action for Mesa touching off a beanball incident by hitting shortstop Omar Vizquel of the San Francisco Giants with a pitch Saturday.

If you say you're going to hit a batter every time you face him, and you do it three out of three times, there's no doubt it wasn't by accident. I would say after the second time, Jose needed to get a long suspension.

Mesa needed to be told after the first beaning that the next time he hits Omar, he's out of baseball. Why it's taking so long is beyond me. Vizquel's life could be in jeopardy here.

Curt Schilling threw 133 pitches last night, and he addressed that after the game:

''I know people are going to bash the guy in the manager's office for leaving me out there, but I felt great," Schilling said after coming out with a no-decision on a night when he was attempting to join Babe Ruth and Pedro Martinez as the only Sox pitchers to win five games in April.

''I know myself," Schilling said, ''and it came down to I didn't make my pitches. I was one hitter away from getting out of the inning."

Which meant he was in there too long. How you feel and how you pitch are two different things. I also disagree with this:

The Indians scored on a walk and Ben Broussard's homer in the second, and twice more in the third on a triple by Grady Sizemore, a single by Jason Michaels, and a double by Travis Hafner. The homer and triple came on good splits, Schilling said.

I just went back and looked at the homer, and it wasn't a good split. The ball wasn't falling off the table. It was going down but at an angle perfect for an uppercut swing.

The truth is we won't know if this was a bad thing for another couple of starts. Schilling's off to such a great start it would be a shame to see his season fall apart over his desire to win a fifth game in April. Ultimately, the praise or blame lies with Francona. It's his job to overrule pitchers when they think they can still pitch. Remember, that's what brought down Grady Little.

Update: If you look at the comments, SF represents my position correctly. I don't believe there's one magic pitch count. I'd limit someone like Pedro Martinez a lot more than someone like Roger Clemens. I don't pretend to know what Schilling's pitch limit should be. Given the game conditions last night, however, it strikes me that a lower limit was in order. Time will tell.

Nick and Nick review last night's Twins victory, a 2-1 win over Kansas City and question Buddy Bell's use of the bullpen:

The Twins were totally inept against mediocre starter Scott Elarton, collecting only two hits over 7 innings, but were finally able to break out in the 8th against Kansas City's weak bullpen. Royals' manager Buddy Bell mysteriously chose to send out Luke Hudson -- a pitcher good enough to be cut by the pitching-starved Cincinatti Reds this spring -- to protect a 1-0 lead in the 8th. The Twins collected three straight hits against Hudson, including a pinch-hit RBI single from Ruben Sierra that tied the game. That knocked Hudson out of the ballgame, and big southpaw Andy Sisco came in. Joe Mauer drilled a sacrifice fly to left that scored the go-ahead run, and Juan Rincon and Joe Nathan took care of the last two innings to seal the victory for the Twins.

Given Jeremy Bonderman's pitching line for the year, it seems his ERA should be much lower than 5.04. A few more outings like last night against the Angels and we'll see that drop a lot. He's striking out 8 per 9 innings while walking just 1.8.

Detroit goes to 11-3 on the road, the best record in the majors.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Royals lead the Twins 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh. I'm not sure if it's the pitching or the poor offenses. Scott Elarton is spinning the shutout for Kansas City, allowing just three hits and two walks so far against one of the worst road offenses in the league. Lohse allowed five hits and five walks through six innings, and is lucky to only allow one run. The Royals are 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Barry Bonds hits his second home run of the season, and the second to left field. Trachsel gets a 1-1 pitch high and outside, and Barry was able to drive it. He was visibly limping, however, after he crossed the plate and headed back to the dugout.

Update: They just showed Barry in the dugout, and he was clearly in pain. He just limped down the steps out of the dugout.

They're now showing a replay where he was grimacing just before he reached third base on his home run trot.

Update: Bonds is back in left field for the top of the third. What ever was bothering him running the bases isn't keeping him out of the game.

Juan Encarnacion comes up in the seventh, and tries an apparent sacrifice on the first pitch. It goes foul, and the scoreboard lights up to let everyone know he's a single short of the cycle. He then swings away, and hits into a double play. With the Cardinals winning 5-3, it doesn't look good for Juan to come to the plate again.

Actually, he's the old Mussina now. But he's pitching like the young Mike. Moose struck out seven in six innings tonight, the only mistake being the first inning homer to Jonny Gomes. Mike lowers his ERA to 2.45 and his opposition batting average to .218. He now has 30 K in 33 IP while walking just six. The Yankees win the game easily 9-1.

The Blue Jays overcome the two homers allowed by Chacin to beat the Orioles 7-3. That gives Chacin 28 runs in support while he's in the game, more than enough for his 5.11 ERA.

Juan Encarnacion is trying to make up for his slow start in one night. Will Li points out that the Cardinal is 3 for 3 with a double, triple and homer. He's driven in four of the five St. Louis runs as the Cards lead the Pirates 5-3 in the seventh.

Manny Ramirez goes deep in the eighth after an intentional walk to David Ortiz. The three run homer gives the Red Sox an 8-5 lead.

Curt Schilling pitched his poorest game of the year, but it's still okay. He struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings, but threw 133 pitches. It's a cold night in Cleveland, and I have to wonder if that pitch count was wise. Foulke is in line for the win.

Chipper Jones is back in the Atlanta lineup tonight and he's hit his first homer of the season, a two run shot. That's all the runs the Braves have scored tonight as Milwaukee leads 3-2 in the seventh.

I don't know when Kevin Mench put on his new shoes, but with a home run tonight he's working on a 10-game hit streak and a 5-game home run streak. The Rangers lead the Athletics 4-0 after three.

Gustavo Chacin allowed two home runs tonight to bring his total for the season to six. In 2005, Gustavao allowed just 20 in a little over 200 innings. He's on a pace to give up 50 in 200 innings right now. The Orioles and Blue Jays are tied at three, all three Orioles runs coming via the two homers.

Dontrelle Willis strikes out Juan Pierre in the first confrontation between the close friends from Florida.

Nice play by the Cleveland defense. With Ramirez on second and Varitek on first, Manny tries to steal but Westbrook hasn't thrown the ball and has Ramirez trapped between second and third. Jake throws to the third baseman, who chases Manny back toward the bag. Boone then throws past Ramirez to get Varitek at second. The throw to third is handled by the catcher Martinez to get Manny and end the rare caught stealing double play.

Jonny Gomes breaks the log jam at the top of the AL home run leader board, reaching double figures in the first inning off Mike Mussina. In 20 games, Gomes is almost halfway to his 2005 total of 21. Chris Shelton got the attention for his fast start, but Gomes now homered in three straight games.

Derek Jeter goes over the fence to the oppposite field after a Damon walk to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first.

Todd Helton's diagnosis came down today:

Allen Schreiber, the team internist, confirmed today that Helton's stomach discomfort is a result of acute terminal (end of small intestine) iletis. Schreiber said Helton will require more rest before beginning light exercises. No date has been set for his return to the team's active roster. Helton was placed on the disabled list retroactive to Thursday and is not eligible to be placed on the active roster until May 5.

I wasn't sure what that was, so here's a paper with the causes:

Yersinia enterocolitica, Campylobacter and Salmonella are the most common causes of acute inflammation that specifically localizes to the ileocecal part of the intestine. In these cases, the dominant symptom is pain in the lower right quadrant, while the diarrhea is often mild or absent.

Meanwhile, Scott Rolen is out with bronchitis.

Here's the latest on the strike by minor league umpires over salary and meal money:

The 220 minor league umpires around the country are seeking higher salaries and an increase in meal money. The average salary for Triple-A umpires is $15,000, with a per diem of $25.

"And it's been the same for the last 10 years," said Scott, who worked third base in the umpire crew with Iassogna and Kulpa at the Reds-Nationals game Monday night.

Is that what the umpires are worth? I wonder if half the minor league umpires quit tomorrow, would there be a rush to fill the jobs at $15,000 a year? I would guess the supply of potential umpires is much greater than the demand for them by professional baseball. That would certainly keep salaries down.

However, there is a skill factor that needs to be taken into consideration. While there may be a large number of people willing to do the job, there may be much smaller group that's capable of doing it well. Plus, there's the cost of bringing on new employees that any business faces. It strikes me from a quality of game perspective that the minor leagues should do their best to keep the good umps around. If that means more money, it seems a raise somewhat more often than once every ten years is appropriate.

Red Reporter is holding a pool on when Brandon Phillips draws his first walk of the season. Phillips isn't even that close to the top of the list, however:

Most plate appearances without a walk, 2006.

Player	PA
Matt Holliday	79
Jeff Francoeur	79
Rondell White	70
Aaron Hill	63
Kevin Mench	61
Brandon Phillips	47
Jay Payton	47
Nathan McLouth	41
Anderson Hernandez	41

I'm a bit surprised by Holliday. While he doesn't walk that much, he's not Shea Hillenbrand. He has 67 walks in 955 at bats entering today.

A.J. Burnett's latest injury is the same as the last one. That makes me wonder if returning him to the rotation early because of the Halladay injury was a mistake.

Baseball Primer Newsblogs links to a number of pieces on the anniversary of Rick Monday stopping a flag burning, although there seems to be more interest in making fun of Tommy Lasorda than celebrating Monday. You can make fun of Tommy anytime.

Once again, Mark Cuban in making noises about buying the Pirates. It would be the best thing to happen to the team since they drafted Barry Bonds.

Curt Schilling attempts to become the major's first five-game winner tonight as the Red Sox visit Cleveland and Jake Westbrook. Schilling is pitching as well as he did in 2004, and is giving up fewer hits to boot. Is it a combination of Schilling velocity and control returning plus a better defense? Batters are getting on base at a .212 clip against the old man, vs. .271 in 2004. Westbrook started strong, but his last two starts saw him hammered for 21 hits in 10 2/3 innings. They hit him so well that he didn't have time to issue a walk.

One reason the Devil Rays gave the Yankees fits last year was their ability to get on base. The Tampa Bay batters posted a .356 OBA vs. New York, well over their .329 mark for the year. They also hit .318 with 20 extra base hits against New York with runners in scoring position in 2005. Mike Mussina tries to put the Yankees back in the win column vs. Tampa as he faces Scott Kazmir. Mike is back to striking out batters, and Kazmir never lost the ability.

In the NL, Dontrelle Willis faces the Cubs and his old friend Juan Pierre.

Monday, the Marlins got their first look at him in Cubs attire. Today, he will face best friend Dontrelle Willis for the first time. The two had breakfast Monday and discussed going head-to-head. Pierre would sometimes catch Willis during the offseason, an exercise he anticipates will serve him well.

"I told him I was going to get him," Pierre said. "I said, `You think I was catching you just for your benefit? I was waiting for this day, too.' It's going to be weird, a guy you went to battle with and played behind so much, being on the other side trying to get hits off him."

Dontrelle is either very good or very bad against Chicago. In four of his six starts he's allowed 1 run or less. In the other two, he's allowed 14 runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Enjoy!

I was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and still have family in the area. Now there is a baseball controversy involving the city. They want to knock down the house of Jim O'Rourke, the only Hall of Famer to come out of Bridgeport.

As you can see from the aerial photograph, there's not a lot around the O'Rouke house anymore. The East Side of the city is a mess. The Pequonnock River is lined with closed factories that can't be knocked down or rehabilitated due to the toxic waste contained within. Once beautiful two family houses are falling in on themselves from decades of neglect. When my grandmother died in 1984, her funeral took place in that part of town. I remember thinking with a little work on the residences how nice this area could look. When my uncle died over a decade later, and we drove the same route, everything looked beyond saving.

This house is an example of that.

A few years ago, they formed a group, the First Hit, and a Web site, Thefirsthit.com, and began holding small fundraisers to help pay the costs of either moving or restoring the home. Bielawa and Crowley estimate that they would need at least $500,000 to finish the work. Asked what they have raised, they looked at each other and did some quick mental calculations.

"Under $10,000," Crowley finally said.

Thirty years ago, it could have been saved easily. Now the price is too high.

So I understand the city's desire to develop and the knock down the house. I understand the desire to keep a piece of history in a part of town where history is decaying. It's unfortunate that decades of poor judgement and corrupt management led to this. Maybe the best compromise at this point is a shrine in the shopping mall to be built on the spot remembering the Bridgeport legend and the house he constructed, a reminder of how easy it is to lose our past.

The Arizona Republic notes that Brandon Webb brought some welcome relief to the Diamondbacks bullpen:

Thanks to a shaky rotation behind Webb, the bullpen had been forced to work 18 2/3 innings in the previous four games - an average of 4 2/3 innings per contest.

But Webb limited to the Padres to four hits in eight innings until issuing back-to-back singles to Mark Bellhorn and Dave Roberts in the ninth. He got behind both of those two batters and became a little rattled, but closer Jose Valverde came on to bail him out and help Webb improve to 3-0.

While Webb is averaging a little over seven inning per start, the rest of the rotation is sporting a 6.40 ERA. Already Arizona took action, sending Russ Ortiz to the bullpen.

6-4-2 Attended the Angels game last night and writes an ode to hero Tim Salmon:

And then, Tim Salmon. The Kingfish came on to lead off in the top of the second to the Eagles' "Already Gone", a song whose lyrics left no doubt in anybody's mind that 2006 is his victory lap; it's over after this season. But the thunderous cheers that welcomed him were as silence compared to the deafening shouts that greeted his solo blast into the Angels bullpen. It was his first home run this year at Angel Stadium, and the same piece of real estate he used to unload his game-winning shot in Game 2 of the 2002 World Series. For that moment, it was like peeking through a keyhole into a past I never knew, the hard times this club has been through, the times when Salmon was its only bright hope, and then the broad sunlit uplands he would have almost no part of. We saw the star who never made the All-Star team, memories and prehistory alike mingling, sweet and bitter and glorious and painful all at once, the light twinkling at the sunset of his career, as the planets sometimes do.

Salmon is the designated lefty killer so far this season. Eight of his twelve hits came off lefties so far, and all five of his extra-base knocks are off southpaws. He's batting and slugging .211 vs. righties.

Oliver Perez upset Albert Pujols last week when Perez did a dance on the mound after getting the St. Louis slugger on a comebacker. Perez danced before after a Pujols strikeout, and Albert had enough:

"He struck me out last year and did all his dancing and I remember that," Pujols said. "That's what happened in Pittsburgh. I hit that ground ball back to him (in the first inning) and he did his little dance again and I got real upset. I went to the video room and told my guy Chad (Blair), 'I'm going to hit the next ball and I'm going to hit it a long way. But don't look at the ball. Look at where the bat is going to land.'"

When Pujols kept his promise, he provided fodder for talking heads in both cities. Pujols' wife, Deidre, informed him Monday of the ongoing debate on local sports talk.

"He got a little cocky out there, and so am I," Pujols said, adding, "If he does strike you out, you need to respect the game and not show people up. ... I respect the game so much. I'm sorry if I disrespected the game that day, but that's the way I feel."

So last night, he just hit another home run off the pitcher. I don't really care about the bat flip. I'm impressed that a batter decided to take a ball out of the park and did so. The moral of the story: don't get Albert upset! I suppose Perez is lucky Albert didn't decide to line one off Oliver's head.

Moises Alou got the last laugh in the Mets-Giants game last night. Twice the Mets walked Barry Bonds, and twice Moises drove in runs, five in all. He now stands at 17 RBI in 15 games. The Giants will be happy to keep that ratio going for the rest of the year. And the younger Alou doesn't believe things will change:

"I love it, I'll take it," said Alou, who broke the game open with a two-run single in the seventh inning with the bases loaded. That said, Alou couldn't discuss what happened without expressing pity for Bonds.

"I feel sorry for the guy," Alou said. "He comes to play a game and he doesn't get to play it. Especially me, I like to swing the bat. I would hate to come to the ballpark and walk and walk."

But if Alou keeps hitting, will opposing teams begin pitching to Bonds? "That time will never come," said Alou, smiling

.

I watched Bonds' third plate appearance of the evening. Glavine walked him unintentionally, after pitching him very well. At one point, Tom hung a breaking ball but all Barry could do was foul it off. Glavine tried to hit the outside corner twice (I though he did, actually), but the pitches were called balls. He refused to challenge Barry when he had him down in the count. Alou launched a ball to the wall in left, just missing his second three-run homer of the game.

And it's not the Moises is more dangerous than Bonds, it's that Bonds just isn't that dangerous right now. And if the strategy is supposed to lead to winning, it's not working as the Giants are 11-8 and in first place in the west.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Prince Fielder stole the second base of his season and career tonight, matching his father's career total. Cecil did not steal a base until 1996, 11 years into his career. The senior Fielder swiped both that season. Prince needs one more for the family record.

The big first baseman also went 3 for 3, raising his average to .373 with a .427 OBA.

Nomar made his first home run with the Dodgers a big one, a grand slam erasing a 2-1 deficit in the ninth. He makes a loser out of Lidge who came on to pitch the ninth but allowed 2 hits and 2 walks for his first blown save of the year. No slow start for Garciaparra as he's 3 for 7 with a double and a homer.

The Oakland Athletics pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers tonight. The A's put 16 men on base via a hit or a walk, but the only three runs came on back-to-back homers by Swisher and Chavez, the only two extra-base hits for the team. One base at a time just isn't delivering the runs for Oakland.

With a runner on first and two out, the Mets decided to intentionally walk Barry Bonds. Alou follows with a three-run homer. If the Mets lose this game, the L should be credited to Randolph, not Glavine.

The Dodgers are yet to get a hit off Andy Pettitte this evening. Through six innings he's walked three and struck out five. As is typical of Pettitte, he's removed two of those baserunners by inducing double plays.

Update: J.D. Drew breaks up the no-no with a solo home run with one out in the 7th. That ties the game at one as Lowe is also pitching a good game, allowing just two hits through six innings.

WhatIfSports.com removed the names of all union players from its new simulations due to licensing issues with MLBAM. Thanks to Brian Harper for the link.

Carlos Zambrano is blowing away the Marlins tonight. Despite striking out 12 in seven innings, however, he's down 3-0 to the Fish. Jason Vargas just left the game with one out in the seventh and men on first and second. He just struck out 2, but allowed only one hit. What got him into a little trouble was four walks, one of which and a hit by pitch gave the Cubs their runners in the 7th.

Update: Herges gets both batter he faces, including a pinch hitter for Zambrano, to preserve the shutout.

Kevin Mench and his new shoes take Joe Blanton deep for a 1-0 Texas lead in the third.

Albert Pujols takes Oliver Perez down the left field line for his 12th home run of the season. The Cardinals lead the Pirates 1-0 at the end of one. He now has 5 home runs in 15 ab bats vs. left-handed pitchers.

Cory Lidle issued one walk in 20 innings when opposing pitcher Josh Fogg led off the third inning tonight. Josh walked on four pitches. Ryan Howard then throws a bunt into centerfield to put men on 1st and 2nd with none out. Barmes bunts both those runners over to put the tieing and go ahead runs in scoring position.

Update: A wild pitch scores Fogg. The Rockies now have the go-ahead run at third with one out.

Update: Holliday fails to bring the runner from third in as he strikes out. It's up to Atkins.

Update: Atkins grounds out to end the inning. The teams are tied at 2 in the middle of the third.

Update: The Phillies come back with four straight hits in the bottom of the third to plate three runs and take a 5-2 lead.

The Cincinnati Reds scored three runs in the first inning against the Nationals. The Reds are leading the majors in runs per game coming into this evening, averaging 6.37 per game. That would work out to 1032 for the season. With two doubles in the first inning, they now have 51 in 20 games to lead the majors in that category as well.

Naughty Baseball is a new blog that takes a satirical look at the game of baseball. The blog gets a lot of credit, in my book, for noticing the striking similarity between Nick Johnson and Vincent D'onofrio.

The Reds and Tony Womack parted ways today as Cody Ross joins Cincinnati in an uncompleted trade. This reminds me of a story I read in an old Bill James Abstract where someone asks, "How many hits will Omar Moreno have when he retires?" and the reply was, "I don't think players like Omar retire."

Via Deadspin, Ray Liotta is pitching in the White Sox minor league system. Through 2005, Ray's only given up seven homers in 228 2/3 minor league innings.

Oliver Perez and the Pirates visit St. Louis and Chris Carpenter tonight. Both pitchers are coming off wins vs. tonight's opponent. Carpenter shutout the Pirates for eight innings on the 19th, while Perez held St. Louis to three runs in 6 2/3 innings for his first win of the season. Perez's big problem this year is walks; 16 in 20 innings means he's allowed a .402 OBA in 2006. Carpenter's only allowed six free passes in 27 innings and his opposition OBA stands at .248.

The Tigers try to continue their road domination tonight as the travel to Anaheim for a tilt with the Angels. Detroit is allowing a .596 OPS on the road, while hitting for at .845 rate. Kenny Rogers allowed just 1 home run in 26 2/3 innings so far. He'll be opposed by Ervin Santana who does a good job keeping batters off base but allowed four dingers this season in just 18 1/3 innings.

Two first place teams face off in San Francisco as the Mets visit the Giants. Tom Glavine appears to be drinking the same water as his old teammate Greg Maddux, as Glavine recorded 26 K in 26 innings so far this season. For his career, Glavine's K per 9 innings is 5.4. Matt Cain is also striking out batters at a good clip, but the Ks are coming mostly against right-handed batters. Lefties are hitting Cain at a .355 clip, with 6 of the 11 hits going for extra bases.

Enjoy!

While close wins may keep us on the edge of our seats, the truly great teams win games big. One example is the 1998 New York Yankees, a team which outscored their opponents by 309 runs over the season. That meant they scored 1.91 more runs per game than the teams they faced.

The White Sox won the close ones last year, but in 2006 they are winning big. Through 18 games, Chicago is up 34 runs on their opponents, or 1.89 runs per game. They're winning big, and possess the best record in the AL. So while the Sox are just 1-2 in one-run games, they're 4-1 in games decided by five runs or more.

Note, however, that in a small sample that doesn't always work. The Yankeess are up 35 runs in 17 games, yet are only 9-8. My guess is that record will turn around.

Kevin Mench's foot was bothering him. The answer: bigger shoes.

It's gotta be the shoes.

At least that's what hitting coach Brook Jacoby said is the main reason outfielder Kevin Mench is starting to pound the ball and collect RBIs in bunches. Mench's foot problems, which led to him missing five games, were partially a result of wearing shoes too small for his feet. He's now sporting spikes a ½ -size larger (12 ½ ) and hitting the ball farther.

"He couldn't keep weight on his back foot and pivot correctly, and now he can," Jacoby said. "That's the biggest difference."

This reminds me of the Mike Venafro story from spring training. Do players skimp on their playing shoes? I mean, if I were a player, I'd be paying for custom cleats that fit just right. Is it that they are so anxious to get freebies from the apparel companies that they don't bother to make sure the shoes are actually right for them? It seems to me that it would be worth it for a player to spend a few thousand dollars on proper footwear. It's an important part of their equipment.

It seems that the problem with the Pittsburgh starting staff was that the coaches were talking too much:

"There was a lot we were throwing at them," Colborn said. "We were using different vocabulary than they had heard before, talking about taking different approaches toward hitters; (manager Jim) Tracy had a different philosophy for them to learn, and I was trying to make their deliveries more effective.

"What happened was, to their credit, they tried to absorb everything. The problem that came was them forgetting who they were."

The article includes a chart that shows improvement, but we'll see how long that lasts. Apart from Perez, the staff just doesn't strikeout batters. They rank 11th in the NL in K per 9 among starters and last in starter's ERA.

The top three groups in line for buying the Washington Nationals are using African-Americans instead of dollars to bid for the team. Somehow usings blacks as currency seems like a step backwards to me.

The ball representing the last out of the 2004 World Series is going to the Hall of Fame. I hope Mientkiewicz got a nice piece of change for his trouble.

Mientkiewicz was often booed when playing on the road by fans he thinks considered him greedy after misunderstanding the retirement fund joke.

Add in what Mientkiewicz said was inappropriate phone calls to his family asking about the ball, and he’s just happy to have this behind him now.

It looks like the Braves are about to be transferred to a new owner:

JOHN Malone’s Liberty Life has swapped almost his entire 4% stake worth $3bn (£1.68bn, E2.43bn) in American media giant Time Warner in return for ownership of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, some cash, and a 50% holding in American cable network Court TV. The deal is expected to be announced this week.

How much are they valuing the Braves? Court TV is supposed to be worth $1 billion, so that leaves $2.5 billion to be divided between cash and the Braves. Forbes values the Braves at .38 billion. So that leaves 2.1 billion is cash, which seems like more than "some." I wonder if the deal includes TBS and Turner South?

The Twins fell six games behind the White Sox yesterday and are as close to the Royals (2 1/2 games) as they are to the Indians. And while the offense is awful on the road, the pitching staff is horrible everywhere:

The Twins have 16 more games to go against a team that flexed its muscle in 7-1 and 9-2 victories against Johan Santana and Brad Radke before rubbing it in against a struggling Carlos Silva on Sunday. They pounded 13 hits in 5 2/3 innings against him, including back-to-back home runs. Twice.

Pitching is supposed to be the strong suit of this team. While the staff is still not walking anybody, they're being hit hard. The opposition is hitting .320 against Minnesota with a .516 slugging percentage. Those are number that would win an individual batter a huge multi-year, multi-million dollar contract. When your whole staff is being hit like that, it's time to figure out what's wrong.

The Athletics are losing again, and someone is frustrated:

The sunflower seeds hit the fan after the A's 4-3 loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Angels of 90210.

More accurately, the seeds hit the dirt in front of the A's dugout. Bags of them. A whole five-gallon bucket of them, thrown in frustration as the A's were filtering out of the dugout and up the stairs to their locker room.

The culprit isn't known, but that might not matter:

Macha can be a man of few words after a game, borderline terse, even. But, like Chavez, he seems the restrained type. Who, then, could have tossed the seeds on Sunday? Since the act was new to us, it stands to reason it might be a player experiencing an A's-type April for the first time.

Those candidates would be Milton Bradley, Chad Gaudin, Brad Halsey, Dan Johnson, Joe Kennedy, Esteban Loaiza, Jay Payton, Antonio Perez, Frank Thomas and Jay Witasick. Though we have our suspicions, no confession was forthcoming after the game.

But that works, too, maybe even better than knowing who did the deed. Kind of like the movie "Ensign Pulver," in which one of the crew uses a sling-shot to propel a missile made of tape and carpet tacks into the buttocks of the mean ship's captain. For a few delicious days, no one knows who the hero is. It could be anyone. It could be everyone.

Frankly, it's more important to know that someone in the A's dugout has had more losing than he can take than to know whom that someone is.

Actually, it sounds like Billy Beane sneaked into the dugout and did some tossing, rather than taking his frustrations out in private. :-)

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

J.D. Drew continued his hot hitting today, knocking out two more hits, including a home run. Drew is a 3-4-5 player so far this season; .300 BA, .400 OBA, .500 slugging percentage. The trick for the Dodgers is to keep him in the lineup. The Dodgers defeated the Diamondbacks 6-4.

Vlad Guerrero continues his streak of hitting nothing but homers and singles, going two for four with one of each of three RBI. That was a big part of the Angels 4-3 victory today. The bottom of the Athletics order contributed nothing today, combining to go 0 for 13 with six strikeouts. None of the four in the 6 through 9 slots today has a slugging percentage over .300.

The Cleveland Indians made the mistake of running into the Royals just as they were turning around their season. Kansas City won their second game in a row and fourth of the season today, based on good pitching from both their starter and their bullpen. Jeremy Affeldt pitched a solid 5 1/3 innings, striking out six batters and allowing just one run. It's the first win by a KC starter this season.

Miguel Ojeda singles in Eli Marrero from second base with two out in the 10th to give the Rockies a 3-2, ten inning victory in another low scoring game at Coors. David Cortes runs his record to 3-0 and has now pitched 11 scoreless innings, 9 2/3 at home.

Greg Maddux continues his rejuvination, shutting out the Cardinals for seven innings this afternoon. The one walk, five hit performance brings his ERA down to 0.99. He's only allowed 15 hits in 27 1/3 innings and has not allowed more than one run in any of his starts. The Cubs win 7-3.

Jose Mesa shows how it's done. With a runner on first and two out in the top of the ninth, Bonds pinch hits. Mesa worked him to 1-1, then threw a perfect pitch on the outside corner that Bonds took for strike two. Barry whined to the ump about that one, but it was a good pitch. Mesa induced Bonds to foul off an outside pitch before Barry swings through a 94 MPH fastball for the strikeout.

Once again, Barry looks unbalanced at the plate. And if Mesa can get him out, anyone can.

With Eric Milton needing knee surgery, Aaron Harang received the call on three days rest and pitched a complete game shutout. It's the second shutout and third complete game of Harang's career. Interestingly, Harang only struck out 4 today after striking out 22 in his first 22 2/3 innings. Is it possible he didn't try to overthrow today?

Chris Burke doesn't play everyday for the Houston Astros, but when he does he hits. He raised his batting average to .400 with a three for four outing, knocking out three doubles. He was even 1 for 2 against lefties coming into today!

The Red Sox relievers continue to do an excellent job. The combined for another 3 2/3 scoreless innings today to lower their ERA to 3.54. They allowed just 3 hits while striking out six. Most impressively, as a unit they're walking a batter just once every four innings. They kept Toronto at bay as Boston goes on for a 6-3 win.

Jim Thome failed to score in a game for the first time this season this afternoon. He's scored 22 runs in 18 games this season. We like to think of run scorers as the fast, leadoff men, but six of the top ten in runs scored were known more for their power than for their speed. In fact, most had the deadly combination of a high OBA and power. The OBA means they're on base when their teammates hit. The power means they score on their own (home runs) or get themselves on base in scoring position. Thome's showing both of these attributes in excess this season.

Tom Gordon picked up the save today in Philadelphia's 4-2 win over the Marlins. I didn't expect a good year from Tom; he seemed to be on the decline to me and at age 38 I figured that would continue. But he struck out all three men he faced today and he's recorded a total of 13 in 7 2/3 innings so far and converted all five save opportunities. The Phillies can't ask much more from their closer.

Jason Giambi drove in five of the Yankees seven runs today as New York defeated Baltimore 7-1. That gives Jason 17 RBI in 16 games this season.

Randy Johnson and Mariano Rivera combined for a four hitter, all four hits coming off the bat of Miguel Tejada.

I just received Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders in the mail. Rob and a host of guest authors explore some of the famous mistakes in baseball history; trades, managers and players. Yours truly gets a side-bar on Dusty Baker and game six of the 2003 LCS on page 270, so I'm not the most unbiased reviewer. However, I love Rob's books, and if you're a fan of the ESPN columnist, I'm sure you'll love this one too.

The official scorer changed a ruling from last night's Giants-Rockies game, giving Barry Bonds an extra hit:

Official scorer Dave Einspahr reviewed Bonds' fourth at-bat from Saturday night, when pitcher Aaron Cook mishandled his comebacker and was charged with an error. Einspahr changed it to an infield single, raising Bonds' batting average from .206 to .235.

"It's kind of a do-or-die situation where, if he doesn't get it cleanly, it's not an easy play," Einspahr told The Associated Press on Sunday after the Giants had requested a review.

The hit takes Bonds much further from the Mendoza line.

The heart of the Rangers lineup pumped runs into the offense in the early innings. The 3-6 hitters, Teixeira, Nevin, Blalock and Mench each homered in the 2nd or 3rd inning to help Texas to a 7-2 in the fourth. Blalock took an offensive step backward last season, but seems back to his all-star form in the early going.

Two former Braves face off against each other in St. Louis today as Greg Maddux and Jason Marquis take the mound for the Cubs and the Cardinals. Greg is pitching like the Maddux of old, keeping the ball in the park and dispatching batter efficiently. Marquis comes into the game with the same 3-0 record as his opponent. He's doing an excellent job vs. LHB, holding them to a .310 OBA and a .357 slugging percentage.

The Tigers send Justin Verlander to the mound against Felix Hernandez of the Mariners as Detroit goes for the sweep in Seattle and a 5-1 record on the west coast. Verlander is striking out plenty, but his four home runs in 16 2/3 innings is costing him. The same can be said of Hernandez; whoever keeps the ball in the park is likely to come up with the win tonight.

Enjoy!

Chad Tracy continued his hot hitting last night, smacking three doubles in a four for four night. Luis Gonzalez hit his seventh double of the season, two. The duo is providing plenty of power in the middle of the Arizona lineup as each is slugging .594.

Pedro Martinez pitched a near classic Martinez game last night, striking out eleven Padres over seven innings while walking just two. His only mistake was a solo home run to his former battery mate, Mike Piazza. While his walk rate remains a little high, his strikeout rate and hits per 9 show no degradation due to his toe. Looks like the shoe is working.

Jose Reyes, on the other hand, is off his early season hot streak and appears to be doing no better as a leadoff hitter than in 2005. After an 0-5 last night, Reyes' OBA sits at .272.

With over 1300 accumulated plate appearances and a .301 career OBA, it's becoming clear Reyes is not a good hitter. His seasonal age is 23 this season; that's getting to the point where the "young" excuse won't fly anymore. The only think Reyes brings to the table right now is his ability to steal, and he can't do that if he's not on base.

Is it too early to give up on Jose? Probably. But it's not too early to start thinking about another option for next year. At this point, Jose does not look like a long term solution.

Jim Leyland laid the Tigers out in lavender after a blowout loss to the Cleveland Indians. His rant appeared to get through to the starting pitchers, as the group carried the load since. In their five starts since the haranguing, they've pitched 34 1/3 innings with a 2.36 ERA. While they haven't struck out many, they've limited the opposition to just 19 hits.

Nate Robertson, who pitched that blowout in Cleveland, gave the Tigers seven scoreless innings last night. He allowed two walks and two hits, both singles. The Tigers scored 4 runs or less in four of these games, so the starters need to be that good to go 3-1 in the five games.

Taylor Buchholz missed a complete game one-hitter last night when Eric Brunlett (who replaced Biggio defensively) committed an error with two out in the ninth. Jack Wilson followed with a single and Lidge came on to get Jayson Bay for the final out.

In two his two starts, Buchholz allowed just four hits in 14 2/3 innings (two of them home runs). He's walked three and struck out nine. For the most part, he's taking advantage of the great Houston defense. The balls in play against him are being turned into outs.

Barry Bonds hit his first home run of the season last night. He went the other way on an outside pitch:

It took longer than expected, but Bonds can count his way down to Babe Ruth on one hand. He took an outside fastball from Aaron Cook and slapped it into the tunnel down the left-field line. The home run came in his 31st at-bat, his longest season-opening homer drought since it took him 55 at-bats in 1998.

What's also interesting is that Bonds feels he needs to connect early in a game:

Bonds also joked that he absolutely had to hit one after Omar Vizquel led off the game with a home run. Bonds said he concentrated on doing something his first at-bat because he is fatiguing in the later innings, even calling his knee pain "overwhelming."

I still think the odds are 50/50 he catches Ruth before his body gives out.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Paul Byrd is off to a poor start tonight, allowing four runs in the first inning to the Kansas City Royals. He walked two in the inning, and the Royals are averaging just over two walks per game. This will make three out of four bad outings for the 35-year-old pitcher. After that inning, his ERA sits at 8.66. His walks are high, (9 in 17 2/3 innings after the first) which is not like Byrd. At his age, one has to wonder if his skills are starting a rapid decline.

Garret Anderson helped the Angels to a 5-4 victory over the Athletics this afternoon with his 25th game of four hits or more. His four for four day raises his average to .333. Anderson came up in 1994, and his 25 games with at least four hits ranks tied for 12th with Moises Alou and Ichiro Suzuki. Dante Bichette, with 33 such games has the most in the time frame, and among active players, the vowel-Rods are tied with 30 such game since 1994. I-Rod has 33 for his career, which leads all active players.

A.J. Burnett officially goes back on the disabled list, but we don't know the severity of the injury yet.

David Bush does indeed finish the game, allowing four hits for his second career shutout. One person in the comments to the previous post asked if a team had hit five home runs in the same half inning. My data goes back to 2000, and it's the first time in that time span. There are 21 instance of four home runs in an half inning since 2000 through yesterday.

Update: This article says it's the first time in 40 years.

Correction: It's Bush's second career shutout.

Robinson Cano did not draw a walk all season until today, when he took free passes twice. Last year, he walks about once every eight games, so two walks today puts him on pace with last season. He is hitting well, however, and his 1 for 2 puts him at .339 with a .361 OBA.

The Yankees drew a total of seven walks in the game. Along with their seven hits, they defeated the Orioles 6-1. Of the 24 batters to reach base in the game, only Matsui with a bases loaded double initially got past first.

The Milwaukee Brewers are getting outstanding performaces on both sides of the ball today as they lead the Cincinnati Reds 10-0 in the seventh. Five different player homered in the game for Milwaukee. David Bush is throwing his second outstanding game of the season. Through seven he's allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out nine. He's thrown just 85 pitches, so it looks like he might just finish this game. Bush may prove to be one of the best acquistions of the Brewers off-season.

Sidney Ponson allowed 10 base runners through five inning, but the Cubs only managed to score one run. Ponson induced two double plays and Chicago is 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

The game is tied in the fifth at one run apiece.

The Toronto Blue Jays 1-2-3 hitters today are all batting over .400 halfway through the game. Johnson, Rios and Wells are a combined 5 for 7 today as the Blue Jays are out to an 8-1 lead in the top of the fifth.

There's a big disconnect between the top and bottom of the Toronto order. The lowest OBA among the 1-4 hitters is .396, while the highest among the 5-9 hitters is .333. Four super offensive players batting together in the lineup can generate enough offense if the pitching is good. This team right now looks like it's constructed like the 2005 White Sox.

Ed Zipper sends some pictures from his trip to see the Yankees play the Twins at the Metrodome. Here's the street named after Kirby Puckett:

Here's the dedication to Kirby in centerfield:

And here's the Twins denying constitutional rights. :-)

Click on an image for a full size picture.

The Cubs and Cardinals continue their series this afternoon with Glendon Rusch facing Sir Sidney Ponson. Rusch allowed seven home runs in fifteen innings so far this season and gets to face Albert Pujols, who's hit three home runs in 38 at bats against he lefty. Ponson's is somewhat effective vs. lefties this year. Although he allowed both his homer to left-handers, he's kept them to a .227 batting average and a .261 OBA.

The Mets and Padres need their starters to go deep tonight after the Friday marathon. Pedro Martinez faces Chris Young. Pedro need to work more efficiently than in his last performance when he used 108 pitches to finish 6 2/3 innings. Young's innings are going up with each of his starts. More importantly, the control the Padres need from the former Ranger is there. Look for a lot of strikeouts between these two tonight.

Enjoy!

A.J. Burnett's early exit from last night's game was due to his elbow.

The Jays' huge investment of $55 million (all figures U.S.) in right-handed starter A.J. Burnett is balanced precariously on a tightrope over payroll disaster.

Removed from last night's game after four innings and 78 pitches, the 29-year-old said he felt pain in his right elbow consistent with what he felt at spring training and will fly to Birmingham, Ala., on Monday to see orthopaedist Dr. James Andrews.

"Preliminary exams say the same thing," manager John Gibbons said. "We'll let (Dr. Andrews) determine that and then go from there. It's big. The second time it's happened to him. You've got to move on. We've just got to hold down the fort and hopefully he's not out for any length of time."

Did the Jays rush him back?

Whatever it is? That's the question of the month and maybe the season for the Jays. Burnett revealed last night that the scar-tissue problem first popped up as he warmed up for the Marlins just prior to the 2004 season opener.

He was shelved and not re-activated until June 3, missing 62 days for the same injury that the Jays kept him out for just 28 days this time. If the Jays are as prudent as the Marlins, his return would be late June.

If there's any medical professionals reading this, can the scar tissue be cleaned out?

Kudos to the pitching staffs of the Mets and Padres last night. Both shut the opposition down for 14 innings as San Diego finally beat New York 2-1. The Padres bullpen impressed the most, pitching six innings, allowing just three hits while striking out seven.

The Mets bullpen faced a tougher task, as Bannister lasted just five innings. For eight innings, the Mets allowed just five hits while striking out ten. But Bradford, who struck out four of the five men he had faced, started the fourteenth allowing a single to Blum and an RBI double to Giles. Mets relievers are being hit for a .218 BA and struck out 56 of the 222 batters they've faced.

Alfonso Soriano didn't mind the rain delay in Washington last night as he slugged three homers in a 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves. He also added a double for 14 total bases in the game and drove in five of the seven runs. It was Alfonso's first three home run game of his career.

John Patterson continues to strike out batters, and now has 32 in 25 2/3 innings.

Mike Maroth moves into the AL ERA lead with six scoreless inning against the Mariners last night. He allowed four hits, all singles and walked three. In 18 1/3 innings, the only run against him came on a solo home run. That's an 0.49 ERA.

Mike's great ERA this year come from his shutting down the heart of the opponent's order. The three through six hitters are 4 for 32 against Mike with no walks, five strikeouts and three GDPs. He's yet to allow a hit with a runner past first base. It's great to see a former 20 game loser off to such a good start.

He need to pitch that well last night, as the Tigers only scored 1 run when Maroth left the game. He picked up the win as Detroit held on for a 2-1 victory.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ben Sheets improved on his first start by striking out 10, walking none and allowing just two runs through seven innings. But Bronson Arroyo goes eight and is touched for just one run as he earns his third victory against no defeats. He struck out 8 and walked just two, and David Weather added two K in his inning of relief for the save. A very good night for the Reds staff as the team wins 3-1.

Jon Lieber pitches an excellent game, allowing six hits in seven innings while striking out eight, but comes up on the losing end. The six hits came in consecutive innings, and one of the four runs comes on a double steal. Meanwhile, the Phillies struck out just twice and put a dozen on via a hit or walk, but could only manage three runs. The Phillies went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position, and Philadelphia is now batting .186 in that situation on the season (21 for 113).

Phil Garner was tossed early tonight, apparently for arguing balls and strikes.

Plate umpire Rick Reed called a ball on a pitch by Wandy Rodriguez to Craig Wilson with one out in the first inning. Garner apparently didn't like the call and went to the plate to confront Reed.

This strikes me as an intentional move by Garner. He probably had a run-in with Reed in a previous game and wanted to make his point early. Arguing balls and strikes is strictly forbidden, so Reed was in his rights to toss Phil quickly.

Three home runs by the Blue Jays in the bottom of the eighth off Beckett and Timlin tie the Red Sox at six. All runs in this game were driven in by the long fly balls. Each team hit four home runs, with Manny Ramirez and Vernon Wells each knocking out a pair.

At the end of the first inning, the Devil Rays and Rangers combined for nine runs. So far the teams knocked out eight hits, two doubles and three home runs. It's going to be a long night. Texas leads 5-4 at the end of one inning.

A commentor noted that Burnett left the game tonight after four innings. He threw 78 pitches, and this being his second start, he may be on a strict pitch count. I wasn't watching the game at the time, so I don't know if there was an injury.

It's funny, I look at the scoreboard and see St. Louis scored two runs in the bottom of the first, and the first thing I think is, "Pujols went deep again." Sure enough, Pujols hits number 11, driving in John Rodriguez for the 2-0 lead over the Cubs.

Manny Ramirez breaks his home run drought as he follows a two-run shot by David Ortiz with a solo of his own. The Red Sox lead 3-0 through three, and the Blue Jays are hitless.

Update: Manny hits a second homer in the game, a two-run shot and the Red Sox lead Toronto 6-2 in the 8th.

Chien-Ming Wang loses control after a double in the third inning, walking two to load the bases with two out. He falls behind Mora 3-0, works the count back to 3-2, and gets Mora to ground the ball into the shortstop hole. It's hit slowly enough for Jeter to field it, but Derek makes a weak, high throw and Mora beats it out for a single (although the play looked like it could go either way on the replay).

Meanwhile, with the runners moving, Brian Roberts scores from second! A nice piece of base running. The ball was hit slowly enough that he was close to third when Jeter fielded, and Roberts just kept going. With the poor throw, Andy Phillips at first base never had a chance to throw home.

It's plays in the hole like that where Jeter really doesn't shine. Instead of rushing the throw and getting nothing on it, he'd be better off setting himself and rifling the ball. David Eckstein doesn't have Jeter's arm strength, but he makes that play.

This is just too funny, except if you're a Mets fan.

Hat tip, MetsBlog.com.

So many good matchups, so little space! Wait, this is the internet, I have all the room in the world!

It the battle of the former Marlins in Toronto tonight as Josh Beckett faces A.J. Burnett. Beckett is certainly making his bid for ex-Marlin of the year with a 3-0 record and 1.29 ERA. His strikeouts are below his career norms, but he's making up for it with a great performance with runners in scoring position. Burnett's problem in his first start came from the gopher ball, otherwise he pitched well in his Toronto debut.

Kris Benson returns to New York tonight, trying to help the Orioles defeat the Yankees and Chien-Ming Wang. Benson's problem so far this season is putting batters away with two strikes. Opponents are batting .241 against him in that situation vs. an American League average of .202. Wang finally showed some of his minor league strikeout ability in his last outing, striking out eight Twins in seven innings.

Bronson Arroyo and Ben Sheets meet in Milwaukee. Arroyo is all about power this year. He's hit two home runs, but eight of the 18 hits he's allowed went for extra bases. Sheets pitched well in his return as far as walks and strikeouts go. A couple of well timed hits by the Mets ruined what was otherwise a fine performance as he struck out 6 in 5 innings without walking a batter.

In the heartland, the Twins and the White Sox send their aces to the mound as Johan Santana takes on Mark Buehrle. Santana is off to a rough start, having walked six in 17 1/3 innings so far. Buehrle's ERA may be deceptively low as he's only allowed 1 hit in 10 at bats with runners in scoring position.

And for you on the west coast, a good game by Mike Maroth would leave him in the lead for AL ERA. He comes into the game against the Mariners with a 0.73 mark.

Enjoy!

Tim Marchman at the New York Sun is fascinated by the poor play of the Royals, and he's holding a contest to predict the team's record at the end of May:

To concentrate the minds of baseball fandom, I offer incentives. Drop me an e-mail predicting what the Royals' record will be at the end of May, when they will have played 53 games. As a tiebreaker, predict the number of Royals hitters who will have at least 100 at-bats with an on-base average of at least .300. The winner will receive a spiffy Kansas City Royals hat, an autographed copy of "The Big Book of Baseball Blunders," the new title from redoubtable ESPN.com columnist and long-suffering Royals fan Rob Neyer, and the honor that comes with having shown that it's impossible to overestimate how bad this team is.

My guess is the Royals intrinsic winning percentage is around .400. Given their poor start, an 18-35 record seems appropriate for the first 53 games played. Two wins in twelve games is within the 95% confidence interval for a .400 team.

Fishstripes finds the correct way to pronouce the name of the Marlins' second baseman. I ususally butcher pronunciation (one reason I prefer writing), but I actually had this one right.

The Chicagoist offers details of the Cubs garage sale.

The latest Forbes report on baseball's finances is out, and things are looking good. And the reason is the New York Yankees:

Revenue sharing also had a profound impact on operating income. The Yankees and the Red Sox lost $50 million and $18.5 million, respectively, before interest, income taxes and depreciation. By not using their subsidies to boost player payroll (which was the intent of revenue sharing), the Pittsburgh Pirates, Royals and Twins each earned more than $20 million.

But the league's reliance on Steinbrenner's Yankees goes far beyond revenue sharing. For example, a visit by the Yankees can increase a home team's ticket sales by as much as 25 percent. And the Yankees account for 27 percent of all league merchandise sales, the profits of which get shared equally throughout the league to the tune of more than $3 million per franchise. In effect, much of the league operates as subsidiaries of the Bronx Bombers.

The Yankees are now worth $1 billion dollars. A nice return on a $20 million dollar investment in the early 1970's. It's about 12.2% a year.

Julio Franco hit his first home run of the season last night, making him the oldest man to homer in MLB. Congratulations to Julio! He's so old (or I'm so old), Julio came up a month before I graduated from college.

Derrek Lee is going on the DL.

Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee broke two bones in his right wrist in a collision with the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal and is expected to be in a cast up to six weeks.

Add to that the extra time it takes to recover from wrist injuries, and the Dusty's pledge not to worry about the team's hot start looks right on the money. According to Win Shares, Lee was responsible for 11 of the 79 Cubs wins last year. That's a huge number for one player. Who ever replace Derrek (short of Albert Pujols) puts the Cubs in a hole. I'd say the odds are good right now of 98 straight years without a World Championship.

Ivy Chat provides the x-ray and notes how Hendry never makes a trade to fill in for an injured player.

While it's not that surprising the Texas Rangers trail their opposition in runs, it is surprising why. The Rangers ERA stands at 4.73 after their 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners last night. They've only allowed four unearned runs to bring their defensive total to 78. That's good for a Texas team. But the offense only scored 76 runs, 4.75 per game. In a season where offense is up, Texas is looking at a 0.6 drop in runs per game!

My guess is the offense won't stay this low. If the hitters come around and the pitching can maintain this level, the Rangers will be in the playoff hunt.

The western games in the National League last night were made much more interesting by the poor bullpen work of three of the four teams playing. The Giants got off to an early 6-0 lead against the Diamondbacks. Wright gave up two runs over 6 2/3 innings, but Fassero, Kline and Worrell combined to give away the lead, allowing the game to be tied at six going into the top of the 9th. Medders enters the game for Arizona and gives up three runs, undoing the offensive comeback. The sequence included an intentional walk to Barry Bonds with 1 out and men on first and third. Bonds eventually came around to score after Medders walked in a run and Feliz doubled. I guess there was no chance Bonds would hit into a double play in that situation. Even if he hits a long fly ball, it's one run and two outs. Given that Arizona scored in the bottom of the ninth to eventually lose 9-7, pitching to Bonds would not be a bad strategy there.

There were 15 walks in this game. That had to be painful to watch.

The Padres bullpen wasted a fine performance by Jake Peavy as they lost to the Mets 7-2. Peavy held the Mets to an inside-the-park home run by Matsui for seven innings and left with a 2-1 lead. Linebrink and Embree then let six runs score in the eighth inning. Meanwhile, the Mets bullpen was nearly perfect, allowing one hit while striking out four over three innings to earn the win for Sanchez. With three dingers by the Mets, the Padres trail in homer at PETCO 11-4.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kaz Matsui makes his first start of the year at second base for the Mets. He hasn't batted yet, but he did turn the pivot in a double play. The Padres lead 1-0 in the middle of the second inning.

Update: Kaz starts the season off right with a home run in his first at bat. He did the same thing in 2004.

Scott Kazmir pitches a nice game tonight as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays shut down the Red Sox 5-1. Kaz struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings while walking just one. He's alternating low and high walk games so far this year, but keeping a selective team like the Red Sox from taking free passes is a good sign.

Bonds is out of the Giants lineup again tonight, but Felipe Alou says he's just giving Barry an extra day of rest. It hasn't hurt the team as they've gotten off to a 5-0 lead after the top of the first. The first four batters reached base, and with one out Ray Durham hit a three-run triple.

Ryan Madson's pitches must have looked fat in the first inning as the Nationals pound out five hits for five runs. Washington sent ten men to the plate, and Billy Traber had a single and an RBI before he faced a single opponent.

Update: Madson faces four batters in the second without recording an out. All come around to score, including a two run homer by Nick Johnson. The Phillies find themselves down 9-2 in the second.

Fernando Rodney comes on in the eighth to get the Athletics 1-2-3, but runs into trouble in the ninth. A single and two walks load the bases with one out, but Kendall grounds into a force at home and Melhuse strikesout to end the game and give Rodney his fourth save. The Tigers win 4-3.

Correction: Rodney go the win, not the save. Still, it's good to see Leyland usings his closer in a non-save situation like that.

The Angels score two runs in the eighth inning to defeat the Twins 6-4. Vlad Guerrero picks up two more singles. He now has a .365 batting average, but 20 of his 23 hits fell for singles.

Bartolo Colon goes on the disabled list today with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. I wonder if he'll be used as an example of the World Baseball Classic hurting a pitcher?

Eddie Perez is 1 for 2 with a home run against Erik Bedard today as Perez continues to pound lefties. He's now 6 for 21 with three homers against southpaws this year.

Some trouble for the Twins as Castillo comes out of the game in the bottom of the seventh. It looks like he hurt himself diving into first base on a pickoff throw. He stayed in for another batter, then came off the field, and it looked like he was laboring while he was jogging off.

Castillo is a great pickup so far. After a 3 for 4 today, he's batting .404 with a .481 OBA.

The AP updates the progress of the Yankees injured pitching corps. Most interesting:

Reliever Octavio Dotel is scheduled to pitch an inning Friday in his second extended spring training game since ligament replacement surgery on his right elbow last June.

The Baseball Savant doesn't buy the idea that fewer innings pitched per start is mostly the result of more selective batters seeing more pitches per plate appearance.

Thom Loverro gets conflicting information from sources on which groups are most likely to win the Washington Nationals:

But after rounding up the usual suspects in an exercise that has gone on way too long, the consensus is the selection is down to two groups. But there is no consensus over which two those are.

Some believe it is down to the Washington Baseball Club and the Lerner family-Stan Kasten merger. But many others think it is between the Lerner-Kasten group and Jeff Smulyan.

Since Lerner-Kasten is a finalist in both scenarios, it would appear to be the choice.

"Bud is very comfortable with the Lerners," said one baseball insider familiar with the process.

But he also is comfortable with Smulyan. And, perhaps just as important, his lieutenant, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, considers Smulyan a close friend.

Loverro then sums up the political advantages and disadvantages of each group. It may come down to congressional power vs. district power.

Update: I forgot to include the link earlier.

Redleg Nation notes that the Reds are likely to release Tony Womack when Griffey comes off the DL. There's a very good discussion of Womack in the comments.

The best pitching matchups are in the afternoon today. The Indians and Orioles used up a lot of offense last night, and Fausto Carmona and Erik Bedard may be the beneficiaries of the tired teams. Bedard is off to a 3-0 start and hasn't seen a ball leave the park in 20 innings. Carmona was very tough on righties in his first major league appearance as they were a mere 1 for 12 against him.

Barry Zito and former Athletic Jeremy Bonderman face off in Oakland. Both start the season with high ERAs, but Bonderman is pitching well. He's struck out 20 and walked three in 17 1/3 innings. That's a formula for success. Zito is also pitching better than his record indicates, although his six walks in 14 1/3 innings has hurt him.

And for those interested in evening baseball, the Mets visit the Padres to face San Diego ace Jake Peavy. Lefties have Jake's number this year. The sinister batters are 10 for 35 with eight extra-base hits against Peavy in 2006. The Mets lefties can use a break, as they are only hitting .213 as a unit in April.

The View from the Bleachers informs me of Derrek Lee's injury last night in a collision with Scott Eyre:

Lee was revealed to have a sprained right wrist after a collision at the first base bag with Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, though x-rays were inconclusive. He was scheduled to fly to Chicago today to be examined by team doctors. Eyre's injury, a bruised right knee, was considered to be less serious, and he said he expected to be able to pitch this weekend in St. Louis.

For manager Dusty Baker, watching Lee and Eyre get injured was about as tough as it gets.

"You never see losing two guys on one play," Baker said. "We've just got to wait and hold our breath and hope everything is all right."

I hate seeing hitters suffer wrist injuries. Those seem to reduce hitting even after they're supposedly healed.

Baseball Primer Newsblog notes Joe Girardi criticizing his team over mistakes and comments:

That’s pretty mild as team-ripping goes. Maybe a 0.5 on the Larry Bowa/Billy Martin/INSERT NAME HERE scale.

Which is the right level. He's upset, but in a constructive way. The "we're young and inexperienced" excuse isn't going to work with Joe, but he's not tearing down individuals either. I particularly like this part of his quote:

“This was our first chance that we had to win a series and we should have won the series,’’ Girardi said. “And the way you make the playoffs is by winning series. You don’t give series away.’’

Here he is with an awful team, and he's talking about making the playoffs. It's clear Joe wants to win, and he's going to drill that into the players, too.

Wright Thompson details what's been bothering Zack Greinke. While no one offers a diagnosis, his problems go much deeper than earlier reports indicated. It's actually quite sad. His problems started at an early age:

From an early age, Greinke didn’t know what to do with empty spaces. Even during Little League, he hated to arrive at the ballpark a half-hour before games. He never seemed to know what to do or say.

“I knew there was something wrong with me,” he says, “but I never thought about going to see anyone to talk about it.”

He gravitated toward solitary pursuits. Even today, he loves golf, fishing and mountain climbing. High above Phoenix, where he likes to trek, he can look down on everyone else, happy up near the clouds.

And it all came to a head this spring:

He had a successful 2004 season but faltered a bit in 2005. By the time he got to spring training earlier this year and couldn’t throw a bullpen session, he’d come to a crossroads. He couldn’t fake fitting in any longer. Things he’d once adored meant little.

“I really like when the sun is setting,” he says. “I was here in Arizona, and it was one of the prettiest days out and the sun was setting, and I was like, ‘I don’t care; I don’t even want to look at it right now. It doesn’t do anything for me.’ That was one moment where I was like: What’s wrong with me?”

He left camp, and as the plane took off for home, a weight lifted off his shoulders. He felt free, for the first time in ages. But soon, he realized that his problems existed inside himself, not in any clubhouse.

Now, two days into his comeback, sitting in a conference room in Surprise, he touches his pitching arm.

“I wouldn’t give up this thing for anything,” he says. “I love it. But also, the problem I have isn’t going to bother me just if I play baseball. It’s gonna bother me no matter what I’m doing. That’s one thing I realized when I left and started talking to some people. I realized that it’s not just at the baseball field that it’s like this.

“Whatever I do in life, it’s gonna bother me.”

Let's hope he continues to make progress.

A scout describes how Barry Bonds' knees and elbow hurt his production:

But it's possible that Bonds simply is hurting too much to approach peak efficiency ever again.

As a left-handed batter, Bonds is significantly hampered by his particular combination of injuries. "because of his right knee, he lacks a firm base when he swings," the scout said. "And because of his left arm" -- the dominant arm for a left-handed hitter -- "he can't get full extension. It's a double-whammy."

Even when he hit a monstrous double Tuesday night -- it would have been a homer in many parks -- Bonds' form was flawed.

"It was almost like a one-handed swing. One-and-a-half handed," Alou said.

My good friend Jim Storer called yesterday to ask what I thought was the probability of Bonds breaking Aaron's record, and how that had changed since before the season started. I had the probability of Bonds catching Aaron low. There seemed to be a very good chance that the injuries would hamper him to the point that he couldn't play long enough to get the 48 homers needed. I'd say there was a 20% chance coming into the season, but after watching Barry play, that's down to 5% and that's being generous.

What's really interesting is the probability of passing Ruth is also dropping. While I didn't believe it was a given Bonds would pass Ruth this season, the odds were pretty high it would happen, 80 or 90%. I'd say it's closer to 50/50 now. If he plays the whole season, he'll manage to put seven balls beyond the fence. But at some point, teams will stop fearing a hitter with a batting average below the Mendoza line, and his OBA will drop accordingly. At that point, he stops being valuable to the team, and the Giants will need to choose between a record and winning the division. And Bonds will need to decide if it's worth the physical pain to continue to pursue the record.

Or, in this case, lack of crowds. In an article about poor attendance at Diamondback games, a fan sums up the team very well:

Some fans at Wednesday night's game said they thought the drop-off could be attributed to wins and losses.

"They don't have a very good team," said Matt Wright, 26, of Phoenix, who was attending his first regular-season game. "They need to spend some money. They've got too many young guys and too many old guys, and they need pitching bad."

They need more players in their prime. The young ones will get there soon, and the old ones will leave at the same time. That should leave the Diamondbacks in pretty good shape.

Fishstripes parses a radio interview with David Samson as killing the San Antonio deal.

The Yankees lost two members of their family Wednesday:

New York Yankees minor league manager Oscar Acosta and team official Humberto Trejo were killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic, the New York Post reported Thursday.

My thoughts go out to their family and friends.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Congratulations to Sendy Rleal. In an ugly 18-9 Baltimore victory over the Indians, the rookie faced five batters and got them all out, the best performance of the night. Jason Davis did retire three batters with two strikeouts for the runner up best line of the night.

Otherwise, it was batting practice and fielding blunders. There were 35 hits, seven doubles, six homers and five errors. Neither side can be very happy with their overall defensive effort tonight.

You can't ask for much better pitching than the Red Sox received tonight. Schilling went six inning striking out seven. The bullpen struck out five over the last three frames. All in all, twelve Ks, one walk and seven hits. Whenever your hits allowed are under your strikeouts, you're doing a pretty good job.

Plenty of offensive support too, as the Red Sox win 9-1. Youkilis reached base three more times, and is looking more and more like he belongs at the top of the order.

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

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The Padres and Rockies combined for seventeen runs at Coors today, but just one homer. Nineteen of the twenty eight were singles as the Padres won in a blow out, 13-4. San Diego knocked out 19 hits, 13 singles, a triple and five doubles. That big outfield means there's lots of room for hits to fall.

The Marlins bullpen could not hold an 8-4 lead and the Reds score five in the last three innings to take a 9-8 victory. Edwin Encarnacion finished up a two-hit day with an rbi double to drive in Adam Dunn with the winning run. Encarnacion is off to a great start, finishing the game with a .397 OBA and a .531 slugging percentage.

The Yankees won a close game today, a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Mike Mussina continued his renaissance, striking out seven in seven innings and not allowing a walk.

The Yankees offense, however, underperformed today. Their three runs came on nine hits, two hit batters and seven walks. Twice they left the bases loaded without scoring. With that many men on, you'd expect a couple of more runs.

Zack Greinke returned to the Royals today, reporting to extended spring training in Arizona. Given the state of the Royals pitching, they have to hope the therapy helped.

Javier Vazquez makes his bid for a no-hitter in Kansas City. He's through five inning and only one walk mars his performance today. The White Sox lead 4-0.

Update: Vazquez retires the Royals 1-2-3 in the sixth.

Update: Mientkiewicz breaks up the no-hitter in the seventh.

Zach Day finds out what Coors Field is really like as he gives up four hits and three walks in the first inning to give the Padres a 4-0 advantage. Day threw 32 pitches in the inning, 18 for balls.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

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The Mets score one in the bottom of the ninth, but it's not enough as Tim Hudson completes the game for the win. Delgado made the penultimate out of the game, driving the ball to the warning track in left. Hudson lookied like he was tiring, but Cox did not have a lefty up in the bullpen. Hudson then gets Wright to ground into a force out to end the game. Tim throws a Maddux like 97 pitches in going the distance.

Chris Carpenter dominated the Pirates today, allowing just two hits over eight innings as he and Isringhausen complete the 4-0 shutout. The starter threw 110 pitches, 73 for strikes as he K'd six and walked just one. It certainly was a Cy Young type outing.

It looks like the fear of Pujols is taking over, as the slugger walked three times today. He's going to get the Bonds treatment this year.

Ramon Castro tries to score from third on a decently deep fly ball by Jose Reyes. Diaz makes a perfect throw, and it wasn't even close at the plate.

Update: Andruw Jones doesn't need speed as he hits his eighth home run of the year off Glavine in the top of the seventh. The Braves lead this tight pitcher's duel 1-0.

The Reds end the "all the runs on homers" afternoon and Willis' scoreless streak at GAB with four runs in the fourth. Three hits, two walks and a wild pitch brought in the runs. It's 5-4 Marlins in the fifth inning.

Only one hit at Shea Stadium this afternoon. Through four innings Hudson's retired all 12 he's faced, while Glavine retired 12 of 13. Francoeur has the only blemish, a single.

Update: Ramon Castro breaks up the perfect game with a single leading off the sixth. Just three hits so far in the 0-0 game.

Through four innings, the Pirates have no hits against Chris Carpenter. The Cy Young Award winner hit Chris Duffy, the first batter of the game, but a double means he's faced the minimum. No-hitters where the pitcher's only mistake is a hit by pitch are rare and among my favorites. I believe on 6/18/1947 Ewell Blackwell retired the first 26 batters, then hit the pitcher to break up the perfect game. He did get the no-hitter, however.

Update: Carpenter is through five innings. He faced the minimum and threw just 54 pitches.

Update: Ronny Paulino gets his first hit of the year and the first hit off Carpenter with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning.

As of about an hour into this afternoon's contests, four runs crossed the plate, all on solo homers. While usual suspects Miguel Cabrera and Jim Edmonds went deep, Miguel Olivo and David Eckstein also hit homers today.

Update: Dan Uggla hits a three-run homer. All seven runs scored so far today came on home runs.

It's a good afternoon to take a long lunch at the local sports bar as a number of day games are on tap. Dontrelle Willis brings his 1.93 ERA to Cincinnati as he takes on Aaron Harang and the Reds. Hitters don't have a home run off Dontrelle at GAB in fifty-five at bats, nor have they even scored a run in 16 innings there.

Mike Mussina tries to move the Yankees back into a tie with the Blue Jays as he faces former New York hurler Ted Lilly. The Yankees pretty much crush their former teammate, as Ted's gone 2-5 with a 6.27 ERA against his old ballclub.

For those of you that like your baseball late, Kenny Rogers faces Joe Blanton in Oakland tonight. Rogers is 23-4 at the Coliseum for his career, although just 8-4 as a visitor.

Enjoy!

Luis Gonzalez reached the 500 double mark last night, the forty fourth player in the history of baseball hit that milestone. Should this be another one of those milestones that put you in the Hall of Fame? It's an impressive accomplishment. You need to play a long time and have good power. Twenty-eight of the forty four are in the Hall. Pete Rose would make it twenty nine if he were eligible. Biggio, Ripken, Gwynn and are going in at some point, and probably Bonds and Palmeiro. Roberto Alomar is also deserving. So Rose and those six would bring the total to 35 of 44. Seems like a Hall of Fame standard to me.

That said, I don't believe Luis will make it. The first half of his career, wasn't anything special. In judging his whole career, his averages are just not outstanding, especially in an offensive era. A great career in your 30s isn't going to be enough to put him in the Hall.

Angel Rocha, a minor league pitcher for the Diamondbacks received a 100 game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy. It was his second offense. Of the five minor league players suspended this year, four are pitchers.

I wonder if the penalty system is wrong for the minor leagues. If you're working your way up, the goal is to get a big payday in the majors. Since only a few make it, why not risk a 50-day suspension to get noticed? The thought process might be:

1. My chances of making the majors are slim.
2. I only have a 25% chance of getting caught if I take a PED.
3. If I get caught, I just don't make the majors sooner.
4. If it works, I get a big payday.

Maybe the penalty in the minors should be that the player can't be called up to the majors for two years. Taking the chance of going to the majors from slim to zero might be a better deterrent.

Nick Swisher gave the Oakland Athletics the lead twice last night, blasting a two-run homer in the second inning and a game winning solo shot in the seventh. He ties Eric Chavez for the team lead with six. Maybe more importantly to the A's, Esteban Loaiza pitched six good innings after two terrible starts. His control returned as he struck out three and walked just one.

On a night when the likes of Randy Johnson, Roy Oswalt and Matt Morris were hammered, Carlos Zambrano and Derek Lowe showed how to pitch like an ace. Lowe threw the better performance, allowing one run over seven innings while striking out six. Zambrano's performance wasn't as neat. He walked five in his six innings, but only allowed four hits and one run. The Dodgers won it in the bottom of the night on a Lofton walk, stolen base and Drew single.

Matt Holliday singled in the winning run in the 11th inning last night at Coors, giving the Rockies a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Park Indexes give us a measure of how much different stadiums help or hurt various statistics. It's basically the playing time adjusted ratio of home/road numbers. A score of 100 indicated a neutral park. A score below 100 indicates a park that hurts the stat, above 100 helps.

Right now, the Coors run index is 78.1, fourth lowest in the majors, while PETCO sits at 135.1, fourth highest. These two parks are usually at the opposite ends of runs scored, with Coors extremely high and PETCO extremely low. It continues to be a strange offensive year.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Padres and Rockies are in extra innings at Coors with the score tied 2-2. It's another low scoring game at the mile high ballpark. Coming into today, there's been an average of 10.0 runs per game at Coors, 15th in the majors. In a year with high offense, that's pretty amazing.

Update: The ballpark finished first or second in most runs allowed per game each year of this century.

What a strange outing for Felix Hernandez. He's struck out six through three innings while only walking one. But of the nine ball in play against him, six fell for hits. Nevin and Wilkerson took him deep for two-run shots, and the young fireballer trails 4-0. He's thrown 79 pitches already, 50 for strikes.

The Red Sox just defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 7-4, but not without putting the fans of both teams on the edge of their seats. It was an extremely impressive ninth for the Tampa batters, and they came an inch away from tying the game.

Papelbon started the inning and struck out Gathright easily. Crawford, however singled to center which brought up Cantu. Cantu worked the count full, fouling off a number of pitches, working Jon hard. He finally struck out. Travis Lee followed, again working the count full and fouling off pitches, and he managed to work a walk. Gomes followed, and walked. At this point, Papelbon was well over the most pitches he threw in an inning this year. Hollins comes up, and Jon gets ahead of him 0-2. Then (I'm not sure it was the next pitch) Hollins lines one to center field. Stern comes on and makes a shoe string catch to end the game.

As Jerry Remy pointed out, it was a dangerous play for Stern. If he dives and misses the ball, it rolls by him and all three runners score. Adam took the risk, and the reward was another Red Sox win.

Troy Glaus added two homers to bring his total to five as the Jays completed the blow out of the Yankees 10-5. The Jays now own three players with five homers on the season; Wells, Rios and Glaus. That's a rough 2-4 stretch of the lineup for a pitching staff.

Randy Johnson allowed seven runs in 3 1/3 innings, making you wonder if his early exit from his last start was something other than being conservative.

Kevin Youkilis doubled off the centerfield wall to drive in two runs and give the Red Sox a 6-4 lead over Tampa Bay in the bottom of the eighth. Mark Loretta followed with a single for another insurance run. Both hits came with two outs.

Coming into tonight's action, Youkilis was getting on base at a .429 clip since moving into the leadoff spot for Coco Crisp. He's 2 for 4 with a walk, so that average will go up some more. I wonder if this keeps up if the Red Sox will leave Kevin at the top of the order when Crisp returns? Youkilis has a much better career OBA than Crisp.

Kyle Davies picked up the first complete game of his career tonight against the red hot New York Mets. The farthest Davies ever went in a start before is 7 2/3 innings against Pittsburgh last June fourth. His only mistake on the evening was a home run to Chris Woodward. He struck out six and walked just one, while throwing 77 of 106 pitches for strikes.

The rotation may be coming around as the Braves received three great starts in their last four games.

The Astros lead the Brewers in RBI tonight 1-0, but they're losing the game 2-1. It's possible but rare to lose a game where one team drives in more runs than the other, but it's impossible to lose if you outscore your opponent.

Andruw Jones launches his second home run of the night to extend the Braves lead over the Mets to 7-1 in the top of the fifth inning. It's his first multi-homer game of the season after hitting nine last year. He's now had a multi-homer game every year he's been in the majors, 31 for his career.

Albert Pujols becomes the first player of 2006 to reach double digits in home runs. His tenth homer of the year doesn't help much, however, as it cuts the Pirates lead to 8-2.

Suppan only last two innings, giving up eight hits, five for extra bases.

Manny Ramirez breaks his extra-base hit drought with a double, driving in David Ortiz. The Red Sox lead the Devil Rays 1-0 in the fourth.

Toronto leads New York 6-4 in the bottom of the second. Alex Rios just hit a two-run homer to put the Blue Jays in the lead. Rios already has the double and homer, and plenty of time to complete the cycle. Rios hit 10 home runs last year; this evening's was his fifth of 2006.

The pitch he hit off Johnson just didn't move. It came in over the heart of the plate and didn't break down. If you listened to the broadcast very closely, you could hear the ball say, "Hit me!"

Eric Milton started the season well, allowing just two home runs in his first two starts. But the Marlins have him measured tonight, already launching three bombs against the lefty. Hanley Ramirez not only hit his first major league home run of Eric, he hit his second as well! Number two hitter Dan Uggla added one as well. I guess the table setters are busing the tables tonight.

John Perricone continues his excellent coverage of the other side of the steroid issue, linking to an historical article by Steve Kotler.

If you missed my interview on Sports Bloggers Live yesterday, you can listen to it here.

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.com is not happy with the new Mets song.

As my friend, Henry “old backstop” Lee told me, “I almost began projectile vomiting when I heard it. Teams like the Yankees stick to classy stuff, and it's our Mets that always try these cheesy, lame attempts to be cool.”…

Aside from being a cheesy, lame song, I can’t for the life of me figure out who this track appeals to, as it features generic hip-hop beats with a corny, lolly-pop, 80’s style rap…

Anyone who likes rap music will laugh hysterically at it, and not in a good way, while anyone who doesn’t like rap music will point to this and say, ‘this is why I don’t like rap music.’ It’s a lose, lose…

Transplated Mets Fan has the lyrics.

Larry Lucchino and George Steinbrenner are more alike than I imagined. They both do nice things for people with illnesses.

Jim Bowden was arrested for drunk driving in Flordia:

"I intend to plead not guilty at a future date in a Miami-Dade court. I deeply regret any embarrassment that my arrest may cause the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball," Bowden said in the statement.

"On the advice of legal counsel, I will have no further comment regarding this incident until the court proceedings are complete," he said.

Meanwhile, Stan Conte, the Giants trainer, recevied a subpeona.

Stan Conte, who is not related to Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative owner Victor Conte, was subpoenaed to appear in a San Francisco federal courtroom April 27, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.

The panel has been hearing testimony for more than a month about whether the outfielder lied to a separate grand jury in December 2003 about his connection to BALCO.

I was hoping for a Chacon/Chacin rematch, but the Toronto sophomore draws Randy Johnson instead. While Randy's strikeouts are down a bit so far this season, he's yet to issue a walk in 20 innings. Couple that with a .213 BA allowed and the Big Unit's had an effective three starts. Randy will deal with one of the season's hottest hitters in Vernon Wells, owner of a loud twelve game hit streak.

The Tigers travel to the West Coast to face Esteban Loaiza and the Oakland Athletics. Esteban is off to a terrible start; both lefties and righties are hitting over .400 against him. He's also allowing extra-base hits; given that the Tigers are leading the league in slugging percentage, that's a matchup they like.

Enjoy!

Rick Maese writes about Daniel Cabrera's fine outing last night, and a comparison is drawn to a young charge of Leo Mazzone's many years ago:

"The main thing I look for at a time like this is his recovery time," Mazzone said. "If he gets off target, what happens next? His stuff is good. The bottom line is sometimes he tries just too hard. I've seen plenty of guys like that."

Mazzone, 57, knows his way around a pitching mound. He has seen plenty of pitchers come through with powerful fastballs. But the arm is only part of the equation.

"You know what I've been thinking about? What do you think would've happened in '91 if we took John Smoltz out of the rotation?" asks Mazzone, the former longtime Braves coach who joined his friend Perlozzo in Baltimore in the offseason.

Maese also notes the poor start of the Atlanta pitching staff:

When the pitching coach left Atlanta, whispers were batted from coast to coast, many quietly denigrating his accomplishments with the Braves. Right now, Atlanta's staff has the second-worst ERA in the National League. No Braves starter registered a win until last weekend. It seems obvious that Mazzone was valuable to the Braves.

Through Cabrera, we'll learn how valuable he can be to the Orioles.

It's still a little early to call Atlanta's problems a lack of Mazzone, but it's certainly a ckeck mark in Leo's column.

It seems the Twins surge in offense corresponds to Tony Oliva coaching batting practice. Tony was a good hitter in a deadball era, so he's a good choice to teach the youngsters.

As you can see from the Twins home/away split, the power was always there, Minnesota is just adding a lot more singles.

Pedro Martinez notched his 200th win last night, and the Mets set a record at the same time:

The Mets, off to the best start in franchise history at 10-2, opened a five-game lead in the NL East standings - the largest lead in a division in major-league history after 12 games.

Congratulations to Pedro for reaching that milestone. The Mets pitching and offense have been equally superb so far in 2006. They're laying the foundation for a division championship early this year.

Here's more on the injury that cause Varitek to limp down the line on a grounder yesterday.

Nick and Nick take a moment to recognize moves that worked so far by Ryan and Gardenhire. The first comment is worth reading, too.

Surprise! Ken Griffey is on the DL again:

The Cincinnati Reds put Griffey on the 15-day disabled list Monday night following a 9-1 victory over Florida, giving him time to rest an inflamed tendon behind his right knee. Before the game, Griffey said he didn't expect to go on the DL.

Things changed after he got a magnetic resonance imaging test that found fluid in the tendon, prompting the Reds to make a precautionary move with the 36-year-old outfielder.

This injury doesn't appear to be that serious, but these nagging injuries to Ken are going to keep coming along. The team should just go into a season expecting no more than 120 to 130 games from Griffey in a season at this point.

FishStripes rounds up the news on the deadline imposed by San Antonio on the Marlins. The Texas City wants an answer by May 15th.

I don't see anyway MLB and the Marlins will be able to meet this deadline. If the city really thinks pressuring the two is going to cause them to bat an eye, they are sadly mistaken.

I don't know if San Antonio is setting a quick deadline because they want out or if they don't understand how slowly things move within baseball.

I bet they're setting the deadline because they know exactly how slowly things move in baseball, and they don't want to be jerked around like Portland or Las Vegas. They don't want to be a pawn to get the Marlins a better deal in south Florida. They want the team. If the team doesn't want them, they won't be leverage. Good for San Antonio.

It wasn't a wise move for the Brewers to bring in Matt Wise last night versus the Astros. Wise allowed five runs, four earned to blow a 6-3 Milwaukee lead in the seventh inning. Jason Lane drove in the game winner with a three run homer in that inning. Jason's not hitting very often, but when he does the ball goes a long way.

It was a game of third in Arizona. The first three innings belonged to the Giants as they scored seven runs off Miguel Batista. The Daimondbacks took innings 4-6, plating nine runs off Fassero and two relievers. But the Giants bullpen took control over the last three innings, striking out five batters as San Francisco scored three times in the 8th and 9th to take a 10-9 victory from Arizona.

That's 28 runs allowed for the Diamondbacks in their last three games. The ten runs for the Giants equals their output for the previous five games.

Greg Maddux found the fountain of youth. He threw just 86 pitches to go eight innings last night, allowing just one run and three hits. With the 4-1 win over the Dodgers, Maddux moves to 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA and a .149 batting average allowed. Shades of the 1994-1995 Maddux.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Chicago White Sox shut out the Kansas City Royals 9-0 this evening as Jose Contreras and two relievers combined for a one hitter. When teams are held to so few hits, you have to wonder if it's the pitching or the offense. One look at the Kansas City offensive numbers and it's not difficult to see the reason for this low-hit game. Six of the nine starters are now batting under .250. Six have OBA's under .300. Seven are slugging under .400. I suspect there will be a few low hitters against the Royals this season.

Randy Winn just doubled up the gap in right center. Shawn Green managed to just cut off the ball, but he needed to backhand the roller and ended up turned toward the outfield wall. He then tried to flip the ball to Byrnes so Eric could throw it in, but Byrnes was ducking so he'd be out of the way of the throw. The ball goes over Byrnes' head, and Fassaro and Winn both come around to score. It's 4-0 Giants in the top of the second.

Pedro Martinez and his relievers struck out 12 Braves tonight as they won the game 4-3. That gives the Mets staff 98 strikeouts in 109 innings pitched. That's 8.1 per nine innings for the staff. That's a great number for an individual pitcher; for a staff it's fantastic.

The Cardinals go 1-2-3 in the ninth, leaving Pujols on deck for a chance at five homers in two games. St. Louis leads 2-1 and Isringhausen is coming on to pitch the bottom of the ninth.

Update: Isringhausen allows a double but strikes out two to get the save. Once again, the Cardinals put a lot of base runners on (8 hits, 2 walks, 1 hit by pitch) but don't score many runs. Thanks to a great game by Marquis, they get the win.

Jeff Weaver and Daniel Cabrera each went seven innings so far tonight. Each allowed five hits and one walk. But the Orioles are leading 4-1, since all five of their hits went for extra bases, and all five Angels hits resulted in singles.

Update: LaTroy Hawkins relieves Cabrera, gives up a double to Orlando Cabrera, and the Angels score a run in the eighth. It's 4-2 Orioles.

Joe Mays is getting hammered again. In two innings tonight, he's allowed five hits, and the league is now batting .400 against the former Twin. In nine innings pitched so far, he's allowed seven walks and five home runs.

At some point, Mays needs to show he can get batters out. The Kansas City offense isn't good enough to withstand a starter getting pounded everytime out.

Brian Moehler of the Marlins pitched three innings so far tonight, allowing six hits, five for extra bases. That's 21 hits against Moehler this year, 11 of the long variety. I believe in Moneyball, Athletics management were asked about the relationship between a pitcher's defense and allowing hits. It was pointed out that extra-base hits against pitchers had more to do with the pitcher than the defense. If that is indeed the case, Brian Moehler at age 35 could be in trouble. Thirty one percent of the hits off Brian were for extra bases last year.

Albert Pujols keeps pace with Chris Shelton, hitting his 4th home run in two games, his ninth of the season. One more tonight and he ties a record for homers in two games held by a few players. The Cardinals lead Pittsburgh 2-0.

Update: I just watched the home run on Tivo, and Albert didn't even get all of the ball. I thought it was going to be a high fly ball at first, but it went out to right of center.

Update: Pujols doubles in his second at bat, ending four straight at bats with a home run.

Update: Pujols walks his third time up. They were pitching carefully to him with a man on first.

Update: Albert flies out in the 7th. He may get one more chance at a home run if the Cardinals can put on a few runners.

I'll be on Sports Bloggers Live at about 7:27 EDT tonight.

Dusty Baker is taking the Cubs start is stride, according to the Onion:

"I know things look good right now, and you hate to see Cubs fans get encouraged early, but I'm certain that things will straighten themselves out and we'll be in third place by early May," Baker said at a press conference Wednesday. "With the talent and drive we lack, it's foolish to think that this team can continue playing at this rate all year."

After all, if they win too many games, Baker might lose his job! :-)

The Indians held on to their early lead, defeating the Tigers 10-2 despite another home run by Chris Shelton. Paul Byrd finally gave Cleveland a good start, going seven innings, striking out five and walking one. The win puts the Indians back in sole possesion of first place, at least until the White Sox game is over tonight.

The Indians used six singles and two extra-base hits to score seven runs through three innings. Michaels and Belliard are the only two members of the Tribe not to earn a safety.

Guardado strikes out the first two Red Sox batters in the bottom of the ninth. Kevin Youkilis legs out an infield single, and then Mark Lorretta hits his first home run of the season into the Monster Seats for the 7-6 Red Sox victory. Loretta says in the post-game interview that it's the first walk off homer he's had at any level.

Update: According to the NESN broadcast, the Red Sox are 18-0 in their last 18 one-run games at Fenway.

Adrian Beltre just scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth to give Seattle a 6-5 lead over the Red Sox. Beltre is 2 for 3 today with a walk and two runs scored. His batting average is only up to .143, but it's a start.

Via MetsBlog.com Dr. Blogstein suggests that the Mets name their new ballpark Jackie Robinson Field. The problem is the Mets want to sell a corporate sponsorship:

Various reports quote the price for naming rights of the new Mets home to be in the ballpark (pun intended) of $10M per season. Let's figure we get two-million Mets fans to agree to chip in $1 each/year. Then, hopefully with the publicity and buzz that our mission creates, we could get some wealthy benefactors to donate the rest.

Or, the Mets could just name the park after the legend. New York is one of the few baseball cities where the stadium naming rights won't make a huge difference to the bottom line. Or maybe a sponsor can pay the money and call it JRF. I think it's a great name for the park, and I encourage fans to push this idea.

Chris Shelton ties the Indians with a solo home run in the second inning, his ninth of the year. It appears not only can't you stop Shelton, you can't even hope to contain him! Casey Blake, however, follows with a blast of his own in the third to give the Indians a one-run lead once again.

Baseball Minutia takes on claims of a juiced ball by looking at how previous changes in the ball affected offense.

Hat tip Red Reporter.

Manny Ramirez just grounded out to Yuniesky Betancourt. Every time I've seen Betancourt throw in this game, I thought he sent the ball sailing high. Then as the camera pans, I realize Richie Sexson is playing first, and Yuniesky is just throwing the ball chest high.

David Ortiz just missed his third home run of the game. He pushed Ichiro to the bullpen wall in right, where the right fielder made the catch. It's not clear to me if the ball was going to be out, but it was going to be very close. If the ball had gone out again, it would be the third time in the game Ortiz tied it up with a homer.

Update: With two out, a double by Nixon and a single by Varitek ties the game at five.

Nate Robertson has a perfect inning of threes in the top of the first for Detroit. He faces three batters, gets three outs on nine pitches and six strikes. The Indians extend their scoreless innings streak to 15.

Update: An error and a double end the Cleveland scoreless streak in the second inning.

Alex Cora starts the top of the seventh letting a line drive go through him for an error. The Mariners sacrifice Bloomquist to second, then Willie steals third. The Sox pull the infield in, but Loretta stumbles fielding and the Mariners take a 5-4 lead.

David Ortiz hits his second homer of the game to tie the game at 4. His first homer tied the game at one. Carl Everett's two run homer in the top of the inning had given the Mariners a 4-2 lead.

Manny Ramirez follows with a single off the wall. He's 2 for 3 today with two singles.

Jason Varitek just grounded out, and he was limping to first as re tried to run down the line. He's in the dugout putting on his catching gear, but we'll see if he comes out for the top of the third.

Update: Varitek stayed in the game.

Update: Jerry Remy noticed that Varitek shifted the position of his shin guard while batting, making Jerry wonder if Jason fouled a ball off his foot, which bothered him while running. He looked better running out this grounder.

Deadspin notes, after seeing Barry Bonds play in person, that he's not worth booing anymore:

To put it simply, Bonds looks like he’s about to break off into little pieces. He wobbles, Vito Spatafore-like, when he runs, and his knees shake perilously, like a dying dog trying to pee. Forget Hank Aaron; Bonds is going to be lucky to catch Ruth. Despite his, uh, rather ample upper body muscles, Bonds isn’t able to push off his legs enough to get the ball out of the park.

Bonds wants Ruth more than he wants Aaron. He's six home runs away from the Babe, and the way he's started the season there's no way that's a sure thing. His body is doing what all the investigations can't do; stop him from passing the two greats in front of him.

The Baseball Crank posts his ESWL predictions for the NL West. He sees it as a very close division.

It's Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, the day we celebrate the start of the American Revolution. That means an 11 AM EDT start for the Mariners and Red Sox. Gil Meche takes on Lenny DiNardo, as the lefty moves into the rotation to replace David Wells. DiNardo does what you'd expect from a Red Sox pitcher; lots of strikeouts, few walks and few home runs allowed. Meche showed some wildness in his last start, walking four Indians in four innings, giving him six walks and one hit batter in 9 1/3 innings so far in 2006.

The slumps of two big hitters should be of more concern to the Mariners. Ichiro Suzuki and Adrian Beltre did not carry their great WBC performances into the regular season. Both are batting under .200, and Beltre does not have an extra base hit.

The Mets are the only major league team with a substantial division lead right now, and they'll face the second place Braves tonight at Shea. Four games separate the two teams. It's a bit of a pitching mismatch, as Jorge Sosa faces Pedro Martinez. Sosa has not allowed a home run this season, but that's about the only positive thing you can say about his starts. Opponents have touched him for a .472 OBA and hit .545 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, Pedro's allowed just a .159 batting average, so his above average walk rate hasn't hurt him too much. These are the #2 and #3 offenses in the NL right now, so expect some fireworks.

Enjoy!

Albert Pujols hit three home runs in yesterday's Cardinals victory over the Cincinnati Reds. I was actually surprised to see it was only the second three home run game of his career; he's such a great hitter I thought he'd have more.

I'm sure you've seen the stats about most X over the first Y years of a career. But have you noticed that the only thing Albert doesn't do well offensively is hit triples? He has a break even base stealing percentage for his career, and is 18 for 20 since the start of 2005. Look at the splits for his career. I dare you to find a weakness. He hits lefties and righties. He hits home and away. He hits in every situation. His averages with a runner on third and less than two out: .413/.463/.800 with twenty nine sacrifice flies. He doesn't ground into many double plays for a slow, right-handed batter. At age 26, he's just four hits away from 1000. With forty four hit by pitches and 414 walks, Albert Pujols earned his way on base 1454 times in his career.

There are only seven players who reached base 5000 in their careers; Rose, Cobb, Henderson, Yastrzemski, Musial, Aaron and Barry Bonds. Albert should be in the most productive five years of his career. He's laid the foundation to be at 5000 by the time he hits 40. With a little imagination and a great five year stretch here, one can see Albert becoming the first player to reach 6000 times on base.

And while we're setting goals, how about 700 doubles and 700 home runs? There are four players with 700 doubles, and three with 700 home runs, and the lists do not intersect. Albert has over 200 of each very early in his career.

One correspondent recently asked me about Albert's age. When someone comes up at age 20 and hits like that, it's very easy to believe he's older than claimed. If that were true, if he were 23 or 24 when he came up, we might be seeing a decline by now. If he were 22, we might not. If Albert continues to hit like this over the next two or three seasons, that's a pretty good indication he was 20 when he joined the big leagues. And then the sky's the limit.

Javy Lopez passed Miguel Tejada on the bases yesterday after hitting a ball out of the park. If you're interested in other lost home runs, be sure to visit Retrosheet.org.

Blogging Baseball is a new blog with commentary about both the history of the game and today's events. Stop by and say hi.

Redleg Nation isn't optimistic about a quick return to the lineup by Ken Griffey, Jr.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chien-Ming Wang found his out pitch today, striking out eight Minnesota Twins lealding to a 9-3 Yankees victory. Wang had good strikeout numbers in the minors, but they disappeared once he made the big club. Eight strikeouts is a major league career high, going way past his previous record of five. Wang still induced a lot of ground balls (13 GB, 4 FB), but with 8 K in seven innings, there were a lot less that could go through for hits. He needs more performances like this to be successful in the bigs.

The Texas Rangers were on easy street this afternoon as Huston Street pitched the worst game of his career. Up 3-1, Street allowed five hits and four runs to give the Rangers a 5-3 win in the ninth. This was the most runs Street allowed in a game; he's allowed 3 once before.

The Athletics have now lost five of their last six games, allowing 36 runs in that time.

Ryan Howard hit his second home run of the season, the only run in the Phillies victory over the Rockies. Of six games at Coors this year, half involved total scores of six runs or less.

Josh Beckett picked up his third win today and maintained his 1.29 ERA. And it's a good thing. The Red Sox aren't exactly lighting up his starts, as they've scored just 10 runs in Beckett's 21 innings on the mound. He's pitched brilliantly, allowing him to win with little margin for error.

Ben Sheets lost to the Mets today in his first start off the disabled list. However, Brewers fans should be encouraged as Sheets struck out six in five innings without walking any batters. If he can keep his K per 9 around 9 for the year, he'll be very successful.

Joe Morgan just gave a very good analysis of Barry Bonds swing. He pointed out how his knee and elbow are preventing him from driving the outside pitch. Bonds ended up flying out to the warning track in straight away center. He's still strong enough to drive the ball without putting his whole body into it, but not strong enough to hit it out of the deepest part of the park.

Vlad Guerrero came into today's game against the Orioles with a .500 slugging percentage. Not surprising, since we think of Vlad as a power hitter. But Guerrero picked up just one extra-base hit in his first eleven games. His totals were 17 for 40 with one homer.

In other words, he was slugging without hitting for power. Whereas on-base average represents a probability, slugging percentage represents a distance. One way to think of it as the average number of bases a batter advances himself per at bat. If you slug .500, you're halfway to first base at the end of each at bat.

That distance also applies to runners on base. The higher the slugging percentage, the farther a batter is likely to advance a base runner. And there are two ways of doing it; hitting often, or launching lots of extra base hits. When a batter does both, you end up with a Hall of Famer.

Vlad picked up three more hits today, but two of them were home runs. He getting back to doing both, and raised his slugging percentage to .644.

Ryan Church hit two home runs against the Marlins today. Coincidence?

Wigginton and Gomes each hit two-run homers today for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, each their fifth of the season. Both are slugging in the high .600s. The pair were batting 3-4 today as the DRays beat the Royals 9-5. Those two are hitting for average, getting on base at a good clip in addition to the home runs. The Devil Rays drew five more walks today to maintain their major league lead in the category.

John Thomson pitched brilliant innings for the Braves today, striking out six and allowing just one hit. However, he was lifted after 74 pitches:

Braves starter John Thomson allowed one hit in six shutout innings and struck out six. He was removed after 74 pitches.

Thomson was making only his second start of the season. He is still building his endurance after missing time in during spring training with an elbow injury and beginning the season in the bullpen.

"If you look at it too long, it'll drive you crazy," Thomson said when asked whether he could have pitched another inning. "Who's to say the same thing wouldn't have happened?"

What happened was Ken Ray facing three batters, giving up three hits and allowing three runs as the Padres came back to tie the game. They won it in the eighth on a Roberts triple and a Young single. It's Roberts' 19th triple since the start of the 2004 season, 6th in the majors. Given that he's not a full time player, that's impressive.

The Indians and Tigers played a 1-0 game this afternoon with the Tigers coming out on top 1-0. Mike Maroth won his second start. In his first, he gave up a number of hits but only one run. Today, the hits were low and the runs even lower. Shelton smacked home run number eight. That gives him 23 hits, 16 for extra bases and a slugging percentage over 1.200. The Tigers move into a tie for first place in the AL Central.

Peter Angelos claimed Friday that the Orioles lost $15 million in 2005, but Peter Schmuck is skeptical:

I don't know what the truth is, but I do know this. Many years ago, when Angelos came home the conquering hero after paying a record price to keep the Orioles under local ownership, he told everyone who would listen that the team was a public trust and that the club's finances would be an open book.

Too bad for him that we live in the age of the Internet search engine, because I was able to set the way-back machine to Nov. 18, 1993, and pull up this Angelos quote from The Washington Post:

"I expect to be quite open about the Orioles' finances," he said. "I want the media and the public to know the financial picture of the team. I want them to know what the profits are and what the expenses are. I think the more the public knows, the better."

Now, all we get is an angry pronouncement that the club is losing a fortune and absolutely nothing to back it up. Pardon the skepticism, but I seem to recall that the Orioles spent the late 1990s with one of the highest payrolls in baseball and Angelos claimed at the time that the team was breaking even.

Good for Peter to find those old quotes. We'll see how quickly Angelos keeps his word.

Ben Sheets comes off the disabled list today and faces a tough challenge as he takes on the Mets at Shea Stadium. He'll be opposed by Brian Bannister. The New York Daily News prints this interesting tidbit on the match up.

Milwaukee's Ben Sheets is expected to come off the DL today to oppose Brian Bannister. The pitchers have crossed paths before. ESPN The Magazine used Bannister's commercial photography studio in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a March 2005 cover shot of Sheets. "I was the third assistant on the shoot. We built the set and everything," said Bannister, who has the cover hanging on a wall at his home.

Maybe Chris Berman will start calling Ben "Contact" Sheets. :-)

Bronson "Babe" Arroyo goes after his third win today against Mark Mulder and the Cardinals in St. Louis. Both pitchers possess batting averages higher than their ERAs, and both have two extra-base hits. We'll see if Bronson can make it three home runs in three games.

My nomination for slugfest of the day goes to the Yankees-Twins game. Chien-Ming Wang allowed 20 base runners in 10 2/3 innings so far this season. Radke's control so good his pitches become hittable. He's allowed four home runs in 13 innings this season.

Enjoy!

While the last decade brought us a fantastic crop of star shortstops, the Baltimore Sun notices the next wave of great players is developing at third base.

So the halos soon may have to be passed on. The potential new baseball deities, however, have taken a few steps to the right of shortstop while rising in the National League. By the end of this decade, we might be witnessing a new baseball trinity.

The Florida Marlins' Miguel Cabrera, the New York Mets' David Wright and the Washington Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman. All three play third base in the NL East.

Cabrera, who switched back to third from the outfield this year, turns 23 on Tuesday and likely will hit his 100th homer this season. Wright, 23 in December, has one full season in the majors, but he batted .306 with 27 homers and 102 RBIs.

Then there's Zimmerman, 21, who was at the University of Virginia this time last year. He isn't projected to have the same power as the other two, but scouts say he is a .300 hitter and Gold Glove winner in waiting.

Add to that a number of prospects for other teams and the hot corner may describe the bats of the fielders as well as the balls hit toward them.

Sean Casey broke his back:

The injury occurred Friday night when Casey was accidentally hit in the back by John Mabry of the Chicago Cubs during the third inning of the Pirates' loss. In visible pain, Casey needed assistance from two trainers just to leave the field.

Manager Jim Tracy immediately knew Casey was in trouble.

"When I got to the field and I listened to a little bit of the conversation between Sean and (head athletic trainer) Brad Henderson, I knew it was something more than Sean having just had the air taken out of him," Tracy said. "(Casey) was in a lot of pain last night. He couldn't even lay still."

He'll miss six to eight weeks. Casey was hitting well, actually slugging near .600. Sean's weakness at first base was a lack of power, but he started off 2006 just fine.

This certainly isn't something you'd expect from the Giants ace:

Schmidt's walk total, his highest since he also walked seven Sept. 26, 1998, against Cincinnati with the Pittsburgh Pirates, wasn't directly harmful. Only one of those runners ultimately scored, which was of no consolation to Schmidt (0-2).

"My command was not good whatsoever," he said after throwing 61 strikes in 114 pitches. "If you take the walks away, maybe we have no runs up there and a whole different ballgame. I take that one personally. I probably put our guys to sleep more than anything."

It was the type of game where Schmidt needed to be perfect to win, but instead the night belonged to Odalis Perez. He only walked three as the Dodgers won 3-1.

San Francisco needs to be worried about their offense. While 4.2 runs per game isn't the worst in the league, their runs created per game is only 3.6, and that is tied with the Royals for lowest in the majors.

Happy Easter to all celebrating today!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

With the Yankees up one run and Mariano Rivera starting the ninth after getting the last out of the eighth, Castillo gets a hit off the home plate dirt, and Mauer works the count to 3-2 and doubles to put runners on second and third.

Mariano pitches to Rondell White and strikes him out on an inside pitch. They're pitching to Hunter as well.

Update: Rivera gets Hunter looking at the inside corner. A perfect pitch.

Morneau takes the first pitch past Cano for a two run single, and the Twins win! They're going crazy in the dome. A great finish to the game.

Matt Holliday earned three-quarters of the cycle so far this evening. He smacked out a double, triple and home run, driving in five runs to help Colorado to a 9-4 lead over the Phillies after seven. Unless the Rockies have a big eighth inning, there's not much chance of Holliday getting a shot at the cycle.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays drew eight walks tonight from Kansas City pitchers. So unless the Yankees draw six walks in the top of the ninth, the Devil Rays will go into Sunday leading the American League in walks with 55. While the Devil Rays don't finish last in walks every year, they're usually at the bottom of the pack about 200 walks behind the leading team. It's a good sign for the Tampa offense if they're becoming more selective at the plate.

Jake Peavy and John Smoltz pitched like the aces they are tonight. Smoltz came out on top, shutting out the Padres 2-0. Peavy struck out more batters (8 to 4), but a mistake to LaRoche in the second inning sent the ball over the fence, and that was all the Braves needed.

Runs aren't out of line today. Five completed games so far have seen five runs or less scored.

Update: Another low scoring game as the Pirates defeat the Cubs 2-1. Zach Duke wins his first game of the year.

Chris Ray is making a good case that it's not that difficult to replace a veteran with a youngster, get good performance and spend a lot less money. He picked up his fourth save tonight (three against the Devil Rays) and continued to add to his strikeout totals. He's now struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings pitched while giving up two hits. He's yet to walk a batter. That's exactly what you'd like from your closer.

Correction: Only three of the four saves were against the Devil Rays.

John Patterson is making mincemeat out of the Marlins lineup tonight. With the 6 PM start, the sun is shining brightly in center, making his pitches tough to pick up. On top of that, Patterson pitches are really moving tonight. His curve is very sharp, and his fastball is hitting the corners. Through two innings, Patterson struck out five, all looking. We'll see if that continues as the sun sets.

The Oakland Athletics hit four home runs so far this afternoon to lead the Texas Rangers 5-4. Three of the four are solo shots (they hit three in a row leading off the sixth). That gives them seventeen homers on the year, 14 of them solo shots. The other three all came with just a man on first! The A's have yet to hit a three-run homer or grand slam this season.

Sean Kirst reflects on Jackie Robinson day and how to get more African-American children involved in the game.

The Brewers came into today as the lowest scoring team in the majors (3.7 runs per game) but had no trouble cooling off the Mets, winning by a score of 8-2. Fielder and Hardy each knocked out three hits. Since starting the season 2 for 14, Fielder is 13 for 29.

Paul Konerko is spoiling A.J. Burnett's Blue Jays debut at the moment. The White Sox lead the Jays 4-2 in the fifth on two two-run homers by the Chicago first basemen.

Fausto Carmona debuted for the Cleveland Indians today, pitching an impressive six innings. He held the powerful Tigers team to just one run, giving up five hits, all singles. Carmona's showed great control in his minor league career, walking just 1.6 per nine innings. With the solid Cleveland defense, his lack of strikeouts shouldn't hurt him too much.

Another historical blog popped up this week. The Gas House Gang follows the exploits of the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals. Stop by and say hi.

Update: Lee Panas at Tiger Tales is doing something similar with Mark Fidrych and the 1976 season.

David Wells is back on the DL:

Wells had offseason surgery on the knee and struggled in his only start of the season, an 8-4 loss to Toronto last Wednesday, after beginning the season on the disabled list. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits - three of them homers- before being removed with no outs in the fifth inning. After Friday night’s game against Seattle, Wells received a shot of the joint lubricant Synvisc in the knee. It normally is administered in a series of three injections one week apart.

The teams that didn't trade for Wells are patting themselves on the back right now.

A.J. Burnett makes his first start of the year for the Blue Jays, facing the Chicago White Sox and Mark Buehrle. Toronto is averaging 6.6 runs per game, so A.J. should benefit from some run support. Buehrle's not striking out many batters so far this year. He's never been a big K pitcher, but 1.5 per nine is very, very low.

In Atlanta, it's the struggling aces game as Jake Peavy takes on John Smoltz. Peavy is getting hit often and hard. He's given up 15 hits in 11 innings, 8 for extra bases. What's killing Smoltz is a .500 BA allowed with men on base.

Jaret Wright moves into the Yankees rotation as they need a fifth stater for the first time. He gets a tough assignment as Johan Santana takes the mound for the Twins. Johan is another ace struggling early in the season. Cleveland and Toronto worked the lefty's pitch count up, and both were able to chase him in the sixth inning. He's been a bit wild, walking four in 11 innings. Last year he walked a batter about once every five innings.

Enjoy!

The New York Mets tied their best nine-game start with a 4-3 victory over Milwaukee. They're keeping it interesting, too, as they alternate between blowouts and close wins.

They're getting offense from an unexpected source, also. Mets pitchers are 8 for 19 at the plate with two doubles and a walk for a .421 batting average and a .526 slugging percentage. They're just blowing away the pinch hitters, who are batting .182. Glavine's leading the way with a 3 for 4, adding a 1 for 2 last night. Let them swing!

The Cincinnati Reds won last night's game against the Cardinals 1-0. It's the first 1-0 game for the Reds since 8/26/2004.

The Red starters just went once through the rotation in very good shape. The last five starts they've accumulated 31 2/3 innings while giving up ten runs, only seven earned. That's a 1.99 ERA. With the Reds offense, that type of pitching from the staters should take them a long way. They've struck out 19 and walked 7 in that time frame.

Correction: The Reds won the game on 8/26/2004. I forgot I was looking at pitching runs instead of batting runs so I got the result backward in the database. As Baseball Minutia points out, the same two pitchers were involved.

Thomas Boswell discusses the blowup between Jose Vidro and Nationals president Tony Tavares being an outgrowth of management not knowing what will happen when a new owner enters the picture. Boswell ends with praise for Tavares, Robinson and Bowden:

Someday, all three, whether they stay or go when new ownership arrives, will be always be remembered here warmly for '05 -- the season that set the stage for a ballpark lease, for a $611 million construction project that may revive Southeast and for a $450 million sale price for a team that was worth barely half that much the day they dragged the ex-Expos to town.

To all of them, and to assistant GM Tony Siegle, the ego-free endlessly competent shrink to the whole franchise, there is a thanks due that far outweighs the disappointments and, at times, embarrassments of recent weeks. They all deserve better.

From the Kansas City Star:

Royals pitcher Zack Greinke said he feels healthy enough, after nearly eight weeks of psychological counseling, to think about returning to the mound.

From Annie Hall:

At the moment it's just a Notion, but with a bit of backing I think I could turn it into a Concept, and then an Idea.

All kidding aside, it's good to see Greinke wanting back in the game:

“The main thing now,” he said, “is I’m really looking forward to playing baseball again.”

They Royals are looking at an extended spring training and rehabilition period. If things go well, he'll be back in the second half of the season. Given the state of the Royals pitching, the sooner the better.

People who don't want to see Barry Bonds pass Ruth and Aaron may get their wish after all:

The Giants left fielder told MLB.com that he has ``10 to 12 bone chips floating'' in his elbow, which he said was swollen to ``almost twice the size'' of his right elbow. Bonds indicated that he wants to keep playing, as ballplayers with bone chips often do. But he won't undergo surgery to fix the problem.

``I'm going to keep playing until it blows up,'' said Bonds, who's batting .167 (3 for 18) after going 0 for 2 with two walks. ``If I have to have a procedure, then I'm done. Finished. That would be it.''

Three bad major joints. How long can he play on one elbow? And still, teams keep walking the slugger. He can't run. You can probably throw him out from right field on a single. (Actually, that's where the second baseman usually plays.) When they do pitch to him, he continues to make outs. The elbow appears to be cutting down on his ability to get a ball over the fence.

Barry's body is failing. Mike Schmidt realized his career was over after two poor months of hitting. When will Bonds do the same?

Update: In case you're wondering, the longest Bonds went without a home run at the start of the season is 12 games in 1998. Teams appeared to fear him less during that slump.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Red Sox won a close game against the Mariners tonight 2-1. It wasn't a pitching duel, however. Schilling pitched another great game, allowing three hits and striking out seven. But Moyer and the staff of the Mariners allowed 10 hits and 4 walks. Six of those 10 hits were doubles. It seems the Red Sox should have scored many more runs with that kind of hitting.

But Moyer struck out eight in his six innings, and the team struck out 10 for the game. The Red Sox were just 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position. It's just a feeling, but there seems to be a number of games like this so far. Runs per game is up, and could be even more if games like this produced runs in proportion to the hits.

The Angels and Orioles let the balls fly tonight, each side blasting four home runs. Sixteen hits in the game, eight home runs. The Orioles came out on top, 6-5 as Ramon Hernandez continued his hot hitting with a solo homer in the ninth to win the game.

Two first place teams battle each other tonight as the Milwaukee Brewers face the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. Chris Capuano is blowing away Milwaukee opponents this year, striking out 14 in 12 1/3 innings. The Mets, however, only strikeout about 16.2% of the time, one of the lower totals in the league.

Tom Glavine takes the hill for New York. Glavine is at his best when he's better against right-handed hitters. So far this year, righties are hitting .345 against him, lefties .071.

At the other end of the scale, the Nationals and Marlins battle for last place in the NL East. It's a good pitching matchup, however, as Ryan Drese takes on Dontrelle Willis. Drese only allowed one earned run in his last outing, but he put plenty of men on base so the error caused greatest harm. Dontrelle is still looking for his first hit of the season. He wouldn't want to let Bronson Arroyo take over the title of pitcher who can actually hit. :-)

Finally, the Giants visit the Dodgers tonight with Jamey Wright going against Brad Penny. Wright has a good history at Dodger Stadium, posting a 3.35 ERA there for his career. Penny's been in total control in his first two starts, striking out 14 and walking just 1.

Enjoy!

Comparing the same time period and using the first six years of this century, offense remains high by comparison.

Year	Runs per Game	HR per Game
2001	9.9	2.47
2002	9.1	2.02
2003	9.7	2.10
2004	10.2	2.22
2005	9.7	2.00
2006	10.8	2.62

Also, comapre the home run leader board this year vs. 2005. Nineteen players with four or more homers this season vs. seven last year. And the league leader had five.

So what's different? One person in the comments this year suggests the umpires are calling a very small strike zone. However, strikeouts are very much in line with previous years, so I'm not sure that's the explanation (I'd expect strikeouts to be down if the strike zone were smaller). Still, it's something to watch.

I've never bought the intentional juiced ball theory. It's possible Rawlings changed the manufacturing process, but I really don't think the commissioner makes a call and the balls start flying out of the park.

Of course, it might be that steroids helped pitchers more than batters. Sure there were some sluggers who bulked up, but a number of the players caught last year spent their time on the mound. Maybe we've been looking at the whole scandal the wrong way. Instead of the sluggers keeping up with each other, the real abusers were pitchers trying to keep up with hitters.

Or maybe it's just Atlanta's pitching staff falling apart.

There appears to be a new grand jury investigating perjury charges against Barry Bonds. I can't say I'm surprised. I'm not sure I understand what's going on, however:

The panel has been hearing evidence for more than a month about whether Bonds lied to a different grand jury than the one investigating the BALCO scandal. The existence of the grand jury was first reported by CNN on Thursday.

So Bonds testified before another grand jury? When was that? Let's go to the source:

A federal grand jury is considering whether to indict San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds for perjury because of testimony he gave to another grand jury in 2003, CNN has learned.

Bonds told the first grand jury in December 2003 that he was clean. The new panel has been hearing testimony for a month about whether the baseball superstar lied about his steroid use during the hearing, several sources said.

"This is extremely bad news for Barry Bonds," said CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin, "because a federal prosecutor doesn't start looking into perjury unless he has a pretty good idea he's going to find perjury at the end of the day."

(Jeff Toobin was in my class at Harvard. He wrote a sports column for the Crimson called "Inner Toobin." He's going to love this.)

So, who was that first grand jury investigating? Were charges brought against anyone due to that investigation?

From the little we know about what's going on, the conflicting testimony between the two grand juries appears to be what's hanging Bonds. He told one jury he was clean, the other he used something he thought was legal. Did his knowledge of what he did change between those two testimonies? Or do prosecutors have evidence that both were lies?

I wonder when the tax evasion prosecution starts.

The Colorado Rockies won again last night, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3. With the Giants split, that puts the Rockies in sole possession of first place in the NL West.

The biggest sign of encouragement for Rockies fans is that the team is playing well away from Coors. The usual pattern for Colorado looks like this:

Rockies	Home	Away
Offense	Great	Bad
Pitching	Bad	Bad

This year, however, looks like this:

Rockies	Home	Away
Offense	Bad	Great
Pitching	Good	Great

The bad offense at home probably comes around. The question is can they maintain good offense and pitching away from Coors?

Correction: Yes, the last row was supposed to be pitching.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ted Lilly pitched his third consecutive good start at Fenway, and this was the best of them all. He allowed one earned run in seven innings tonight while striking out 10. Over these three starts his ERA is 1.86 with 16 K. Tonight, however, he walked none, compared to seven in his previous two starts. With Toronto leading 8-3 in the bottom of the ninth, it looks like Ted will also get his third Fenway win in a row.

Travis Lee and Ty Wigginton each hit his fourth home run of the year tonight. If I may quote the Chewbacca Defense, "that does not make sense!"

The Devil Rays lead the Orioles 4-1 in the seventh.

Kudos to the Houston Astros for challenging Barry Bonds. In his first two at bats he drove the ball to the wall in right, but each time it was caught. Barry thought they were gone both times and hardly moved from the plate. He might not have made it to second base if the ball hit the wall above the fielder.

In his third at bat, he came up with two out and runners on first and third. Taylor Buchholz induced a pop out to the third baseman to end the inning. Bonds is now batting .133 with a .200 slugging percentage. Go Astros!

The Brewers take 11 innings but eke out a win over the St. Louis Cardinals, handing the redbirds their first loss in their new home. The Milwaukee bullpen pitched five shutout inning, giving up just three hits and and two walks. That lowers the Brewers bullpen ERA to 2.60.

Brandon Backe left today's Astros-Giants game after two innings with a strained right elbow. He gave up a solo home run to Alou in the second, and the score remains 1-0 Giants in the fourth.

Scott Broduer posts about a rock and roller persuing his baseball dreams.

It's starting to look like 2004 was an outlier for Oliver Perez. The great control he showed then was out of place given 2003 and 2005. He walked a ton of batters again today, five in 4 2/3 innings. That gives him 12 walks in 13 1/3 innings. He's turning into Bobby Witt instead of Randy Johnson.

The Twins found their batting stoke in the heart of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Going against one of the best pitching staffs in the league, they won games 7-6, 6-5 and 8-2 today. They scored 27 in their first six contests. Mostly, they found their home run stroke, knocking out six in these three games after hitting seven in their first six matches.

Stewart and Castillo are doing a great job setting the table (OBAs over .400), and now with power behind them they should score some runs.

Jon Garland is in line for the win today, but it's mostly because Verlander pitched worse. Garland gave up 13 hits and seven earned runs in five innings this afternoon. He's now given up 23 hits in 10 1/3 innings. White Sox fans, what's he doing differently from last year? Is it poor pitching or bad luck?

Neither side is showing good control in the Padres-Marlins game this afternoon. Both sides have walked five, and the game is in the bottom of the sixth. The difference is that Vargas only allowed two hits, with a parade of Padre pitchers gave up eight safties and eight runs. The Marlins have a rare lead, 8-2.

Randy Johnson came out of the Yankees game after five inning and 87 pitches. He was doing well until the fifth, when he gave up a run on three singles. This seems to be too early to remove Johnson from the game, unless Torre thinks this one's in the bag and wants to save Randy for the future. I find that highly unlikely with just a 4-1 lead.

Update: They just said on the broadcast that there's nothing wrong with Johnson. They just removed him from the game. Maybe the Yankees are going to treat him like the Red Sox treated Pedro? If the Yankees don't win this game, Torre will be second-guessed on this one.

Iguchi and Thome go deep back to back in the first inning for the White Sox and Chicago leads Detroit 2-0. Can Thome be stopped? For his career, he hits a homer every four games, so he'll average 40 over a 162 game season. In the ninth game of this season, he's already hit six. Without the strain of playing in the field and playing home games in Chicago, can Jim launch an assault on Maris' AL record?

During the 1998 season, it became apparent early in the season that McGwire was going to pass 61. He accumulated so many home runs early that even if he fell off his career pace for the rest of the year he'd still pass Maris easily. A very hot April could put Jim in the same boat.

Update: Shelton keeps ahead of Thome, hitting his seventh. The difference between the two batters, of course, is that we have a real good idea of what Thome can do over a full season. Shelton doesn't have a track record yet, so a hot start by him doesn't tell us as much about what he might do the rest of the season.

Carlos Beltran homers in the first inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. It's his third dinger of the season. In 2005, it took Carlos 16 games to reach that level. He's playing his 8th game of 2006 today.

Update: Wright and Floyd follow up with homers in the first to make the score 4-0. Livan Hernandez isn't being helped by RFK today. That's five homers on the year against Hernandez in 13 innings. He allowed 25 in 246 1/3 during 2005.

The Pirates caught Jason Repko stealing in the first inning, the first CS for a Dodgers player this season. So far, Grady is deploying the one-run strategy well. Five for six is a very good stolen base rate, and the only sacrifice for the team came with a man on second, the pitcher up and nobody out.

Two teams that started hot cooled off quickly against important division foes. The Tigers try to salvage the last game of their series against the White Sox and stay ahead of Chicago in the standings. They send 23-year-old Justin Verlander to the mound hosting verteran Jon Garland. It seemed every ball the Royals put into play against Garland fell for a hit in his first start. The right-handed Verlander was especially tough on lefties in his first start, striking out 6 in 11 at bats.

The Brewers have fallen into a tie with the Cardinals, but can pull a game ahead of the division champs with a win today. The Brewers are waiting for their three young infielders to turn into stars, but meanwhile, Corey Koskie is carrying the infield offensively. With Scott Rolen returning to form after his 2005 injuries, it's a good game to pay attention to the hot corner.

And the best pitching matchup of the day is in Cleveland where Felix Hernandez takes on Jason Johnson. Jason shut down the Twins on four hits in his last start, not allowing a hit with men on base. Hernandez was wild in his first start, walking four and hitting a batter (he hit two in 84 1/3 innings last year). He remained unhittable however, allowing just two in five innings.

Enjoy!

Finagel A Bagel recently introduced the cocoa bagel in honor of the Red Sox. It was inspired by the new centerfielder, Coco Crisp:

The flavor, which will be offered for the next 60 to 90 days, is made with Dutch cocoa powder, liquid chocolate flavoring, chocolate chips, and a coating of crispy cereal. And it's been selling out daily at all of Finagle's 20 Boston-area locations since being introduced last week, which means each store is selling between 50 and 100 a day, according to Finagle's owner, Laura Trust.

Finagle A Bagel is my favorite bagel store in Boston. Whenever we're in Cambridge for a visit my wife and I usually stop there for breakfast. Of course, nothing compares to Kimmel's Bagel Shop here in Longmeadow.

Sabernomics labels Loria's statements on moving to San Antonio as "non-credible". My question to JC is, how many people do you need in an area in order to make money? Is 1.7 million people enough to fill a 40,000 seat stadium for 81 games?

Larry Mahnken picked a pretty good day to be born.

The Texas Rangers broke out of the offensive slump, scoring as many runs last night as they did in their previous four games. With a little help from a Cabrera error, the Rangers put an eleven spot on the board. Gary Matthews, Jr. hit a three-run triple in the bottom of the fourth when the Angels should have been out of the inning.

The high-powered Texas offense needs to do a better job of getting on base. A .321 OBA means they don't have enough men on base to score on all of those extra-base hits.

The Astros-Giants were rained out for the second time in a row yesterday:

The postponement of Wednesday night's game against the Houston Astros, coming on the heels of Tuesday's rain out, marked only the second time that the Giants have had back-to-back home games washed out since moving to San Francisco in 1958. Their only other consecutive rainouts occurred April 21-22, 1961 at Candlestick Park.

They'll try to play two today and find an off-day for both teams when they can schedule the other rain out.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Justin Morneau's freakish season continues. He hit his fourth home run tonight, going 1 for 3. He only collected seven hits on the season so far, so he's sitting with a .226 BA but a .613 Slugging Percentage. That means his average hit is pretty close to a triple. Now, he just needs to increase the frequency of those safeties.

Correction: Should be slugging percentage on the .613, not OBA. One commentor says that's closer to a double. Slug/BA = Bases per hit. .613/.226 = 2.7, which is closer to a triple.

I mentioned on the radio show tonight that the Braves pitchers have a strikeout to walk ratio close to one. Tonight they walked three and struck out four, giving them 40 BB and 43 K on the season. Over the previous 15 seasons, the Braves K/BB was between 1.8 and 2.8, with 10 seasons over 2.0. Is this the Braves missing Mazzone and his desire to get ahead on the first pitch?

The Devil Rays didn't make much contact tonight against the Baltimore Orioles. The team drew eleven walks, tying a franchise record accomplished three times before. The also struck out twelve times, meaning twenty three plate appearances ended without a ball in play. So when they did hit the ball, the Rays did well, going 9 for 19. They ended up winning the game 7-4, scoring six runs in the last two innings. Amazingly, the walks didn't make a big difference. The first nine came off Cabrera in the first five innings, and only led to one run. It's when they started to put the bat on the ball that they scored.

The Pittsburgh Pirates smacked four home runs tonight off the Los Angeles Dodgers to power their way to a 9-5 victory. Seven of the Pirates runs scored on the homers.

The four dingers bring the Pirates total to 17, tied with Cincinnati for the National League team lead. The Wilsons hit three tonight, and have combined for seven on the season. The Pirates only hit 11 home runs in April of 2005, and overall were 22nd in the majors in homers during the season. A big increase in power would be a boon for the Pirate offense.

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

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room.

David Wells gives up hits to the first two batters he faces this season, including a two run homer to Alex Rios. It looked like it would go to three, but Gonzalez made a nice play in the hole on Vernon Wells.

Update: With two outs, Bengie Molina sends it over the Monster seats to make the score 3-0. Bengie's off to a good start offensively for the Jays, slugging over .600.

Update: Wells is just getting pounded. If he wants to get traded or released, a few outings like this will do it. He's allowed seven hits and five runs in 1 2/3 innings. It's 5-0 Toronto.

The Yankees put 23 men on base today via a hit or walk. Most of those were singles. When there's that many base runners, a few are bound to score. New York raises their team OBA to .380. That's a great year for a player. Chacon gave up five runs in six innings and was never in danger of a loss after the first inning.

The Red Sox signed Coco Crisp to an extension through the 2009 season. They'll have the cereal hitter through both his arbitration and peak playing years. And at $15 million, it's a good price, a lot less than Johnny Damon. The Red Sox seem to be setting their costs for the next few seasons, which is always a good thing. I suspect with baseball doing well financially, salaries are going up in the next few years.

The Cubs defeated the Reds 4-1 this afternoon. Michael Barrett, moved to the clean up spot drove in three runs with a single, sac fly and a grounder that turned into an error. That helped Greg Maddux win number 320. He took advantage of the Reds free swingers, striking out seven.

Griffey left the game early with stiffness behind his right knee. No word yet on his prognonsis. Griffey's off to a good power start, leaving the game with a .516 slugging percentage.

Today's game against the Marlins is exactly what the Padres need to get from Chris Young. Six innings, six strikeouts, only one hit. The walks are still high, but if a team can't hit him, three in six inning won't matter that much. The Padres win 7-2. The Marlins now have three one-run losses and three blowout losses (5 runs or more). They need to find a score difference they can win.

Jose Contreras picks up a win this afternoon as throws 110 pitches over eight innings against the Tigers. He was around the plate all day, throwing seven strikes for every three balls. The Tigers only managed one run against the veteran on a homer by Craig Monroe.

The final score, however, was 4-3 as Chris Shelton retook the home run lead with a two-run shot off Jenks in the ninth. It strikes me that Chicago was winning one-run games last year on the strength of a great bullpen. Today, it was because of a poor relief appearance. It's their first 1-run win of the season.

Via Deadspin, Sports Law Blog points to an article approving of player gambling on games.

You can download the article here. But I'm not sure I agree with this from the abstract:

This paper outlines the advantages of allowing athletes to bet on their games. Betting aligns player incentives with team incentives, encourages team-oriented play, helps sustain fan interest, lessens the nominal costs of owning teams or ticket purchases, and reduces the likelihood that players will conspire to throw games or beat the point spread.

Players might not conspire, but who's to say a bad egg won't throw a game all by himself? If you're playing an elite team, you're going to make a lot more money if you bet against the team and they lose. And what about someone playing for a lousy team? Why would you ever bet on your team. Unless the bets were transparent, so that everyone knew how players were wagering, or unless they were not allowed to bet against their team, I don't see why throwing games wouldn't become common. But I'll need to read the article.

Update: Having read the article, I can't disagree more. The author assumes teammates will police themselves. For example:

Assuming a league rule prohibiting bets against a player’s own team, a player who purposely throws a game, and is discovered, would forgo the chance to participate in team bets in the future.

Is there going to be a league betting office? This idea requires transperancy, but how do you enforce that?

On top of that, no one is going to want to play for a bad team. Right now, poor teams have a chance to get better by spending a lot of money on salary, bringing in good players through free agency. Why would a free agent sign with a celler dweller in this scenario?

It's an interesting idea, but I don't believe it's practical.

Jim Thome launches his fifth homer of the season to tie Shelton, Hafner and Chavez for the AL lead. Will see if Shelton can answer the challenge as Chicago takes a 1-0 lead over the Tigers.

Why is Doug Mientkiewicz batting third for the Royals today? Is there any evidence that Doug's the player he was in 2003 when his OBA was .393? Since then, he's been a low on-base, low power, slick fielding first baseman. Is this the best the Royals can do?

Update: Everybody around Doug gets on base and a couple add some power to put the Royals on top 3-0 going to the bottom of the first. Doug flied out to right fielder Bernie Williams (Sheffield DH today) to lower his early season BA to .158.

Update: The Yankees use the old walk, walk, three-run homer to tie the score in the bottom of the first. Damon and Jeter each reached via the base on balls, and both have OBAs over .400. Sheffield's blast ties it.

Scott Podsednik leads off the White Sox/Tigers game with a double. It's the second hit for the left fielder in 27 at bats this season. Given that he's only struck out three times, that's real bad luck on balls in play. About 30% of balls put in play go through for a hit or an error. With 24 in play, I'd expect him to be a lot closer to six hits than one at this point. Which is good news. Unless he's swinging weakly, those balls in play will eventually find holes.

Roar From 34 is a new group blog about the Orioles. Check out this post on what makes a player a hometown hero.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

Craig Handel offers a number of punchlines. You're invited to leave yours in the comments.

Pedro Martinez takes the mound for the Mets tonight as he faces the Nationals and Tony Armas. Pedro's coming off a game where he was wild. He issued four unintentional walks and hit three Nationals. Pedro's always hit people, but the walks were certainly out of character. Tony Armas pitched a strong outing vs. Houston, but suffered from lack of offensive and bullpen support. Depth is a problem for the Nationals. Even a week into the season, you can see they have a few very good players, but not much behind them.

So will the Nationals throw at Pedro? For all the batters he's hit in his career, Pedro's only been plunked three times.

The Brewers and Cardinals play the second game at Busch tonight with David Bush taking on Jason Marquis. The righty Bush faced a predominantly lefty lineup vs. the Diamondbacks and allowed just one hit in fifteen left-handed at bats while striking out five. Philadelphia lefties, on the other hand, were four for eleven vs. Marquis with two doubles.

Enjoy!

Tom Bridge at Metroblogging Washington picked up some information at the Washington Nationals opening day. It seems the ushers were fired from their DC jobs and hired directly by the Nationals:

This says a few things to me. It says that Selig and his cabal have settled on an owner, first of all. Secondly, that they're down to the brass tacks in terms of negotiations if they're talking about stadium personnel and not payroll, prices, and other large ticket items. Lastly, it means they're getting to the stage where they're involving people not typically into honoring non disclosure agreements. We're close to a deal here, folks, and we could see one possibly before the homestand is over, but I'm betting it will be closer to the All-Star Break before anyone in Major League Baseball shows DC any love.

It's my opinion that the owner was picked a long time ago. Baseball has to go through the process of making it look like there's bidding, but as the Boston transaction showed us, the people Bud likes the most are going to get the team.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Orioles dominated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays tonight, winning by a score of 8-4. Kris Benson showed that the Orioles they made a good deal as he goes seven strong innings, striking out five and walking just one. His ERA now stands at 1.93 and his opponents' batting average a low .188. He's given the Orioles two solid, quality starts, going seven inning in each game. Having an inning eater like Kris should help the rest of the staff.

Ian Snell matched his first outing of the year tonight, once again giving up ten hits in five innings. He left the game trailing by three, but solo homers by Doumit and Jack Wilson make it a 6-5 game in the bottom of the sixth. The opposition is hitting .417 off Snell this season.

Update: The Pirates offense gets Snell off the hook in the 7th. Craig Wilson hits the fourth home run of the night for the Pirates, and the 7th overall in the game to force a tie. Doumit socks a sac fly later in the inning to put the Pirates up 7-6.

Update: Pittsburgh holds on for the one-run win. The bullpen goes four two hit innings with no walks and three strikeouts as they shut down the Dodgers. Jim Tracy gets a win vs. his old team.

Cliff Lee's shutting down the Seattle Mariners tonight. After a first inning walk to Ichiro, Lee retired the next 12 batters, striking out half of them. Victor Martinez continues his hot hitting with a 2 for 2 night so far, and the Indians lead the Mariners 3-0.

Update: Johjima breaks up the no-hitter in the bottom of the fifth with a double to the wall in center.

Update: Peralta and Hafner go back-to-back to extend the Indians lead to 6-0 in the bottom of the fifth.

Khalil Greene smacked two home runs off Sergio Mitre this afternoon, helping the Padres to victory in the Marlins home opener. That give Greene four, tying him with Berkman, Preston Wilson and Dunn for the NL lead. Khalil only has six hits on the season, but they've been loud ones.

Ohman relieved Rusch, and the Reds home run barrage continued. He gave up a grand slam to Encarnacion in the 6th, and for good measure Kearns came up next and hit the fifth solo shot of the day. All nine Cincinnati runs came via the long ball.

Meanwhile, slugger Bronson Arroyo shut out the Cubs over seven innings, allowing six hits while striking out four. He's fast becoming a two-way player.

The New York Mets continue to win, easily spoiling the Washington Nationals home opener 7-1 this afternoon. Bannister allowed just three hits while striking out only one batter; the league is now hitting .116 against the rookie.

Reyes went two for five with a triple, raising his OBA to .379. It's almost all his batting average, but if he's going to hit around .360 all year, no one's going to worry about the walks. If Mets fans are reading this, is Jose swinging at better pitches this year? Did Rickey have some influence on his pitch selection?

The base on balls catch up with the Royals in the 8th inning, as Jeter finishes Kansas City off with a three-run blast. Two walks and two hits had brought the Yankees within one when Derek took the first pitch out of the park. The Yankees walked a total of nine times in the game. New York is averaging 11 runs in their wins, 2.5 in their losses.

The Reds extend their lead to 4-0 as Adam Dunn hits his second home run of the day. It was the fourth hit of the game for the Reds, all solo homers. Edwin Encarnacion follows with a single to break the Reds home run streak.

Glendon Rusch gave up the four dingers, giving him six allowed on the season. He allowed just 14 all last year.

The Red Sox stroke three doubles in the second inning to help them to a 4-1 lead. Youkilis bats in the leadoff spot, and with his two hits today now sports a .526 OBA.

Wang gets the grounders but allows a run in the sixth. He walks the leadoff hitter, then a slow roller and a bunt go for two more hits (Teahen looked out on the bunt on the replay). Then a GDP plates the go-ahead run. Only one strikeout for Wang so far.

The Yankees' seven walks seem to stay on base as they've only scored four runs so far. They've hit into two double plays and left six on base.

The Reds are up 3-0 on the Cubs. Cincinnati batters knocked out three hits, all home runs. Griffey and Dunn slammed the first two, but Bronson Arroyo hit number three. That's two starts for Arroyo, two dingers dinged. Maybe the Reds should make him an outfielder!

Josh Beckett is wild in the first inning for the Red Sox, walking three Blue Jays, one forcing in a run. Toronto does their best Valdimir, and the patience pays off.

I just came home, and DirecTV is carrying the YES HD broadcast. It's really stunning. It's a perfect day in New York. The lighter blues on the Royals caps really pops. You can see the texture of the grass, the divots in the dirt, and the stubble on Damon's face.

The Yankees and Royals are tied in the bottom of the fourth. The Yankees drew four walks in the third to score their fourth run, but Wang gave it back in the next at bat allowing four hits and three runs. The Yankees, however, are threatening in the bottom of the inning with two on and one out.

Update: Bernie Williams gets doubled off second on a pop out to the shortstop! The Yankees don't score in the fourth.

Through five innings, Ramon Ortiz has no strikeouts. The Mets are putting the ball in play, and they're falling for hits. They're 8 for 22 on balls in play, good enough for a four run lead. Ortiz has just 1 K in 10 IP this season.

Bannister isn't striking out batters either. He has one so far, but only 1 of the 12 Nationals balls in play fell for a hit. The Mets lead 4-0 in the fifth.

Chien-Ming Wang starts off with three ground ball outs in the first inning.

Update: Giambi uses the air to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. It's his first home run of the season. They haven't pitched to him much, as he's drawn seven walks already.

Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard is missing today's opener in the Bronx:

Public-address announcer Bob Sheppard's authoritative voice was missing from the New York Yankees' home opener for the first time since 1950 because of a hip injury.

Sheppard threw out his left hip Monday night at his Long Island home, the Yankees said before Tuesday's game against Kansas City. He will miss the three-game series against the Royals and hopes to be back April 21.

"I am very disappointed," Sheppard said in a statement. "I am optimistic that I will return to the stadium for the next homestand."

Here's wishing Bob a speedy recovery!

Derrek Lee received his security today, signing a new five-year, $65 millions dollar deal with the Cubs that overrides his old contract. He'll be a Cub through 2010 the sides agreed on a no-trade clause as well.

"Derrek Lee has become one of the upper echelon players in the game," said general manager Jim Hendry, who got Lee in a trade with the Florida Marlins. "It's a well-deserved contract, as stated by the parties all along. He's certainly made no secret of the fact that he wanted to be a Cub for a long time and we certainly wanted to accommodate him. He's a special player."

It's a good deal for the Cubs. They appear to be paying for his career norms instead of the outlier 2005 season. If that season ends up representing a new level of performance for Lee, then the Cubs made a great deal. I assume the no-trade clause is included for that reason; if Lee does continue as a 1.000 OPS player, he'd be easy to trade at $13 million a year.

The Baseball Crank continues his preview of the division using Established Win Shares Levels. Today he looks at the NL East.

Juiced? Or Not? is a new website/blog that is attempting to use the "wisdom of the mob" to determine who is and isn't using performance enhancers. It's an interesting approach to the question, and it's fun.

Balls, Sticks and Stuff notes the Phillies bad start doesn't give fans a lot of hope for the season. He's calling for Charlie Manuel's head:

Time after time last season, I defended Manuel. While he was challenged to make good tactical decisions, he got players heads in the right place to play, a big improvement over the previous regime. And it showed, the team won 88 games and got closer to the playoffs than any Phillies team since 1993.

But this year, he has regressed as a manager. His tactical decisions are worse than last year and his lineup cards are perplexing.

The Phillies' problems are bigger than Charlie Manuel, firing him won't make them a World Series team, those issues are too numerous to name here. But if there is any hope of slavaging 2006, the time to make a change is now.

It looks like the Altobelli Effect wore off.

MetsBlog.com points out Willie Randolph's skills at motivating players, using Cliff Floyd as an example.

The final six home openers take place today starting with the Yankees hosting the Royals. It's not the most stellar match up as Joe Mays faces Chien-Ming Wang. The Yankees have Mays' number, as he posted a 1-7 record and a 5.54 ERA against the Bronx Bombers.

The Red Sox trot out their off-season prize this afternoon in the battle of the Joshs as Towers hurls against Beckett. The two suffered very different fates in their first outings as Beckett shut down the Rangers while Towers was pounded by the light hitting Twins.

The Nationals play their second home opener, hosting the Mets and the bad blood developed last week. Mets rookie Brian Bannister takes on Ramon Ortiz of the Nationals. Bannister pitched well in his first major league outing, allowing just two hits in six innings, although he walked four. Ortiz was not able to put batters away with two strikes in his first appearance, allowing 4 hits in 13 at bats.

The Marlins open in Miami, and who knows how many more times we'll say that! It's an evenly matched game, as both Florida and San Diego are 1-4. Woody Williams makes his first start of the year after pitching an inning in relief. Sergio Mitre takes the mound for the Marlins. He went six scoreless innings for the Marlins only win of the year.

Two teams going in opposite directions challenge each other at the Metrodome as the Oakland Athletics visit the Minnesota Twins. The A's work the pitcher well, averaging 3.99 pitches per plate appearance, while the Twins see just 3.56. Not surprisingly, Oakland drew more than twice the number of walks as the Twins, 29-12.

The final opener takes place in Arizona where the Diamondbacks host the first place Rockies. This is a rematch of the April 5th game where both starters did an outstanding job in Coors, with Hernandez earning his first win of the season.

Enjoy!

Correction: Josh Beckett wasn't a free agent.

There's a new children's book about Manny Ramirez. Seems appropriate.

Chris Shelton was the obvious choice the the AL, but Garrett Atkins of the Rockies took home National League honors. He was one of the few Rockies who hit well at home in their opening home stand, then did a job on San Diego.

His career home/road splits, however, are more what you'd expect from a Rockies player.

A photo essay hosted by Batgirl.

Here's the recap of yesterday's games. I'll once again make an appeal for video or pictures. If you attend an MLB game, send me a five second clip or still from your camera or cell phone and I'll use it in the show.

Update: YouTube is taking a long time to process the video, so here's a direct link.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Texas Rangers came into Anaheim with a 5.14 ERA, and it likely won't be going down tonight. They're in the bottom of the fourth, and Kameron Loe already allowed five earned runs. The Angels put 19 balls in play tonight, and 9 fell for hits. It seems the Texas defense isn't doing a good job of backing up the pitching staff. It's 5-2 Angels at the end of four.

Erik Bedard stymied the Devil Rays tonight for seven innings, allowing just four hits while striking out five. He received more than enough help from Jay Gibbons and Ramon Hernandez, two hot hitters in the Baltimore lineup. Each drove in two and for the year the pair are each slugging over .700. They're in the eighth inning with the Orioles up 5-0.

Correction: Fixed Gibbons first name.

John Thomson is out of the Phillies/Braves game after five good innings. He left with a 3-1 lead, mostly because he drove in two runs with a double. He also singled in the game. Thomson is a good hitter, with a .190 career batting average entering the game.

Update: The Phillies comeback to tie the game at three, then Marcus Giles launches a home run just to the left of the batter's background in centerfield. He looked like he was limping a bit running around the bases, and the replay showed he stumbled turning at first base. His quadricep was bothering him coming into the game, and he may have aggravated it again. The Braves lead 4-3.

The Cardinals win their first game in their new home, 6-4 over the Milwaukee Brewers. Mark Mulder not only pitched a fine game, he contributed a double and a homer! It's his third multi-hit game, but his first two extra-base hits.

The bad news first. Coco Crisp fractured his finger and will miss at least 10 days. Crisp is off to a very good start, setting the table with a .385 OBA.

The good news is that the Red Sox signed David Ortiz to an extension through 2010 with an option for 2011. I haven't seen any details on dollars yet.

Mark Mulder starts the game off with a ball, but gets Brady Clark to line out to Aaron Miles to finish the first plate appearance at the new park.

Update: Mulder gets the side easily in the first, throwing just seven pitches to retire the three batters.

Update: Juan Encarnacion becomes the first base runner in the new Busch Stadium as he's hit by a pitch.

Update: Pujols hits the first homer for the Cardinals at the new park, making the score 2-1. Very appropriate.
Update: The first hit goes to Carlos Lee, a single and the first homer goes to Bill Hall as the first two batters in the second combine to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.

Lance Berkman and Preston Wilson each homered today. They're tied for NL lead in homers now with four. Preston effectively replaces Bagwell in the lineup, and with this start he's doing a good job. Wilson has an injury history, so the Astros have to hope he doesn't replace that part of Bagwell's carer. The Astros and Nationals are tied at three in the eighth.

The White Sox get home runs from players other than Thome as they defeat the Tigers 5-3. Crede and Konerko joined the power parade as the three shots accounted for all five runs.

Jason Repko is two for three in the fifth inning with the tough half of the cycle. He's homered, tripled and driven in four. Can he count down to the double and single?

This is easily the worst outing of Zach Duke's carrer so far. He's given up seven earned runs in five innings. We'll see if he pitches the sixth.

It looks like Freddy Garcia is back to being a power pitcher. He struck out five in six innings today and left the game with a 4-3 lead.

The Dodgers add a two-run homer to go with the two in the Chicago-Detroit game. Repko follows a Fucal four pitch walk with an 0-2 homer. Los Angeles leads Pittsburgh and Zach Duke 2-0 in the top of the first.

Update: Ross stops the streak of scoring on two-run shots as he triples in a run from first. Duke did not give up a hit with runners in scoring position, but power with runners on first works just as well. The Dodgers lead 3-0 in the bottom of the first.

Craig Monroe follows a walk to Carlos Guillen with his second home run of the season to give the Tigers an early 2-0 lead. That's the Tigers 18th home run of the season. They're playing like the Tigers of the early 1990's in terms of home runs.

Update: Thome follows up with a 2-run homer of his own. Thome has all four White Sox home runs in 2006.

Was Watching applies batting eye from Baseball Between the Numbers to look at the Yankees of the Torre era. No surprise at who does well or poorly, but it is interesting that players with good batting eyes tend to be clutch players. Most people think of the Joe Carter types, hitters willing to put the ball in play with men on base, as the clutch performers.

Paragraphs like this:

When we were kids, there were two baseball players we were instructed to pattern ourselves after, examples of how the game provided structure and organization and produced quality, upstanding gentlemen who were beacons of Good American Values to us all. One stood for hard work, hustle and dedication; the other represented dignity, earnestness and decency. The first was Pete Rose. The second was Steve Garvey. That worked out well.

Five more teams open at home today. The biggest one is in St. Louis, where the Cardinals christen the third version of Busch Stadium. As they move into their new building, they'll face the first place Milwaukee Brewers. Strong pitching contributed the most to the Brewers record so far. The staff as a whole allowed just a .203 batting average and a .292 OBA. Tomo Ohka takes the hill against Mark Mulder, and Ohka contributed a .200 BA against to the cause.

A big welcome is expected for the Tigers as they hit Comerica for the first time this season. They're in first place, led by Chris Shelton. The Tigers are leading the majors with 17 home runs, five more than any other team. Shelton alone has more home runs (5) than six teams, including the Red Sox, Giants and White Sox. The Tigers host Chicago today as Freddy Garcia faces Jeremy Bonderman. Jim Thome owns all three of the White Sox homers.

2005 Rookie sensation Zach Duke gets the nod in Pittsburgh as the Pirates come home against Odalis Perez and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles. Duke held the Brewers to an 0 for 5 with men in scoring position, continuing his career trend. I do wonder at what point this turns around, and Duke starts pitching closer to what his strikeout number indicate.

Atlanta hosts Philadelphia in the 2006 opener at Turner Field. Chipper Jones injured his ankle yesterday, and there's been no update on his condition. The Braves offense is rolling so far this season, scoring better than seven runs a game. But the pitching staff also allowed 53 runs, 50 of them earned. Normally you'd expect great offense from the Braves to be a bonus, but the hurlers aren't living up to expectations so far.

Finally, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays open a reconditioned Tropicana Field as they take on the Baltimore Orioles. They still need to do some work on the pitching staff. The starters are allowing a .304 batting average, and that's the good news. The relievers are getting hit at a .385 clip. So if you see McClung getting knocked around by the Orioles tonight, remember, it could get worse!

Enjoy!

I didn't realize when I looked at the boxscore that Corey Sullivan's two triples against the Padres came in the same inning. That ties a major league record. The Rockies lead the majors with five three-baggers so far this season.

Vince Galloro post pictures from the White Sox opening night.

Eric Gilmore sees the Giants doing well without Bonds hitting as a sign of a deeper team. Bonds may not be hitting well, but he's certainly getting on base just fine. Eric hits that point tangentially:

Two: Bonds' mere presence in the lineup, even when he's hitting below .200, strikes fear in opposing pitchers and managers and translates into more Giants runs.

If Bonds continues to get on base at a .500 clip, he's helping the team no matter what he hits. The big reason the Giants are doing well may be more based on luck. They're not getting on much if the bases are empty, but once men are in scoring position they're driving them home.

So now there's two reasons not to walk Bonds. He's not hitting, and the team is doing better with men on base! Add to that, his knee may not be all that good:

Three: If he can tweak his knee while doing something as innocent as striding and planting his right foot while taking a pitch in the dirt, then Bonds' situation might be even more tenuous than we imagined.

Pitch to Barry!

Friar Faithful looks at the pitching lines from yesterday's blowout in San Diego and finds the defense at fault, rather than the pitching:

How did we get the result we got then? Two factors: Awful fielding and bad luck. A lot of both, actually. We can only hope for a change in the latter, but the former we can expect to improve. Cameron's return from the DL will vastly improve the outfield. Dave Roberts cannot play a credible centerfield and I really can't say enough about how much I detest seeing Eric Young in the starting lineup. I won't wish injury on anyone, but we have a better chance of that taking playing time from undeserving veterans than we do of Bochy doing it.

I wonder how many other mangers read Malcolm Gladwell?

Maddon never runs out of room for books. He reads books like Devil Rays outfielder Carl Crawford steals bases.

One of his recent favorites: "Blink," by Malcolm Gladwell, a book that examines thinking.

Maddon sounds like the kind of person who'd be interesting to know no matter what his profession.

Are teams finally realizing the value of a stolen base in relation to the caught stealing? The rule of thumb going back to the hidden game of baseball is that teams needed to swipe successfully two-thirds of the time just to break even in terms of runs. The percentage goes up as runs become more plentiful.

There's a misconception that sabermetricians don't like the stolen base. What they hate is the caught stealing, and too many teams take an undue risk running. So far in 2006, however, that's not the case. Runners are stealing at a 75% clip (77 steals in 102 attempts). Twenty three of the thirty teams are above the 66.7% break even point. The Reds ran the best, with Freel and Lopez combining to make the team 7-0. The Cardinals ran the most, swiping seven in nine tries. And in an effort to show just how little stolen bases do matter, Detroit scored big while stealing just one base in five attempts.

The only team not to attempt a steal was the Pittsburgh Pirates. Maybe a little of DePodesta's logic rubbed off on Tracy after all.

Abbr	SB	CS	SBPct
CIN	7	0	100
MIN	4	0	100
BAL	3	0	100
KC	3	0	100
SF	3	0	100
TOR	2	0	100
ATL	2	0	100
LAD	2	0	100
PHI	2	0	100
SD	2	0	100
CLE	1	0	100
TEX	1	0	100
CHN	1	0	100
NYN	6	1	85.714
STL	7	2	77.778
SEA	6	2	75
LAA	3	1	75
CHA	3	1	75
NYA	3	1	75
FLA	3	1	75
BOS	2	1	66.667
OAK	2	1	66.667
MIL	2	1	66.667
WSH	3	2	60
COL	1	1	50
TB	1	2	33.333
HOU	1	3	25
DET	1	4	20
ARI	0	1	0
PIT	0	0	--

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Rincon and Isringhausen combined to load the bases with Cubs on three walks in the 8th inning. No one out for Barrett with the Cubs trailing by one.

Update: Barrett goes deep for a grand slam. That gives him nine RBI in five games.

Update: Cubs win! The Chicago bullpen goes 4 2/3 innings without allowing a run to lower the pen's ERA to 1.45.

Albert Pujols came into the night hitless in this series. The broadcast mentioned that he's gone hitless in a three game series or more only twice in his career. Pujols did get a hit in the fifth inning, driving in two and taking back the lead for the Cardinals.

But I wondered, how often should Pujols go hitless in a series? Albert is a .332 career hitter. That's the probability of his getting hit if you know nothing else about the situation. If he gets 12 at bats in a three-game series, the probability of Albert getting at least one hit is .992. So if Albert plays 1000 three game series, we'd expect him to go hitless in about 8 of those. Now, Pujols likely plays about 50 series a year of at least three games. In five years, that's 250 series. Since 250 is 1/4 of 1000, we'd expect that he would go hitless in about two series. Just right.

Sidney Ponson just gave up four hits and three runs in the fourth inning, including a three-run homer to Jacque Jones. If you look at Sidney's splits for the last six seasons, you can see how offense goes up against him when he reaches the fourth inning. He stayed true to form tonight.

Brad Penny is finally making Paul DePodesta look good. In two starts, he's struck out 14, walked one, and holds a 1.50 ERA. He went seven strong innings, defeating the Phillies 6-2. He even contributed a hit and an RBI.

Both Chipper Jones and Marcus Giles exited today's Atlanta game early with injuries. It's not clear if the injuries are serious or not.

Another blowout by the Rockies at PETCO Park today. They dismantled Jake Peavy, hanging eight earned runs on the Padres ace. Good things came in threes, as Colorado hit three doubles, three triples and three home runs in a park that's usually stingy on offense. The final was 10-4, which means they've scored 32 runs in three games in San Diego while allowing just 12.

Lance Niekro homered for the Giants leading off the ninth, and then with two on, Randy Winn delivered the game winning hit to give San Francisco a 6-5 victory over the Braves. The Giants move to 4-2, and stay tied with Colorado for first place in the NL West.

With a two out in the bottom of the ninth in Seattle, Street gets Ichiro to hit a comebacker to the mound. Street runs toward first, then throws the ball underhand to Swisher. The toss, however, is high, and Nick has to jump for it. As he comes down, he collides with Ichrio on the bag and Suzuki is called safe. Looking at the replay, I thought Swisher came down on the bag first. Lopez grounds out for the final out, and the A's win 6-4.

With the score 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth, the Braves pitched carefully to Barry Bonds. They ended up walking him, but they were trying to get him to swing at bad pitches, and even threw a taken strike at one point. Bonds is 0 for 2 today with two walks. His batting average is down to .167, while his OBA is still a fantastic .474. At some point, that gap is going to become very attactive to opposing managers, and they'll start challenging the slugger.

The Red Sox used nine singles and six walks to push four runs across the plate today. That was enough as Tim Wakefield and three relievers held the Orioles to one unearned run. Wakefield threw the knuckler for strikes today, with 62 of his 93 pitches in the plus column.

The Red Sox have now outscored their opponents 33-24 over six games. They're playing close games and coming out on top.

I'll be on Lehigh Valley Yankee Fan Club Radio at 7 PM EDT if you'd like to tune in and listen.

The Phillies and the Pirates both entered the win column today. Pittsburgh received both good offense and good pitching today, defeating the Reds 5-3. The staff struck out eleven while walking just 3. The offense managed five runs despite going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. A double and a homer scored men from first, and two sacrifice flys provided the winning margin.

Philadelphia overcame an early 3-0 deficit. Madson settled down and kept the Phillies in the game long enough for the bullpen to take over for three hitless innings. A three run homer by Abreu won the game in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth.

Alex Rodriguez does it again. He hits his eighth career home run off Bartolo Colon in forty four at bats to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the second inning. A single and an error later, Jorge Posada delivers a three run shot to push the score to 4-0.

The heart of the Mets order wins a game for New York in the bottom of the ninth. Carlos Beltran walks on a full count to get things started. The Carlos Delgado pulls a single into right field to send Beltran to third. David Wright (who may be called Carlos because it's less confusing) then lofts a fly ball to right field, easily deep enough to score Beltran and give New York a 3-2 victory.

Dontrelle Willis pitched a very good game, allowing just 2 runs over eight innings. It just wasn't enough for the offense today.

The Blue Jays used B.J. Ryan in an important but non-save situation. Halladay ran out of gas in the eighth inning. He already allowed three runs and the bases were loaded with 1 out. The Jays trailed 5-2. Gibbons brought in B.J. Ryan, and induced a pop out and struck out Travis Lee to end the inning and keep things close. Excellent use of the team's best reliever.

Update: The Toronto offense is not able to stage a comeback. Kazmir gets to within one out of a complete game when he gives up two singles. He was at 119 pitches. Dan Miceli comes in and gets Catalanotto to end the game. Kazmir allowed 12 hits, but only one walk. That's the kind of control that will make him a star pitcher.

5-2 Was the final.

Not many runs so far today. The Dodgers lead the Phillies 3-2, but that's the most runs score in any game. Right now, there are four games in the fifth or later where the score is 1-0 or 2-0.

Scott Kazmir and Roy Halladay are blowing through the opposing lineups early. After three innings, Kazmir's thrown just 36 pitches and Halladay just 27! They combined for six strikeouts and no walks. Only 16 of the 63 pitches thrown so far were called balls.

Two errors by the Phillies and a triple by J.D. Drew lead to two unearned runs in the first inninig against Ryan Madson. Ryan then gives up a home run to Navarro to make the score 3-0. This is the fourth game of five where the opposition took an early lead on a Phillies starter.

An intriguing matchup in Texas this afternoon as former Ranger Kenny Rogers takes the mound for the Tigers against Vicente Padilla. Both went six innings, allowing one earned run in their first starts. Both are new to their teams. The difference is the Tigers are undefeated while the Rangers hold the worst record in the American League. The only win by Texas came in Padilla's start.

There's a lot of star power on the mound in Anaheim later as Mike Mussina and Bartolo Colon face off. Since he joined the Yankees, Mussina doesn't get the Angels to strike out much. His 5 K per 9 against the Angels is well below his 7.8 K per 9 average since joining New York. And although his ERA is just 3.44 vs. LAnaheim, his record is just 2-3.

Colon gives Alex Rodriguez hope of breaking out of his slump. A-Rod hit three homers off Bartolo in one game last year, and hit seven for his career of the righty in just 43 at bats.

The first double header of the year takes place in Philly this afternoon, making up the rain out with the Dodgers yesterday. And it's the old fashioned kind, just one admission. Madson and Lieber try to get the starters out of their funk. The starting staff averages just 4 IP per game so far, and have walked almost as many as they've struck out. The bullpen, however, pitched great, posting a 1.80 ERA in 20 innings. But the game's usually lost by the time they get in there.

Enjoy!

Jeffrey Maier made one of the more famous catches at Yankee Stadium, snagging Jeter's flyball in the 1996 playoffs that the umpire called a home run but was really interference. He's been playing at Wesleyan University, and in his senior year is about to set the school's hit record. And he's talking again. A couple of years ago I wanted to talk to the young man, but his coach told me he wasn't doing interviews. Now he's opening up, and hopes to get drafted. It appears some of the things said in the wake of the Jeter home run motivated him as a ballplayer:

In the days following Game 1 of the 1996 AL Championship Series, Maier was pictured on the front pages of newspapers and he appeared on morning talk shows.

His exposure was too much for some media members, particularly those in the Baltimore area. Maier can still recite the words of a column that, at the time, was particularly painful.

"Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post wrote something like, 'This is the pinnacle of this young man's life; it's all nostalgia from this point forward,' " Maier said. "I heard that and I thought, 'Wow, don't people think I'm any better than that?'

"From that point forward, I had to go out and prove I was more than just a black glove and black T-shirt and a fan-interference play at Yankee Stadium. I always used that as motivation to excel."

If he doesn't make it as a player, he'd like to be a GM. In a perfect world, however, he'll be drafted by the Yankees and someday make a catch in right field.

Jim Tracy received good reviews from his new charges early this year. Jim and his coaching staff were approachable. They didn't rant like former manager Lloyd McClendon. The Pirates pitchers liked the atmosphere Tracy created.

In Detroit, Jim Leyland wanted more of a killer instinct from his players. So far, the Tigers take no prisoners mode is working much better than the open and approachable Jim Tracy. The Tigers are undefeated. They've outscored their opponents 39 to 12 in five games. The pitching staff has a 5 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio! On top of that, no unearned runs crossed plate yet.

The Pirates, on the other hand, have an OBA that's equal to their opponents batting average! (.328) Their opponents are getting on base at a .424 clip, so those great preseason camps did nothing to improve the control of their pitchers. They've been outscored, however, by just ten runs, four of them unearned. They're in every game, having lost three times by one run and never by more than three. They need a day when the offense and pitching are good together.

Update: I had forgotten that Lloyd McClendon is now a coach for Jim Leyland. The Tiger broadcast just reminded me.

The Cutting Edge is a new historical diary, recounting the 1976 Cincinnati Reds championship season. As the author, Brian Borawski points out, these historical narratives are very popular, and another on the 1986 Mets can be found at Tom Seaver Fan Club.

If you told Yankees fans the team would come out of its first five games with a 3.48 ERA, they'd be doing the dance of joy. The question marks in the Bronx revolved around the pitching staff. The offense projected to be too good and too deep.

Now the Yankees sit at 1-4, and after scoring 15 runs in their first game, they've plated just 10 runs since. Randy Johnson turned in an excellent performance last night, allowing just three runs in eight innings. He struck batters out and was efficient at the same time, throwing just 97 pitches in eight innings. It's the kind of quality start the Yankees should win easily.

But Ervin "Magic" Santana held them to two hits over 5 1/3 innings, walking three. The offense did make him work, putting him over 100 pitches at that point, but instead of feasting on middle relief, the Angels continued to shut down the team.

The optimistic view is the Yankees pitching is better than we thought, and the offense will come around. The pessimistic view is that the Yankees are turning into a walk and homer offense, which is fine vs. most teams but is easily shut down by good pitching staffs. (Staffs that don't issue walks reduce the OBA of this type of offense to its batting average, which is usually low. Think the Oakland Athletics of the late 1980's vs. LA and Cincinnati in the World Series.)

I just love the home/road split for the Colorado Rockies batters right now. I now it won't last, but no offense at Coors, then exploding at PETCO for five home runs in two games is a low probablility event worth noting.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Omar Vizquel showed no sign of his age tonight as he goes four for four with a walk to raise his OBA to .636 on the season. He had a hand in 8 of the Giants 12 runs today as he scored three and drove in five. The four oldsters, Vizquel, Finley, Bonds and Alou all have excellent OBAs or Slugging Percentages to start the year.

A second great outing by Curt Schilling tonight. He only struck out four in seven innings, but giving up one run on a solo shot reminds me of the Schilling of 2001. Schilling needed to be that good, too, as the Red Sox win a squeaker over the Orioles 2-1.

Chris Shelton added a triple tonight to his two doubles and five home runs this season. That's eight of twelve hits for extra-bases, and the Tigers are off to a 4-0 lead on Texas in the third.

Update: Shelton triples again! Meanwhile, Verlander struck out five through four innings with just 59 pitches. The Tigers lead 5-0.

The Cubs won this afternoon behind the fine pitching of Carlos Zambrano and the power of Derrek Lee. Carlos did not allow an earned run this afternoon, but errors by Lee and Cedeno gave Chris Carpenter a 2-0 lead when he left after six innings. However, the Cubs touched the Cardinals bullpen for two runs in the seventh on a Barrett homer, then Lee made up for the error with a game winning shot in the eighth. Lee is showing no signs of slowing down from last year; his slugging percentage currently stands at 1.231.

The Milwaukee Brewers stay undefeated, winning 5-4 against the Diamondbacks this afternoon. Price Fielder hit his first homer of the year and ended up with a 3 for 4 day. All it takes is one good day to make your averages look good.

Kudos to the Brewers bullpen on four scoreless innings today. That lowers the relief ERA for the team to 1.93.

Austin Kerns showed a ton of promise as a twenty two year old rookie in 2002. Since then, injuries kept his offense and playing time low. He's healthy again, and he's in his prime. His three for five today helped beat the Pirates 11-9, and his fourth double and first homer raised his slugging percentage to .714. The Reds offense didn't need that much improvement coming into the season, but a great season by Austin may mean they win the high scoring games instead of losing them.

The Blue Jays beat the Devil Rays today 8-4, but without much help from their starter, Ted Lilly. Lilly walked six in 2 1/3 innings. Remember, this is the Devil Rays he was facing, the team that drew the second fewest walks in the AL last year. Lilly's walks are up the last two seasons; through 2003 he walked 3.2 per 9, but in 2004-2005 that was up to 4.1. It's definitely going in the wrong direction.

The Rays are walking more this year. At their current rate, they'll walk close to 600 times. They drew 412 in 2005.

The Chicago White Sox saw a great start by Javier Vazquez wasted by Cliff Politte. Vazquez struck out seven Royals through seven innings, allowing just one walk and two runs. But Cliff faced three batters in the 8th and allowed two hits, including a two run homer by Mike Sweeney to make the final 4-3.

Last year, the White Sox won their first five one-run games. So far in 2006, they're 0-2. These things have a way of evening out from year to year.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

It's a good day to watch the young stars on the mound. It starts in New York where Dontrelle Willis faces Tom Glavine. Dontrelle threw 107 pitches in just five innings on Monday. He'll need to be more efficient than that against the Mets. He's had good luck against them in his career, posting an 8-1 record and a 1.85 ERA, including two shutouts.

Oliver Perez tries to build on his fine opening day start. He'll need his strikeout pitch working as it did against the Brewers as he faces Aaron Harang and the Reds in Cincinnati. Harang just can't shake his cold, which should be good news for Pirates fans.

Brandon Webb takes the mound in Milwaukee today as he tries hand the Brewers their first loss of the year. Webb has yet to win in two starts at Miller Park; he appears to be susceptible to lefties there, allowing three home runs in nineteen at bats.

Finally, the Phillies turn to Ryan Madson to push them to their first win. Madson has the power and the control to be a great pitcher, he just needs to keep the ball in the park. He'll try to shut down a Dodgers lineup that's averaging seven runs a game so far in 2006.

Enjoy!

Ben Kabak takes apart the Yankees Stadium deal, and sees the Yankees are getting a real sweetheart deal.

Upon closer examination, however, the words in print do not match up with the reality of the situation. First, the Yankees will pay for the stadium through $930 million in bonds $866 million of which will be tax free.. The Yankees will repay this debt to the city with payments in lieu of taxes. As Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, one of the very few to pick up on this story, put it yesterday, "The Yankees will pay off their construction costs with money they would normally have given the city in real estate taxes."

Of course, Ben wants to keep the current stadium, so he's going to see the negatives. He forgets that for a purchase price of $24 million and reconstruction costs of $48 million, the City of New York bought the current stadium and land in the early 1970s. I'm guessing that piece of real estate is worth a lot more today. So while New York may not be getting real estate taxes while the Yankees pay off the bonds, they certainly did well in their investment in the property 30 years ago. And I assume, at some point, they'll start collecting taxes on the stadium.

Dan Lewis, the founder of ArmChairGM writes his own blog at the site, On the DL. Anyone can set up his or her own blog at the site. And it's free!

The audio version of Clemente, The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero arrived in the mail. David Maraniss writes and read this biography. The title shows Maraniss sees Clemente through a romantic lens, and listening to the first chapter that shines through. David is impressed by Clemente's humanity, which starts long before his ill fated trip to help earthquake victims. Clemente visits children in hospitals wherever he goes, he gives out coins to poor people he meets on the street. If you're looking for a book about the legend of Clemente, Maraniss provides the text.

Eric Gagne underwent surgery yesterday, and it looks like he'll miss two months:

Dr. Frank Jobe and Dr. Ralph Gambardella of the team's medical staff in Los Angeles performed Friday's operation on Gagne, which lasted 30 minutes and was the second for the closer in less than a year.

"I think it's good news," Jobe said on a conference call. "He'll begin throwing a ball in three weeks, and in six weeks, get in a game. Those are guesses, a week one way or the other. I don't think it will be longer than six to eight weeks."

The nerve removed was the same one that was moved during a 2005 season-ending operation on June 24.

If Gagne doesn't do well upon his return, they can change his entrance music to, "If I Only Had the Nerve."

The Angels hoisted their AL West banner last night, then shutdown the Yankees offense for a 4-1 victory. The Angels staff shutdown the heart of the Yankees order, with Sheffield, Rodriguez and Giambi combining for an 0 for 12. Damon and Jeter did a good job setting the table, reaching base five times by a hit or a walk.

Fine work by both bullpens last night, as neither allowed a hit in a combined 6 1/3 innings. The difference in the game were the starters. Kelvim Escobar did a nice job of spreading out his six hits, while Chacon got off to a bad start allowing a homer to Orlando Cabrera (career .405 slugging percentage) and never recovered. The Yankees now sit in last place in the AL East.

All eyes were on Felix, but Joe Blanton was the dominant pitcher in the game as Oakland defeated Seattle 5-0.

"The other pitcher is getting a lot of attention, but I'm not facing him, I'm pitching against their lineup, '' Blanton said of the matchup with Hernandez.

Hernandez was a bit wild, but only allowed one run in five innings. His replacement, Julio Mateo was very wild, and the selective Athletics batters drew six walks against the reliever. Couple that with a timely Scutaro triple, and it was a comfortable victory for Oakland.

Blanton pitched eight innings, walking just one while striking out six. Sixty nine of ninety nine pitches were strikes, and Seattle managed just two hits against the righty. The two teams are tied for first in the AL West.

The news was bad at the start of the game for the Padres and just got worse. Ryan Klesko needs shoulder surgery and will miss one to two thirds of the season. That gives Adrian Gonzalez a chance to play, and so far so good for the former Ranger.

The Padres started off the game fine, earning a 4-2 lead after two innings, but things went downhill when Chris Young (7 K , 1 BB) got in trouble in the sixth. After giving up two hits and a run in the inning, Clay Hensely allowed hits to all four batters he faced to put the lead solidly in the Rockies column. Colorado knocked around two other relievers for a 10-4 victory. Colorado hit three homers last night at PETCO after only one in their first three games at Coors.

Atlanta pounded San Francisco 14-6. The first four batters in the Braves lineup, Giles, Renteria, Jones and Jones all hold OBA's over .400 right now. The four were on base 10 times last night, five by hits and five by walks.

The Giants actually led 6-4 after six innings. But the San Francisco bullpen stunk up the bay in the seventh, as neither Tyler Walker nor Jack Taschner recorded an out. All in all, the Braves batted around with out making an out in the seventh, scoring eight runs.

The Tigers are off to a 4-0 start, defeating Texas 5-2 last night. Once again, Chris Shelton helped power the team to victory with two more extra-base hits. Shelton' OBA is .722, higher than Babe Ruth's career slugging percentage. Of his eleven hits, seven went for extra bases. He looks like an early favorite for player of the week.

The Rockies only managed one home run in their opening series at Coors Field, but already smacked two in the first two innings at PETCO Park.

The Milwaukee Brewers behind the pitching of David Bush. Making his Brewer debut, Bush managed seven strong innings, allowing the Diamondbacks just two hits, two walks and one run. Not known for his strikeouts, David K'd seven. Wise and Turnbow made the 3-1 lead hold up, and the Brewers move to 4-0.

Like the White Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays staked themselves to a 6-0 lead tonight. Tampa Bay gave the Jays a devil of a team, however, storming back for a 9-8 victory. The Blue Jays out hit and out walked the Devil Rays, but Tampa scored eight runs on their four homers, while Toronto scored seven. Three double plays by the Devil Rays defense evened things out as well.

Jose Reyes drew just one walk so far, but his OBA is .400 after tonight's 9-3 win over the Marlins. It doesn't matter how you get on base, as long as you set the table. He also had a double and a homer, so maybe he's picking up some of Henderson's power, too.

The Royals earned their first lead of the season. Down 6-0 after three, they came back to tie the game at seven, then take an 8-7 lead in the 7th inning. The Royals doubled their way back into the game, with five of their ten hits so far going for two bases.

Danys Baez might not be lights out, but he's getting the job done so far. He picked up his second save of the year tonight, and with Gagne gone the job is his for a while. He's now given up two hits in three innings while walking 1 and striking out three. The Dodgers will take that kind of performance over a whole season.

The first six White Sox batters reached base by a hit or a walk against Jeremy Affeldt tonight, and five of them scored. The Royal are trailing again. The Royals have not held a lead in a game this season.

Daniel Cabrera didn't last very long vs. the Red Sox. He's out after 1 1/3 innings, with 7 runs, 7 earned runs and 7 walks. That's a lot of walks in a very short time. Since 1974 (when the Day by Day Database starts), there are six other instances of seven walks or more in 1 1/3 innings or less. William Van Landingham walked seven in one inning even. Kerry Wood and Steve Adkins managed 8 walks in 1 1/3 innings. The last two to walk as many as 7 in 1 1/3 innings were Victor Zambrano and Russ Ortiz, who did it on the same day!

The Red Sox are up 7-0 in the fourth. Matt Clement is throwning a one-hitter and has thrown just 31 pitches through 3 innings.

The Cleveland Indians scored 11 runs this afternoon in their victory over the Minnesota Twins. Cleveland's offense is off to a start that the complete opposite of 2005. In the first four games of last season, the team hit just .217, hit four home runs and scored 18. This year, they're batting .329, smacked seven home runs and crossed the plate 27 times. All the regulars save Belliard are hitting well right now.

The Chicago Cubs spent a lot of money upgrading the bullpen over the winter. So far, it appears to be paying off. After 2 2/3 scoreless innings today, the Chicago bullpen ERA stands at 2.45. They've struck out 11 in their 11 innings, but walked 7 (none today). If the walks stay high, I'd expect the ERA to follow.

Derrek Lee hits the first homer of the year at Wrigley Field into the new bleachers in left. The Cubs lead 1-0.

It seems the Oakland Athletics are a bit nervous about facing Felix Hernandez tonight.

From Robin to Rickie likes what he read about Ben Sheets rehab start last night:

The big thing that jumped out at me, though, is he was throwing his fastball in the mid-90s, topping out at 96. I remember a couple of years ago when he started the season and his fastball had jumped from low 90s to 95, 96, 97. He was literally blowing away hitters, and combined with his outstanding curve and changeup, he dominated.

Paul Hagen takes an in-depth look at how the Phillies were built, and the mistakes made along the way.

There's three home openers on the schedule today. The Cubs return to a remodeled Wrigley Field to face their arch rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. Greg Maddux hosts Jeff Suppan. Since joining the Cardinals at the start of the 2004 season, Suppan is tied for eighth in wins in the majors with 32. He's in pretty good company with Pedro Martinez, Dontrelle Willis and Mark Buehrle. It shows what a great offense can do for a good pitcher. Greg turns 40 in a week. His walks remain low, which helps to offset lower strikeout and higher home run numbers. But Maddux needs a good offense behind him to win now.

The Indians bring a 2-1 record into their home opener vs. the Minnesota Twins. Kyle Lohse faces new addition Paul Byrd. Lohse fell below 4.5 K per 9 last season, yet posted the best ERA of his career. We'll see if that holds up for another season. Paul Byrd is in a similar situation. Their low walk totals help hide that weakness.

The Yankees are in town to open the ballpark in Anaheim. Shawn Chacon takes the mound versus Kelvim Escobar. With the Yankees last year, Chacon had a tendency to put men on base, then shut his opponents down once they were in scoring position. That bit of luck may not hold up from one year to another.

Escobar's strikeouts went up when he moved from the pen to the rotation in 2005, although his walks went up at well. Still, if your opponents can't put the bat on the ball, it's awfully difficult for them to score. Keep your eye on the reception Tim Salmon receives tonight. I suspect his return, especially with two homers under his belt, will be very warmly acknowledged.

Enjoy!

This one took a long time to process, so I'm sorry it's late. Here's the link to the video, and since it's in .mov format it should download to iTunes. And here's the embedded video from YouTube.com.

Update: The graphics are unreadable. I tried using Adobe Premier 6.0 for this, since it allows for better graphics. Does anyone have experience with the software? What's the best way of saving the video for web playback? I'd like to keep it in QuickTime, since it can then be downloaded as a podcast. But if this is the quality I'm going to get, I'll go to another format.

The Seattle Mariners are off to a 3-1 start, and their offense is carrying the team. They're scoring 6.5 runs per game. They're hitting for a high average, posting a high OBA, and slugging over .500. Part of this is they're not striking out much, just 22 in four games, or 5.5 per game. Lower strikeouts mean more balls in play, more balls in play mean more hits.

Note, too, that they appear to be agressive on the bases with 3 triples already. The most triples any team's had in the last 30 years was 79 by the 1979 KC Royals. U.S.S. Mariner discusses that here.

The Arizona Diamondbacks come away from Coors field with a 2.86 team ERA, 1.89 by their staters. If they can pitch in Colorado, they ought to be able to handle their own high-scoring ballpark.

Joe Torre has this right:

Torre also believes the Angels simply match up well with the Yankees, and under manager Mike Scioscia, have found a philosophy that works well for them. Like the Yanks, the Angels have some power, but they also create scoring opportunities, whether it's by hitting-and-running, bunting or stealing.

What they really do is put the ball in play against a bad defense.

Matthew Cerrone wraps up the battle between Pedro Martinez and Jose Guillen last night.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

South Side Sox rounds up all the White Sox blogs in one informative post.

A.J. Burnett pitched in Dunedin tonight, throwing four innings.

"It felt good," said Burnett, "It's a lot different getting out there in competition. You can go out there and throw as many bullpens as you want, but getting out there in live competition you really see how you do and how you feel. I made some pitches to get out of that jam."

The new is not so good for Eric Gagne.

Los Angeles Dodgers closer Eric Gagne is to undergo arm surgery for the second time in less than a year, the National League team said on Thursday.

Gagne will have the surgery on Friday to remove a nerve from his pitching elbow, the same one that was operated on last season. The 30-year-old reliever, who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2003, missed most of last season after the first surgery.

First Nomar, now Gagne. It's only a matter of time before Drew goes down.

They've been booing Carlos Beltran at Shea this week, as Carlos was 0 for 9 on the season. He just launched one into the left-center seats to extend the Mets lead to 8-5. After he returned to the dugout, the fans wanted a curtain call! Carlos wasn't going out. They started chanting, "Carlos Beltran, Carlos Beltran!" and Julio Franco went over and made Carlos take a bow. It was the right thing to do. Carlos doesn't want to end up like Ted Williams in Boston.

Mark Hendrickson pitches the first complete game of the season, shutting out the Baltimore Orioles 2-0. Hendrickson used just 106 pitches to pick up the win as he allowed just three hits and a walk. It's the second shutout of his career.

Nick Johnson, on first after being hit for the second time in the game, goes first to third on a single up the middle by Soriano. Beltran didn't charge the ball quickly, thinking Nick was going to stop at second. Johnson charged around the bag, and Carlos made a poor throw to third. The throw allowed Soriano to reach second. The Nationals trail 6-5 in the seventh, and Zimmerman just popped up for the second out.

Update: After an intentional walk, Schneider pops out for the third out.

Chris Shelton smacks two home runs in the first four innings of the Tigers-Rangers game. He launched two on opening day, also. Ordonez, Inge, Thames and Monroe also homered, accounting for all seven runs. The Tigers lead 7-0.

The Thames homer chases Dickey, who gave up all six shots. He allowed four in 29 2/3 innings last year.

Carlos Silva is out of the game after 5 2/3 innings. He didn't have his control as he walked two. "But David," you say, "two walks isn't bad." Carlos did not issue two walks in a game all last year. It's the first time he issued more than one walk in a game since 9/26/2004, when he walked two Indians.

The Mets are piling on the singles early. Through four innings, they've knocked out nine one-baggers and no extra base hits. They've also yet to draw a walk.

Meanwhile, Pedro is wild in his 2006 debut. He's struck out four, but he's also walked four and hit two batters. The Nationals only have three hits, however, so all those baserunners translate into just two runs.

Noah Lowry suffered a lower back strain. No word yet on how long he'll be out.

The Giants held on to defeat the Braves 6-4. Barry Bonds went 0 for 2 with two intentional walks. His batting average is at .143, and his OBA is .455. Let him prove he can still hit! He can't run well. Any ground ball with a man on first is going to be a double play.

Brian McCann and Jorge Sosa hit back to back home runs in the top of the third inning to give Atlanta a 2-0 lead over the Giants. Sosa, however, gives it all back and more in the bottom of the inning. Pedro Feliz just doubled with the bases loaded to drive in three and make the score 6-2 Giants. The Braves issued another IBB to Bonds, but this time it was followed by three hits.

Rollins is 0 for 4 through seven innings. The Phillies are trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth. He'll need a couple of batters to get on base to get a chance to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: The Phillies went down 1-2-3 in the 8th. Rollins is due up fifth in the ninth.

Update: The Phillies go down 1-2-3 in the 9th as well. Rollins streak ends. Still 36 games in one season, and 38 over two is pretty impressive. Congratulations to Jimmy on a fine performance.

Scott Proctor's one-month old daughter underwent heart surgery and was released from the hospital today. It looks like the prognosis is good. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Scott and his family.

After a pitch to Brian Jordan, Noah Lowry grabs his right side just below the rib cage. He tried to make a few practice pitches, but the Giants remove him from the game. Jeff Fassero is on in relief.

Brew Crew Ball notes that Ben Sheets is making his first rehab start tonight, and the radio broadcast is availabel on-line.

Bonds comes up with one out and men on 2nd and 3rd in the first. The crowd sounded supportive, but started booing when Atlanta indicated the intentional walk.

Update: Alou grounds in to a double play, making the IBB look like a good strategy. Moises needs to hit a few homers after some Bonds walks to discourage that sort of thing.

Not a home run this time, but an RBI single by Albert Pujols ties the game at two. After giving up three doubles, Marquis collected one himself in the inning, driving in the first run for the Cardinals.

Update: Edmonds singles in the go-ahead run. The middle of the Cardinals order is tough to face if you've been putting men on base.

The Phillies are up 2-0 on Jason Marquis and the Cardinals through the third inning. So far, they've drawn two walks and three hits, all doubles. Eleven of the team's twenty five hits resulted in doubles this year. When you include their three homers, more than half the Phillies hits went for extra bases.

Catallarchy continues to do well in his quest to gain 15 pounds of muscle in 100 days. He's at nine pounds of muscle after just four weeks. For background, see this post.

As you may know, I'm attempting to add some video commentary on the day's games to this blog. One thing commenters have suggested is less of my mug and more graphics or pictures. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to lift video off my TIVO, but there are videographers at every game. If you attend a game with a digital camera or cell phone camera, think about e-mailing me a picture or video.

My good friend Jim did that at last year's World Series, and that resulted in a picture of the celebration posted on this website within a few minutes of the end of the game. So put all that cell phone technology to use! Send your pictures or video to pinto@baseballmusings.com. Be sure to include your name so you can be praised to the highest.

Update: The Educated Sports Community is helping out. One thing, please don't send me entire video of a game. My e-mail won't handle that. A five to ten second clip of video would be great, however.

Update: I mistakenly linked to Matt Cerrone's MetsBlog.com before. However, you should be visiting that site daily if you're a Mets fan. Matt wrote me with some information about video:

You linked over to MetsBlog today. Was that to make people aware of your attempt to collect vide footage?

If so, let me know how else I can help.

Lastly, are you allowed to do that? Or did you get permssion from MLB? Be careful, man. They're like the mafia with that type of stuff. There is a group doing a documentary on Mets fans, and MLB told them they had to pay 500k for fees to show footage or images that were filmed inside a stadium, which sounds like bunk to me, but nevertheless that was their claim.

I'll have to look up fair use rules on this. It's another reason to keep the video clips short.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a chance meeting between a federal judge and Greg Anderson in 2002. Barry Bonds sent Anderson to the Twin Cities to help Gary Sheffield out of a slump:

Boyle's account of the meeting provides an unusual glimpse of Anderson's activities before baseball's steroids scandal broke with the federal raid on the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in 2003. The letter also supports aspects of Sheffield's testimony before the BALCO grand jury in 2003.

In his testimony, which was reviewed by The Chronicle, Sheffield denied knowingly using banned drugs. But he said that in 2002, Bonds told Anderson to provide him with substances called "the clear," an arthritis balm and pills called "Mexican beans."

Sheffield said Bonds told him the substances were legal. Prosecutors said they were steroids.

The real slump for Sheffield was in April and May. He was already coming out of it at the start of June, before Anderson's visit on the 11th. Not typical Sheffield, but not bad. In the next ten days, he's the Gary we all know and love. So did Anderson help, or was this just a continuation of Sheffield getting back to normal after a slow start?

I'll be a guest on Sports Bloggers Live at about 12:15 EDT today. You can listen at the link.

Cardinals Diaspora takes a Freudian look at the Cardinals game last night.

Mark needs to defy his father figures a bit, and allow some of his Id to creep into his game. Jam a few more fastballs inside on hitters, and you’ll receive a bit more of mothers’ (metaphorically speaking of course, we would never run down a man’s monther at the Diaspora) attention.

Watching the Indians and White Sox, it struck me that Cleveland's luck against Chicago was already evening out from last year. Head-to-head in 2005, the Indians posted a .199 BA, .330 OBA and a .295 Slugging Percentage against the White Sox with runners in scoring position. They'd draw a walk, but not get the big hit. In the series just completed, those numbers were .276/.395/.448. They collected timely hits, they hit for power, and they still drew walks. This year, they've kept the rallies going.

The Giants play their home opener this afternoon as they host the Atlanta Braves. Jorge Sosa faces Noah Lowry, but I'm curious to see the crowd reaction to Barry Bonds. I expect it to be good, but you never know.

The move to Atlanta in 2005 made a huge difference in Jorge Sosa's ERA last year. He posted a 5.53 mark in Tampa Bay during the 2004 season, but cut that by more than half in 2005. Fewer baserunners and fewer home runs allowed made the difference.

Lowry's first full season in the majors was a success. He held opponents to a .249 batting average and a .320 OBA. There's room to improve on the walk numbers, but the strikeouts are very good. This should be a good pitching matchup, too.

Today's big debut belongs to Pedro Martinez, making his first start of the year after a toe injury pushed him back from pitching opening day. He'll face the Washington Nationals at Shea with Ramon Ortiz on the mound. It might be a mistake to think that Ortiz will improve with the change of ballparks, playing his home games at RFK instead of GAB. But this is a pitcher who gave up 40 home runs pitching for the Angels one year. If seems you can take Ortiz deep in any ballpark.

Pedro pitched well vs. the Nationals in two starts, but came away with an 0-1 record in 2005. He struck out 10, walked 1 and gave up 0 home runs in 13 innings, but poor run support in one game and a poor bullpen performance in the other kept Pedro away from the W.

Enjoy!

I reported yesterday that strikeouts were down compared to the same period in the previous year. That comparison didn't hold to another day of games. K per 9 is right in line with the same period in 2003, 2004 and 2005, although it was much higher in 2001 and 2002.

However, runs are still up. So far, this is the highest scoring start of the season this decade. In 2002, 10.2 runs were scored through the first three full days of games. We're at 11.2 for the start of 2006. The same with home runs. In fact, the three highest years this decade are the three years they've been testing for steroids!

Year	Runs per Game	HR per Game
2001	9.2	2.38
2002	10.2	1.97
2003	10.1	2.14
2004	10.2	2.38
2005	9.9	2.41
2006	11.2	2.84

And remember, this is with low scoring games at Coors and Texas. There's nothing definitive here. We'll see how this looks at the end of the month.

Lots of good information at Balls, Sticks and Stuff on Jimmy Rollins and how he changed as a hitter in the last quarter of 2005.

It was another topsy turvy night in the NL West. The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Rockies in Coors last night by the rather mundane score of 4-2.

Quick, somebody call for a special investigation. Get Bud Selig on the horn. Try paging George Mitchell, if the former U.S. Senate majority leader has a minute while shadowing Barry Bonds.

Call somebody or do something, because after two games and 20 total innings of baseball, there still hasn't been a home run hit at Coors Field.

While out in Los Angeles, the Braves and Dodgers played another slugfest, with Atlanta coming out on top 9-8.

Pitching figured to rule in the season-opening three-game series between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Instead, hitters had the upper hand.

Ryan Langerhans hit a two-out ground-rule double in the eighth to drive in the go-ahead run, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-8 in the finale Wednesday night.

All three games were decided by one run, with the Braves winning two. Atlanta had 34 hits and scored 24 runs, while Los Angeles had 39 hits and scored 23 times.

What we say in Colorado was two very good starts. Hernandez struck out 8 in five innings, but used a lot of pitches. The Arizona bullpen bent, but didn't break as they walked four but allowed just one hit. Cook was more efficient, needing seven innings to approach 100 pitches. Most nights, that and three runs allowed would be enough to get him a win at Coors.

The Giants scored three runs in the sixth inning without getting the ball out of the infield to help Matt Morris to a 3-1 win over the Padres. Both pitchers allowed five hits and three walks, but Estes bunched his walks together, while Morris induced three double plays to erase some of the runners.

Adrian Gonzalez, the former Ranger collected the only two extra-base hits of the game, a double and a homer. He's off to a good start with five hits and ten total bases in 2006.

If you're going to be a ground ball pitcher, you need a good defense behind you. Chien-Ming Wang didn't get that last night, and neither did Jaret Wright:

An error by Derek Jeter led to two unearned runs in the fourth inning on Wednesday, and the game was tied, 4-4, in the eighth. Jaret Wright had worked two scoreless innings, but Milton Bradley opened the eighth with a triple over Johnny Damon’s head and off the center field wall.

“I just couldn’t get back fast enough,” Damon said. “It just beat me. I couldn’t get as high as I wanted to.”

It got uglier very quickly. With the infield in, second baseman Robinson Cano booted Jay Payton’s grounder, bringing in Bradley with the go-ahead run. Two singles brought in another run to make it 6-4.

The Oakland Athletics go on to a 9-4 victory. New additions Thomas and Bradley provided the power with a double for Frank and a triple for Milton, and each contributed three RBI.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The St. Louis Cardinals drew nine walks vs. the Phillies tonight enroute to a 4-3 victory. Even the pitcher, Mark Mulder, drew a walk and collected a hit. Given they had nine hits on top of the walks, four runs isn't very much. The Cards left 13 men on base in the game. I'll take that, however. If you put that many runs on often, you'll score a lot of runs.

Barry Bonds leads off the second, reaching first by means of a pitch to his elbow. Estes challenged Bonds on the first pitch, which was a called strike. He tried to come inside on the second pitch and hit the elbow guard. You could hear the collision clearly.

I'd like to see a rule that if you get hit on protective padding it's a ball, not a walk. Bonds has no reason to get out of the way of a pitch like that.

The Twins blew out the Blue Jays tonight, winning by a score of 13-4. Minnesota collected 16 hits in the contest, 12 of them singles. One of those extra-base hits, however, did a lot of damage as Tori Hunter homered with the bases loaded.

The Twins pitchers didn't issue a walk, allowing them to survive 12 hits the Blue Jays. The control of this staff continues to be phenomenal. Two double plays also helped.

Ryan Zimmerman hit 10 doubles in his 58 at bats last season, but no home runs. He fixed that tonight, knocking his first ball out of the park to tie the Mets at four. The Mets have the bases loaded with two out in the 9th.

Update: Lo Duca lines to right to end the inning. They play extra-innings in the cold tonight.

Jarrod Washburn rang up his former teammates tonight, striking out seven in seven innings as he picked up his first win of the season. His control was steller as Washburn issued no walks.

Jeff Weaver debut was less than spectacular. He did eat some innings, going 6 1/3, but the cost was five runs and an Angels loss. That's not exactly what LAnaheim had in mind. I still think they have the wrong Weaver in the majors. The Mariners win 6-4.

Josh Beckett and Kameron Loe are locked in a dandy down in Texas. The Rangers lead 1-0 on back to back hits by Wilkerson and Young in the first. Beckett sits at 87 pitches through five innings as the Rangers work him hard. Loe, on the other hand, tossed just 61 pitches through five innings. The Red Sox managed just two hits through five, but Crisp just tripled with one out in the sixth.

Update: Lorreta grounds out to a drawn in infield. Ortiz is up.

Update: Ortiz grounds out to second to end the inning. He's also hit into two double plays tonight. Winning the game in the sixth just isn't dramatic enough. :-)

Update: The seventh isn't too early for Nixon, as he homers to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.

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

Brian Bannister is making an impressive debut for the Mets. It took the Nationals until the sixth inning to get their first hit. Vidro doubled down the left field line to break up the no-no leading off the inning.

Bannister is wild, however. He issued three walks and hit two batters so far. But if he keeps the hits few and far between, he'll survive that.

Delgado hit his first Met home run, and the Queensians are up 4-0.

Update: As soon as I posted the above, Nick Johnson took Bannister deep to the opposite field to cut the score to 4-3.

Update: Bannister is out after six innings and 100 pitches. Not a bad start to his career, 3 runs in 6 innings. Now he'll sit and watch to see if the Mets bullpen can hold the lead for a win.

The X-Man just went deep, a solo shot to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. That gives Xaiver five straight hits to start the season.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room. I'm hoping to have the video connection up in the chat room this week!

Jimmy Rollins wastes no time getting another hit, doubling leading off the bottom half of the first for the Phillies.

The Indians take two out of three from the defending champions, winning 4-3 in eleven innings. The Cleveland bullpen got the job done today. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. The relief corps pitched 5 2/3 innings, walking five while striking out just four. And despite four more base runners via hits, the pen wasn't charged with a run.

Through games of Tuesday, strikeouts are down this year vs. through the first Tuesday of 2005. Last year, batters struck out 7.0 times per nine. This year, 6.5 K per 9. It's too early to say if it's a trend. But I wonder if batters are trying harder to put the ball in play? Both runs and homers are up vs. the same time period last year.

Ken Griffey homered today, passing two other great centerfielders. The homer passes Mantle, but that's not all:

The homer also gave Griffey 1,538 career RBI, breaking his tie with Joe DiMaggio for 31st on the career list.

That's pretty good company.

The Indians and White Sox are tied at three after nine innings. The White Sox loaded the bases against Mota in the ninth, but Pierzynski popped out to end the inning.

The top of the Tigers' order is doing the damage in Kansas City. The 1-2-3 hitters scored eight runs on nine hits, including a four for four by Pudge Rodriguez. I-Rod also contributed two doubles and a homer. A return of Ivan's OBA and power would be a boon to the Tigers offense in 2006.

The Kansas City Royals picked up two Cardinals over the winter, Reggie Sanders and Mark Grudzielanek. Jeremy Bonderman is making the pair look bad this afternoon as he's struck each of them out both times Bonderman faced them. He has a total of six Ks through four innings. The Tigers lead 4-0 in the fifth.

Bronson Arroyo gives the Reds a good start, and the team hangs on for an 8-6 victory over the Cubs. Arroyo struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings and walked none. Through 2004, Arroyo struck out 6.3 per nine. Last season, that dropped to 4.4. With the poor defense behind him in Cincinnati, returning to a higher level of strikeouts will help him become the ace there.

Bronson Arroyo gets a proper greeting in his first start at home for the Reds. Aramis Ramirez takes the righty deep for a 2-0 Cubs lead in the first.

Update: Trailing 2-1 in the third, Bronson Arroyo ties the game, hitting an 0-2 pitch for a home run! It's the first of his career.

Update: Rich Aurilia homers later in the inning, a two-run shot to give the Reds a 4-2 lead. Arroyo settled down after the homer. He's only allowed 1 baserunner over the last three innings.

Marc Normandin interviews Andrew Zimbalist about his new book. I agree with Andrew on the possibility of a work stoppage:

MN: Speaking of the collective bargaining agreement, can we expect another work stoppage next time the players association and owners go to the bargaining agreement?

AZ: I really don't think so, I think that the two sides were really chastened and humbled in 94' and 95'. The game was almost destroyed. They're in a pretty competitive entertainment environment right now, where they not only have to deal with other sports like the NFL, but they've got to deal with the Internet, and they've got to deal with iPods and cell phones, and there's just so much that's out their to bombard our need for entertainment and visual stimulation, that baseball and other sports are taking a much bigger risk if they do a work stoppage this time around. The players I think don't have the same inclination to stop work that they used to, they are further and further away from the days of struggle and sacrifice that Curt Flood represented, many of the players today won't even know who Curt Flood was.

The average player is making two and half million dollars a year, there's not a great inclination to sacrifice that kind of annual salary on behalf of getting a few extra percentage points in salary growth if they could indeed even get that for a few years. I think it's a very problematic matter to think that the players would strike; I mean it's always possible if the owners get too carried away with some particular salary restraint program, and I think the owners also feel that work stoppages are enormously costly, and they basically now at this point have a handle on salary growth. Salary growth has practically not even occurred over the last four years, since the 2002 agreement was signed, to the extent that it has occurred more slowly, certainly more slowly then revenue growth. So I don't think as difficult as it might be to reach an agreement that either side sees very much in it from a work stoppage. I don't think we'll see a work stoppage. I think the larger challenge with the coming to CBA, is not going to be whether or not they can avoid a work stoppage, but it's going to be can they design a system for baseball that's more rational with more proper incentives then the system they currently have.

The other day I mentioned Marshall Votta's scoring project. He's received some interest, so he's built a site dedicated to the project, Swing Score. He's still interested in getting all the teams covered, so stop by if you'd like to help. Here's an explanation of the system.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EST. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

FishStripes notes that Gary Tuck makes out the Marlins lineup cards in calligraphy. The cards are very popular among the players. Maybe they can auction some off to fans!

The sad story of Dwight Gooden continues as he's sentenced to one year in jail for violating his probation.

He chose the prison sentence over reinstatement of his probation, which would have meant the prospect of five years behind bars if he violated it again.

It seems Gooden knows how difficult it is to stay clean, and he's taking a shorter punishment now rather than a longer one later.

Regarding his choice of prison over reinstatement of probation, Hobson said Gooden "made a decision that he in his mind thought was best for him."

"This is not a case of a pampered athlete," Hobson said. "He took it like a man. He took it like any citizen in this situation. He didn't whimper, he didn't cry, he didn't beg. He took it like a man."

There are a number of pitchers making their team debuts today.

Bronson Arroyo starts life over in Cincinnati. He goes from maybe starting for the Red Sox to the number two pitcher for the Reds. Bronson strikes fell below 4.5 per 9, the magic number for successful pitching. Getting that back to his career levels, especially with the Reds defense, will be the key to his success with the new team. He faces the Cubs and Glendon Rusch.

In Seattle, new Angel Jeff Weaver faces former Angel Jarrod Washburn. Jarrod parlayed his second best ERA into a big contract with Seattle. Opponents put the ball in play against Washburn, and that plays to the strength of the Angels.

Joe Mays makes his Kansas city debut against the Detroit Tigers and Jeremy Bonderman. Mays showed great promise in 2001, but injuries and a lack of strikeouts meant an ERA over 5.00 ever since.

Josh Beckett makes his Red Sox premier in his home state of Texas versus the Rangers. Beckett always posts great ERAs, but last year was the first season he came close to making every start. He'll face Kameron Loe, who keeps the ball in the park and pitched well for the Rangers last season.

Orlando Hernandez takes the mound for Arizona tonight, facing the Rockies in Colorado. The Diamondbacks hope the post-season Orland shows up, not the one that gave up 18 home runs in 128 1/3 innings during the regular season.

They'll try to play again in San Diego. Matt Morris makes his Giants debut against a former Giant, Shawn Estes. Over the previous four seasons, Estes holds the fifth highest ERA among pitchers with 400 innings, highest if you go to 600. Pitching at sea level this year should help that.

Enjoy!

Here's my second try at a video summary of the previous day. I-Tunes doesn't seem to download this file, but you can click here to see the show. It's shorter with slightly better production values.

Update: Youtube.com allows me to embed here.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kenji Johjima is off to a great start as a North American major leaguer. Two games, and two home runs. His solo shot is part of a three-run second against John Lackey.

Johjima is a free swinger. He puts every fiber of muscle into his swing. At first he reminded me of Piazza, but later I saw Sheffield swing, and that's the better analogy.

Update: The Mariners end up with five hits and five runs in the second. That's a nice cushion for Pineiro.

Capellan relieves Capuano for the Brewers and doesn't do as well as the first Cap. He gives up three hits and three runs in his inning of work, including a two-run homer to Burnitz. It's back to a 1-run ballgame in Milwaukee, the Brewers leading 6-5 in the 7th.

John Smoltz walks Cruz with one out in the first, and J.D. Drew makes him pay for the mistake with a two-run homer. That's his first home run since July 2, 2005, when he hit a pair vs. the Diamondbacks.

Update: Loney walks in his first major league plate appearance moving Knent to second. Singles by Mueller and Repko bring in two more runs. It's 4-0 Dodgers after one.

Phil Nevin picked up five RBI so far tonight for Texas as the Rangers lead Boston 10-2 in the top of the eighth. In 29 games for the Rangers in 2005, Nevin only drove in eight runs.

Pinch-hitter Gabe Gross takes a close game to a comfortable lead as he smashes a two-run home run off reliever Ryan Volelsong. The Brewers now lead the Pirates 5-2. Gross is not known for his power, but that was an impressive shot.

Chris Capuano is out of the game for Gross. Capuano pitched a strong game, striking out seven and walking none through six innings. His only mistake was a two-run homer in the first inning by Casey.

The Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Minnesota Twins 6-3. Both pitching staffs showed great control as Santana issued the only walk of the evening. Both teams did a good job of putting the ball in play against the starters. Halladay struck out just four in 7 2/3 innings.

The Twins, however, didn't get much wood on Ryan. B.J. started earning his paycheck tonight, facing three batters and striking out two to earn his first save with his new team.

A great job, too by the Blue Jays table setters as Reed and Rios each collected three hits.

Josh Bard and Tim Wakefield failed to connect tonight. The Rangers found Wakefield hittable, touching him for seven hits and seven runs. Adding to the problem was new catcher Josh Bard, charged with three passed balls.

Vicente Padilla benefits from all this, as he's throwing a two-hitter through five. It's 7-0 Rangers in the bottom of the fifth.

Correction: Fixed spelling of Vicente.

The Marlin is a powerful fish, and the Marlins are showing their power tonight. Through five innings Florida collected thirteen hits, seven for extra bases. They're leading 10-0 behind the one-hit pitching of Sergio Mitre.

The Toronto Blue Jays chase Johan Santana in the sixth inning. The Blue Jays really worked the Twins ace, forcing him to throw 98 pitches while they picked up ten hits. The Blue Jays did a good job putting the ball in play, striking out just three times.

New additions Glaus, Overbay and Molina all have hits, including a two-run homer by Bengie.

The Florida Marlins didn't score yesterday, but they took care of that in the first inning tonight. Back to back homers by Cabrera and Willingham plate three against Andy Pettitte.

Meanwhile, Mitre pitches a perfect first, throwing just nine pitches and striking out one.

Correction: They were home runs. I have to learn to read a box score again.

Shannon Stewart of the Twins reaches on a single and is bunted to second. He ends up coming around on an error and a deep sacrifice fly. With Halladay facing Santana, playing for one run early makes sense.

There seems to be a number of first inning bunts this year. I'll have to check that stat tomorrow to see how it compares to 2005.

Kris and Anna aren't getting divorced! With any luck, they're heading for a George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin relationship. :-)

Derek Lowe, however, is not so lucky.

Aaron Boone is off to a good start. He's 3 for 3 today and 4 for 7 on the season. You might think there's some hot prospect ready to take his place in AAA. :-)

Update: Boone just hit a solo home run to make the score 8-1 Cleveland in the 7th. Boone's now 4 for 4 with 4 RBI.

The Indians are doing something in the fourth inning they didn't do at the end of last year. With two outs, they've put up four hits to put up three runs. The first was a double, then two throws to the plate allowed the batters that singled to end up at second base. At the end of last year, it seemed the Indians could only score on home runs. Victor Martinez hit a solo shot today, but they've been getting base hits to move runners along in this inning.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

C.C. Sabathia does indeed go on the disabled list with an abdominal strain. He's replaced by the slightly shorter Jason Davis. There's no word on how long milliliter might be out.

The Dodgers may place Nomar Garciaparra on the DL today.\

No one was willing to say it, but Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra probably will be placed on the 15-day disabled list today with a strained muscle in his right side, an injury he suffered during Sunday's Freeway Series finale at Angel Stadium.

So much for the Dodgers staying healthy.

The Angels extended John Lackey's one year contract through 2008 with an option for 2009.

"John has been a productive member of our pitching staff since his 2002 rookie season," Los Angeles general manager Bill Stoneman said. "We are thrilled to reach this multiyear agreement with him."

In 2002, Lackey became the first rookie to win Game 7 of the World Series since Babe Adams of the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lackey made a big leap last year in strikeouts, raising his average to 8.6 per nine. That's given his control, that's worth the three year contract.

My gut is that the postal worker decided to play a mind game with a Marlins fan, but here's the rumor: Dontrelle to the Astros.

The pitching matchup of the day takes place in Toronto this evening as the Twins Johan Santana faces Roy Halladay in a battle of former Cy Young Award winners. One throws from the left, and the other the right, but their career stats reflect the same abilities. They strike out lots of batters. They don't issue walks. They don't allow many home runs. They truly define "ace".

Mike Mussina used to be an ace. He'll face up and coming star Rich Harden this evening in Oakland. As Mussina's strikeout rate fell the last two years, the opposition started to get on base more and hit for more power. More balls in play means more balls finding holes. Harden is coming off an injury shortened season, but one in which his batting average allowed, OBA allowed and slugging percentage allowed were all under .300.

Down the coast, Matt Morris makes his Giants debut against a former Giant, Shawn Estes. Over the previous four seasons, Estes holds the fifth highest ERA among pitchers with 400 innings, highest if you go to 600. Pitching at sea level this year should help that.

Morris' ERA climbed since his stellar 2001-2002 seasons. He does just as good a job as ever at keeping batters off base, but in 2003 he started to allow more long balls. He should be helped in that regard by his new park as well.

Enjoy!

You could hear the excitement in the stands during yesterday's Pirates-Brewers game. Greg Giesen spoke with fans, and this one is typical:

"They're going to be 10 games over .500 and I think they will be in the playoff race until late September," Andreasen said Scott Behringer of Neenah, who, along with his friend Steve Fahrenkrug, spray-pained his upper torso blue with "Brew Crew" in yellow letters on their chests, believes the Brewers' young talent will lead them to a 92-70 season.

"They've got a lot of good young prospects. It's all about the young guys," Behringer said Chris Marshall, a former Racine resident who lives in Madison, said he hasn't been this excited about the Brewers since the 1987 team won their first 13 games.

Nice to see the enthusiasm returning to Milwaukee.

Curt Schilling notes his progress through a game is the reverse of his younger days. He used to start wild and throwing hard, then find the strike zone later in the game. Now he starts with perfect control, and the velocity comes later.

"I don't have an explanation for it," Schilling said. "I just know the first three innings, I was pitching. We had a game plan and I was moving the ball, making my pitches. Then all of a sudden, I could feel it. When I threw a couple pitches in the fourth inning, I knew I had something extra on them."

It worked very well yesterday.

John Harper addresses some of my concerns about Randy Johnson in the New York Daily News:

So for all the damage the Yankees did with their bats, none of it would matter as much as Randy Johnson dominating the A's in rather routine fashion. There wasn't much of a wow factor to the Big Unit's first start of the season, as he notched only three strikeouts in seven innings, but then, with such a big lead, he didn't have to be anything other than efficient.

His fastball did seem to have good life, clocked as high as 96 mph on the stadium radar gun, and for much of the night his slider had enough bite to produce off-balance swings by the A's hitters.

The game was such a blowout that it could be a mistake to make too much of Johnson's start, and still you couldn't help but notice that in the seventh inning, with his 105th pitch of the night, he threw a 95 mph fastball past Jason Kendall. The A's catcher managed to foul off the pitch to stay alive, but barely.

Lisa Gray attended the game in Houston yesterday. She believes it's Roy Oswalt's Cy Young season.

The Athletics score one in the 9th to narrow the final margin to 15-2. The A's managed eight hits, but they didn't draw a single walk, while the Yankees drew nine and had three batters hit. The Yankees need just 985 more runs to reach 1000.

With the Yankees leading Oakland 15-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Randy Johnson is through. He gave up 5 hits and 1 run, but only struck out three. With a huge lead early, Johnson might have taken it easy. Yankees fans should hope that three Ks in seven innings isn't going to be the norm.

Please excuse the quality of the video. I'm just testing to see if anyone would like a short summary of the day's games that you can download to your I-Pod. If you subscribe to Baseball Musings on I-Tunes, you'll get it automatically.

Robinson Cano gets caught stealing, but the tag by Crosby gets the bottom of Cano's shoe, and Robinson pins the glove hand as steps up from the slide. Crosby is cut, but they're just putting a band aid on him.

Marshall Votta is looking for help with a scoring project. If you watch most of your favorite team's games, think about leaving a comment at this post.

The Big Hurt leads off the second inning for the A's and takes the Big Unit deep. He the ball in the same place as A-Rod, over the 362 sign and into the stands in left center. It's 7-1 Yankees in the second.

Barry Zito walks Matsui and Posada to start the second inning. He's face seven batters and walked four. Berine Williams follows with the first Yankees hit of the game, an RBI single. New York leads 1-0.

Cano tries to sacrifice, and the A's blow the play. They go for the lead runner at third, and Chavez isn't on the bag. Bases loaded, no out for the top of the order.

Update: Damon singles to right to drive in Posada. The leadoff walks both came around to score.

Update: That's it for Zito. Saarloos will be the new pitcher.

Update: Sheffield tries to check his swing on a 3-2 pitch, but the umpires correctly ring him up. A-Rod up with the bases loaded and one out.

Update: Jeter lines a 3-2 pitch into left. The third run comes in and now Ztio has to face Sheffield. The pen is active for the Athletics.

Update: Rodriguez clears the bases with a grand slam. People think the Bronx Bombers are going to score 1000 runs this year. At this rate, they'll get there tonight.

Update: Saarloos allows a single to Matsui but gets out of the inning. The Atheltics have their work cut out for them against the Big Unit.

Johnny Damon strikes out looking on a big curve ball by Zito to stat the game.

Update: With two outs, Sheffield walks to give A-Rod a chance.

Update: A-Rod walks to put a runner in scoring position for Jason Giambi.

Update: Zito gets Giambi swinging. Two walks and two strikeouts in the inning for the lefty.

Update: Giambi gets an error on a low throw by Rodriguez. The Athletics have a runner at second with one out.

Update: Johnson strikes out Crosby and gets Chavez to fly out to end the inning. It's 0-0 after one.

The Padres defeat the Giants 6-1 behind the strong pitching of Jake Peavy and the heavy hitting of Greene and Piazza. The Padres didn't come close to walking Bonds as Barry swung at strikes early in the count and went 1 for 4 with a double, his 1350th extra-base hit. The more Bonds ran as the game wore on, the less it looked like he wanted to run. On that last ground out, Bonds looked old to me for the first time.

The Astros get great pitching from Oswalt and Lidge as they shut out the Marlins 1-0. The Marlins pitching was good but not great; the Astros just couldn't string many hits together. The only run scored on a wild pitch. The Marlins walked five batters while striking out seven, and allowed just four hits. It's a tough loss for Girardi in his first game managing, but it won't surprise me if his pitching staff is better than his offense all year.

Barry Bonds grounds out to the shifted second baseman for the second out in the ninth. He did jogged to first. It looks like Barry is not going to make the effort unless it's necessary.

After a good spring, Jason Schmidt did not perform well tonight for the Giants. He pitched seven innings, but only struck out two and allowed two home runs. That's not what makes Schmidt successful. He's needs to be around nine Ks per nine.

Roy Oswalt is being both good and efficient. The Marlins are scoreless, and Oswalt has collected seven strikeouts through seven innings. He's thrown just 82 pitches, 54 for strikes. He may suffer from Roger Clemens syndrome however, as his own offense is scoreless as well.

Update: With two outs in the seventh, the Astros load the bases for Morgan Ensberg. Girardi relieves the reliever Johnson with Borowski.

Update: A pitch gets away from Olivo and Houston takes a 1-0 lead as Biggio scores from third. Ensberg flies out to end the inning, but Oswalt is now in line for the win.

The Padres manufacture a run in the fifth with a single, sacrifice bunt, infield hit and a sacrifice fly. They lead 2-1, but Vizquel leads off the top of the sixth with a single, so Bonds may come up with men on.

Update: With Vizquel at second and one out, the Padres pitch to Bonds and he flies out to center on the first pitch. That's twice today Barry went after the first pitch. This one sank a lot more than the one in the second inning, so Bonds didn't get as much of it.

Update: Greene drives in Gonzalez in the bottom of the sixth with a two run homer into the left field stands. That one goes out in any park. The Padres lead 4-1.

Dontrelle Willis has a no-hitter through four innings, but I can't say he's pitching well. He's walked three while only striking out two. He's thrown 84 pitches already, only 46 for strikes. He's also had a couple of Astros reach on errors by the shortstop, Ramriez. Bottom line is he hasn't allowed any runs, but the Marlins need him to go deep in games, and he's not going to do that tonight. It's still scoreless in the bottom of the fifth.

Update: Taveras singles with two outs to break up the no-hitter. Berkman is up with men on first and second.

Update: Willis strikes out Berkman to end the inning. It's still tied at zero, but Willis is at 107 pitches. It's unlikely he'll come out for the sixth.

Orlando Cabrera singles in two with two out in the ninth to put the Angels back in front 5-3. Putz strikesout Anderson to end the inning. The Mariners need two to keep the game going.

Update: Petagine pinch hits in the ninth and homers to cut the lead to 5-4. It's his first plate appearance as a Mariner, and it's a good one.

Update: K-Rod comes back and strikes out Ichiro swinging for the second out in the inning.

Update: Jose Lopez grounds out to short to end the game. The Angels win 5-4. Cabrera and Guerrero combine for five hits and four RBI. Colon was not at all efficient, through 94 pitches in just five innings.

It was interesting watching Johjima bat in the 8th. He's a muscle hitter. He puts every fiber of his body into the swing, and it's a powerful one. He's the opposite of Ichiro.

Bonds popped out to the third baseman in his second at bat. The San Francisco broadcast took a good shot of his legs, and you could see the outline of his knee braces. They look pretty cumbersome.

Mike Piazza returns to southern California on the right foot, hitting an opposite field home run in his plate appearance as a Padre. It's tied at one in San Diego.

In some ways, it's a bizzaro opening day. The Rockies and Diamondbacks play a low scoring game in Coors, while the Braves and Dodgers combine for 21 runs in Dodger Stadium. Up 11-5 in the 8th, the Braves trio of Boyer, Thomson and Reitsma let in five runs in the last two innings to make it a one-run victory. Neither starter pitched well. Both teams are expecting more from Lowe and Hudson.

Schmidt matches Peavy's 1-2-3 inning. Bonds is due up now.

Update: Bonds swings at the first pitch, and hits a belt high pitch to left of center for a ground rule double. At first, I thought Roberts could get to the fly, but it kept fading away from the centerfielder, who was playing Bonds to pull.

Update: Bonds scores on a two-out single to center by Lance Neikro. So far I've seen Bonds run in the outfield, and run around the bases. I did notice he let up approaching the plate as there was no throw. And he looked glad he could let up. Otherwise, he appear to be the same old Barry Bonds.

Matt Holliday beats the throw home on a grounder by Hawpe and the Rockies win in 11, 3-2. It's an impressive outing for the Rockies pitching staff as they strike out nine and walk just two in eleven innings. Brian Fuentes was particularly on this afternoon, striking out three of the four batters he faced.

Jake Peavy dispatches the Giants with ease in the first, striking out one. That means Barry Bonds leads off the second. Peavy threw twelve pitches, 10 for strikes.

Hanley Ramirez starts his Marlins career with a lead-off single, his first major league hit.

The Tigers use three solo home runs, two by Shelton and one by Guillen to defeat the Royals 3-1. Rogers, Zumaya and Rodney combined for eight strikeouts and just one walk to shut down the KC offense. That's what the Tigers wanted from Rogers, and that's what they got.

They've gone to the 11th in Colorado tied at two. Jennings pitched an especially good sevent innings, allowing just one run while striking out six. The Rockies could have won this game in regulation, but an unearned run in the 8th prevent that.

Kenji Johjima makes an impression on opening day, homering in the fifth for the Mariners only run so far. LAnaheim leads 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth.

Update: The Mariners scored two more in the bottom of the fifth to tie the Angels. It's still 3-3 after six.

Chris starts the season off on the right foot with three hits, including two solo home runs. Rogers made those two runs hold up through six innings, and now the bullpen is trying to keep Kansas City from scoring the rest of the way.

Tampa Bay looked good early, scoring four runs in the first three innings, but Baltimore unleashed a solo home run barrage that led them to a 9-6 victory. Neither starter, Kazmir nor Lopez was on today, although thanks to the offensive support Rodrigo managed seven innings for the win. Kazmir continues to get enough strikeouts (four in four innings), but he still gives up walks and homers. Until he gets that under control his pontential is limited.

The Cardinals crush the Philies 13-5. Aaron Miles, acquired from Colorado over the winter collect four hits, two doubles and a triple. He scores twice and drives in two. Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen combine to go 6 for 11 with nine RBI, a double and three home runs. Those three healthy and productive give the Cardinals one of the best heart of the orders in the league.

Who needs pitching? The Cubs staff walked 10 and struck out 10, but their offense cranked out 16 runs for a victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds staff walked 7 and struck out just four, and the defense let them down as six unearned runs scored.

Matt Murton delivered three hits, including a three-run homer. If Murton hits as expected, the middle of the Cubs order with Lee and Ramirez should be deadly.

Vlad Guerrero starts the Angels season off right with a two-run, two-out homer in the top of the first. So far, Bartolo Colon is making it stand up. He retired the first nine batters, including striking out the side in the first.

The comments are flooding in that Jimmy Rollins doubled in the 8th inning. That either extends the hitting streak to 37 games or starts a new one, depending on how you look at hitting streaks. The Phillies have also worked their way back a little. It's now 13-5 Cardinals.

The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 this afternoon, making the fans at Miller Park happy on opening day. The Brewers faithful sounded very loud and supportive whenever I flipped over to the game. The Brewers bullpen pitched three strong innings, allowing just one hit and one walk to wrap up the win for Doug Davis.

Pirate fans can take home Oliver Perez's performance. Nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings was great, but the three walks shows he still needs to work on his control.

C.C. Sabathia underwent an MRI today, but the Indians are not going to announce his status until tomorrow.

Brandon Webb and Jason Jennings are locked in a pitcher's duel in Coors, the last place you expect to see one on Opening Day. Both allowed five hits, one walk and one runs through six.

The Boston Red Sox chalked up a 7-3 victory over the Texas Rangers this afternoon. The most important part of the win was the performance of Curt Schilling. Facing a powerful lineup, he pitched seven strong innings, striking out five and walking one. His only real mistake was a two run homer by Blalock. But when Schilling's right, he does give up a few gopher balls. It's just that there usually isn't any one on base at the time.

Red Sox fans have a right to be optimistic about the 2006 season.

The Rangers fans can't feel the same way. Millwood is their best pitcher, and the Red Sox had not problem hitting for power against the ERA champ. Kevin's ERA is 9.00 after one game. He needs to cut that in half to win.

The Cardinals are putting a hurting on the Phillies. They've scored 13 runs so far. Everyone in the lineup earned a hit, and everyone's scored at least one run. Pujols smacked two home runs for four RBI, while Rolen knocked in his four with a grand slam.

Update: It's also getting late for Jimmy Rollins. He's 0 for 3 with a sacrifice fly so far, and they'll need some base runners to get him up again.

The Orioles hit two solo shots in a three-run fifth inning to take a 6-3 lead on Tampa Bay. Matos, Mora and Tejada all went deep today for the Birds.

The Tigers and Royals are underway in Kansas City. Just one hit so far, a single by Shelton. Kenny Rogers retired the first six batters he faced, striking out three along the way.

With Hall and Weeks on second and third, Cirillo delivers a single to turn a one-run deficit into a one-run lead in the seventh inning. The bullpen can't make Oliver Perez's nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings stand up.

Connor Jackson drives in the first run for the Diamondbacks in 2006. His two out single is the difference in the game so far.

The quickest a home team gets booed today may go to the Dodgers. Two errors and a three run homer by Adam LaRoche brought out the jeers from the Dodgers crowd. Atlanta scores four in the first.

Update: They changed the scoring. Just one error is charged to the Dodgers.

Chris Carpenter joins the parade of hitting pitchers, driving in Aaron Miles with a single after the new Cardinals second baseman triples. Chris is crusing, holding a 6-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

The Cubs take back the lead against the Reds with the second poor play of the game by Dunn. The Cubs loaded the bases without getting a ball out of the infield, then Pagan hits a pop up too deep for the shortstop, and too shallow for the late breaking Dunn. The Cubs lead 6-5, the bases are still loaded, and Harang is out of the game.

Update: Hammond is greeted by two singles, and the Reds are down 9-5. I'm afraid Cincinnati is going to have lots of games like this in 2006.

Billy Wagner comes on to pitch the ninth for the Mets with a 3-2 New York lead.

Update: Byrd hits a hard grounder to third, and Wright makes a nice play to get the first out.

Update: LeCroy strikes out looking. Wagner gets him on three pitches.

Update: Vidro gets a base hit in the gap. He tries to stretch it into a double, but Beltran's throw is right on the money. Vidro is out, and the Mets win 3-2.

Newcomers Nady and Lo Duca combined for six hits to go with Wagner's save. All in all a good day for the additions.

Adam Dunn makes up for his first inning error with a solo shot in the fifth inning to tie the Cubs at five. Harang's settled down since that awful first to keep the Cubs off the board and let his offense come back. He's only allowed two hits in the last four innings.

Jonny Gomes takes Lopez deep for a 2-0 Devil Rays lead. They've played both small ball and long ball successfully so far.

David Ortiz hits his first home run of the year, a two run shot. However, since the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead at the time, we won't count that when considering him for the MVP at the end of the season. :-)

The Orioles get the leadoff man on in the first as Roberts beats out an infield single. Perlozzo asks Matos to bunt, and he bunts hard back to Kazmir, and Scott gets the runners at second. The Orioles waste an out but don't advance the runner.

Matos makes up for that by swiping second. It was a nice throw by the Tampa Bay catcher, but Matos knocked the ball out of Cantu's glove with his head.

Update: The Devil Rays get a double play to end the inning and still lead 2-1.

The Cardinals get off to an early lead on the Phillies. A two-out walk to Pujols is followed by an Edmonds' triple. Now Rolen has a chance for an RBI of his own.

Update: Rolen strikes out to end the first. It's 1-0 Cardinals.

New Reds first baseman Scott Hatteberg hits a three-run homer to bring Cincinnati back to 5-4. Zambrano doesn't have his good control today. He's walked four and the game is only in the third inning. And it's a good thing the Cubs picked up so many relievers, since Carlos is at 66 pitches already.

Julio Lugo takes the second pitch of the game off the scoreboard in the left at Camden Yards for a double. A nice way for the Rays to start the season.

Update: Maddon channels Gene Mauch. Carl Crawford sacrifices to put the runner at third with one out.

Update: Cantu flys out to center to give the Devil Rays a 1-0 lead. They played for one run and got it.

The Red Sox get their first two runs of 2006 on a double by Varitek. The two out hit scores Ortiz from second and Nixon from first. Jason just missed a three run homer and the ball struck near the top of the wall.

ESPN just showed a very nice replay of David Wright's swing on his home run. His head was on the ball through the swing, and the Mets have a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Glavine's at 100 pitches, so he may be done for the day.

Nady gets his third hit as Soriano starts back on the ball that's hit to shallow left.

Ian Kinsler touches Curt Schilling for both the first Texas hit of the game and Ian's first major league hit, a single.

Oliver Perez joins Hernandez and Glavine in helping their own causes. Oliver singles in Castillo to make up for the home run he allowed. The Pirates and Brewers are tied at one in the second.

Tony Womack and Alfonso Soriano both walk in their first plate appearances? I'll need to check the temperature in Hell. Womack comes around to score on a Dunn sacrifice fly in the first, and the Reds are still threatening with two outs.

Update: Zambrano issues his third walk of the inning, putting Hatteberg on first to load the bases.

Update: Kearns gives a 3-2 pitch a long ride, but Murton makes a leaping catch at the left field wall to end the inning. It was a few feet close of a tie game.

Nady gets his second hit for the Mets, a double that drives in Floyd and give the Mets a 2-1 lead. He had a poor spring, but he's starting strong when it counts.

J.J. Hardy homers off Oliver Perez in the bottom of the first, and the Brewers lead 1-0 going to the second. Oliver allowed two hits but struck out two.

Curt Schilling strikes out two as he gets the Rangers in order in the bottom of the first. Millwood retired the Sox in order in the top of the first.

Juan Pierre triples to start off his Cubs career. Coming into today, he was third in triples with 25 since the start of the 2004 season. Todd Walker follows with a double to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead over the Reds. Harang walks Derrek Lee; that's three batters and three base runners.

Update: Ramirez singles to load the bases. They just need a home run for a team cycle in the inning. Adam Dunn drops a sinking fly ball by Jones, and the Cubs lead 2-0 with the bases loaded. Putting the ball in play vs. the Reds is a good way to reach base.

Update: Barrett lines into a double play. The Reds had a chance at the triple play, but they'll take two.

Update: Murton gets the team cycle. His three run homer puts the Reds down 5-0 in the first. Murton getting a starting role on the team is probably the biggest positive change for the Cubs in the off-season.

The Nationals load the bases with none out. Soriano took three more balls before swinging for a single. Clayton hits a sacrifice fly to Beltran to score Nick Johnson and tie the game.

Update: That's all they get as Schneider grounds out and Livan Hernandez flys out.

Xavier Nady gets the first hit of the game for the Mets, and goes to second on a Hernandez ground out.

Update: Glavine answers Livan's single with one of his own. The Mets have men on 1st and 3rd with one out.

Update: Nady makes a big mistake on a lineout by Reyes. Nady was off the bag instead of tagging up, so when Soriano made the catch, Nady had no where to go. Lo Duca erases the misake, however, with a single to left center to plate Nady and give the New Yorkers a 1-0 lead.

Update: That's all the Mets get. They're going to the fourth with a 1-0 lead.

The nice people at the Cooperstown Cookie Company sent me a sample of their new treats today. They're minature shortbread cookies that look like baseballs. They're tasty, and your order helps a good cause.

It looks like it's raining at Shea.

Update: There's a drizzle in Queens, but the Nationals and Mets are playing. Tom Glavine gets Washington 1-2-3 in the first on a strikeout and two fly balls. Given Glavine's history of first inning problems, it's a good sign for the Mets.

Update: Livan Hernandez gets the Mets 1-2-3 in his half of the first. Zimmerman made a nice play on a slow roller by Lo Duca. Ryan charged he ball well and made a strong throw to get the slow footed Lo Duca by a mile.

Update: Another nice play. Nick Johnson grounds one up the middle. Anderson Hernandez ranges to his right, jumps and throws and gets Johnson by a step. A nice way to start the season defensively.

Soriano shows great selectivity for a change as Glavine walks him on four pitches. Glavine thought he could get Alfonso to chase some balls out of the strike zone, but it didn't happen. Good for Alfonso. That's the first baserunner of the game.

Update: Zimmerman follows with a walk. Glavine's a bit wild so far.

Update: Glavine strikes out Clayton, then get Schneider on a slow roller. For a second, Lo Duca and Glavine thought the other was going to get the ball, then Paul had to hustle to field the roller and make the throw.

One other thing in that inning; on a 3-0 pitch to Zimmerman, Soriano took off for second. The ball was a strike, and took off Lo Duca's glove as he went to make the throw. The ball and glove ended up behind the catcher.

Update: Livan Hernandez gets the first hit of the game, a single to left.

On the next play, Watson hits a soft grounder to Wright. It looked like Wright double clutched trying to get the ball out of his glove, but Reyes was late covering second. I don't think Wright couldn't get his grip, I think he didn't want to throw until Reyes was there. They get the out at second, but they don't get the double play.

Update: Anderson Hernandez makes a poor defensive play this time. On a double play ball, Anderson turns toward the runner Watson, who stops in his tracks. By the time Hernandez realizes Watson isn't going to run into the tag, he then throws to first, allowing Watson to take second. A rookie mistake. The Mets get out of the inning with no runs allowed, however.

Baseball Minutia is a new blog taking a look at the game past, present and future. Check out his comparison of Adam Dunn and Ned Williamson, two slugger that did not want to leave the outfield.

It's oldies but goodies as we celebrate opening day. Five of the opening day starters taking the mound are over the age of 39. The one we'll be watching the closest is Curt Schilling. Schilling didn't pitch much in major league spring training games, amassing only eight innings. But in those eight he struck out seven and walked just one, a good sign his ankle is better.

He'll face the American League ERA champ Kevin Millwood and the Texas Rangers in Arlington. It's a tough first test for each pitcher. They face powerful lineups in a park where the balls fly over the fences easily. Given the lack of depth in the rotation, the Rangers need a big season from Millwood to stay in contention. He doesn't need to pitch great, just well enough to let the Rangers offense carry the day.

Both Cy Young award winners take the mound for their division winning teams today. Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals travel to Philadelphia to face the Phillies and Jon Lieber. The Phillies were the one team that hit Carpenter well last year. Chris gave up 15 hits in 41 at bats, seven of them for extra bases. That led to a 10.61 ERA against the Phillies in two starts. He did manage to win one of them, however.

Bartolo Colon pitched well in the World Baseball Classic, and he'll start the season against division rival Seattle and Jamie Moyer. The Mariners were pretty pathetic vs. Colon in 2005, managing just 16 hits in 73 at bats. Meanwhile, the Angels hit Moyer hard, knocking eight doubles and nine homeruns for a .602 slugging percentage. Despite that, Jamie managed a 2-1 record in five starts against LAnaheim.

On the west coast, there's two big reasons to tune into the Giants-Padres game in San Diego. It's an excellent pitching matchup as a healthy Jason Schmidt faces Padres ace Jake Peavy. But we'll also get to see Barry Bonds in a real game again. On the surface, Peavy's had good luck against Barry. Bonds has just four hits in twenty at bats against Jake. But three of those hits are home runs, and on top of that, Barry's drawn eleven walks against the right hander.

PETCO even cuts down on Barry's power. He's hit just two home runs there in 41 at bats. He's hitting just .220 at the park. This might be a good night to challenge the slugger.

And although the weather doesn't look good for the final game of tonight, two teams I've picked to win their divisions face off in Oakland. It's a battle of lefties as Randy Johnson takes on Barry Zito. Both sport career winning percentages over .600. Zito was much more effective vs. righties last year than Johnson. Randy will be facing a lineup of mostly righties and switch hitters tonight, so that may give the Athletics an edge. The Thomas/Johnson matchup should be fun.

Enjoy!

Craig Burley at The Hardball Times provides a handy-dandy chart of plus/minus indicators for the 30 major league teams. The system is based on one Bill James described in his abstracts in the 1980s. The AL Central is the most interesting division here. The White Sox are the only team with all indicators pointing down, while the rest of the division is mostly positive.

Via Seymour Ruskin, Phil Allard of NYYFans is writing a column on the Yankees for WCBS Radio in New York this year. Congratulations Phil! However, in an otherwise good column about the Yankees defense, Phil succumbs to Jeter myopia:

As much as I believe in most forms of objective sabermetric philosophy, such as the all important OBP and the shunning of “productive outs,” I have to disagree here. Yes, Jeter does not have great range, but he adds dimensions of worth to his team that defies quantitative analysis, and there ain’t no stat geek that can tell me otherwise. I can’t let statistical “objectivity” act as a blinding agent to what my eyes can clearly see. (That sound you hear is members of the saber community firing up their keyboards to take pithy shots at me.)

You remember that catch Jeter made against the Red Sox on that glorious first night of July in 2004, when he risked his body by crashing in the stands to save the game? That doesn’t count in sabermetric measurement because it was a foul ball. Remember “The Play” against Oakland in the 2001 playoffs that saved the series for the Yanks when Jeter intuitively ran to a spot where he had no business being and then made the perfect cut-off throw home? Aside from the assist, there is no quantitative measurement of such a play, nor are there useful measurements for his amazing skills as a cut-off man.

Jeter’s value is truly intangible, and he inspires teammates with his leadership. He belongs at shortstop on my team, but let the arguments rage on. The debates are fun.

If his value is intangible, then it doesn't exist. The most important thing a shortstop does is field ground balls. Jeter does that poorly. You know, when you can't find anything good to say about a catcher, you throw out that he's a great handler of pitchers. When you can't say anything good about Jeter's defense, you point to all the things that aren't measured well, as if being a great cutoff man or making a couple of great foul catches is going to make up for all the balls going through for hits.

Jeter is the Yankees shortstop because he ranks high among shortstops when you combine offense and defense. In other words, his offense is making up for his defensive shortcomings. At some point, that may not be true. But even then, the Yankees can't move him from the position. Like Gehrig before him, no one will be able to tell him he can't play. Jeter defines the Yankees of this era. His offense, his leadership, his desire to win makes him the icon of this team. When Jeter leaves shortstop, it will be his idea alone.

John Klima at SABRScouts sends along this article about the Atlanta Braves scouting for amateur talent in Japan. Unfortunately, it's for the wrong reasons:

While many teams have tapped the Japanese major leagues to find finished products, the Braves have been hustling to find amateur players to develop in their own farm system. In an era when power will often be questioned, there is no way to question players who play the game the way it was designed.

Listen to Dayton Moore, Atlanta's director of player personnel, and it's evident why the Braves were so eager to solidify their foothold in Japan.

"These players are technicians," Moore said from Kissimmee, Fla., this week. "Do they have the power, the strength, that you see in the athletes in the States and other countries? No. Baseball is a game of fine motor skills. Asian players possess that. These are very good fielders, accurate throwers, hand-eye coordination guys, hit-and-run guys. They execute and that's how the Atlanta Braves win baseball games."

Really? It had nothing to do with Chipper, Marcus and Andruw getting on base and hitting for power? Secondly, isn't the part about strength a bit racist? I saw nothing in the WBC that indicated that the Japanese players didn't have power or strength. Klima then makes this incorrect observation:

If the World Baseball Classic taught us anything, it's that the best player in the world is Ichiro Suzuki, because there is no other player who can beat you in as many ways as he can. Other hitters may produce greater home run numbers, but Ichiro can still drive the ball and beat you with an extra-base hit. And good luck finding a power hitter who also can beat you by making contact, can beat you with a bunt, can beat you by running the bases, can beat you with his arm, can beat you with his glove.

Sorry, Barry Bonds standing like a statue in left field is a better player than Ichiro. Bonds doesn't need to hit behind the runner because he'll either score him from first with a homer or walk to move him to second, rather than grounding out swinging at a bad pitch. And if you don't like Barry, there's Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Vlad Guerrero, Derrek Lee and Miguel Tejada, and that's just scratching the surface.

There is baseball talent in Japan. There are power hitters who swing and miss. There are contact hitters and speedsters who beat out infield hits. There are glove men who don't contribute offensively. Just like everywhere else. There are also great players like Ichiro, not because Japan does anything special training their players, but because he possesses great talent for the game.

I'm glad the Braves are in Japan scouting talent. More teams need to start looking for amateurs there. But there's no magic over there. It's just untapped talent, and the team that gets the best of that talent first is going to have an advantage.

The White Sox and Indians waited three hours to resume play, and it was all White Sox the rest of the way. The South Siders demolished reliever Fernando Cabrera and went on to a 10-4 drubbing of the Indians. The White Sox scored all their runs in four consecutive innings (3-6), and each one of those innings started with a walk. The White Sox were 11th in the AL in walks in 2005, but drew nine last night. That's a good sign for the offense if they can keep that up.

Note Brandon McCarthy's excellent relief work as well. Coming in after the delay, Brandon threw three perfect innings, striking out two. He gives the White Sox important depth if a starter gets injured.

New acquisition Jim Thome contributed a home run and two walks. It's like he was never injured.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

It's 11 PM EDT and the game is still delayed. I'm off to bed. Lots of games on tomorrow.

The Indians/White Sox game is still in a rain delay, but so far it's demonstrated just how much luck and play in scoring. In the bottom of the third, Michaels leapt for a ball, and the drive ticked off his glove for a double. A better leap might have caught it. If it were a foot closer to centerfield he might have caught it. Instead, it sets up a big inning for Chicago.

In the top of the fourth, the Indians third base coach sends Hafner, from first to home on a double off the wall in right. The relay throw should have one-hopped into Pierzynski's glove, but it hit a hard spot and bounce up and over the catcher's head. The Indians get a run there, and a follow up home run ties the game.

A little bit of luck went a long way for both teams tonight.

It's a deluge in Chicago. They're also reporting Sabathia suffered an abdominal injury.

Update:It's 10:20 PM EDT here in the east, and I just looked at the Intellicast radar map, and it doesn't look like the rain will be ending anytime soon in Chicago.

Peralta singles to start the fourth, and the rain starts falling in Chicago.

Update: The Indians score their first run on a double by Victor Martinez. With Hafner on after a force out, he's sent to the plate by the third base coach. Iguchi's relay bounces over the catcher's head, otherwise Hafner was out by a mile.

Perez follows with a home run over the left field fence to tie the game at three. That's what a first baseman's supposed to do.

Update: That's all the Indians get. It's 3-3 in the middle of the fourth.

A leadoff walk in the third is followed by Anderson's first hit of the season, a double off the glove of Jason Micheals in left. Michaels missed a great play by a hair. Runners are on second and third.

Update: Podsednik grounds to second to drive in the first run of the season, and Iguchi follows with a single to make the score 2-0 White Sox.

Update: Sabathia is hurt and is leaving the game. That may be a huge blow for Cleveland.

Update: Danny Graves is on in relief.

Update: ESPN just showed a replay. On the single by Iguchi, Sabathia first grabbed his ribs, then his shoulder.

Update: Cleveland had a chance at a pickoff at second after a Thome walk, but Graves throws the ball into center to put men at second and third.

Update: The error hurts as Konerko hits a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0 White Sox.

Update: The White Sox leave the bases loaded, but come out of the inning with a three run lead and the Cleveland ace out of the game. All in all, a very good inning for Chicago.

Aaron Boone singles to right-center for the Indians first hit. You wouldn't know watching ESPN, since Joe Morgan is busy talking about steroids.

Update: The Indians get a walk following the hit, but that's it. Still scoreless. Apart from Boone's hit, the Indians aren't getting good wood on the ball tonight.

With one out in the bottom of the second, Dye nubs one down the third base line. The Indians let it roll, but it rolls further fair for a soft single.

Update: That's all the White Sox get in the second inning. The game is scoreless after two. Buehrle and Sabathia are pitching efficiently so far. Milliliter's struck out three through two, and his new changeup appears to be working very well.

Sabathia also starts the game off with a strkeout, getting Podsednik swinging.

Update: Sabathia gets the White Sox 1-2-3 on nine pitches in the first. We're still waiting for the first baserunner of the season.

Mark Buehrle starts Grady Sizemore off with a ball. The 2006 season is here!

Update: Sizemore strikesouts on a pitch just under his hands. Grady checked his swing, but the ball was in the strike zone.

Update: Buehrle gets the side in order in the first. Sabathia gets his turn against the White Sox next.

My daughter plays in the Longmeadow High School Orchestra, and they took part in a national competition at Symphony Hall in Boston this afternoon. We don't know the result yet, but it was the best I've ever heard them play. They deserve to be congratulated for all their hard work.

Now for baseball!

Joe Hamrahi interviews me about the Probabilistic Model of range.

The 2006 regular season kicks off tonight at the home of the World Champion Chicago White Sox as they face the team looking to unseat them from the division title, the Cleveland Indians. It's a battle of lefties as Mark Buehrle hosts C.C. "Milliliter" Sabathia.

The Indians didn't hit Buehrle last year. He allowed just a .202 batting average vs. the Tribe, and a meager .328 Slugging Percentage. He did an amazing job against the heart of the Cleveland heart of the order with the 3-4-5 hitters going just 4 for 40 with three walks, one homer and one RBI.

Sabathia did not face the White Sox much last year, but he kept their power in check. Chicago posted a .340 OBA against Milliliter, but managed just one double for a slugging percentage of .261. Sabathia was equal against righties and lefties in 2005 if you look at batting average, but better against righties if you consider OBA and slugging. With only three lefties in the Chicago lineup, that might work to his advantage.

Intellicast is predicting thunderstorms, but the temperature don't look too bad. The teams have tomorrow off if they need to postpone one day.

Enjoy!

Purchase White Sox/Indians tickets.

Here's my predicted order of finish for the NL East:

1. New York Mets
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

Last year, this division was the toughest to call. All five teams had a chance of winning, and it was a close race for much of the season. This year, it looks like two races; the Mets, Phillies and Braves going for first, while the Marlins see if they can surprise and pass the Nationals.

The Nationals played very well in their new city for half a season. The team had some talent, they were playing in front of large audiences again and those combined to propel them into first place. What they lacked was stamina and depth. That hasn't changed.

They hurt themselves both offensively and defensively with the Soriano trade. At the moment, they possess no superstar; the players that might aspire to that role keep getting hurt. If Nick Johnson, Jose Vidro and Jose Guillen play a full season, things might be different, but does anyone really expect that to happen?

Zimmerman is their rookie third baseman, and Washington fans can get excited about his chase for Rookie of the year. Unfortunately, he'll be starting next to Royce Clayton. Guzman goes down with an injury, and they can't improve the position?

Once again, the pitching will look better than it is due to the ballpark. Hernandez and Patterson are fine at the front of the order, but with injuries they are not deep. And when the offense and pitching get tired halfway through the season, there's no one to take up the slack. Whoever ends up owning the team is going to need to solve this depth issue before the team can reach the next level.

No one expects Florida to compete this season. They are taking the idea that a player in his twenties can play as well as a player in his thirties to the extreme. I actually think the starting pitching is going to be pretty good. In assembling this staff, the Marlins looked for all the right things. It just may be that the offense can't even support a good staff.

One thing they will be is prepared. Joe Girardi's been the most important acquisition for the Marlins. From the reports I've read out of spring training, he's relishing the opportunity to mold this team. The players will know what to expect from the opposing pitchers when they go to the plate, and the pitchers will be coached in how to get the batters out. Then it's just a matter of execution. There's some talent here, they need time to develop.

The Mets, for the second year in a row went out and added real talent to the team. Wagner and Delgado are two pieces of the puzzle New York failed to address last year. With their young stars maturing, Reyes getting coached by Rickey Henderson, and two more impact players in place, the Mets look like the team to beat in the NL East.

They are the best balance team in the division. While their offense may not match Philadelphia, it's only a hair behind. And their combination of starters and closer is clearly the best in the division. My only concern is the age of Glavine and the injury history of Martinez and Trachsel.

The Phillies lack offense at third base, but they don't need it. With Ryan Howard looking like the second coming of Dick Allen (at least between the lines), the Phillies may boast five players with over 20 win shares this season. The Phillies are close to the Mets, and two young players might put them over the top. If Ryan Howard and Ryan Madson do emerge as stars, that should close the gap with the Mets. The pitching will also be helped by Rowand in centerfield, who seems to catch everything between the gaps.

I'm just not overly impressed with the Braves. How well they do this season depends on further development by Langerhans and Francoeur. Neither has an outstanding OBA, so the runs they produce are costly in terms of outs. But they still have Giles, Jones and Jones anchoring the offense, and Smoltz and Hudson holding down the rotation. It's been a real dumb move betting against Atlanta over the last 15 years, but I just don't see them being as strong as the Phillies and the Mets this season.

On top of that, the Braves pitching depth chart shows six red crosses. Are they already feeling the lack of Leo?

So I see it as a close race between the Mets and the Phillies, with the youngsters for Philadelphia making the difference one way or another. Atlanta doesn't have the talent to compete with these two, but somehow they always manage to find some. The Nationals were in disarray over the off season, and that might lead to a young Marlins team with a little bit of talent moving into fourth place. The odds of that, look pretty low, however.

The Rangers had a comparative advantage in offensive outfielders. The Phillies had a comparative advantage in starting pitchers. Therefore, interteam trade occured. The Phillies sent Robinson Tejeda and Hank Blalock's younger brother Jake to the Rangers for David Dellucci. The acquisition of Wilkerson along with Phil Nevin's ability to DH made Dellucci expendable. He'll give the Phillies more options on offense.

Tejeda is a power pitcher, but he walks lots of batters. In high home run environments like Philly and Texas, that's going to hurt him. With Eaton undergoing surgery on his finger, however, the Rangers needed to find another starter. Robinson has potential if he learns to control the strike zone. It's a good trade for both teams.

With the start of the regular season right around the corner, Outsider Radio interviewed me last Thursday. You can listen here.

Not only did Armando Benitez go down with a bad knee, Todd Jones injured his hamstring and is going to miss the first two weeks of the season. It seems last year the Tigers had too many closers, and now they're down to none.

The New York Times presents a slide show showing how the box score changed throughout the years. I'm quite proud that the STATS, Inc. box shown in the final slide comes from software I helped develop in my years at the company.

Armando Benitez starts the season on the DL after getting pounded by the Oakland Athletics today:

Bonds is expected to be the Giants' designated hitter in their final exhibition Sunday. The seven-time NL MVP's troublesome right knee and strained left elbow are no longer the Giants' biggest injury concerns.

Instead, they're wondering when Benitez will recover from the left knee bursitis that has turned one of the game's most feared closers into a struggling shell of himself.

"He's not throwing the ball well," San Francisco manager Felipe Alou said. "We know he's not 100 percent. He took it well. He's a battler. He wants to be on the hill, but he also knows he's not there yet."

First impressions are strong, and my impression of Armando comes from his days with the Orioles, where Baltimore fans were the ones afraid of him. :-)

Not to be boring, but you can guess how the AL East looks this year:

1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. Baltimore Orioles
5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays

The biggest positive for the Devil Rays going into 2006 is their middle infield. Cantu and Lugo combined for 42 win shares in 2005. And even though Lugo is past his peak, the Rays have B.J. Upton waiting in the wings.

Cantu is the typical Rays prospect. His strength in putting up a good batting average is offset by his overall weakness in getting on base. The hope is as these players mature, they do a better job getting on, as Carl Crawford did last year. Rocco Baldelli gets a chance to make that improvement this year as he returns from an injury. The Rays centerfielders were so bad last year that anything from Rocco is bound to be better.

I don't understand why they continue to go with Travis Lee at first. They need to find a hulk with power who can take advantage of that ballpark. It's an easy way to improve the offense of the club. Still I like the fact it's a mostly young club that has room for improvement.

Kamir and McClung are two pitcher who have half the game figured out. They strike out a lot of hitters, but they walk way too many. They need to control that. When McClung came to the majors, his home runs per nine went way up. If he gets that under control, his walks won't hurt as much.

The bullpen is a mess. Shinji Mori's season ended before it got started with an injury. Chad Orvella looks to be the go to guy in the bullpen, and if he can come close to his minor league strikeout and walk numbers, he should be a good one.

The Rays are an up and coming team, but this won't be the year they make a big move. The most interesting thing to watch this year is how the new management team handles the team.

The Orioles played two season last year, one in which they were the best team in the east, another in which they were the worst. They let Sosa and Palmeiro go, but the team is not on a youth movement. They simply moved around players, brought in batters like Millar and Hernandez, and are going to give at bats to people like Jeff Conine. I really don't see the offense getting much better.

However, there's a lot of potential in the starting pitching, Leo Mazzone to develop it. In terms of 2005 win shares, the staff is comparable to the Yankees, but with a much higher upside. Look first pitch strikes on the low outside corner in April. If you see that, you know Leo got through to the staff. But without the pitching improving significantly, I really don't see the Orioles making a move this season.

The Blue Jays were very active in the off-season, spending a heap of money on two pitchers, A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan. They also traded defense for offense, landing Troy Glaus for Orland Hudson. Yes, they're improved. Yes, they were unlucky last year, and that has a way of evening things out. I just don't see them winning the division.

The offense just isn't that good. The aggregate of the batters isn't that different than the Devil Rays. What they have is the best pitching in the division, but not that much better than the Red Sox. And the Red Sox are a mile ahead of them offensively. Toronto should be over .500, but they need to play New York and Boston very well and win the close games, unlike 2005. That's the only way they'll be in contention for the title.

The best news for Boston this spring is that Curt Schilling appears to be healthy. A full season of a good Schilling keeps Boston even with Toronto on the mound. And although they appeared to be trading offense for defense this winter, I'm not sure they succeeded. Yes, shortstop is going to stop many more balls than last year, but I'm not convinced that third, second and center are any better. They might even be worse.

The offense with Manny and Ortiz in the middle is very good, but still far behind the Yankees. I'm not sure that the pitching can make up the difference, so my pick of Boston for second.

The Yankees offense looks every bit as good as the 1998 team. Even if all the over 30 players fell off 10% from last year, no other division rival would be close. About the only things that's going to keep New York from leading the league in runs are season ending injuries to A-Rod and Sheffield.

The pitching is another matter. The front end is old, the back end is injured. However, they don't need to be great to win. This team reminds me of the 1992-93 Blue Jays. Take a couple of old pitchers, score 6 or 7 runs a game for them and Morris and Stewart kept you in the game. With the level of offense, they'll survive the pitching.

Alex Belth points out an excellent article in the New York Times on how a ban on greenies might change baseball.

Rather than seeking replacements for amphetamines, some baseball people have prescribed increased rest.

"You can't be out in those bars with any regularity anymore because you ain't got help now," said Ron Washington, the third-base coach for the Athletics.

Payton said, "Guys who are 25 are going to have to treat themselves like they're 35."

Getting a good night's sleep? What a concept!

The Chicago White Sox extended the contract of Jose Contreras through the 2009 season, agreeing to pay the Cuban exile nearly $30 million. That's a lot of money for a pitcher with one good year, and whose age is in doubt. Still, his career strikeout and walk numbers are good. If he can stay at those levels, the great Chicago defense should keep his ERA low.

I had a good time at the Curling Championships today. The crowd was small but vocal. Here's a picture from my seat of the Swedes taking a shot.

And here are the Swedish fans. They had cheering songs they'd sing, and I'm pretty sure one was making fun of the Canadians. :-)

View image

One really great thing about attending this morning was that I was able to try out my cell phone as a blogging tool. It seemed to work well (the photos were taken with the phone as well). That means I can blog from baseball games without carrying a lot of equipment.

Australia makes a poor last shot, missing the house and Scotland wins with the hammer.

Sweden comes within a hair of three, but fall short with two in the tenth to give the victory to Cananda.

Scotland misses a guard and Australia scores 3! Extra ends!

Norway plays a defensive end and wins the match 6-5.

Scotland takes two. Australia needs three in the tenth. They do have the hammer.

Norway nearly steals one, but the measurement gives it to Germany. Norway has the hammer and a two point lead in the tenth.

Update: The Swedes hit the hammer with the broom and Canada steals a point for a five-two lead going to the tenth.

Australia comes back with 2 in the 8th to cut Scotland's lead to 1.

Update: The Swiss score three for third time, and Finland concedes. The Fins just couldn't make their shots, while the Swiss put nearly every stone where they wanted. They look very strong.

Norway takes two and leads Germany six three. They will have the hammer in the tenth if they don't steal.

After a measurement, Sweden takes one. They're tied with Canada.

Scotland takes control with two points for a 6-3 lead. Finland takes a point, but the Swiss have the advantage of the even hammer. Moron the end in a minute.

Update: Canada does some nice sweeping to take the end, but fine throwing by Sweden holds them to one. 3-2 Canada. Norway leads Germany 4-3.

Sweden ties Canada at two. Australia takes one to close within 1. The Fins have their backs to the wall now as the Swiss steal three to take a 7-2 lead.

Canada makes a big mistake, taking a point when they meant to blank the end. Despite a 2-1 lead the mistake gives Sweden the hammer in the even rounds.

The Fins played a poor end, giving the Swiss a block oftwo stones and the Swiss take three for a 4-2 lead. Scotland is up 4-2, and Norway leads by the same score.

On the penultimate shot of the end, Canada hits a triple to lie two. Sweden is able to ease in a stone to win a point and the end, however. Norway takes two and leads Germany 3-2.

Canada and Sweden each make marvelous shots in the end, curling around guards to prevent a big score. Canada takes one. Australia takes two to tie Scotland.

Two blank ends for Canada and Sweden after two. The Swiss tie the Fins at one, while Norway uses the hammer to tie Germany.

Scotland picks up two in the first end, the best of the four matches. The game is much faster in person than watching on TV.

I have great seats! Right in fromt of the Sweden-Canada draw.

The March Pledge Drive is over, and the response was extremely generous. The month saw 292 readers donate $3989. Thank you so much for you help in keeping this site going! I'm honored by your generosity.

Thanks, too for the growth of this site. March set a new record for unique visitors and overall page views. I hope you'll continue to enjoy the site as much as I enjoy writing and maintaining it.

The donation buttons are still down the right sidebar if you'd like to contribute. Tips are always welcome. The new season is just 36 hours away, and I can't wait for the games to begin!