Hopefully the rumors of a Holliday trade are true. I still can't believe that Dunn was on the market and their targets were Griffey and Anderson. Just awful.

Dodgers just finished a 20-win month of May for the first time since the Kennedy Administration.

If it's the same run down apartments we saw on 295 right next to the stadium on the way out of downtown Baltimore, then, yes, they're still there and looking oddly out of place...

SI

Baltimore just wants to make sure that you still realize you're in Baltimore. :D

The Yankees set a major league record tonight- 18 straight games without committing an error. Joba Chamberlain was brilliant tonight and hopefully that shuts up the idiots who want to move him to the bullpen.

I said before the year the Yankees had the best team in baseball and it's looking like that is absolutely true. Their lineup has Matsui, Swisher, and Melky Cabrerra in the 7-8-9 spots which is just sick.

I was at the game yesterday and it was brutal seeing Godzilla running to first.
Wang looked sharp. Hopefully the hip issues are behind him. Hughes throws way too many pitches for my liking.

chisox win 4th in a row 6-2 against the A's.

Thome hit # 550

And did the mets end up going to krod tonight. Cause Putz was pitching like, well, a putz.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm a Yankee hater, but I do have a strong dislike for them. However, I am willing to give them this - they always seem to get the most out of their guys. For example, every yr I say, "ok, this is the yr Matsui is gonna suck, or Jeter, or Posada, or Pettitte, or this aging guy or that aging guy". But these guys just keep trucking right along being productive players. To counter my own argument, the Yankees sign so many people I can't keep track of all their busts (see Pavano, and I'm sure quite a few others), so I suppose it all evens out in the end.

never had the chance.

I really hope Matsui's knees hold up all year. This will probably be it for him as a Yankee as he's a FA and they want to play Posada more at DH next year.

Wang's sinker did look pretty good. I like Phil Hughes and he's shown some good stuff this year. His last start on Sunday wasn't bad, but he'll probably be the odd man out with Wang looking like he's got that sinker working again.

I guess they only want him going an inning? It was certainly high enough leverage for Manuel to bring him in.

I will never understand closer usage. Yesterday the Yanks don't bring Rivera into a tie game and let Coke blow it in the bottom of the 9th. And today K-Rod doesn't come into a shitstorm when he could actually "save" the fuckin game. I miss guys like Goose.

interesting by Bill Simmons in the latest ESPN magazine:

Big guys that don't take care of themselves tend to fall off the map in their early 30s anyway. If they're lucky they may hit their mid 30s, but the declines these type of players have tends to be really ugly. So he doesn't even have to be lying about his age for him to have such a steep decline.

yeah.

i didn't link the whole article, but it's a really nice piece about how it's sad, and about how we fans here aren't even really be that upset. take me personally, i'm more sad then i am angry. it's gone from "ugh start hitting and being big papi" to "thanks for the september/october memories big fella :( "

Closest comparison I could think of when I see Ortiz is Mo Vaughn and that was ugly.

SI

yep

I think the Mets are still paying Big Mo.

The first shoe has dropped. Randy St. Claire, the pitching coach in Washington, was given his walking papers last night.

LS i have to give you credit. I don't know how you watch that team. I've watched them play the Phils and I feel bad for them and even more so their fans. You must really love baseball.

Last fall during the playoffs I was talking to a friend that worked in James Andrews orthopedic surgery clinic, and the topic of HGH/Steroids came up. He pretty much emphatically denied Papi had been on steroids, but said he was at least 2 years older than listed.

which would put him in the 35-36 range -- given the tejada situation and others not at all surprising, and certainly helps explain the sudden dropoff.

:(

Ortiz also has what have been called "old player skills", he's slow and has (had) a lot of power and a decent eye. Usually players with those skills fall off the map quicker than other players (mostly because players with other skills fall into the "old player skills" in their late 30s).

I'm not sure that Ortiz is actually the "old player" that James was referring to. Ortiz hit around .300 and a big part of that was a low batting average. Adam Dunn, now, that's some old player skills.

Ortiz has old player skills now, of course, because he's an old player.

Thanks for the memories Papi :(

Well James listed Willie Stargell as having "old player skills" and his career BA is only .001 less than Ortiz's. And Ralph Kiner (also listed as someone with "old player skills") had a career BA .004 less than Ortiz's Ortiz has only had 3 seasons of .300 or above BA in his career.

Good point. Looks to me like James didn't even use his own criteria in making that list.

edit: Either that, or is using an odd definition when he says "relatively low batting average." I mean, Stargell was .025 points above average from 63 to 70.

To be honest I have been fading as the season has progressed. I don't check the score or the blogs every day at this point. :(

Also, the love of baseball is pretty odd. I didn't grow up being a huge MLB guy. Sure, I followed it, but it wasn't until I had a true home team (I am from the DC area) that I really got into it. Having a friend that grew up a huge Cleveland fan and picking up Washington as his NL team hasn't hurt. I love going to the games, I lov ehaving a team in DC. Maybe that will wear off soon, but I'm still in a bit of a glow at having a team for the first time in my life. I want to still be in the thick of it when (if?) they turn it around.

Well he did mention that he was sorting the players rating 1-100 in his top Outfielders. So comparing them to that group and not general player population.

This may have been mentioned but I cringe to see how many people show up to see the Pirates tonight with the Pens playing.

Randy Wells continues to pitch well for the cubbies, he's faced the minimum through 5 and hasn't allowed a hit.

Yay, Garrett Anderson grounds out with the bases loaded in the 10th. Add to that, Kelly Johnson batting leadoff with an OBP of .315 and now people can understand why nobody wants to watch the Braves.

The Pirates touched up wandy Rodriguez and Santana this week. But can't do shit against guys like Gavin Floyd.

I feel your pain. Last year we had Freddy Sanchez batting number 2 with an OPS that barely cracked .600 for much of the year.

Great walk off win tonight.

I expect Kelly to turn it around as he's a career .350 OBP hitter. I think we're pretty strong at the top 4 with Kelly, Escobar, Chipper, McCann. But then it's dead weight the rest of the way.

Kelly Johnson = Marcus Giles

Bastardo makes his first start for the Phils and looks every bit as promising as management claims he is.

Also, Ibanez ftw.

Poor bastar-- uh, guy- I don't think I'd want that last name ;)

SI

Gut punch loss for the Cubs last night. Braves getting 3 runs on one hit (solo homer) in the 8th was brutal, then the 4th run to score was on a dropped 3rd strike. I do not have a vocabulary vast enough to express how bad that loss was.

Wells is completely snake-bitten. The pen has blown two four run leads (between 8th/9th) in his five starts.

Mets fans refer to that as being Heilman'd

Nats fans refer to that as being a a Nats fan.

LOL! Well played.

Reds have been going through a run of bad luck lately.

2B Brandon Phillips broke a bone in his thumb, but has mostly played through it, only missing a few games, so that wasn't too bad.

CF Willy Taveras was doing really well as a leadoff hitter, but has hit a bad patch (otherwise known as "regressing to the mean"), and strained his hamstring which came up last night as he was unable to run down a seemingly easy fly ball that gave St. Louis 2 runs in a 3 run win for the Cards.

3B Edwin Encarnacion, a known streaky hitter, started off April with a notorious cold streak... then hit the DL before he could bounce back with his usual hot streak. He still hasn't returned, though Jerry Hairston Jr. and Adam Rosales have been decent in his place.

SP Edinson Volquez hit the DL a couple of weeks ago with back spasms... came back on Monday, then promptly went back on the DL with nerve inflammation in his elbow. Reds believe it is due to overwork (save the Dusty jokes) due to his pitching winter ball and in the WBC against the team's wishes.

And finally, 1B Joey Votto, the oddest case of all. Votto was on pace to be an All-Star and a possible MVP candidate. Then, he got the flu. He was out for a few days. Then he tried to come back, and left a game in Houston with an apparent injury. Word back was "dizziness". Then he was diagnosed with an ear infection and gave him some days off to recuperate. So began the yo-yo, as he came in and out of games for about 2-3 weeks, playing some whole games, leaving others after a couple of innings with "dizziness and weakness". Finally, he went on the DL a few days ago with the team only saying that he is going through personal issues related to his health. Supposedly it is stress related. Rumor on the Reds boards is that he has undiagnosed Lyme disease, which is a bit more common in Votto's home of Ontario and comes with a bunch of symptoms that Votto still has.

Either way, the Reds haven't had a complete regular lineup in about a month, and are now going to be without their most dominant pitcher from last year for about a month as well once Volquez does come back.

Still, they have managed to stay above .500 by a couple of games, and within 4 games or so of the Central lead over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, they are probably in the midst of a run that will leave them hurting badly in 4th in the Central, as they are on Day 6 of a run of 10 games vs. the top 3 teams in the Central, and are currently 1-4 in the first 5 games of that stretch.

And the Yankees did make the decision today to move Wang to the rotation to start tomorrow and Hughes to the bullpen. Cashman says Hughes is a temporary bullpen fix and he is a starter long term. He might be sent back down to AAA when Bruney and Marte return from injury. I like Hughes and I think he'll be really good someday, but Wang is a front line starter and there was nobody else they could take out of the rotation.

Braves release Glavine.

Hanson time? (Please?)

Really shitty thing to do considering it was only a monetary decision. He was pitching great at AAA, something like 11 consecutive scoreless innings. They shouldn't have had him down there if they were gonna release him no matter what he did.

I really fucking hate Frank Wren.

Ben Sheets had something similar for the Brewers a few years back, all the symptoms sound the same. He had something called vestibular neuritis (sp?).

If that's the case with Votto, don't expect much from him for a month or two. It's a bitch to get rid of that dizziness.

The only thing I can guess is they didn't expect him to actually do anything at AAA and then they could just let him retire. To send him to AAA, let him pitch well there, and then release him because they didn't want to pay the million it would cost to call him up is about as low as it gets.

I kinda hope the Phillies put in a claim for Glavine.

I was just thinking the same thing. Two guys in their 40s in their rotation!

Yay!

The Mets won't lose!

The Braves also traded for Nate Mclouth today, beefing up there outfield a lil bit.

That was really the last reason to go see the Pirates...what a bunch of bums.

FUCK

McAllStar was the only one worth watching.


Good for the Braves. White boy hustle with good numbers.

And he was never going to be a part of the next good Pirate team. Honestly, if Nate McLouth is the only reason to watch the Pirates, then the problems run very deep. McLouth is good, but merely a complimentary piece on a good team.

One major league ready pitcher, one mid-level prospect, and a projectable lefthander a bit lower in the chain is not a bad return for Nate McLouth. Morton has the stuff and the minor league numbers to be a pretty decent pitcher.

Sounds like the McLouth trade is a good move. It sounds like the Braves dicked over Glavine but the starting pitching looks pretty good right now so I don't really care.

Hanson will be starting on Saturday.

HUGE balls to make the move I will say.

Andrew McCutcheon era starts tomorrow.

I'm not the least bit bothered by the thought of never having to watch Glavine struggle to last 5 innings in a start again, but I will say that it seems pretty iffy to release him after he completed a rehab assignment that by most accounts appeared to happen only after the Braves twisted his arm to do it (no pun intended). He was talking about retirement after he got hurt coming out of spring until conversations with team management. I mean, it's not as though his velocity was going to suddenly climb several mph, they knew what his top end was & he appeared to have reached that point, so it does seem like they kind of screwed him around on this a bit.

The McLouth deal is hard not to like but given my feelings about Frank Wren's acumen for his job, I figure he's either hurt or on the verge of a catastrophic decline of Francouerian proportions.

Why isn't Julio Franco on a team yet.

The Pirates do this over and over to any young talent they have. I'm sure they will fuck up whatever they got in return. I don't care, I'm not a Pirates fan. But I do find it sad that probably the nicest ball park in the country has such a shitty team year after year.

That's the problem when you only develop one decent player here and there. It's not the fault of the current management that what they inherited is an utter and complete mess (not that I'm saying anybody is saying that).

I saw rumors that the Pirates would be going on the cheap in the draft so they can put more money into the international market, but the Pirates President just said that wouldn't be true, that they wouldn't be going cheap in the draft and they would go after some highly touted international free agents.

Instead of paying Nate McLouth $5 million a year chasing that 75th win, the Pirates are doing the smart thing and putting money into their player development. Heck, this trade opens up a spot for a pretty darn talented young player in McCutchen. The move obviously doesn't look good in the short term, but this is the kind of long term thinking that makes me feel (and fear as a Brewer fan) that the Pirates are headed in the right direction finally after years of careless management chasing 75 wins while deluding themselves into thinking they were better than they actually were.

Garrett Anderson is taking up his roster spot.

I'm not sure they got all that much.
Hernandez is a legit prospect with speed but has to keep improving his OBP to be a serious contributor in the majors someday, Morton has been passed by several pitchers in the organization & looked like a AAAA pitcher at best in most of his appearances last year , and off hand I'm not sure I've ever heard Locke's name before the trade.

Want to know how interested Atlanta is in the current Braves versus what little is left of the past? Check out the pecking order of the news at ajc.com
(each of those is a link of course that doesn't come through when I paste 'em)

Team avoids paying $1M bonus; pitcher was on disabled list.

* Glavine's career
* Discuss
* Bradley: Time for Glavine to go
* Braves get All-Star McLouth
* Gametracker
* Braves news

Where else could acquiring an all-star outfielder get that much less play than the release of a washed up over the hill pitcher? Yeah yeah, hall of fame this hall of fame that, but he's won exactly two games for the Braves since 2002, he hasn't been a relevant part of this team since my rising 6th grader was in pre-K.

Sounds right, and plus, first rule of trading - any pitching prospect the Braves give up is irrevocably fucked. (Of the top of my head, Jason Schmidt is the only one I can think of who ever did anything). I think Morton could be a solid back-end SP and Hernandez could be anything for a 4th OF to a 2nd-tier starting CF, but the key is Locke - hard-throwing LHP's are fairly rare. That being said, Nate's pretty overrated; he's a HTWG at heart.

Heh, I remember how high people were on David Nied.

But barring a complete collapse he's still an significant upgrade over what we've been rolling out there & at the cost of what? A guy who had already blown his shot at making the staff, a guy who was position blocked by Schaefer, and a guy I doubt 30 people had ever heard of?

On the bright side, his 7 steals this season are more than half the Braves current team total. On the down side, I doubt Bobby Cox is entirely sure what a stolen base is.

Yeah, no doubt - the marginal improvement for the Braves is significant. I think Nate is a good, cost-controlled player (for 2.5 years, + an option) - that increases his value. And given that the Braves have a worse OF than the Giants, I can understand why marginal improvements are cheap. :D

I wouldn't put him in eckstein territory. But our outfield defense should improve tomorrow. Lollipop arm and average to below average range. Anyways he is a likeable guy. I know that counts for zero wins. I will miss him but I'm gonna hold onto the faith that better days are ahead. I think we need to sell high on a few other guys like Maholm and maybe even Duke.

I think now would be a great time with Duke. He looks like he may have turned the corner and turned into a legitimate MLB starter, but he has enough service time and has thrown enough big league innings to make me think we should be selling high. If we could get a solid MI prospect and/or 1B prospect as the cornerstone of a package, I'd feel pretty good about the new front office.

I think Maholm can be a good 2 or 3 starter for a long time, so I hope we keep him for awhile.

I'm not super concerned with 1b but middle infield is a must.

Getting an average-above average corner that is a massive upgrade over what you have for 3 iffy prospects is a good deal. Teams tend to hold onto their 2nd tier prospects way to tightly so leveraging them for talent in a winnable division is a good move, IMO. Hernandez, regardless of the hype around him, is a 2nd tier prospect.

Dola

I also think it's move Pittsburgh had to make. They weren't going to be able to extend McClouth and the closer he gets to free agency the less value he'd have. They're a team desperate for any type of minor league talent right now.

Sammy Sosa says he is retiring.

No shit? I hadn't realized he was still relevant except for his "alleged" steroid use...:cool:

I heard the real reason the Pirates got rid of Nate was because he was a Red Wings fan. We all know how pissed Pittsburgh fans got at Cowher for rooting against the Pens. :)

F'n unbelievable. I realize that teams have issues from time to time, but the Royals are downright embarrassing right now. 5-18 in the last 23 games? C'mon now. Pull your head out. I don't expect a playoff team as a fan, but I do expect SOME effort.

McLouth ain't great, but it doesn't look like they gave up a ton for him and he's reasonably signed for a couple more years.

The Glavine thing...they say it was due to his velocity, and I agree that pitching well at the AAA level and the MLB level are two different things. But I think ultimately it came down to wasting a rotation spot with him, plus paying him not just $1M but another $1.25M I believe in 30 days if he was still on the roster, as opposed to Hanson. I believe they would have gone with Glavine if they didn't have any other options. But when you've got a guy like Hanson so obviously ready, it's a no-brainer to not pay the old guy on a hope and a prayer and go with the cheap, young stud. I think they signed Glavine as insurance, and ultimately they decided they didn't need him once the other options panned out.

True doubleheader today!

As long as they don't get rained out, the WAS vs. SFG game from last night will be at 4:35 followed by the second game 25 minutes later. My ticket for tonight's game will get me in to both.

Yeah, I don't get this loyalty to Glavine. He pitched for the rival Mets for a few years (which probably helped the Braves). Smoltz is one thing, who left after pitching his entire career with the Braves, but Glavine was a washed up pitcher who had already left for the green a few years ago. He was due 1M for being added to the ML roster, 1.25M in 30 days, and I think another 1.5M in 60 days. Silly to keep him considering the penny pinching of signing Garret "piece of shit" Anderson over Dunn or somebody who could actually hit.

I've never been able to go to a true doubleheader :(

And nowadays, they just day/night everything so even finding one is rare

SI

What does the Royals farm system look like? I would have to assume they have had a bunch of high 1st round choices over the yrs.

Cool for you, but I wonder if this isn't more a combination of unique circumstances than being nice to fans. One, they absolutely want Randy Johnson pitching in their park, and two, I haven't seen the weather for your area, but if there is still rain aroundin the morning, then an early afternoon start might have been dicey and they just decided to push that game back as far as they could to have the best possibility of Johsnon making his start while in Washington.

Yeah, that's why I'm so excited. :)


Oh, I don't doubt it at all. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they only complete one game tonight or possibly none. The rain really isn't supposed to let up today. I suspect you are 100% accurate. In addition, I don't think they could convince SF to make a trip out here to play the game if they postponed it to another day.

They brought up the #1 overall pick from 2 years ago (Hochevar) a few weeks ago since he was destroying AAA. He then promptly got shelled over a couple of weeks and was sent back down.

Alex Gordon is the other big recent pick. He's been on the DL most of the season.

That's still no excuse. They should be playing better than they have been. The bullpen has been atrocious of late.

They have a lot of good pitching prospects at AA and a lot of really nice parts at high A and A but the only thing major league ready is Kila, who is sortof blocked at the MLB level by the two-headed monster that is Billy Butler and Mike Jacobs. Which, yeah, is kindof sad when you say it like that. But they need to give Butler a chance- he's only 23 and one of those 1st round picks you're talking about.

Until the last 2 years, they went for a lot of signability picks so that leads to a lot of crappy talent. Since Dayton Moore has arrived, they've poured a ton of cash into the draft, including handing out the most bonus money of any club last year and paying well above slot for quite a few players (not just in the 1st round). But, again, since that was only 2 drafts worth, most of the talent is in the lower levels.

And, like MBBF said, Hochevar (2006)- well, no one really understands why he was taken anyways and he was picked in this nebulous time between when previous GM Allard Baird was fired and Moore was hired so the draft 3 years ago is this weird limbo zone. But he was lighting it up again in AAA and promptly shelled at the MLB level. Gordon (2005) also still has a chance to be a good MLB hitter and a lot of people were pegging this as a possible breakout season but he went on the DL a couple of weeks in and still isn't expected back for at least another month. Zack Greinke was the 2002 1st round pick- you might have heard of him ;)

SI

I might be misreading, but wasn't Hochevar a very highly-regarded prospect?

There was much debate about this many pages back...

Yeah, I still can't believe that he fell so flat on his face after he came up. At least we won't hear a lot of bitching from he and Boras for awhile about how he should be in the majors.

Hopefully Strasburg fairs better. :) (In performance, not contract negotiations!)

Yeah, but at the time, Andrew Miller was pretty much the default #1 pick and it was a little perplexing as to why KC took Hochevar.

SI

Oh believe me, I remember...I meant more in terms of SI's "not sure why he was picked" when I remember him being widely considered one of the top pitching prospects in the draft that year along with Andrew Miller, which is why I assume he was picked (and I think that was the year Lincecum, Joba, and Krenshaw came out too - talk about some pitching talent).

I remember that banter quite well. Obviously, the coin flip didn't go well for the Royals. :)

Braves gave up nothing of value for McLouth. No idea why the Pirates would trade him for peanuts. Mclouth (obviously) immediately improves the worst OF in MLB. Glavine was managed horribly; standard MO under Wren.

Strasburg actually has a kickass fastball so I wouldn't worry about it. You probably won't see him this year though since he likely won't sign until August.

People want to go revisionist and act like Lincecum was in the mix but everyone had him down a little bit because of his frame and injury size. It was really between Hochevar and Miller and no one really understood the Hochevar pick. I still remember Poz's article the day of or day before that draft about "the presumptive number 1" draft pick or something like that where he talks about what a number 1 is and how KC better have a good reason for not picking him.

SI

Speaking of revisionist history, I always laugh when someone around here talks about Albert Pulois and how the Royals didn't manage to draft him when he went to high school in the area. Last I checked, every other team in the majors overlooked him several times as well before he was finally selected.

FWIW, here's the USA Today article the day after Hochevar was taken #1.

University of North Carolina lefty Andrew Miller had been considered a favorite to be taken first until Hochevar became available last week after the Dodgers' deadline to sign him passed. Miller slipped to the Detroit Tigers at No. 6.

In between, Colorado took Stanford right-hander Greg Reynolds at No. 2, Pittsburgh chose righty Brad Lincoln from the University of Houston at No. 4 and Seattle followed with University of California righty Brandon Morrow.

Yeah, it's ridiculous to say someone who was drafted in a round ending in -teen should have been with team X or team Y. Every team had at least 10 chances at him and passed. That said, you don't hear that from other teams' fans about KC, just from Royals fans who want to find something to be 20/20 pissed at.

SI