What better? Chan Ho Park or Boston bull-pen? :D

Also, must be "Send Your Minor League Team to the Ballpark" day in New York.

Serious non-Met's hater question: Is Jerry Manuel going to get replaced soon? I can't see him sticking around much longer at this current pace (not that the string of injuries is his or Minaya's fault).

Probably just realized that Corey Patterson isn't on the team anymore.

Love the inside the park home run.

Nah, I don't think so. I thought he took a great approach to spring training, really focusing on defense, fundamentals (every hitter took something like 50 curveballs a day and had to take them to the opposite field), etc and it just didn't carry over. I've been pretty happy with how he's handled the pen although his early benching of Church when he was smoking hot bothered me. Even if the injuries force a collapse, he'll get the season.

That being said, I think Minaya is gone if they fail to make the playoffs, injuries or not. And a new GM would probably want to bring in his own guy. Problem is, much like Glen Sather of the NY Rangers, Minaya seems to be way too loved by ownership and isn't held accountable.

Not stress. Dizziniess related to an ear infection.

Well, if you believe the DL reports?

Yea, I don't see Manuel going anywhere. He can't do anything about the injuries. For the most part, I've been rather pleased with how well they have handled all of this, as they are still very much in contention, if they don't make a couple foolish mistakes they can very well be in 1st. Minaya, on the other hand, who I was once very pleased with should get the boot if they fail to reach the playoffs, again. As I said, with the Mets still in contention, this trade deadline can make or break Minaya I think. If he can pull off some magical moves to overcome these injuries, maybe he'll stick around. The Mets remind me of a team I build in FOF or OOTP, they seem to have a world of potential and you just keep them around bc you are waiting for that yr for it all come together, but it just doesn't happen.

I can't blame anything this year on Omar. He wanted Manny and the Wilpon's would give him the money. He wanted Abreu and they wouldn't give him the money to match the 1 year deal for $5 mil that the Angels gave him. He wanted Lowe but couldn't match Atlanta's offer and had to settle for Oliver Perez. His hands were tied this offseason because the Wilpon's lost money in the Madoff scam.

Thank God for the San Diego Padres.

It's really sad how bad they have become.

Scotty Pods is having a solid year after we brought him back from the dead. Hitting .311 , /.359 obp 8 steals and 18 runs in 39 games so far. I'll take it.

White Sox trying to get the band back together lol.

Contreras looking good lately, we signed Freddy Garcia to a minor league deal, Pods back in the leadoff spot. Unfortunately we are still 4 games under .500 lol

actually the boston bull-pen has been the best pen in MLB this year, so whatever. win some and lose some.

He is, he just changed his name to Willy Taveraz.

You realize the Yanks were a horrible error away from losing 2/3 and got dominated in that joke of a ballpark yesterday by a career triple AAA pitcher, but you stay classy!

Weren't the Reds supposed to be a good team? They came into KC and got swept despite not having to face Meche or Greinke. Got a good chance at a 5 game winning streak thanks to Meche and Greinke pitching the next two days. Amazing that the Royals are only 5 1/2 back of first place despite a 8 game losing streak in recent days.

I'm fairly certain its stress - they said Votto has asked them not to disclose the specific cause which suggests a personal issue. Either way, I hope he's okay - a great hitter, and Reds fans deserve a break or two (they are already stuck with Dusty).

This is what it’s like for the Royals to play themselves. There’s some talent there, you can see it. But it’s inconsistent and prone to ineptness. How they’re above .500 is beyond me. Then again, Royals fans think that with some luck, Kansas City could be a .500 ball club, too.

There were a lot of comments at RR about it being an NL vs AL thing. It's not- Kansas City caught a team at a really slumping time and was either starting to heat up (maybe) or at least get out of a funk. If you have two inconsistent clubs and one is down and one is up, it can make things look a lot more lopsided than they are.

SI

Absolutely beautiful outing from Cliff Lee tonight. He took a no-hitter into the 8th inning and outpitched Chris Carpenter for the win. Tomorrow is a big day for the Indians because the team is sending Grady Sizemore back to have a second MRI on his elbow. A clean bill of health means things are looking up but anything else probably puts the Indians into sell mode.

Lee is the only guy out there I wouldn't mind seeing the Phils sell the farm for.

The Reds pitching was slightly worse than usual, and the hitting is going through another prolonged slump. Put those together, and you get swept.

Frankly, both of these teams are setting up for a year or two from now, it is clear that neither is close to ready to contend at this time. The Reds are playing without 2 of their 3 best power threats right now, though. Encarnacion and Votto. And it shows.

It doesn't help when your lead off hitter is on a streak of thirty-four plate appearances without reaching base. But as Dusty says, he's the lead off hitter, so I guess he just has to get four or five ABs a night.

Then they've changed the reason since he went on the DL. The ear infection stuff is what ESPN was saying when I had to put him on the bench in a fantasy league I'm in.

Tonight the Giants play The The Angels Angels of Anaheim (stolen from McCovey Chronicles). Memories of 2002 are stirred up, of course.

What is amazing to me is that the Giants are leading the wild card. Of course, I'll look back on this post mid-august when the giants are playing the Bryce Harper sweepstakes and laugh.

pfft.. The Giants have no shot.

Giants need to trade some pitching for an impact bat.

Yeah, but who and what? Trust me, we've had this discussion a few million times.

Jeff Francouer is probably (hopefully) available.

I'm not sure that's really the sort of impact you're looking for though.

Yeah. He needed to clarify that the Giants needed positive impact.

Hmm...

Holliday? Hawpe is in division, so not likely. Problem is not many are out of it yet - the picture will clear in the next month.

You guys have plenty of young pitching to deal.

I think it's about time to let Nick Johnson go before he gets injured. And by let go, I mean trade him for pitching.

For those that don't know, Yorbit Torrealba had family taken hostage in Venezuela, who were all recently released.

What the hell is going on here? I bother to show up in this thread to bash the Royals and their recent play. Evidently I lit a fire under their ass. Meche threw a 4 hit CG shutout and Greinke pitches tonight to try to make it 5 in a row. Add in a Detroit swoon and the Royals are only 4 1/2 games out of first place.

Attendance continues to be great over this homestand. 25K on a Tuesday night after drawing nearly 90K over the three weekend games. Two years ago, the Royals would be lucky to have drawn 10K PAID attendance on a night like that. With the ace going tonight, it'll be another good crowd.

I fully expect this post to jinx them back into a losing streak.

w00t 25k coming out to watch a crappy team. The Royals are sure turning it around now!

Who knew the Royals players read FOFC?

:D

Dear Dusty,

Putting hitters with an OBP under .300 in the #1 and #2 spots is not a good idea. Reaching base twice in ten plate appearances is not good. Please correct this. Thanks.

Teams like the Yankees and Red Sox will love to see these numbers. The extra 10K in attendance that the Royals are pulling during the weekday dates this year are a good deal for the big market teams. Given the Royals average ticket price, that's an extra $200,000 per weekday home date in revenue in ticket sales alone. Concessions and other purchases likely double that number in revenue for the evening. Over the course of a season, that's several million dollars in additional revenue. For the big market teams, that means the Royals are increasing revenue and reducing their need for things like revenue sharing.

Think of how much money would be saved by simply contracting the team? I'm not even talking about other team owners, but simply the fine consumers of Kansas City who spend hard earned dollars to watch a shitake team.

Sorry. I mistakenly thought you were looking for an honest discussion.

The Royals fans would just move over to watch the NHL Penguins play across town then.

I got a chuckle at the look of disgust on the first base coach after that GDP with the bases loaded last night. At some point the team has to move on, he's doing even worse than last season.

34 home dates so far in 2009, 19 weekday & 15 weekend
351,814 for the weekday games, avg 18,517

Through the first 19 weekday games last year the Royals drew
313,618 for the weekday games, avg 16,506

Difference = 2,009 fans per weekday game

Inescapable conclusion? That this phrase

does not mean what you think it means.

edit to add: Incidentally, road attendance for the Royals YTD versus last season is down by 5,200 per game so I doubt any other teams are celebrating over an uptick that's actually being offset by lower attendance in their own ballparks.

Cost of living adjustment?

New math maybe.

I think the worst part is his attitude. He copped it last season when they demoted him, he's had one so far this season, especially when Schaeffer was sent down, so there's really nothing that can be done. At some point, the 11 year old girls will stop buying t-shirts.

I didn't say on average. I was referring to that specific game. With that said, I did extrapolate that over the course of a season, which technically isn't correct as you note.

Even with the numbers you cited, an increase of 40K fans over those dates adds an extra $800K to the coffers. You can probably double that when you add $9 parking, $7.50 beers, etc. It definitely adds up.

As of the fourth inning tonight Tavarez was on an 8 for 86 streak with an OBP of .281 and a SLG of .286. It's a wonder the Reds have won any games this month.

Wow. The Nationals pull of a win against the Yankees. And the starter (Lannan) made it into the ninth inning.

And man are those fences short.

In the second least surprising baseball story of the week

The Houston Astros placed former Braves left-hander Mike Hampton on the 15-day disabled list on Wednesday with a left groin strain..

Bloop singles in KC again?

He's already the best pitcher ever, but if he had any luck at all....