Scott Boras.

Boras never signs extentions with his clients, they always test free agency. Being from Atlanta had nothing to do with it, Teixeira is looking for the most money he can possibly get or Boras wouldn't be his agent.

Now with Atlanta and NYM both cutting Franco and therefore getting the bad karma hex, the Phillies are cleared to take the NL East title.

Oh heck yeah! Nice shot, Gary!

Cubs first place.

Texeira with a HR and 4 RBI's in his Braves debut.

Wow, great game going on in Seattle. First and second place AL West teams going at it, winner takes the game and the series. Angels came back to tie it off of Putz in the ninth, and now we're in extras. Seattle just tried to beat the Angels at their own game with a suicide squeeze, but it backfired when Lopez just flat missed the bunt.

If anyone has the Extra Innings package, come check it out.

lol ,Vlad was completely fooled on that pitch. He was falling away from the plate like heat was gunning inside, but it was actually a low, outside fastball. So he's falling away, still chooses to swing at it (!), basically throws his bat out there, catches the ball with the tip of the head and bangs a soft liner into center for his fourth hit. Heh, that's so Vlad.

dawgman, if you're around, I really like this Morrow kid. Great fastball with movement, and he knows how to locate it. He'll need more than that to lost longer in this league (but he's a former first rounder, so I'm sure he has more, just hasn't shown it tonight), but he's looking terrific tonight.

Watching the game in the East... approaching 2 am... I was falling asleep in the 8th, but found a second wind and haven't missed a pitch since the Matthews homerun.

Yeah, I coulda fallen asleep in the 8th, too, if I wasn't out here and it wasn't the Angels. I'm glad I didn't.

I'm glad I didn't as well... The Mariners have become my team since the Expos left. Thank you Sportsnet and MLB.TV :)

Boo! :D Obviously, I am an Angels fan. Sheesh, Spos to M's? What are you a glutton for punishment?

Good game by both teams. The M's deserved their win. I knew with all the chances both teams were getting, sooner or later, someone would finally push a run across.

What, Atlanta cut him now?? They need that veteran leadership!

Maybe two teams in the same division cutting him cancels each other out... I need to go check the rules.

Hey, at least I didn't stick with the Nationals ;)
I wanted a team in the AL, and a team that I couldn't be considered a bandwagon jumper (I made the switch before this season..). The Angels were up there due to all of their Expo connections but were a bit too successful.

Morrow has an electric arm for sure. Earlier in the season he basically had no command of his fastball - he was just throwing it up there and hoping it hit the strike zone. But because it was so good, he wasn't getting hit. He finally lost enough command (walking more than a guy per inning) and started to fatigue that his usage needed to be eased back, but recently his control has improved a great deal and his velocity is returning, plus he's mixing in a good splitter now as well.

He's a promising talent, and he's helped the bullpen this year, but I'm scared that he's going to get stuck as a reliever and never get a shot professionally to see if he can succeed as a starter. I'm not real excited about spending the #5 overall pick on a reliever, especially when the M's passed on Andrew Miller and Tim Lincecum.

Anyway, nice to see the M's pull that one out last night and stay only 3 back in the West. Will be interesting to see how Adam Jones does and how much the M's play him. There will be some delicate politics going on in the clubhouse, with Sexson being demoted to platoon status with Broussard and Jones likely to start taking playing time away from Ibanez and Vidro.

Looks like the Yankees and White Sox are in for a slugfest. The 2nd inning took about an hour to play and 16 total runs were scored, which was the most in MLB history in the 2nd inning. Hopefully Jeff Karsens will be able to give the Yanks some quality innings, but I'm not counting on it.

That's really depressing. I remember trying to figure out who my NFL team was going to be when the Patriots seemed bound for St. Louis. Things worked out since then though.

Hah, the Braves have said if no one picks up Franco, they want him back as a coach of some kind. Always looking for a way to get that karma back.

Can the Mets please get one gad damn clutch hit. Zambrano has 7 walks in 5 innings and the Mets can't make him pay! For whatever reason Marlon Anderson is hitting 5th, to me you can't be considered a contender with Marlon Anderson hitting 5th, no wonder Delgado has walked all 3 times up.

You're really upset about Anderson hitting 5th when David Newhan, who was struggling in AAA 2 weeks ago, is hitting 2nd? When you play without your 2nd, 3rd, and 6th hitter, a guy like Anderson is forced to hit 5th.

In other news...Zambrano is going to kill my real team and my fantasy team's WHIP for the week.

And Newhan almost kills Reyes when chasing down a fly ball. Gonna be a good day.

Do I have to bring up who they should sign...? :cool:

Interesting...Zambrano out with an injury after giving up a solo shot to Castro.

So yeah...Lo Duca's a FA at the end of the year. Do we role the dice with Castro? Gotta figure he's eventually going to leave for a starting job.

I say so. LoDuca is showing signs of breaking down and Castro is above average defensivly and shows good pop.

Phillies traded him back in 83'ish. That's why they haven't won since then.

Neifi Perez got suspended 80 games for another positive test for banned stimulants....a funny quote about it from McCovey Chronicles:

"He just couldn't resist the powers they gave him"

Eric Byrnes extended for 3 years/$30M? He's a decent player an all, but $10M/year for him?

Rick Ankiel was called up today by the Cardinals. Good to see. He's probably a better option than Edmonds at this stage.

Haha, oh that Neifi. Didn't he read someone's posts here that said the power just turned his blooper singles into lineouts or flyouts?

Can someone explain to me how Papelbon got a save today? He came in to get the final out of a 6-2 victory. I always thought the criteria was a three run lead or you had to pitch three innings. Has the rule changed? If you can get a save by getting one out when the tying run isn't even at the plate, they might as well just scrap the category altogether.

Man, if they don't give him a save here, there's be an ego fight with him and Gagne! That's the reason.

The "Save" carries some value as a statistic, but it is also highly over-valued in today's game.

This is how he qualifies and they really should do away with this one.

Way to often you see some poor middle relief schlub get out of a bases-loaded jam in the 7th, only to have the cushy pampered closer come in with the bases empty to start the ninth, get his three cushy outs, and get his cushy save while everybody slobbers praise all over him.

I would just eliminate the save stat entirely and just assign holds all around. That's what I would do, but I would have a bounty put on my head by agents shortly afterwards.

Anyone care to explain why Matt Stairs was batting leadoff for the Blue Jays tonight against the Royals? Don't get me wrong- we loved the guy here in KC but he's not exactly your typical leadoff hitter. He's got a little pop, his OBP is solid but not spectacular, and, well, how do I put this delicately... he's one of those "I'm in shape! Round is a shape" sort-of-guys.

SI

Probably lack of other options. The only other decent hitters they had in the lineup were Rios, Thomas, Overbay, Well, and Glaus.

From that group it'd be a coin flip between Stairs and Rios.

Stairs is hitting leadoff because he's been very steady this year. Typically it's Reed Johnson there, but he's been a bit "off" since returning from injury. Ideally they'd like to go Johnson, Rios, Wells, Glaus, Thomas, Overbay. It's just hard not to give Stairs the plate appearances with how well he's played, and while he doesn't have ideal speed, it's been a while since the Jays have played a style that utilizes the prototypical leadoff hitter.

I still don't think giving a hold to everyone is fair. The reliever that came into a pressure situation still doesn't get his due. I've thought hard for the past three minutes about a stat that would recognize the relievers who best clean up others' messes, but I'm at a loss.

Seems like inherited runs scored percentage would be the way to roll on that.

runs, runners, whatever. Stupid fingers.

Actually, I'd say something like Potential Tying Runs Scored %

This is an area where Fangraphs really helps - I like to look at a reliever's gmLI and his WPA. His gmLI number will tell you how critical are the situations that the reliever has inherited on average, and his WPA will tell you how effective he's been.

Of course, this is all to esoteric and complex to ever really catch on in a big way. But I think it's probably the most accurate way of judging a reliever's effectiveness.

Well, the guy that gets out of the pressure situation still gets a hold. Not all holds would be created equally, and it's imperfect, but it's at least fairer than assigning a much more valued stat to something that isn't generally any more difficult to do. JJ Putz gave up a grand slam the other day and still got a SAVE! Gosh, thank goodness he was there!

Um, no, he didn't (get a save that is).

Yep, he did.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp...eamlb_chamlb_1

You come in with a five-run lead and the bases loaded, that's technically a "save situation." You can give up a granny and still get the save, which is exactly what happened. JJ Putz is an outstanding reliever but this is a great example of the preposterous nature of the save rule.

OK, yeah, I guess that did fulfill the save rule requirements (and I agree that the tying run on deck part of the rule needs to go). What's weird though is that just an hour ago when I checked that box score on ESPN, it didn't list Putz with a save, but now it does (agreeing with the MLB box).

From the Royals Yahoo score tonight: "D. DeJesus singled to right, T. Pena Jr. to third, D. DeJesus scored on catcher G. Laird's throwing error, T. Pena Jr. out at home"

Also, draftee signing this year is an interesting story and we'll see how things shake out tonight. Still, it's a farce and needs to be fixed. Is $9M for a pitcher who has never thrown to a major league batter a good way to "build your team" as those large market fans so quick to decry smaller teams of doing? Slotting needs to happen much sooner rather than later but the compensation draft pick makes it interesting.

Rob Neyer was talking about how Boras acted during the JD Drew negotiations but didn't really go into details, just that he seemed horribly appalled. This seems to be a big year for him and it'd really be nice to see him do poorly. I mean, we all kindof know the big story about Boras but I wish he had elaborated about his coverage of the Phillies negotiations.

SI

While absurd, if KC can pay for Meche, they should be able to pay for prospects too.

Rule 10.17(c):


I don't understand why that clause can't be somewhat modified to apply to save situations as well. Scorer can choose not to award a reliever the win if he sucks balls. Why doesn't he have that discretion when it comes to saves?

At the absolute least, this should be done. More common than the Putz incident is the classic "start the 9th with a three-run lead, give up two runs, still get the save" situation which happens somewhat routinely. Nobody should ever be rewarded with a save for posting an 18.00 ERA for the inning and blowing almost all of what was a fairly comfortable lead.

Again, the player's union/agents would never allow such a change. Gonna have to wait till I take over the world.

How did the balk rule get neutered? Was that something that had to be bargained, or did MLB do it unilaterally?

Used to be, you couldn't have any part of your pivot foot hanging off the rubber, and now you see guys like Santana and Penny barely touch the rubber with the pivot.

If they changed that unilaterally, why not the save rule?

But with a blanket statement like that, why not just draft and pay $10M for every pick since money is apparently no object. Great, you signed Porcello for $7M. For a high school pitcher. How's the track record of those? Even the "can't miss" ones?

That's also Gil "he of the 15, about to be 16 quality starts and a 3.90 ERA" Meche. I'm pretty sure that beats most of the guys out there last winter and 5/55 doesn't seem so crazy now. I didn't see Johan Santana on the market and Barry Zito walked away with how much?

I'm just saying, it's not as simple as "pay for prospects and build your team". With baseball prospects having such a high attrition rate, is putting a $5M egg in that farm basket the best way to spend money? Or is it better to spend that $5M on a $3M pick, $1M in development personnel, and $1M in Latin America scouting?

SI