I missed this previously, but apparently home plate umpire Bill Hohn gave Marlins' catcher John Baker the rock after the Florida-Atlanta game on Wednesday:

Several Braves players said they were surprised and even "shocked" to see umpire Bill Hohn bump fists with Marlins catcher John Baker after the final out of the Braves' 6-3 loss Tuesday. While other players and manager Bobby Cox either had no comment or would only discuss it off the record, third baseman Chipper Jones had a scathing review of Hohn's game, including ejections of manager Bobby Cox and catcher Brian McCann.

Video of the most famous fist-bump since Barack and Michelle can be seen here. Looks like Baker put it out there first. In Hohn's defense, maybe he's just the kind of guy who doesn't like to leave a dude hangin', ya know?

But Hohn isn't really worthy of a defense, as his ejections of Bobby Cox and Brian McCann showed far worse form. Basically, Hohn heard someone shout from the Braves' dugout -- probably McCann, who had argued balls and strikes earlier -- called time, and then walked over to argue with Cox, who had not left the dugout prior to any of this. During the argument, he pulled out his lineup card and, according to the article, told Cox that he was going to eject someone, but didn't know who. Cox, taken aback, told Hohn to eject him instead and he did. McCann was ejected soon after. Video of the whole incident can be seen here.

Are we cool with an umpire stopping the game to walk over and bait one of the team's managers into a fight? Isn't dealing with heckling players and managers the first thing you learn in umpire school? Everyone's talking about the fist bump, but that's just kind of dumb. The fact that an umpire thinks it appropriate to get into it like Hohn did is clearly over the line. And no, this is not the first time Hohn has gotten out of control.

The guy's a disgrace, and should be suspended at the very least.

And now David Ortiz looks like one of the television evangelists who gets caught in a seedy motel with a hooker.

-- Dan Shaughnessy, bringing his usual brand of moderation and reason to the table in the wake of the Manny and Papi revelations.

The news has only been out a couple of hours, but the blogosphere, she already rumbles:

Tom Tango at The Book Blog: Redsox Nation will defend him, the others who want to fight will villify him, and even those Redsox fans who are bothered by it will simply hold their noses as they cling to the dream of a clean ring. The rest of us who don't cling to the idea that baseball is a virgin to be protected at all costs will shake our heads for a second and move on in peace, while leaving the battlefield to those too holy for us.

It's About the Money: There's a part of me that should really be happy that another player from the RedSox has been outted, but really, it's just another gut-punch to baseball. Sure, there might be some of you (myself included), that might jump up and say: "See, THAT explains it all!" Except it doesn't. Every team was dirty. Some more than others. But to think assume that your favorite player(s) are clean is just folly.

Bronx Banter: Nothing shocking here.

Over the Monster: If this is true about Ortiz, it is a real shocker. I'm not surprised about Manny, but with Ortiz it goes back to everything he was saying. He said he was clean, he said he never did anything illegal. I think we all believed him. Of course with his struggles this season, it may have said, "hey, I'm off the juice," but how are we supposed to know? If this is true, this is quite sad.

The Big Lead: Wonder if Ortiz wishes he could take back this quote from February: "I think you clean up the game by the testing. I test you, you test positive, you're going to be out. Period." What a fraud. Nobody should be surprised that Ortiz and Ramirez tested positive.

Rob Neyer: When Ortiz said players who fail drug tests should be suspended for a whole season, he actually meant, "Anybody who gets caught now should be severely punished not for using drugs, but for being stupid enough to get caught."

Fire Brand of the American League: In my experiences watching baseball, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez were of shady character enough that it was easy enough to see and believe they had taken steroids illegally and knowingly. I don't have that sense about Ortiz. It's possible he's crafted an outstanding, fake public image and he's not the person we all thought he was, but I'm not cynical enough for that. I think right now, David Ortiz deserves my not rushing to judgment. Not based on all these home runs he's hit for the Sox, but for what he says and what he stands for.

Bugs & Cranks: I'm not going to pretend otherwise: I believe this report. Deep down, I knew this day would probably come. Too many stars on too many teams were taken down with the Red Sox managing to dodge most of the bullets. Then when Manny tested positive, I knew it was probably when not if. But I didn't want to believe it. I still don't. Ortiz? On steroids? F*CK.

Mike Herz, NJ.com: It's time people accepted just how pervasive performance enhancing use has been in the game (going back to amphetamine use starting in the '60s), to the point of defining the game over much of the last two decades. With each new big name that comes out, it becomes harder to chastise, because it's more of an indictment of an entire era rather than an individual. It's becoming exceedingly clear that juicing was not isolated to a small group of "cheaters," but something that was commonly practiced and accepted throughout baseball as part of the job.

Obviously a ton more out there, but this covers the bases of the immediate reaction. Sox fans are sad and surprised, Yankees fans are not surprised, but are withholding the "ha-has!", and smart people everywhere are starting to acknowledge that steroids is way too complicated and pervasive a problem to allow us to live in a fantasy land in which there are "cheaters" and "clean people."

Whenever major steroids news breaks, we can be assured of a few things: shock, outrage, overreaction, and moralizing. I don't think anything I can say will head that off at the pass, but let me at least try. This is addressed mostly to the sports media, but let's just make it a general "to whom it may concern:"

You're not surprised, so please don't pretend you are. The only people who will truly surprise you to be associated with steroids are Derek Jeter, juniors Cal Ripken and Ken Griffey, and dudes like Jason Tyner and whatnot (though guys like him shouldn't surprise you).

You've not been betrayed, so please don't claim to be. You enjoyed the baseball of those years and nothing of value has been taken from you as a result of recent revelations. While it's totally legitimate to be turned off and disappointed and generally depressed about all of this, if your sense of trust has been so violated by all of this steroids business that you actually feel the need to claim "betrayal," you probably need to examine if you're still a fan or not.

And you know this one is going to come up like crazy, so let's be perfectly clear: the Red Sox' championship in 2004 is not tainted. At least no more tainted than the outcome of any other championship won by any other team in at least the past 20 years, not to mention the awards and the regular season games and everything else, so please don't even go there. Baseball had a steroids problem. Not just the Red Sox, not just the Yankees, not just the Orioles, Rangers or A's. As such, to the extent one uses this latest news as a means of singling out the Sox, one is simply showing that they see the entire world through rivalries and not reason.

Now, with that out of the way, you may resume your regularly-scheduled outrage.

At least I think so:

Mets general manager Omar Minaya says he apologized to a beat reporter for his critical comments during a bizarre news conference. Minaya says he met with New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin on Wednesday. But the GM was unclear when asked Thursday if he stood by his statements that questioned Rubin's motives and credibility for a series of articles about former player development executive Tony Bernazard . . . Minaya says he thinks Rubin accepted his apology.

I'd say it sounds like one of those "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings" non-apologies, but those at least require calculation, and if Minaya did much calculating before determining a course of action, he never would have said what he said beforehand.

Or traded for Jeff Francoeur.

Or signed Oliver Perez to an extension.

Or . . .

Headline: "Cubs in search of a lefty bat who can play right"

Could have been: "Cubs give up on Milton Bradley."

I mean after all, the dude plays right and is a switch hitter.

Sure, the article says that they'd want him to still bat against lefties, but when you're turning your three-year, $30 million free agent splash into the short side of a platoon and start window shopping for guys like Mark Teahen, you've basically given up.

Still nothin' doin' on Halladay, according to both the Toronto Sun and Olney.

Robo and Morosi at Fox continue to beat the Victor Martinez-to-Boston drum. And it's a good drum, because it makes so much sense, given both Boston's needs, their young talent, and Mark Shapiro's demonstrated desire to take less than anyone else for All-Star talent (sorry, Tribe fans).

But, tipping off the fact that Robo's source on the Martinez deal is an Indians' source, he notes "Other, unidentified teams are believed to be interested in Martinez as well." Which is the trade deadline equivalent of "sure, I have a girlfriend, but she lives in Canada" and "I had another guy lookin' at that car just yesterday."

The other day Peter Gammons, as he often does, threw out a random and somewhat shocking comment when talking about the progress teams are making in signing their first round picks:

If you are the Royals, not only are your revenues light, but the commissioner's office has threatened to take away your 2012 All-Star Game if you go ahead with the agreements you have in place with two high picks.

That just kind of sat out there for a few days. Yesterday Sam Mellinger tried to debunk it, noting that he's heard nothing that would confirm such a threat, but spent more time explaining why the Royals can get away with paying a bit above slot for their picks without getting in trouble with the commish.

I love him and you love him, but is anyone asking Gammons to elaborate on his claim? Because if Selig really is threatening to pulll the 2012 All-Star Game over signing bonuses, that's pretty damn major. If he's not, then how on Earth is Gammons getting away with making such an audacious claim?

Thanks to the wonderful Fack Youk for the heads up on this one:

Tampa Bay Rays RHP Matt Garza acknowledged it was more than coincidence than he hit Mark Teixeira the inning after Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain threw a pitch at the head of Evan Longoria, and noted the Yankees threw inside to Longoria and hit him Monday too.

"I just kind of got tired of people brushing him back,'' Garza said. "It's about time someone made a statement. They did it on Monday night and we didn't do anything, they didn't do it too much (Tuesday) and (Chamberlain) did it again tonight.

"I hate to be that guy, but someone had to take a stand and say, "You know, we're tired of it." You can go after our best guy, well, we'll make some noise too, and that's what happened.''

You know, part of being "that guy" in a beanball war entails giving a totally deadpan statement to the media after the game that goes "I guess that pitch to Teixeira got away from me." Doing that and letting your subsequent silence speak for itself is way more badass than talking about just how much you stand up for your teammates. And it's way less likely to get Bob Watson on your butt and suspending you when you're trying to pitch your team back into a pennant race.

Jesus, can't Sutcliffe hold a seminar on this stuff on an off day?

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle on the Giants trade for Freddy Sanchez:

Unless he has suddenly lost it at age 31, he will stabilize a shaky position and add professional hitting . . . A preliminary background check on Sanchez turned up no evidence that he'll be anything but a stellar addition to the Giants' clubhouse . . . The Giants are a team with excellent chemistry, according to most amateur baseball chemists. If they don't make a legitimate charge now, the concept of baseball chemistry will be forever rendered a joke.

Professional hitter! Great clubhouse guy! Chemistry!

I won't deny that Sanchez will be useful for the Giants, but when you see those words written in connection with a trade, the person doing the writing is on the side that lost the trade.

Major League Baseball is contemplating discipline against LaTroy Hawkins for accusing a home plate umpire of wanting the Cubs to beat the Astros the other night:

It all began when Everitt ejected Hawkins in the eighth inning after he disputed a called ball to Aramis Ramirez and continued to complain after Everitt ordered him to "knock it off." After the game, which the Cubs won 5-1 on Alfonso Soriano's walk-off grand slam in the 13th inning, Hawkins sounded off.

"Maybe he was having a bad day," Hawkins said. "I thought he had determined who he wanted to win the game anyway."

. . . Asked by Houston reporters whether he regretted the remark, Hawkins replied: "Why would I?"

The best part of it is that Hawkins' defense to accusing an umpire of intentionally tipping the outcome of a game -- which is about as serious a charge as one can level -- is "It's America, dude."

I think we have the front runner for CTB's official motto.

You'd think that mere hours after Joba Chamberlain pitched an efficient, dominating game wouldn't be the right time to trot out your "the Yankees need a starter and should trade for Halladay" column, but John Harper at the Daily News trots it out anyway:

After the most dominating performance of Joba Chamberlain's much-debated career as a starter, the timing should be perfect to write something cute like: So who needs Roy Halladay? Only it couldn't be more misleading.

Chamberlain was Halladay-esque, all right, in shutting down the Rays in a 6-2 victory Wednesday night, pitching eight shutout innings as he suddenly seems to be coming of age as a starter. But that only adds to the Joba dilemma. More innings essentially means less time in the rotation in the coming weeks.

He sort of has me coming along with him until he reminds us that, if Joba was not in the rotation, either Alfredo Aceves or Sergio Mitre would be your putative Game 4 starter in the playoffs. Really? You think the Yankees are going to allow that, especially if Chamberlain continues to display his newly-found, efficient mojo? Please. They'd let Phil Hughes throw more than eight pitches a game before they'd go into battle against the Angels or Tigers with Aceves or Mitre on the mound. At least assuming they're not totally insane.

The next page over, Flip Bondy says that the Mets -- yes, the Mets -- should deal for Halladay.

Get the sense that the tabloid guys are bored today?

A deal, a deal!

The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced that they have acquired first baseman Jeff Clement, shortstop Ronny Cedeno and right-handed pitchers Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock from the Seattle Mariners organization in exchange for shortstop Jack Wilson and right-handed pitcher Ian Snell.

The Mariners were talking about Wilson months ago, though now that they're really out of the race, I don't know why they went through with it. Clement could be useful for the Pirates. Ian Snell is abusing AAA hitters, but the question is whether he can get his head back in the Major League game.

Fun deal. I like it when a lot of bodies change teams.

UPDATE: Wait, my Pirate-fu is weak, and I had forgotten that the Bucs are playing Garrett Jones, thus rendering Clement's playing time an open question. Go read Dan Szymborski's breakdown. It's way better than anything I can do. I'll say, though, that I think Seattle sees more in Ian Snell than a fifth starter. They shouldn't, but I can't help but think that they're wowed by his handful of AAA performances.

As we await confirmation on the rumored Cliff Lee-to-the-Phillies deal, it's probably worth reading Tyler Hissey's Cliff Lee-Roy Halladay tale of the tape. Money graf:

Cliff Lee is not the same quality pitcher as Roy Halladay, but the pair's trade value is actually pretty close. The Indians have a greater incentive to keep Lee, for that reason, and will have to be blown away with an offer before parting ways with him.

Halladay will command a bounty--the Red Sox have reportedly offered Michael Bowden, Clay Buchholz and Ryan Westmoreland, which is a great package. But while the price for Lee won't be that high, the Indians should only part ways with him if the return is fairly close to what the Phillies initially offered for Halladay.

If what we're hearing is true, however, the Tribe isn't getting the same kind of haul from Philly that we've seen connected to Halladay, which means that Philadelphia could be getting a relative bargain.

ESPN is saying . . .

Three Cleveland scouts -- including the club's director of player personnel, Steve Lubratich -- were in Lehigh Valley to watch the Phillies' Triple-A team play an 11 a.m. ET game.

Lehigh Valley starter Carlos Carrasco, who has been a subject of talks between the two teams, was abruptly scratched from his start in that game with no explanation from the club.

An official of a team that had been speaking to Cleveland about Lee told ESPN.com Wednesday morning it was his impression that Lee was about to be traded elsewhere, and the Phillies' discussions with Toronto about Roy Halladay have slowed to a trickle in the last 24 hours.

Many outlets have reported that the Phillies are hellbent on getting a starter and many more are saying that Halladay is increasingly unlikely to go anywhere. Not hard to do the math there.

UPDATE: More details on Lee and Philly:

The defending World Series champion have offered the Cleveland Indians a package of players for Lee, a baseball official familiar with the trade proposal told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Philadelphia's offer doesn't include top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, the person said on condition of anonymity because negotiations are ongoing. The non-waiver trade deadline is Friday.

Drabek was a clear dealbreaker for Philly, and their off-limits sign on him is why the Jays won't deal Halladay.

The other day, ESPN's Howard Bryant wrote an article calling the A's "Moneyball" strategies a failure as a result of the A's, um, recent failures.

Yesterday, Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy discredited the discrediting, arguing that, if anything, Moneyball worked too well for the A's, and that the "Moneyball" approach to things (i.e. seek out market inefficiencies and exploit them) are still viable. She uses law school faculty recruitment and law school U.S. News ratings to make her case.

Hardcore sabermetic types will find this an old story, but it's an interesting read if you're at all into the whole Moneyball thing or if you give a hoot about law school stuff and/or economics.

(thanks to reader Bob Tufts for the heads up)

All of that fun we had the other day with Pete Rose seems to have petered out, as Bud Selig is now telling people that he's not going to pardon the hit king. The Dayton Daily News' Hal McCoy thinks that someone got played:

I can sniff exactly what happened. It has happened to me. I wrote a story once and the next day Commissioner Selig was on the phone personally, straightening me out.

Madden is a close friend of mine and I respect him immensely. He is on the writers ballot for the Spink Award and Hall of Fame induction next year. He attends the Hall of Fame ceremonies every year and talks to all the Hall of Famers.

Somebody steered him wrong. I noticed there were no quotes from Selig on the story that he is considering Rose's reinstatement. Madden talked about Hank Aaron backing Rose, along with Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson. Somebody spoon-fed him false information - maybe even some of Rose's people, who have been known to do that.

Anyway, I suspect Selig called Madden on Monday and set the record straight.

Isn't just as likely -- and in total keeping with his past habits -- that Bud Selig was sending up a trial balloon to see how a reinstatement would play? And that, given what, from where I'm sitting anyway, looks like a decidedly anti-reinstatement sentiment, decided to walk it back?

Yeah, I know they won, but their players were dropping like flies. First Roy Oswalt had to leave with back trouble, and then his replacement, Wesley Wright, had to be rushed to the hospital because "he was experiencing discomfort in the area around his appendix." It was later downgraded to simple dehydration. Either way, I think we can probably excuse him now for walking five guys and giving up three runs on three hits.

In other news, fellow Astro LaTroy Hawkins has shingles. Between all of this and Vicente Padilla's swine flu, I think it's high time we quarantine every ballplayer from the State of Texas.

A day after Dice-K declared the Red Sox' training methods as the reason for his injuries (no word on whether he blamed them for his second chin and inability to throw a pitch down the middle), the team is striking back. And, as is the custom in Boston, they're doing it through the media. First, Tony Massarotti hits him, relaying that the team is "downright angry" at him, and that "the truth is that the Red Sox were tired of Matsuzaka's high-maintenance act a long time ago, but they kept their mouths shut and put up with it because Matsuzaka won games."

Then Dan Shaughnessy, who has long been a trusted messenger for the Sox, says "the Sox are steamed. Matsuzaka talked out of turn, infuriated his bosses and his teammates, and unwittingly took the focus away from Hall of Famer Jim Rice on the night the slugger's number was retired . . . It is reasonable to wonder if Matsuzaka will pitch again for the Sox this season. Or ever."

One wonders if Dice-K fully understands the influence the Boston media has on what happens on that team (and what influence team management has on the media). It's slow season in Beantown. The Bruins and Celtics are on hiatus and Patriots' camp is not yet at full speed. Between that and the Sox struggling of late, there is no way in hell that someone who talks out of turn the way Matsusaka did yesterday isn't going to be the subject of an epic beatdown.

Side note to all of this -- offered by longtime reader MooseinOhio: "I wonder if Scott Boras will continue comparing Stephen Strasburg's contract demands to Dice-K's as the evidence that is being put forth, and will continue to be put forth, on how Boston overpaid for his services continues to mount."

Good point.

I've long been opposed to the use of public monies to finance Major League ballparks. For one thing, these teams are owned by billionaires, almost all of the revenues a park brings goes right back to the team, not the city, and I don't think local government should be in the business of giving such handouts to billionaires. For another thing, I don't know too many cities who have been so flush with cash in the past several decades that they couldn't have used the hundreds of millions they're spending on the ballpark for something more important. Finally, even if you're all for a city giving millions it doesn't have to billionaires, the details of these ballpark deals are always shady, and the true cost to the taxpayers only becomes evident years after all of the initial hoopla and rosy projections.

In light of all of that, this news regarding Nationals Park in Washington doesn't surprise me in the least:

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is planning to divert millions of dollars from the ballpark tax to reduce the city's deficit. The Ballpark Revenue Fund is intended to pay down the debt on Nationals Park. But Fenty's revised 2010 budget shifts $50 million from it to the general fund over the next four years.

And it's not as if the ballpark debt is going to go away. It's now simply going to cost a strapped city even more to service, thereby raising the ultimate price of the Lerner family's new toy box/cash machine even higher than was projected when the place was built.

I love baseball. For the most part I love the new ballparks. There is no escaping the fact, however, that these ballparks represent horrible, horrible deals for tax payers.

I've been saying this for years: It's not the length of your dinger that matters, all that matters is that it clears the fence:

Joe DiMaggio once thanked the good lord for making him a Yankee. Dustin Pedroia needs to thank someone for putting him in a Boston Red Sox uniform, otherwise many of his home runs may not have cleared the fence.

Since 2006, the average Pedroia homer traveled just 369.7 feet. This is the shortest average distance of any player with at least 30 homers in that span, according to Greg Rybarczyk, an engineer who tracks the distance of all homers hit with software that accounts for trajectory and atmospheric conditions.

A lot of folks thought Vin Scully was going to retire after this season, but he's got one more in him, he says:

Vin Scully, thought to be retiring this winter after 60 seasons, said this week he is planning on coming back for one more summer. Scully, 81, said if he continues to feel well he will work past his landmark year and retire after the 2010 season.

"God willing, I will probably come back for one more year," Scully said in a phone interview. "At this moment, my health is excellent, and I'm leaning toward one more year."

And then retire?

"Yes, that makes sense," he said.

The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke, of course, gets this all wrong, going on about how the Dodgers need to take the next 15 months to think really, really hard and come up with some sort of special, spectacular sendoff. After describing a tribute video the team has been playing on the scoreboard and how Scully himself, while honored, felt rather uncomfortable with the whole thing, Plaschke says this:

This was the Dodgers' first attempt at a farewell, and it was a good one, but now it's time to get serious. If they could build a Mannywood in a couple of weeks, surely they can use the next few months to figure out a way to permanently honor Scully in a way that no Dodger has been honored before . . .

. . . Turn this Dodgers monument into a statue. Sculpt Scully sitting in a booth, with a microphone and headsets and his ever-present scorebook. Fill the desk with dozens of ports where fans can plug in headphones and listen to tapes of Scully's calls. What greater tribute than having Dodgers fans gathered at his feet as one, listening to his voice forever? Place the sculpture just beyond the Dodger Stadium center-field fence, in the area currently populated by autograph booths and fans chasing batting practice fly balls. Lay down some grass like they do at Yankee Stadium for the center-field Monument Park. Call it Scullyville.

Apart from the fact that Scully himself is probably reading that this morning and spitting coffee across the table due to just how horrifyingly opposed it is to everything he's ever stood for as a broadcaster, it's a fabulous idea.

Padres 3, Reds 2: If the recaps suffer a bit today it's because I was at a bar saying goodbye to a good friend last night (a friend longtime ShysterBall readers will remember, actually). Mark and I used to work at the same law firm together, and once I left at the end of last year he apparently couldn't go on anymore either, so he issued his resignation and is now moving down to Florida to, hell, I dunno, eat seafood and play shuffleboard and stuff. We had beers last night to celebrate. On the TV over the bar was Mark's first love -- the Redlegs, as he calls them. The sound was down, but that didn't matter, as Mark did his spot-on Jeff Brantley impersonation all night, going on about Ted DiBiase, UDF ice cream, the Civil War, and whatever else sounded funny in Brantley's drawl. Only time he broke character was to yell at Dusty Baker for leaving Arroyo in to start the seventh ("quit while you're ahead, man! He's gonna explode!"). As soon as he got done yelling Tony Gwynn hit that triple, and Mark yelled some more as Dusty made Arroyo issue an intentional walk and then leave the game. I'm going to miss that guy when he's gone, and I don't mean Arroyo.

Rays 6, Yankees 2: The rumor yesterday was that if the Rays dropped all three to the Yankees, Scott Kazmir could be shipped out. That's kind of a dumb rumor inasmuch as the Rays' management is a lot smarter than to make decisions based on the outcome of three piddling games. And besides, season stats notwithstanding, Kazmir is still good, as he showed last night, giving up a single run in seven innings. In contrast, CC Sabathia continued his "meh" season with another "meh" performance (5.2 IP, 9 H, 6 R). More bad news: the Yankees learned that Chien-Ming Wang will undergo season-ending arthroscopic surgery. Girardi: "Hopefully this is will be the end of the surgeries for him and he'll have the rest of his career be real healthy." Yeah, because that's how it always works.

Nationals 8, Brewers 3: Memo to Milwaukee: a visit from the Nationals is supposed to be a cure-all, not a nightmare. The Brewers were bombed for the second straight night, this time from Nyjer Morgan, Adam Dunn and Cristian Guzman. Dunn's was a moon-shot, bouncing over the Toyota Tundra and clear the hell out of Miller Park.

Twins 5, White Sox 3: Mark Buehrle followed up his perfecto with perfection through five innings, but then ran into a buzz saw, giving up five runs on five hits in six and a third. With the win, the Twins -- who never, ever seem to go away -- pull into a tie for second in the Central.

Mets 4, Rockies 0: Drama shmama, the Mets don't care what's happening in the front office or in the tabloids, they've won four in a row. Mike Pelfrey, who was given up for dead a week ago, pitched shutout baseball into the seventh and the hitters singled and sacrificed their way past Jason Marquis, denying him his 13th win of the year.

Marlins 4, Braves 3: The Braves' two-headed closer system has worked pretty well all year, but you're going to have nights when your guy -- in this case Rafael Soriano -- is going to have wonky control and not get the calls. When that happens, guys wait to tee off on the get-me-over pitches, and that's what Ross Gload did to end the game.

Rangers 7, Tigers 3: A two-run triple and a sacrifice from Ian Kinsler chased Luke French (really? "Luke French?" I think that name was on my fake I.D. senior year of high school) and led the Rangers to their eighth win in nine games. Kinsler had to leave with a hamstring problem after six innings, but by then the damage was done. Both to the Tigers and his hamstring.

Royals 4, Orioles 3: It's funny to think that, for about a decade there, this was a the natural preseason prediction for the ALCS matchup. This one ended in the 11th when the Royals manufactured a run on a dribbler single, a stolen base and an RBI single. The dribbler came from Mark Teahen, who topped the ball down the first-base line, which Matt Wieters watched and hoped would roll foul. I can only assume that Lex Luthor had the bottled city of Kandor held hostage at the time, and Wieters was thus coerced into not using his telekinetic powers to will the ball foul or something.

Man, weren't those Wieters jokes a lot funnier back in April?

Athletics 9, Red Sox 8: Things that don't happen every day: (1) Jonathan Papelbon blows a save, let alone one of the three-run lead variety; (2) The A's score nine runs; (3) The A's get 21 hits; (4) The A's win. Twenty-one hits! From the A's! In other news, walking trade chit Clay Buchholz was again largely inefficient, throwing 107 pitches in less than six innings. One wonders if the Sox couldn't have left him in the minors where he still looked alluring to would-be trade partners rather than expose him so blatantly in the Majors. Not that it's important, but I recall thinking the same thing when the Madonna Penthouse issue came out back in 1985.

Astros 11, Cubs 6: The 'Stros lost Roy Oswalt to a back injury, but beat up Ryan Dempster and the back end of the Cubbies' bullpen to win it. In the fifth inning, Fukudome hit a ball to Astros' pitcher Jeff Fulchino. The ball bounced inside Fulchino's jersey and he wasn't able to find it in time, allowing Fukudome to reach. Then the gang put on a show, with Mike Fontenot performing an off-key rendition of "The Barber of Seville" while Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez fed red hots to a mule, which rampaged through Miss Crabtree's classroom. Or maybe I daydreamed that.

Angels 7, Indians 6: What? The Angels came from behind to win another game? That's unpossible! Of course they almost didn't hold on in this one because their closer, Brian Fuentes, can't seem to get anyone out these days (0 IP, 2H, 2 R, 2 BB). Before Monday, he hadn't given up a run since the end of May. Now it two days he's given up six runs and hasn't retired a batter.

Cardinals 10, Dodgers 0: They scored ten, but only needed one, because Adam Wainwright was on (8 IP, 8 H, 0 ER). Three losses in a row for L.A.. The game was delayed an hour and a half at the outset due to a threat of rain which never materialized. I can't recall that happening any time recently. Unless it's raining you go out and play, don't you? It's a rain delay, not a threat of rain delay, right?

Mariners 4, Blue Jays 3: Ichiro with the game-winning hit in the ninth. Talk in the game story of him intentionally flailing at a curve ball right before his hit so as to trick Scott Downs into throwing him another curveball. Um, OK, but if he had that all planned it meant he knew what was coming before the first curveball, and why didn't he just hit that one? Guess that's not as good a story. In other news, if Jarrod Washburn is getting traded, he's leaving Seattle on a high note (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER). Finally, the game story says it's supposed to be 100 degrees in Seattle today and they have a day game. That's interesting in a schadenfreude-tastic kind of way (Midwest summers make one jealous of those in the Pacific northwest), but why does that matter for the game? They still got a roof on that ballpark, don't they?

Phillies 4, Diamondbacks 3: Cole Hamels was dominant, giving up an early home run and then nothin' else for the rest of the game (8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 9K). "Hamels is getting there," Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. "He's real close." Close? Jesus, I'd hate to see him once he actually arrives.

Giants 3, Pirates 2: Barry Zito is like a box of chocolates. A lucky box of chocolates at any rate, giving up only one run despite allowing nine hits in less than six innings. The Ryan Garko Era officially begins in San Francisco with an 0-4. Oh, and the Big Unit has learned that he has a torn rotator cuff. He's on the 60 day DL retroactive to July 5th, and there's a distinct possibility that he won't be back at all this year. Which, one doesn't have to be a genius to surmise, could mean that we've seen the last of perhaps the greatest lefthander in the history of baseball.

Let's take a quick spin around the league, see what they were talking about regarding the march to Friday's trade deadline.

*The Boston Red Sox reportedly made a big play for Roy Halladay. But then the Red Sox denied it.

Halladay, by the way, is scheduled to pitch in Seattle on Wednesday.

*There was some Cliff Lee news focused around a false report involving the Red Sox. As exciting as that was, an MLB report suggested the Indians were inclined to keep him.

Nonetheless, one report said the Dodgers, Red Sox, Phillies and Angels have all spoken to Cleveland recently.

*There was much attention on Jarrod Washburn, as scouts from the Yankees, Phillies, Brewers and Rangers watched him pitch against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night. Washburn got a no-decision while allowing one run in seven innings and lowering his ERA to 2.64.

As good as that sounds, he did get some help from his defense, including a homer-saving catch by rookie Michael Saunders.

And there is some speculation that some sort of package deal could be in the works, as Mariners prospect Jeff Clement was pulled from a AAA game in the third inning Tuesday night.

The New York Times, by the way, wonders if Washburn might be the best bargain on the block.

*The Giants, having dealt for Ryan Garko on Monday, were reportedly close to acquiring Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates. But they first want to make sure his knee will hold up.

*The Dodgers, looking for some bullpen help, are hot after Orioles closer George Sherrill.

*The Angels are still in the running for both Halladay and Lee, but may end up turning to lower-tier options.

*And there was some big injury news that could be big factors in how the rest of the week plays out, with bad news on the Astros' Roy Oswalt, the Brewers' Jeff Suppan, and the Giants' Randy Johnson.

*Quietly, the Red Sox and White Sox swapped a pair of Sox.

*Get all the latest rumors here.

Randy Johnson seemed optimistic after having his injured shoulder examined by team doctors Monday, explaining: "I'm feeling a lot better than I was three weeks ago" and will "have to get with the doctor and see what he recommends and just kind of take it from there." Less than 24 hours later his Hall of Fame career was put in serious jeopardy following the diagnosis of a partially torn rotator cuff.

Johnson is hoping to pitch again this season, but the soon-to-be 46-year-old has been transferred to the 60-day disabled list and won't throw again for at least 2-3 weeks. He's been relatively effective while going 8-6 with a 4.81 ERA and 80/31 K/BB in 92 innings this year, but rotator cuff injuries are incredibly tough to come back from for 26-year-olds, let alone 46-year-olds. Cooperstown class of 2015?

While one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in baseball history could be facing the end of the line, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Even after trading Ryan Garko the Indians inexplicably refuse to simply call up Matt LaPorta and stick him in the lineup every day, but in the meantime they did bring up former top prospect turned current bust Andy Marte. Marte has had zero success in the majors, hitting .211 with a .603 OPS in 174 games, but is still just 25 years old despite being around forever and has been thriving at Triple-A.

While playing at Triple-A for the fourth straight year, Marte has hit .327/.369/.593 with 18 homers and 24 doubles in 82 games to reverse a long trend of declining production. Between his .277 career batting average and poor 50/22 K/BB ratio this year the odds are against Marte hitting more than .250 or so, but he blasted 25 homers per 600 PA at Triple-A even prior to showing this season's huge pop.

* Jason Giambi's trip to the disabled list with a quadriceps injury opened the door for Daric Barton to get another long look in Oakland, but he suffered a hamstring injury of his own five games in and joined Giambi on the shelf Tuesday. Barton's long-term outlook has declined dramatically during the past two seasons and he now looks likely to become merely a solid regular rather than a potential star.

He's expected to return in 2-3 weeks, but with Giambi also sidelined the A's have turned to minor-league veteran Tommy Everidge at first base. Everidge made his MLB debut Tuesday and went hitless in his first four at-bats before delivering an RBI double with two outs in the ninth inning as the A's erased a three-run deficit against Jonathan Papelbon.

Everidge is 26 years old and had a mediocre track record in the minors prior to this season, but hit .306/.380/.489 in 55 games at Double-A and .382/.432/.636 in 43 games at Triple-A to earn the call-up. My guess is that he won't stick in the majors, but Everidge has averaged 21 homers per 600 plate appearances along with solid plate discipline, so he could certainly have AL-only value for a little bit.

AL Quick Hits: Chien-Ming Wang has decided on shoulder surgery after meeting with Dr. James Andrews, ending his brutal season at 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA ... Jim Thome was held out of Tuesday's lineup with back soreness ... Matt Wieters had his first four-hit game Tuesday, raising his batting average to .273 ... In a swap of backup outfielders, the White Sox acquired Mark Kotsay from the Red Sox for Brian Anderson ... As of Tuesday night, general manager J.P. Ricciardi said that his "gut" feeling has Roy Halladay staying in Toronto ... Daisuke Matsuzaka told Japanese reporters Monday that the Red Sox's training methods are to blame for his shoulder problems ... Scott Kazmir threw more than seven innings Tuesday for the first time in over a year, holding the Yankees to one run while beating CC Sabathia ... Ian Kinsler left Tuesday's game with a strained calf ... Mark Buehrle followed his perfect game by being flawless through five innings Tuesday, setting the MLB record with 45 straight batters retired before falling apart in a loss.

NL Quick Hits: Roy Oswalt has been diagnosed with a strained back after exiting Tuesday's start in the second inning ... Matt Lindstrom (elbow) is due to come off the disabled list this weekend, but may not immediately resume closing ... Pedro Martinez hinted that he hopes to join the Phillies' rotation after his second rehab start Friday at Triple-A ... Todd Wellemeyer has been shifted to the bullpen after posting a 5.79 ERA and 1.75 WHIP in 110 innings, with Mitchell Boggs replacing him in the rotation for now ... Troy Glaus' rehab stint has been indefinitely put on hold because of lingering back pain ... Oakland shipped Sean Gallagher to San Diego to complete the Scott Hairston deal, making him a nice fantasy sleeper for next season ... Colby Rasmus (heel) was back in the lineup Tuesday after sitting out four games ... After missing four weeks with a broken toe, Ryan Dempster came off the shelf by allowing six runs over five innings Tuesday.

To say that the Red Sox are disappointed that Daisuke Matsuzaka came out and blamed his health issues on Boston's trainers is like saying Brett Favre is indecisive.

Or that Randy Johnson is tall. You get the idea.

The BoSox, in fact are not simply "disappointed", as the ultra polite Terry Francona said on Tuesday. Like a mushroom-cloud-laying Jules Winnfield from "Pulp Fiction, they seem ready to strike down upon their pitcher with great vengeance and furious anger.

This from the Boston Globe's Tony Massarotti:

"I think we all share, in a word, that it's disappointing," Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell said a short time ago in the Boston clubhouse -- veins all but bulging from his neck -- in response to critical comments made by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Added Farrell when asked if he was frustrated, "The disappointment comes in airing his dirty laundry."

Massarotti goes on to write that the Red Sox have been frustrated with Dice-K's "high-maintenance" act long ago, but put up with it because he won. Now that the right-hander is tossing barbs at the organization, the team might be finished playing nice.

In retrospect, what Farrell did not say was that Matsuzaka looked like he spent the winter eating dumplings and shumai, which the Red Sox believe contributed to the pitcher's problems.

"It's not just the shoulder," Farrell said tonight when asked about the importance of proper conditioning. "When the overall body is not in the condition necessary to support that, there has to be some responsibility taken [on the part of the pitcher.]"

So the Red Sox turn the tables, blaming Dice-K for his poor conditioning. It's not quite "Fat Toad" territory, but pretty darn close.

Dice-K's comments have not endeared himself to fans. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Rememeber how J.C. Ricciardi made a point of telling everyone that the Jays won't listen to Roy Halladay offers all the way up to the deadline? Yeah, not so much:

While the official non-waiver trading deadline is 4 p.m. ET Friday, the official Halladay trading deadline is Tuesday evening, according to Ricciardi, though not a single GM in the game seems to believe he'll hold to that. Apparently we'll go at least into that final day, as Ricciardi had not approached Halladay about waiving his no-trade rights as of Monday evening.

I still don't think he's going anywhere, but on the off chance he does, it' ain't happening today.

Matt and Aaron mentioned the Ryan Garko trade last night, but I'm still thinking about one aspect of it this morning, and that's the fact that the Tribe called up Andy Marte instead of Matt LaPorta to take Garko's spot on the roster. Let's suss that out a bit, shall we?

Matt LaPorta was the centerpiece of the CC Sabathia trade last year, and he's gotten nothing but a courtesy callup so far. For now he's like me: Tearing it up, but largely wasting his time, in Columbus, Ohio while the big old world slowly passes him by. Andy Marte, on the other hand, has had approximately 1,257 chances to make it work in the Major Leagues and has failed every time. Yes, he too is raking in Columbus this year, and yes he stands to be a minor league free agent this winter, but those 1,257 previous chances still weigh heavy on the mind. Could he be the next Carlos Pena? Sure. But I think it far more likely that he's the AAAA player that he's shown himself to be for several years now, and if you have to choose between him and LaPorta, you have to give LaPorta the shot.

Of course the dumbest thing about all of this is that the Indians didn't have to choose between Marte and LaPorta. They forced that choice upon themselves by carrying a 14 man pitching staff.

Let me repeat that.

The Indians have five starting pitchers and nine -- nine! -- relievers on their 25 man roster. Mark Shapiro, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that he wants to give his embattled manager the option of running ten pitchers out in a given game. And that happens so often!

Here's something that doesn't happen so often, but happened last night: Because Garko was traded, Travis Hafner couldn't play (he gets mandatory days off to rest his shoulder or whatever it is on him that doesn't work so good) and Grady Sizemore was sick, the Indians played the entire game against the Angels last night with literally no one available on the bench. If Asdrubal Cabrera went down, Cliff Lee is probably playing short. And who cares? They're trading him anyway!

In light of that, and in light of the fact that you have two guys worthy of a callup to the big leagues, you'd think that the Indians would maybe think about going from the monumentally stupid 14-man pitching staff to a merely idiotic 13 or a somewhat excessive 12. But far be it from me to argue against success.

[cough!] 42-58 [cough!]

The Braves' starters have been fantastic lately so they don't really need him at the moment, but Tim Hudson is rehabbing and looking pretty good in the process. Three starts so far, 8.2 innings, nine hits, five strikeouts, two walks, and an ERA of 3.11. He's touching low 90s on the gun.

The big question is going to be whether the Braves, who have Lowe, Vazquez, Jurrjens, Kawakami and Hanson all under contract for next year, will to exercise Hudson's $12 million option for 2010. Assuming Hudson keeps progressing, it's not a terrible problem to have.

Reader Mo Green -- who, rumor has it, made his bones when you were going out with cheerleaders -- makes a good, and often overlooked point in the wake of the Dice-K story:

It may be time to re-examine Theo's free spending ways. 5 years, 55 mil for J.D. Drew, 4 years 36 million for Lugo, 50 mil just for the privilege of talking to DiceK, another 50 mil over 6 years to keep him. There's almost 200 mil circling the drain instead of the bases.

No the Red Sox don't spend as much as the Yankees do, but they do spend a lot. And when it comes to financial advantages, it's not always about how big your payroll is. Being able to absorb bad contracts without taking a competitive hit is critical too, and the Sox have certainly been able to do that. We so often hear people call Theo a genius while saying that Brian Cashman simply knows how to write checks. I think it's far safer to say that each of them are pretty good at the others' alleged forte.

(oh, and nice CTB reference there, Mo!)

As was widely reported late yesterday afternoon, Omar Minaya went off the deep end during his Tony Bernazard press conference, strongly implying that The New York Daily News' Adam Rubin's reporting of the Bernazard shenanigans was motivated by Rubin being frustrated after not getting a job with the Mets for which he lobbied, or wanting to get Bernazard fired to take his job, or something along those lines. At least that's what I took from it. However you slice it, it was bizarre. Go watch it here if you missed it.

Rubin was livid during the presser -- thanks for the split screen SNY! -- and today he responds:

As I told the reporters who descended upon me after Minaya left the press conference, I have never, ever, asked Omar Minaya for a job. Or even career advice. Frankly, I've never been very close to him. What I have done, and what Mets COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged later yesterday, is ask Wilpon for "career advice." My question: Is it even remotely feasible for a baseball writer to get into an administrative job with a team - any team - down the road and what would I need for that to be achieved?

Wilpon once invited me to his office at Citi Field for an advisory session. I never took him up on it.

Some people are complaining about Rubin's potential ethical lapses in all of this, but I don't have much of a problem with him talking generally with the Mets about his career prospects, if that's all he did. It's a tough world out there, and the kinds of journalistic integrity principles people cite in such situations - you can't possibly talk to the people you cover about anything! -- seem kind of quaint in a world where everyone is hustling to stay alive all the damn time. Besides, this is tabloid journalism we're talking about here. If what they're reporting is true -- and Rubin's stories about Bernazard have not been questioned on that front -- I really don't care what Rubin's career development plan looks like. And even if that truly matters, there is nothing short of Omar Minaya's insane ramblings to support the notion that Rubin wrote what he wrote out of spite or anything. The Bernazard stories were legit news, and he got the stories right. That, as they say, should be the end of the story.

The bigger question here is why anyone lets Omar Minaya near a microphone. Or near the controls of a baseball team for that matter. Bernazard was his guy, and look how well that turned out. The Mets are his team, and look how good that's going. Rather than take responsibility for any of that, he's setting the phasers for "paranoid" and going out and attacking reporters.

If I worked for the Mets' media relations department, I'd be hesitant to knock down the press conference table this morning, because by all rights there should be another one very, very soon.

A very grand-slammy day around the Majors . . .

Nationals 14, Brewers 6: Josh Willingham with two grand slams and eight RBI. I think that's more production than his trade counterpart Emilio Bonifacio has had all season.

Mets 7, Rockies 3: An eighth inning pinch hit grand slam by Fernando Tatis puts a happy ending on what was an otherwise horrible day in Metsville. After the game, Omar Minaya raged at a press conference about how he can no longer sit back and allow reporter infiltration, reporter indoctrination, reporter subversion and the international reporter conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Cubs 5, Astros 1: Tie game, bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth! Lou Piniella calls for the suicide squeeze! Mike Fontenot know what to do: Contact, baby! Do anything, put it anywhere, but JUST DON'T MISS THE BALL! Oops, he missed the ball and the runner was tagged out. On to extra innings, where, thankfully for Fontenot's sake, the Cubbies broke out in the 13th inning, via -- you guessed it -- a game-winning grand slam, this one off the bat of Alfonso Soriano.

Indians 9, Angels 8: A rare bifurcated grand slam won this one, with Victor Martinez hitting a three run home run followed immediately by Jhonny Peralta hitting a solo-shot in the ninth inning. Shut up, it does too count. I'm trying to keep a theme going here.

Yankees 11, Rays 4: It was A-Rod's birthday yesterday, and if he wanted to, he and his lady friend Kate Hudson could have joined the party and gotten a free grand slam. Since it's Rodriguez, though, they probably just tried to go to Chi Chi's to get free nachos and a Polaroid picture wearing that birthday sombrero they give out. Then they probably were crestfallen when they found out that (a) Chi Chi's went out of business five years ago; and (b) that there aren't any Polaroids around anymore either. So instead they just went out to some fabulous restaurant and took turns telling one another how rich and beautiful they are. Wait, where was I going with this?

Reds 6, Padres 4: Given how totally each of these teams have fallen apart recently, this was more like rummage sale than a ballgame. Scouts sat behind home plate like Luke and Uncle Owen pickin' out droids. Based on reports, someone's got their eyes set on this Red one, but they should be warned: he probably has a bad motivator.

Red Sox 8, A's 3: Every Red Sox batter got a hit which, if you're a connoisseur of box scores, is kind of satisfying to see on an aesthetic level. 10Ks for Beckett.

Royals 5, Orioles 3: Billy Butler went 5 for 5 and Bruce Chen wasn't an unmitigated disaster for once. Interesting -- and deceiving -- to see that the Royals are only three games worse than the Orioles are this year. I bet Dayton Moore walks around the office complaining about how unfair it is for those in the know to talk about Baltimore's future and promise while all they do is criticize the Royals.

Twins 4, White Sox 3: Errors were the difference here, as Jayson Nix and Paul Konerko each committed an error in the second which led to Twins runs.

Rangers 5, Tigers 2: Yet another solid start from Tommy Hunter (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER). I don't know anything about him and I haven't seen him pitch yet. Royce -- anyone -- is he any good, or is this a fluke?

Cardinals 6, Dodgers 1: Chris Carpenter finishes July 4-0 by beating L.A. in a manner that compels me to use the term "scattered" (7 IP, 9 H, 1 ER). Not to be confused with scattered, smothered, and covered (sorry, that breakfast reference in the Yankees recap has me hungry). Anyway, in his first four games with St. Louis, Matt Holliday is 8-for-14 with four RBIs. In his last seven games, Mark DeRosa has five homers. I'd say at this point that the midseason deals are paying off for St. Louis.

Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 2: Jamie Moyer, who I am contractually obligated to refer to as "crafty" (though "wily" will also be accepted), baffled the Dbacks with his stunning array of dusty junk, allowing bubkis over six innings. The Phillies now have a seven game lead in the East.

Blue Jays 11, Mariners 4: All hits are not created equal. Toronto only has three more of them than the Ms, but they scored seven more runs, knocking King Felix around in what amounts to his worst start in a couple of years, and preventing him from getting what would have been his 12th win.

Giants 4, Pirates 2: Lincecumazing! OK, I'll cut that out now. But he really was, tossing a complete game, giving up no earned runs, and striking out 15 Pirates. His game score of 87 is the ninth best of any starter's performance this season. Though it's worth noting that I don't believe in game scores. I just believe in me. Yoko and me. And that's reality.

Giants general manager Brian Sabean has talked about wanting to bring in some offense for weeks now and finally pulled the trigger Monday by sending Single-A pitching prospect Scott Barnes to the Indians for Ryan Garko. San Francisco first basemen are 12th in the league with a .283/.320/.440 line and Garko is a career .283/.355/.450 hitter, so he certainly represents an upgrade offensively.

However, he's far from an elite bat, especially against right-handed pitching, and much of the improvement at the plate will be wiped away by the steep dropoff in defense from Travis Ishikawa to Garko. As a low-key pickup Garko makes sense for the Giants, but the problem is that Barnes is actually a legit prospect, posting a 2.85 ERA and 99/29 K/BB ratio in 98 innings at high Single-A as a 21-year-old.

Cleveland did well to pick him up for a 28-year-old first baseman with a mediocre .805 OPS and poor glove who's about to get fairly expensive via arbitration. Matt LaPorta is the obvious choice to replace Garko and is hitting .306/.386/.541 in 73 games at Triple-A, but for some reason the Indians will keep holding him back in favor of giving Andy Marte one last chance to show that he's not a total bust.

While the Giants pay a premium for slight improvement and the Indians get good value for a spare part, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Three weeks ago, when Kevin Slowey went on the disabled list, the Twins said that he'd "battled pain in his wrist for a while" and had issues "opening doors and things like that." At the time the hope was that he'd return in a couple weeks, but unsuccessful throwing sessions were followed by a canceled minor-league rehab assignment and now Slowey is going under the knife.

He'll have surgery to remove bone chips from his wrist, which while innocuous in the grand scheme of pitching injuries will sideline him for 2-3 months and end his season at 10-3 with a 4.86 ERA and 75/15 K/BB ratio in 91 innings spread over 16 starts. Slowey's great record obviously doesn't match his mediocre ERA, but he had a 4.04 mark before struggling in his final two starts while hurting.

Slowey remains a nice long-term bet, but his injury means that Anthony Swarzak will stay in the rotation after going 3-3 with a 3.74 ERA and 26/17 K/BB ratio over 46 innings through eight career starts. Swarzak's poor strikeout-to-walk ratio and extreme fly-ball tendencies are a bad combination and suggest that he's headed for a trip back down to earth eventually, but he's still worth an AL-only pickup.

AL Quick Hits: Josh Beckett became the AL's first 12-game winner Monday while striking out 10 ... Cito Gaston said Monday that Scott Downs will remain the Blue Jays' closer despite recent struggles ... Billy Butler went 5-for-5 and knocked in three runs Monday, giving him 31 doubles and a .295 batting average ... Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez were out of Monday's lineup with back problems ... A.J. Burnett allowed two singles, two walks, and an unearned run over seven innings Monday ... After another rough outing Monday, Rich Hill revealed that he's been pitching through shoulder "issues" ... Mike Lowell was a healthy scratch Monday, with Adam LaRoche getting another start ... Juan Rivera (hamstring) rejoined the lineup Monday after missing eight straight games ... Nick Swisher homered twice Monday, going deep for the first time in July ... Josh Hamilton dropped to No. 7 in the lineup Monday after batting third or fourth in every game with the Rangers.

NL Quick Hits: Wandy Rodriguez and Carlos Zambrano matched gems Monday before Alfonso Soriano's walk-off grand slam in the 13th inning ... Tim Lincecum set a new career-high with 15 strikeouts in Monday's complete-game win ... Josh Willingham launched a pair of grand slams Monday after entering the game with just 31 RBIs despite 14 homers ... Back spasms knocked Troy Glaus (shoulder) from a rehab game Monday at Double-A and further delays his timetable ... Josh Geer fell to 1-7 while serving up three long balls Monday, giving him 27 in 102.2 innings overall ... Tim Hudson (elbow) threw just 21 of 47 pitches for strikes in a four-inning rehab start Monday at Triple-A ... Chris Carpenter allowed one run in seven innings Monday to end July at 4-0 with a 1.75 ERA ... Aaron Rowand has a slightly torn forearm, but will try to avoid the disabled list ... Jonny Gomes went deep twice Monday and has homered five times in seven games ... As rumors swirl, Freddy Sanchez was scratched from Monday's lineup with knee soreness.

This is an interesting development, but it starts off with a pretty major insult to pitchers everywhere:

Tony Pena Jr. has hit like a pitcher for the past two years, so the Kansas City Royals plan to convert him to one.
Pena, who was the Royals' shortstop on opening day in 2007 and 2008, has hit .156 with 62 strikeouts and eight walks in 276 at-bats the last two years. He was designated for assignment July 16 with a .098 average and one extra-base hit.

After clearing waivers, the Royals outrighted him Friday to Class AAA Omaha, but instead of reporting to the Pacific Coast League, Pena could be taking a detour to the Royals' complex in Surprise, Ariz., to work off the mound.

Zero downside here. If he can pitch, great. If he can't, well, at least he has not taken any at bats away from anyone in the meantime.

More generally speaking, if managers are going to increasingly go La Russa on us and insist on 12 and 13-man bullpens, the least they can do is to have one of those bullpen arms be able to do something else like bunt or pinch run or serve as a defensive replacement or something.

Stay classy, Philly:

A laser pointer was the weapon of choice for one Phils fan at Saturday's game.

A fan at the Cards/Phillies game used a strategically placed laser pointer to try and distract the St. Louis hitters. In the top of the seventh inning the fan first used it on Julio Lugo, who eventually struck out. Then the fan tried to distract Albert Pujols before umpire Jim Wolf called time and tried to find the fan. Security went to the section but the culprit was never caught, according to ESPN.

I think the dumbest thing about this is that someone felt that outside assistance was needed to render Julio Lugo ineffective.

This would be interesting:

Thanks to the behind-the-scenes lobbying from some of the most influential Hall of Famers, commissioner Bud Selig is said to be seriously considering lifting Pete Rose's lifetime suspension from baseball.

The tip-off that Selig may now be inclined to pardon baseball's all-time hit king was Hank Aaron's seemingly impromptu interview session with a small group of reporters in the lobby of the Otesaga Hotel on Saturday. In declaring for the first time that he would want an asterisk put on the achievements of any steroid cheats elected to the Hall of Fame, Aaron brought up Rose, who, in August of 1989, was given a lifetime ban for gambling on baseball, saying: "I would like to see Pete in. He belongs there."

My personal feeling on the Rose situation is that, given his past, he should never ever be allowed to be in a position where he could impact or effect what happens on the field. That means no coaching, no managing, no front office position that touches on baseball operations, and no supervision or authority over anyone who does. But the fact remains that Rose remains a very popular figure among the fans -- he gets standing ovations simply by walking to a seat for which he bought a ticket at Great American Park -- and could probably do a lot to promote the Reds in particular, baseball at large, and the charitable organizations affiliated with those entities if given the chance. Such a thing could be accomplished if he were given a limited reinstatement. Such a thing would also likely cut down on the amount of shameless self-promotion in which he engages as well, because he likely wouldn't need to make an ass out of himself for a paycheck, and that's something that baseball should care about.

And yes, reinstatement means renewed eligibility for the Hall of Fame via the Veterans' Committee. I've gone back and forth on this over the years, but as of now I think Rose probably should be in the Hall of Fame. Why? Because at bottom, the Hall of Fame is a museum/historical society, and I don't like the idea of whitewashing history. Maybe you don't give him his big day on the podium like Rice and Henderson had yesterday, but not having his plaque up there bothers my sense of historical accuracy far more than having it up there would bother my sense of ethics. And obviously the plaque has to mention his bannination and the reasons for it. I realize that reasonable people disagree on this point, of course.

Of course this raises the question of what, if anything, a Rose reinstatement would mean for the steroids users. True, they're not banned and thus their eligibility for the Hall hasn't been technically affected, but I do think Rose being allowed back into the game would have an impact on them all the same. I say this because I can't help but think that, at the heart of many BBWAA members' feelings regarding steroids users, is the sentiment that "hey, if baseball can keep out Rose for violating the gambling rules, I can use my vote to keep out steroids users." If Rose was back, isn't it possible that some writers would re-think their opposition to the PED guys? That no one should stand in the way of history being recorded the way it should be?

I suppose reasonable people can disagree about that too.

I wrote about Dmitri Young a couple of times a couple of weeks ago, with the gist being "hey, I like the guy and I hope he can make his way back." Seems that's never gonna happen now:

It looks like Dmitri Young's career, which reached such inspiring heights two years ago with the Nationals, has come to an end under upsetting circumstances. Young, who has been on rehab with Class AA Harrisburg all month, tore his left quadriceps muscle last week and is out for the rest of the season. And given all he's gone through the last two years, it's hard to believe he's going to get another shot to play in the major leagues.

I agree, it seems unlikely that he'll get another chance to play somewhere. Rehab is not his strong suit, and by the time his quad is better, he's gonna be even more out of shape than he ever has been (which is really, really out of shape).

Baseball, unlike the other sports, always seems to have a place in it for an oddball, both physically and behaviorally speaking, and Young was one of them over the past decade or so. I don't know how most people feel about all of this, but I'll miss him.

As I mentioned in the recaps this morning, it was probably a blessing in disguise that the Mariners have face-planted in the past week or so. It was always going to be tough to keep up with the Angels and even the Rangers, and the fact that their lot seems to have been cast before, rather than after, the trading deadline is probably better for their long term prospects.

As Geoff Baker notes, trading Jarrod Washburn has to be on the top of the agenda. He's classic deadline material: a veteran starter pitching better than he ever has, and in great need of being shipped out so that some value can be realized. If the Mariners didn't get rocked by the Indians this weekend, it would be Seattle, and not someone else, who would have to watch his painful regression to his mediocre mean.

Baker talks about maybe unloading Washburn to Milwaukee for shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar. As he notes, it would take more than Washburn to do it, but if they could pull that off, it would go a long way to balancing their karma out from the Adam Jones-Erik Bedard deal. Oh, and it would help the team a lot too.

And lest you think that this is mere wishcasting on the part of Mr. Baker, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is thinking the same thing. Almost exactly the same thing, actually (Washburn and change for Escobar), which makes you wonder if he and Baker compared notes. Or have the same team source.

Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice were inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday. A lot of folks were either hoping or expecting that Rickey would say something silly or arrogant or what have you, but that was always going to be a longshot. While never one to suffer from self-esteem problems, it's been close to 20 years since Rickey has been the hot dog in the Oakleys we all remember, and anyone who watched and listened to him carefully as his career wound down knows that he (eventually) grew into a rather mature player with a sense of history and even, dare I say it, humility about him. I mean, how can you not be humble when you play in the independent leagues in your 40s like Henderson did?

Anyway, I thought his speech was very genuine and, at least on the Rickey scale, quite appropriate to the occasion. Indeed, given the man Henderson seems to have become, an instance of true "Rickeyspeak" probably would have seemed forced and wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun as a lot of commentators are snarking about today. I especially thought his nod to Billy Martin -- "Mr. Billy Martin always got the most out of me. I miss you very much, and I wish you were here with me today" -- was quite nice.

What can you say about Jim Rice? For a couple of years a lot of folks have been saying that he wasn't truly Hall of Fame worthy. Bill James called him "the most overrated player in the past 20 years" when he wrote his "Historical Baseball Abstract" in the late 1980s. I tend to agree with that assessment, but it's probably not worth getting all worked up about. His worthiness, or lack thereof, is a function of what any given person thinks the Hall of Fame is all about. If it's truly about "fame" he's a fine choice, as anyone who is around my age certainly grew up with him being talked about as one of the best players in the game, rightly or wrongly so. If you're more into the whole Hall of Merit thing, well, he probably doesn't belong there.

That argument is irrelevant now, of course, as he now and forever will be Jim Rice: Hall of Famer. As for his speech: Pretty much par for the course as these things go. An argument could be made that he showed less humility than Henderson, but I don't feel too strongly about making it. I did not know that his real name is Ed, so I guess you really do learn something new every day.

Overall, the best speech of the day came not from a player, but from a player's daughter, as Judy Gordon, daughter of Veteran's Committee inductee Joe Gordon, said her father "insisted against having a funeral, and as such, we consider Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame as his final resting place."

That statement struck me just the right way yesterday. It seems so spot on. It's been awhile since I've been to Cooperstown, but when I was there as a kid, I got the same feeling I get when walking around an old graveyard. I mean that in the best of ways, mind you -- I love old graveyards. The dead seem to speak there, and if the setting is pleasing -- as Cooperstown certainly is -- you can't help but feel good about humanity as you tread about and think about those who came and went before.

Phillies 9, Cardinals 2: Trading for Matt Holliday is all Wellemeyer and good, but you gotta pitch too. Despite their new bauble, the Cards drop two of three to the Phils, and find themselves knocked out of first place because . . .

Cubs 5, Reds 2: The Cubbies are on fire. I was a guest on WDWS radio in Champaign, Illinois last month, and host Brian Moline asked me how I liked the Cardinals chances. My answer boiled down to "with Albert, all things are possible." I noted, however, that at the time just about every single thing you can imagine had gone wrong for the Cubs yet (a) they were still only two games out and; (b) some things would stop going wrong for them eventually. That seems to have happened (or stopped happening depending on your point of view), and it's now a very real race. I'm going to be on WDWS again on Tuesday, and I suspect I will gloat a bit. I may even mention that I'm an Ohio State fan too, which should really make me popular in Cardinals/Illini country.

Yankees 7, A's 5: The Yankees are 9-1 out of the break. Sure, seven of those ten games have come against last place teams (Baltimore and Oakland) but they still count and there's something to be said about winning the ones you're supposed to. Apropos of nothing, I'm reading this box score as I watch the Tigers-White Sox game, and I'm realizing that, all year, I thought that Adam Kennedy was playing for the Tigers and Adam Everett was playing for the A's instead of the other way around. Not sure if that says more about those guys or me as a writer. Either way, I'm sure I could have gone with that misconception all season and never once had it really matter for bloggy purposes.

Orioles 6, Red Sox 2: Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Red Sox and their use of John Smoltz. Smoltzie, who won't get too many cheers from me until he's back in Atlanta for his number retiring ceremony next summer, gave up another six runs on nine hits in five innings. As predicted, he's really becoming a difference maker in the AL East race.

Blue Jays 5, Rays 1: A bit of a letdown for the Rays after mounting an eight-run comeback in twelve innings on Saturday night. Which itself came a couple of days after getting blanked by Mark Buehrle. Maybe the Rays were just tired of talking to the media about big doings. Tampa Bay now has a series against the Yankees, a breather against the Royals, and then a short series against the Red Sox. Anytime is a good time, but now would be a particularly good time to make a move and get off the fringes and into the, well, whatever the opposite of "fringes" are of the AL East race. Is "fringes" a blanket metaphor? What the hell do you call the middle of a blanket?

Braves 10, Brewers 2: A day off for Chipper meant a rare start for Kelly Johnson, with Martin Prado sliding over to third. Johnson responded by going 3-4 with a double, a homer and two RBI. Though it makes sense that Prado has the job from here on out, I haven't yet given up on Kelly Johnson, and I believe that he can still be an important part of this nutritious breakfast. Atlanta is making up no ground on the Phillies these days because the Phillies don't fell much like losing anymore, but they're only 3.5 back in the wild card race, tied with an inferior Marlins team, and trailing the flailing Cards and Giants. The Rockies sit at the top of that heap, however, and since their turnaround this year seems to have been caused by one of these, they may be tough to catch.

Nationals 3, Padres 2: Without looking at official attendance, I'm going to wager that tens and tens of people watched this one. Probably fair to say that, overall records aside, the Padres are a worse team than the Nats are. Royals too, for that matter. And speaking of the Royals . . .

Rangers 7, Royals 2: You have to figure that the Royals are going to win the game when Sidney frickin' Ponson of all people throws six scoreless innings, but it wasn't to be. Another day, another bullpen implosion, another loss. Can't really blame Hillman for not sending out Soria this time as he threw two innings and 37 pitches on Saturday. You can blame Alberto Callaspo, however, who dropped a pop fly that would have ended the seventh inning with no runs scoring instead of the three that did, and Juan Cruz who got shellacked once again. What's with Cruz, anyway? After ending April with a 1.69 ERA, he threw up a 6.00 for May, a 6.97 for June, and an 8.22 so far in July. I'm no mathematician, but I think that puts him on pace to, um [carry the two . . .] be really, really awful for August and September.

Mets 8, Astros 3: Ponson and Livan Hernandez (7 IP, 8 H, 3 ER) each pitched well yesterday. In other news, I started to dig a bunker in the backyard. You can never be too careful with sings and portents and whatnot.

Rockies 4, Giants 2: As mentioned in the Braves recap, the Giants are in near free fall and the Rockies are bulletproof. Colorado now goes on the road for ten games. In years past I'd say something like "now's the time when the competition can make their move," but this Rockies team isn't like the Rockies teams of old. They have 54 wins this year. 27 of them came at home. 27 have come on the road.

Twins 10, Angels 1: Justin Morneau now leads the AL in both homers and RBI. If he keeps that up, he may very well lead all of baseball in the category of most undeserved MVP awards, lifetime. Though to be fair to him, if the music stopped right now, a 2009 MVP award would be less egregious than his 2006 award and his second place finish in 2008. He's having a good season. If either he or Mauer are gonna get voter love, though, the Twins have to do better than this, as they're just 4-6 since the break.

Marlins 8, Dodgers 6: Jason Schmidt pitches again, is bad again, but this time he doesn't dodge the bullets he did against the Reds on Monday. Will he get another start? If he does, this business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

Indians 12, Mariners 3: Break up the Tribe! They sweep a good Mariners team and are riding a four game winning streak. And they really bombed out the Ms, outscoring them 31-6 in the three game series. The Mariners fall to 7.5 games back of the Angels and 6.5 back in the wild card race. Which sucks, but may make it easier for Jack Zduriencik to do some deals that need doing rather than go through the motions of being in a playoff race.

White Sox 5, Tigers 1: This one was over quick, as Rick Porcello pitched the first inning like he was 20 years-old or somethin': nibbling, worrying about the runners too much, then making a mental error on defense when he didn't cover first like he should have, then giving up a howitzer shot to Paul Konerko. Down 4-0 before even getting to bat, The Tigers couldn't muster much of anything against Clayton Richard (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER). Not even Adam EVERETT could get a hit. Still a good weekend for Detroit, which beat back the Sox, taking three of four as soon as they got really close at the end of last week.

Diamondbacks 9, Pirates 0: I wonder if pitchers watched Mark Buehrle throw that perfecto the other day and thought "hey, why don't I work quickly, trust my stuff, and throw strikes more often?" Max Scherzer may have, because he was down to bidness yesterday, throwing 85 of his 109 pitches for strikes, didn't walk anyone, which is rare for him, and reached a three-ball count only twice. Gerardo Parra finished a triple short of the cycle. Story of my life, man.

With the non-waiver trade deadline looming on Friday, this coming week is one of the most exciting of the baseball season. It's not quite the World Series, but is not unlike the World Series of Poker.

Player 1: You don't want to give up your entire minor league system for my pitcher? Fine, then I'll deal with this other guy.

Player 2: No problem, I think player No. 3's pitcher is better anyway.

Player 3: Really? Cool!

You know some teams are bluffing, others are slow-playing their winning hands, while still others are just hanging around, trying to gum up the works. That is what is so fascinating about the march to the trade deadline.

Roy Halladay is, of course, the big prize out there. Will he be traded? Sometimes it seems inevitable, other times unlikely. It all depends on the day of the week hour of the day.

Will Doc go to the Phillies? The Red Sox? The Rangers? Would the Yankees (GASP) part with Joba Chamberlain?

It's enough to make the head spin. And that's just Halladay.

What about Cliff Lee, the Indians ace who won the 2008 AL Cy Young award? The Dodgers, Angels and Phillies (if they're really giving up on Halladay) appear to be lurking. Will Cleveland also deal Victor Martinez?

Looking further down the list, teams might be turning to the likes of Jarrod Washburn, who is quietly having his best season since at least 2002, maybe ever.

With the Mariners' destruction at the hands of the Indians over the weekend, the departure of Washburn (scheduled to pitch Tuesday) and Russell Branyan could be imminent. Could a match be found with the Brewers?

And how about the disaster known as the Washington Nationals? Nick Johnson, Adam Dunn and others could all be heading (they hope) to newer, sunnier destinations where fans go to games and jersey adornments are spelled correctly.

And that, friends, is the tip of the iceberg. It will be a wild week, a rollercoaster of sketchy rumors, breathless television updates and, of course, terrific Tweets.

We'll do our best to keep you updated on everything here at Circling the Bases, as well as on our rumors page.

Oh and one last thing: Not to rain on anyone's parade, but here are five reasons trade deadline deals are overrated. Don't let it spoil your fun.

More after the jump ...

FIVE SERIES TO WATCH

*Yankees at Rays, July 27-29: The Rays have to at least hold their own in this series to stay within reach. Especially when you consider that the Red Sox are right there ahead of them, too.

*Astros at Cubs, July 27-29: The Cubs have ridden a four-game winning streak to the top of the NL Central. But in this amazingly tight division, the Astros, just two games back, have a chance to make some noise.

*Dodgers at Cardinals, July 27-30: The Matt Holliday deal has Cardinals fans buzzing, although the team has not yet taken off. Now, with a four-game series against the league's best team (record-wise), it's time to deliver.

*Blue Jays at Mariners, July 27-29: Neither one of these teams appear to be going anywhere as far as the postseason is concerned, but the trade deadline is another matter. Jarrod Washburn and Roy Halladay are both scheduled to pitch in this series, and a number of other potential trade candidates will take the field.

*Phillies at Giants, July 30-Aug. 2: The defending champions are on a roll, having won eight of their last 10 games. The surprising Giants are in the thick of the NL wild card race, but this four-game series could prove crucial.

ON THE TUBE

Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET: Dodgers at Cardinals (ESPN)

Wednesday, 7:08 p.m.: Yankees at Rays (ESPN)

*Saturday, 4:10 p.m.: Yankees at White Sox (FOX)

*Saturday, 4:10 p.m.: Royals at Rays (FOX)

*Saturday, 4:10 p.m.: Dodgers at Braves (FOX)

Sunday, 4 p.m.: Phillies at Giants (TBS)

Sunday, 8:05 p.m.: Dodgers at Braves (ESPN)

*Check local listings

Erik Bedard came off the disabled list on July 7, went 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 17 innings spread over four starts while working on a limited pitch count, and landed back on the shelf Sunday. Shoulder problems are once again to blame, and the Mariners are calling the latest issue inflammation while hoping to get him back in a couple weeks.

While the latest trip to the DL ruins whatever chance the Mariners had of dealing Bedard prior to Friday's deadline, the injury should make it easier for him to pass through waivers unclaimed after July 31. In other words, if he comes back in two weeks and looks healthy, Seattle may still have an opportunity to cash Bedard in before he hits free agency. He's continued to pitch well throughout the injuries.

While the Mariners keep chugging along just 10 wins from last year's total, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Brett Gardner has been a pleasant surprise for the Yankees, as the 25-year-old rookie hit .275/.354/.400 with 20 steals in 25 attempts and great defense through 85 games while splitting time with Melky Cabrera in center field. Unfortunately he suffered a broken left thumb while sliding into second base Saturday and will be in a cast for the next couple weeks before being evaluated further.

Triple-A center fielder Austin Jackson is one of baseball's best outfield prospects and is hitting .311/.375/.429 with 17 steals in 92 games, but manager Joe Girardi indicated Sunday that the 22-year-old is unlikely to be called up as Cabrera gets another chance to play every day. In terms of offense his .285/.347/.433 mark is nearly identical to Gardner, but Cabrera's glove and wheels are downgrades.

* After going 0-for-4 in his big-league debut Saturday, Michael Saunders notched a pair of hits Sunday while driving in his first career run. Seattle cleared room for Saunders by designating Wladimir Belantien for assignment in preparation for a trade, leaving Ryan Langerhans as his only real competition for playing time and all but guaranteeing the 22-year-old top prospect regular starts down the stretch.

Saunders batted .290/.374/.484 at Double-A last season before struggling after a promotion to Triple-A, but mastered Tacoma while hitting .310/.378/.544 with 13 homers, 30 total extra-base hits, and a 25/48 K/BB ratio in 64 games prior to the call-up. Saunders projects as a 20-homer hitter with a .275-.290 batting average, double-digit steals, and solid defense, but he's not a mixed-league option yet.

* John Smoltz was regularly clocked at 91-93 miles per hour with his fastball and showed a good slider while getting six strikeouts in five innings Sunday, but once again struggled by allowing six runs on nine hits. Lack of fastball command has really hurt Smoltz and he certainly hasn't looked great through six starts, but with a 28/5 K/BB ratio in 30.2 innings his 1-3 record and 7.03 ERA are misleading.

* While making absolutely zero promises regarding the ratio of fantasy insight to inane rambling, I'm now on Twitter and have quickly become addicted to posting stuff throughout the day. Whether you're interested in reading the minutiae of my life, my complaints about the Twins, or half of random conversations I'm having with people you likely don't know, come check out @aarongleeman on Twitter!

AL Quick Hits: Justin Morneau went deep twice Sunday, and now leads the AL in homers and RBIs ... With their efforts to acquire Roy Halladay stalled the Phillies have been scouting Cliff Lee, who threw seven innings of two-run ball Sunday for his seventh win ... With the Red Sox facing a right-hander Sunday, Mike Lowell was benched in favor of Adam LaRoche ... Bartolo Colon will stay in the rotation and start Wednesday, with Jose Contreras pushed to Thursday ... Cleveland got reliever Jess Todd from St. Louis to complete the Mark DeRosa trade ... Already battling the flu, Kevin Millwood left Sunday's start with a strained gluteus ... Brett Cecil stayed on a roll Sunday with seven frames of one-run ball ... Tony Pena Jr. will go to the low minors to work on becoming a pitcher after posting a .548 OPS as a "hitter" ... Cleveland turned down Boston's offer of Michael Bowden, Justin Masterson, and an unnamed outfield prospect for Victor Martinez.

NL Quick Hits: Geovany Soto (oblique) is slated to take batting practice Monday and could return as soon as next week ... Max Scherzer shut out the Pirates for seven innings Sunday, striking out eight without a walk ... Because of setbacks, Chris Young (shoulder) isn't expected to return until September, if at all ... Micah Owings exited Sunday's start after three innings with shoulder soreness ... Dmitri Young's comeback officially ended with a torn quadriceps ... Joe Blanton tossed eight innings of two-run ball Sunday and is 7-2 with a 3.21 ERA and 82/27 K/BB in 15 starts since an ugly April ... Still bothered by a sore hand, Manny Ramirez sat out Sunday's game ... Chad Gaudin stayed on a roll Sunday by allowing one run over seven innings in a no-decision ... John Lannan cut his ERA to 3.25 after giving up one run in eight innings Sunday ... Colby Ramus was out of the lineup Sunday and will have his sore heel examined Monday ... Derrek Lee missed his second straight game Sunday with back spasms, giving Jake Fox the start.

I'm not sure if I read Jon Heyman's daily rumors piece and Twitter posts because I actually believe what he reports -- because I kind of don't -- or simply because it's fun to read the stuff he comes up with each day. For example, today he has:

-- the Yankees asking about Cliff Lee, with the Indians asking for either Joba or Phil Hughes in return, which I can't see Brian Cashman being dumb enough to do;

-- The Rays shopping Scott Kazmir to the Angels. Query: would that deal finally stop Mets fans from @!$%#ing about the Victor Zambrano deal? Wait, who am I kidding? Mets fans never stop @!$%#ing about anything;

-- He also has the Rays in on the Victor Martinez sweepstakes, along with the Red Sox. It strikes me that if the Sox thought they could get Martinez than they wouldn't have acquired LaRoche. It also strikes me that if the Rays are interested in trading Scott Kazmir and the Indians are (a) hung up on getting pitching that will, according to Heyman, "give them hope in 2010"; and (b) insistent on trading Martinez, that those two teams should be on the phone, like yesterday;

-- Lots of Halladay stuff, but nothing new; and

-- Further confirmation, such as it is, that the Cardinals and A's are going to do a Matt Holliday deal.

Finally, Heyman quotes Indians' GM Mark Shapiro as saying "There is an understanding of the value of young prospects in roster construction. But it's almost to the point where there's an over-evaluation of these guys. There's almost an over-correction."

So I guess what he's saying is now is the right time to try and snag Matt LaPorta, who's wasting away in my hometown for no apparant reason right now?

You know, if you were the suspicious type, this may cause your eyebrows to raise a bit:

Some umpires can work their entire careers and never find themselves behind the plate for a no-hitter. Eric Cooper has been the plate umpire for three of them, including two by White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle, who pitched a perfect game Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays . . .

. . . How's this for strange? Cooper has been behind the plate for each of Buehrle's last three shutouts -- the perfect game Thursday, the no-hitter April 18, 2007, at U.S. Cellular Field against the Texas Rangers and a 6-0 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 17, 2005, at the Cell. Cooper, 38, also was behind the plate for Boston Red Sox right-hander Hideo Nomo's no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles on April 6, 2001.

Sadly, there isn't any suggestion that Buehrle is paying off Cooper or anything, because that would be the bestest story ever (at least if you were a writer). If you're Ozzie Guillen, though, don't you mess with your pitching staff to ensure that Buehrle is on the mound the next time Cooper is behind the plate when his crew's in town? If, for no other reason, than to boost your ace's confidence?

This is fun reading, but I can't wait for the "this is a sabermetrician's wet dream" cracks from old media:

Look out Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. A pair of baseball-playing robots that can pitch and hit with incredible results have been developed in Japan.

The pitching robot, with its three-fingered hand, can throw 90 percent of its pitches in the strike zone, won't need any relief from the bullpen and never asks for a pay raise. The batting robot, which has a sensor to determine if pitches are strikes or balls, hits balls in the strike zone almost 100 percent of the time, doesn't swing at pitches outside the strike zone, and is guaranteed to pass all drug tests.

But here's the best part:

The pitching robot throws a plastic foam ball at 25 miles per hour, but Ishikawa is hoping to increase the speed to 93 mph and make it able to throw off-speed pitches like curves and sliders.

Hopefully he'll have better luck with the robots than Leo Mazzone did with Daniel Cabrera.

The Padres are cutting office staff:

The San Diego Padres have eliminated between 10 and 20 positions as part of what new CEO Jeff Moorad calls the first step of a reorganization of the team's business operations . . . "What this is about is a reallocation of resources that is intended to give us the most economic flexibility when it comes to supporting the club on the field," [Team CEO Jeff] Moorad said.

I can't help but think that it's also about the tremendous liquidity problems owner-in-limbo John Moores likely has as a result of his divorce. Which, one must remember, is what prompted Moorard to buy into the Padres in the strange, path-to-ownership way that he did.

But no matter the reason for the cuts, money is fungible, and money saved on the player side of things can do far more to enhance "economic flexibility." In other words, if they're sacking employees making five figures to make ends meet, one can't help but think that they're strongly considering selling off their truly valuable assets as well.

Watching all this from the press box, I'll admit, I got chills, and this doesn't mean I've suddenly become a big Manny Ramirez fan, because I haven't. No, I didn't accept the team's offer of a bobblehead doll. And yes, I still believe he is a cheat who has never truly admitted or shown remorse for his drug-policy violations.

But until proven otherwise, Wednesday's moment was created cleanly, and one should be able to appreciate it without buying into the man who created it.

-- Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, grudgingly -- and admirably, I might add -- admitting that Manny's grand slam on Wednesday night was a special moment despite all of the disapprobation he has thrown on Ramirez and the people who enjoy his play in recent weeks.

The blogosphere reacts just as much to DeWayne Wise's catch as they do Buehrle's perfect game:

Sports by Brooks: "Say, remember a couple days ago when White Sox fans were whipped up in a lather about Ozzie Guillen's decision to demote Brian Anderson instead of DeWayne Wise in order to make room for Carlos Quentin? Remember how people had gone so far as to claim racism in emails to Guillen? Well, it turns out that was far more of a consequential decision than anybody could have imagined . . . Maybe we should just let Ozzie make the personnel decisions in peace from here on out, folks."

On that same note, South Side Sox says: "would BA have had it?"

And the Sun Times blog too: "That's why D. Wise is on the team. The BA lovers can now shutup."

Rob Neyer: "Well, Mark Buehrle has thrown two more no-hitters than Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine. Combined. Does that mean Buehrle's a Hall of Famer someday, too? Hardly."

Danny Knobler, CBS Sports: "With a week to go before the July 31 deadline, the White Sox were supposedly focused on starting pitching and center field. This afternoon, sure enough, the White Sox were focused on a starting pitcher and a center fielder. Mark Buehrle. Dewayne Wise. Who needs a trade?"

Bronx Banter: "Why baseball matters: Because on any given day something great can happen."

Over the Monster: "It would have been cool if Buehrle had pitched his perfect game in a Red Sox uniform. Unfortunately, knowing our porous defense, it probably would've been a 10-run rout for Tampa."

I think the most telling thing about all of this is how underrepresented the White Sox are in the blogosphere. If this had happened on any number of other teams I would have had to sift through dozens of blog posts about it. As it is this, and a whole bunch of short "Mark Buehrle threw a perfecto; neat" posts is all there really is this morning. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Overanalysis can be a drag sometimes, and what Buehrle -- and DeWise -- did kind of speaks for itself, ya know?

White Sox 5, Rays 0: Nice game for Josh Fields (1-4, grand slam). Scott Kazmir's nightmare season continues. Rumors have him on the trading block to free up some salary for the Rays to get Lee or someone. What a difference a year makes. Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Did something else happen in this game worthy of comment?

Mariners 2, Tigers 1: And with that, the AL Central is tied. Perfect game juju gives the Sox the momentum, though (that's how that works, right?). And how about Jarrod Washburn? Walk a few less guys, strike a few more guys out, and bammo -- you're ending July at 8-6 with a 2.71 ERA.

Giants 5, Braves 1: It makes total sense that the Braves hit Tim Lincecum like he's Derek Lilliquist and then get shut down by Barry Zito (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER). You're not going to believe this, but Bobby Cox was ejected. Strange, though. It was only about 80 degrees and the game was tied. He usually saves that sort of thing for the really hot days when the game's outcome is no longer in doubt. Unlike almost all of his other ejections it's possible that he was really upset here.

Indians 5, Blue Jays 4: You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a Huff (7.2 IP, 8 H, 4 ER). If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.

Phillies 9, Padres 4: It strikes me that a lot of that "but the Phillies need Roy Halladay" talk implicitly assumes that Cole Hamels is going to continue to be a 4.80ish kind of pitcher all year, and I can't say I'm sure why people think that. No, the Padres aren't exactly a formidable test, but I have this feeling that this fall's Cole Hamels is going to look an awful lot like last fall's Cole Hamels.

Cardinals 4, Nationals 1: Rain put an end to this one early, as the field became an unplayable mess. Tony La Russa on the conditions and the grounds crew's efforts: "You can't try harder than that -- whether it's the grounds crew or the umpire. Mother Nature is always stronger than anybody." I'd call that profound if I thought he believed it. Let's be honest: if there's a manager in baseball who spends his offseason building weather-controlling satellites and wishes to one day destroy the sun itself, it's Tony La Russa. The man is not exactly the type to simply defer to nature or anything else. Pfun Pfact: Cards GM John Mozeliak was on NPR yesterday afternoon being interviewed about the fact that the team plans on taking the train from D.C. to Philly in advance of tonight's game, which is kind of cool. To get in the era-of-train-travel mood they should all wear suits and smoke too.

Yankees 6, A's 3: ESPN's little "Fast facts" box said "The Yankees came back from four runs down to win their seventh straight game . . . New York trailed 4-0 before scoring four runs in the fourth inning." What happened? Did New York have to begin the game with -1 runs for some reason, or was Oakland docked one?

Diamondbacks 11, Pirates 4: In a rare events, the Dbacks scored a lot in a Dan Haren start. Unfortunately for Dan, most of the runs came after he left the game, so he got a no-decision. Chad Tracy hit a pinch-hit three-run homer that broke the game open. I have this feeling that it will not, however, inspire the kind of ruckus Manny Ramirez's did the day before.

Angels 6, Twins 5: Howie Kendrick hit one up the middle in the ninth that ricocheted off of Joe Nathan's glove and then hit the second base bag, preventing anyone from making what would have been a game-ending play and allowing the tying run to score. Not a hell of a lot you can do about that if you're the Twins except to hope you don't miss the playoffs by one game this year and spend all winter thinking about stupid bounces.

Less than two weeks after Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter versus San Diego, Mark Buehrle did him one better with a perfect game against Tampa Bay on Thursday. Buehrle, who also hurled a no-hitter in 2007, is now the 24th pitcher with multiple no-nos. He needed help from defensive replacement DeWayne Wise, who made a spectacular, homer-robbing catch on Gabe Kapler leading off the ninth inning.

Buehrle's perfect game was the 16th in baseball history and the first since Randy Johnson in 2004, and he joins Johnson, Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Jim Bunning, and Addie Joss as the six pitchers with a perfect game and a standard no-hitter. Interestingly, Johnson is obviously bound for the Hall of Fame five years after he retires and Young, Koufax, Bunning, and Joss are all in Cooperstown.

As a 30-year-old with 133 career wins, a 3.76 ERA, and just one top-five finish in the Cy Young balloting Buehrle has a long way to go before he's even a marginal Hall of Fame candidate, but that's some amazing company. Oh, the world's most famous White Sox fan, president Barack Obama, even called to congratulate him after the game.

While the White Sox use his historic afternoon to jump into a tie for first place in the AL Central, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* With their bullpen ranked third-worst in the league with a 4.86 ERA and Manny Corpas headed for elbow surgery the Rockies added a pair of new right-handed relievers Thursday. Rafael Betancourt will work in a setup role after coming over from the Indians in exchange for mid-level prospect Connor Graham and in a far more surprising move he'll be joined by 21-year-old top prospect Jhoulys Chacin.

Chacin led the minors in wins last season while going 18-3 with a 2.03 ERA in 28 starts between two levels of Single-A and has been very solid while moving up to Double-A this year, but asking him to skip right past Triple-A and face big-league hitters in an unfamiliar role at the age of 21 seems like an odd decision even with the Rockies holding a small Wild Card lead. Long term, he's a No. 2 starter.

* Houston is 13-6 in July, but if the Astros are going to continue their second-half surge it'll have to come without Lance Berkman, who was put on the disabled list Thursday with a strained left calf. Berkman has been out of the starting lineup for five of the past six games, but general manager Ed Wade suggested that he may have been able to play through the injury "if we were in late September."

* Jose Guillen has been put on the disabled list with a Grade 2 tear of the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, suffered Wednesday while he was putting on a shin guard before an at-bat. Seriously. He went to the hospital after hearing a "pop" and complaining of "sudden right leg pain," and is now facing an extended stint on the sidelines that ends whatever chance the Royals had of trading him.

AL Quick Hits: Jarrod Washburn has given up a total of two runs in his last four starts after tossing seven shutout innings Thursday ... Rumors of St. Louis being after Matt Holliday are picking up steam ... Juan Rivera (hamstring) could rejoin the lineup this weekend after an MRI exam showed no major damage ... General manager J.P. Ricciardi said Thursday that Roy Halladay isn't interesting in inking extension with the Blue Jays ... Brian Anderson has requested a trade from the White Sox, who'd deal him if they could ... Glen Perkins isn't expected to miss a start despite being diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis ... Several sources report that the Angels are interested in Scott Kazmir, who was on the losing end of the perfect game ... Meanwhile, the Rays are reportedly talking to the Indians about Cliff Lee ... Bartolo Colon came off the disabled list Thursday and will rejoin the rotation ... Alex Rios swiped three bases Thursday, giving him 18 on the year.

NL Quick Hits: Dan Haren allowed more than three runs Thursday for the second time this season ... Mike Gonzalez exited Thursday's game after being hit on the forearm by a comebacker, but X-rays were negative ... Adam Wainwright's sixth straight Quality Start was a rain-shortened complete-game win Thursday ... Kelly Johnson came off the disabled list Thursday after batting .308 in a dozen rehab games, but Martin Prado has surpassed him at second base ... Ryan Dempster could return as soon as this weekend after X-rays showed "excellent healing" in his broken toe ... Scott Olsen should be ready for spring training after no further damage was found during his labrum surgery Thursday ... Albert Pujols received a routine day off Thursday, with Mark DeRosa filling in at first base ... Barry Zito allowed one run on three hits in seven innings Thursday for his third Quality Start in four tries.

They're starting to fly like crazy, so we may as well throw them out there like so much pasta at so many walls:

-- The Brewers are supposedly "serious players" for Halladay. I'm not buying it. For one thing, they went that route last year with Sabathia and I doubt they'd do it again. For another, the rumor comes from Jon Heyman and he's pretty much always wrong.

-- Nick Cardafo of the Boston Globe thinks that Theo Epstein's little moves yesterday with LaRoche and Duncan suggests that he's going to make a play for Halladay. Maybe so. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to try and turn Clay Buchholz into a big bat while his value is still high, too, because based on his first couple of big league starts he looks like he has nibbler's disease.

-- Morosi has a bunch of stuff: The Indians may trade Cliff Lee to the Rays, though it could take a three-way trade to make that happen. The Twins could use infield help and may be thinking Orlando Cabrera or one of the Pirates' guys. Finally, it appears that no one is all that interested in Matt Holliday. My guess is that he's going to be acquired in exchange for some magic beans right before the deadline next Friday, because the A's probably need the couple of million he's owed more than they need the draft pick he'd bring when he walks after ths season.

As always, these rumors are guaranteed to be 100% dicey, doubtful and dubious, or your money back!

What if there was a competing major league, set up by an undisputed genius, located in major cities, broadcast on pay cable and set up so that everyone shared revenue and TV money so as not to give one team a Yankees-like financial advantage? Neat idea? Well, they already had that idea and it didn't work out as planned:

Monday is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Continental League, and it is understandable if the moment does not trigger a flood of happy associations or, for that matter, any memories at all.

The Continental was to be Major League Baseball's third league: an eight-team circuit that would, in the view of its architect, spread the game across the land, ensuring its position as America's pre-eminent spectator sport. That the vision for the league came from Branch Rickey, the sport's éminence grise, gave it instant and national legitimacy, so much so that on the day it was officially announced, July 27, 1959, reporters flooded the Biltmore Hotel to chronicle the event.

Fascinating article that presages a book on the Continental League by its author, Michael Shapiro. Definitely check it out if you have a moment or two.

GM Dayton Moore thinks the Royals are "on the right track."

Know what? Just about all these trains were on the right track too. Like the Royals, however, they were driven off the damn rails.

The Red Sox are going to retire Jim Rice's number. Fair enough. He fits the criteria the Sox have articulated for the honor: (1) Election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; and (2) at least 10 years played with the Red Sox.

Can someone then tell me why Wade Boggs doesn't have his number retired? He had 11 seasons with the Sox, made the Hall of Fame, and was a heck of a lot better player than Jim Rice ever was. The only answer anyone has ever given me is that they have an unwritten rule that you had to have finished your career with Boston as well. If that's the case then, it's (a) been broken already with Carlton Fisk; and (b) it's patently stupid. If the Yankees had such a rule Melky Cabrera could wear Babe Ruth's number three given that he ended his career with the Braves. If the Braves had it, Dale Murphy never would have been able to wear his number 3 -- Ruth had it, natch -- and Jeff Francoeur would have been able to sport Hank Aaron's 44. I don't think we'd need to worry about anyone wearing Francoeur's number for obvious reasons.

In light of all of that I can only assume that the Red Sox haven't retired Boggs' number out of spite because he went and got a ring with the Yankees. Which I suppose would be a good reason if Babe Ruth hadn't won a title with the Sox before he came to New York.

Man the whole Yankees-Sox thing is idiotic.

Via MLB Trade Rumors, news that the Mets plan on being buyers, not sellers at the deadline:

Omar Minaya veered off into fantasy land here today. Incredibly, the New York Mets ' GM said he doesn't expect to be a seller before the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline because he still thinks his sub-.500 team has a chance at the NL wild card . . .

. . . "Right now we do not envision [being a seller]," Minaya said. "If we're 6 ½ [back] in the wild card with a couple of teams in front of us, we are still kind of trying to find out how we can improve this team, if we can improve it through trades."

In Omar's defense, the Mets do have a lot of things they need. Like, a decent player at every position except third base, most of a bullpen, three or four starting pitchers and at least a shred of hope and dignity. They could probably use a manager, a GM, and a VP of Player Development that isn't bat@!$%# crazy too.

Braves 4, Giants 2: "Ladies and gentlemen: the part of Tim Lincecum will be performed tonight by Jair Jurrjens." (7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 9K).

A's 16, Twins 1: The A's scored so much so early that starter Trevor Cahill had to run down to the bullpen to warm up again while his teammates were up to bat. Or maybe the fact that they were actually scoring like this just blew his effing mind and he needed some alone time to get it together. This is like a fortnight's worth of offense for this team. Yeah, forsooth I said fortnight.

Nationals 3, Mets 1: Bad: the Mets losing two of three to the Nats. Worse: rumor has it that, after the game, V.P. of player development Tony Bernazard drove a Cadillac into the hotel swimming pool, blew up a toilet with cherry bombs, and challenged the security staff to an "I quit" match, Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum T.A.-style. Bernazard is expected to be fired later this week, and replaced by either former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones or by Lex Luger.

Dodgers 6, Reds 2: Pinch hit grand slam for Manny in the sixth to break a 2-2 tie! Wow! Oh, wait, I forgot: We're not supposed to be enjoying this. Bad Manny. Bad, bad, bad. You have ruined baseball.

Yankees 6, Orioles 4: The Bombers are rolling. If you don't believe it, just read the game stories which talk about how they've won six in a row, 16 of their last 19, 19 of their last 26, LVII of their last XCIV, etc. I'm sure there are other ways that could be expressed, but I don't know how to do exponents and quadratic equations and all of that stuff.

Blue Jays 10, Indians 6: I'm glad I didn't stick with that "Major League"-quote-until-a-three-game-winning-streak gag from a few weeks ago, because I'd be out of material and moving on to the Tony Danza version of "Angels in the Outfield" by now. And man, between the Indians putridity and the sense of foreboding surrounding the Jays at the deadline, this series is more depressing than watching "Requiem for a Dream" while listening to a Morrissey box set.

Rangers 3, Red Sox 1: Don't worry, Red Sox Nation. Chris Duncan will be there in time for Friday's game against the Orioles and make all the hurtin' go away. And how is it that Buchholz was so dominating in Pawtucket but can't avoid throwing 90 pitches in four innings in the bigs? Do they just offer up at any weak, nibbling crap down in the International League, or is he pitching scared?

Astros 4, Cardinals 3: If Chris Carpenter thinks he was betrayed by his bullpen, just wait until he has Julio Lugo playing behind him in five days.

Mariners 2, Tigers 1: Felix Hernandez bottles up the Tigers (7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 8K) and Russell Branyan hits a two-run homer in the eighth to take a close one. Also, as my CTB homey Matt Casey noted yesterday, David Aardsma is pretty Aawesome. On the year he has converted 23 of 25 saves, has an ERA of 1.79 and has struck out 55 in 45.1 IP.

Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 3: From the "fast facts" section of ESPN's version of the game story: "Todd Helton's 11th homer of the season and 500th double of his career carried the Rockies. Helton joined Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams as the only players with 500 doubles, 320 homers and a .325 batting average since 1900." Talk about trying to make a good player seem better than he is via selective endpoints. I haven't seen that much gerrymandering since Patrick Henry and the Anti-Federalists drew the boundaries of Virginia's 5th Congressional district in such a way as to keep James Madison out of the House of Representatives in 1788!

White Sox 4, Rays 3: Chad Bradford had a line that you don't see every day: 0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0K, 0 pitches. Unfortunately it was because he hurt himself after he was announced but before he completed throwing his warm-up pitches. An Alexi Ramirez triple followed by a Jermaine Dye RBI single in the seventh was the difference maker for the Sox.

Marlins 5, Padres 0: I think they scheduled this one as a matinee simply so I wouldn't mail in the recap as I so often do with the late games. Probably should have kept it a night game, San Diego, because now that I have more time and alertness to comment on this tilt, I can truly focus on just how wretched a club you have become. Three hits. All singles. Ten strikeouts. Barf. Yet they were still in the game until the late innings. At least until the bullpen coughed up three more runs. Man, if only they had a moderately effective reliever to help out. Oops. Well, trades mean tradeoffs, right? Oops, the guy they got for Meredith didn't even play. The Padres are 12-33 since the first of June, which is the worst in baseball. I repeat: for nearly half of the season, the Padres have been worse than the Nats and the Royals.

Cubs 10, Phillies 6: The Phillies Phinally lose. "Zambrano pitched well. He had good stuff," Piniella said after the game. OK, Lou, whatever you say (6.2 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 3 BB). I guess if you win you had "good stuff" by definition?

Pirates 8, Brewers 7: Who the hell is Adam LaRoche? Garrett Jones: 3-4, HR; Andy LaRoche: 1-3, 2B, RBI. The fans are happy. His brother kept it together. They'll all soldier on somehow.

Angels 9, Royals 6: Do you get full credit for a big rally when it comes against the Royals? I mean, first you have to fall behind this pathetic team, and that's kind of embarrassing, and knocking around this bullpen to erase the deficit is easier than knocking around any other bullpen. I guess what I'm saying is that we need some kind of handicapping system here.

Boston was busy Wednesday afternoon, getting Adam LaRoche from the Pirates for a pair of marginal prospects before swapping Julio Lugo to the Cardinals for Chris Duncan. Eating most of the $13.5 million remaining on Lugo's deal allowed the Red Sox to get a potentially useful player in return, although Duncan's stock is down dramatically over the past two years and he'll head to Triple-A for now.

Lugo is expected to assume a fairly big role for the Cardinals, pushing Brendan Ryan for playing time at shortstop while also being an option at second base and third base. His bat remains useful and his lack of range following knee surgery is less of an issue at another spot, but Tony La Russa and company will soon learn that Lugo simply isn't capable of playing a decent shortstop right now.

While dumping Lugo for whatever they could get became a no-brainer for Boston the move to add LaRoche is more interesting. He figures to be a part-time player if everyone else is healthy, essentially providing insurance for Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis, and David Ortiz. LaRoche's struggles against left-handers won't be an issue if Lowell is healthy and he's a career .275/.347/.500 hitter versus righties.

If nothing else he's a sizable upgrade over Mark Kotsay and the Red Sox may be one of the few teams that can afford to pay $3 million for 50 games of a part-time player. Rather than wait to see if he'd fetch draft picks as a Type B free agent the Pirates chose to cash LaRoche in for Argenis Diaz, a 22-year-old shortstop with lots of glove and little bat, and 21-year-old right-hander Hunter Strickland.

While the Red Sox get a jump on the trading deadline and the Pirates continue their never-ending rebuild, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Jordan Zimmermann has been one of the few bright spots for the Nationals this season, posting a 4.63 ERA and impressive 92/29 K/BB ratio in 91.1 innings as a 23-year-old rookie who basically skipped Triple-A. Unfortunately he was placed on the disabled list Wednesday with right elbow soreness. There's no timetable yet for his return, but fellow 23-year-old Collin Balester will take his rotation spot.

* Bobby Jenks has allowed runs in four of his last five outings, but Ozzie Guillen made it clear Wednesday that he's in no danger of losing closer duties. "He's my closer and if people don't want him to be my closer, don't come to the God damn game," Guillen said. Despite those comments it was Matt Thornton closing out a one-run lead Wednesday night with Jenks having worked on back-to-back days.

AL Quick Hits: Vicente Padilla was scratched from his Wednesday start with the flu, so Dustin Nippert held the Red Sox to one run in 5.2 innings for his first win since last September ... Glen Perkins could be headed for the disabled list after complaining of shoulder soreness after Wednesday's brutal effort ... Juan Rivera (hamstring) missed his fourth straight game Wednesday ... Kevin Slowey (wrist) will begin a rehab assignment Saturday at Triple-A ... Clay Buchholz struggled Wednesday while subbing for Tim Wakefield, leaving after throwing 90 pitches in four innings ... Felix Hernandez allowed just one run Wednesday while throwing at least seven innings for the ninth straight start ... Armando Galarraga gave up just one hit in 7.2 innings Wednesday, but got stuck with a no-decision ... Nelson Cruz (finger) returned to the lineup Wednesday by going 2-for-2 with two walks and two steals.

NL Quick Hits: Manny Corpas may miss the rest of the season following surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow ... Manny Ramirez was out of Wednesday's lineup after being plunked on the hand, but delivered a pinch-hit grand slam into the "Mannywood" section at Dodger Stadium... Garrett Jones went deep again Wednesday, giving him nine homers in 17 games ... Jason Marquis' next start has been pushed back to Tuesday thanks to a finger blister ... Chris Carpenter tossed eight innings of two-run ball Wednesday before Ryan Franklin blew the lead ... Edinson Volquez (elbow) reported zero problems after a bullpen session Wednesday ... Ricky Nolasco struck out 10 and combined with three relievers on a three-hit shutout Wednesday ... Josh Willingham snapped a 0-for-14 slump by going 4-for-4 with a homer Wednesday ... Jair Jurrjens beat Tim Lincecum while retiring 17 straight batters Wednesday ... Tony La Russa said Wednesday that Todd Wellemeyer's rotation spot is safe for at least one more start.

Last week Stephen Strasburg was lamenting the fact that he hadn't heard from the Nationals. Seems that nothing has really changed:

The Washington Nationals are not on pace to sign top overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg by the Aug. 17 deadline, a source close to the negotiations told ESPN's Pedro Gomez on Tuesday . . . The source said that the Nats have had an ongoing dialogue with Strasburg's adviser, Scott Boras, but have made no offer other than the mandatory minor league tender that all clubs must make to their picks within 10 days of the draft.

As I said last week, the Nats shouldn't cave in to Boras, but if they can't get this kid signed or at least make a strong, strong effort to do so, the seven Nats fans that are left are totally going to bolt.

UPDATE: The Washington Times is calling the "no progress report" bunk, though that's coming from a team source that has every reason to paint a rosier picture than actually exists. Of course, if Pedro Gomez's "source close to the negotiations" is with the Boras camp, then his source has every reason to paint a more gloomy picture than actually exists.

Damn, I can't believe it's only been a day and I've already forgotten that "don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear" rule.

The article you thought you'd never see in the New York tabloids: A-Rod, Clutch God!

But for now we have to admit that the Yankees with Rodriguez this season have been something very different than the Yankees without him. More often than not, A-Rod's moments have meant something in the standings.

OK, that's a bit deceiving, because the rest of the article catalogs -- unfairly as usual -- all of the tired arguments the New York press has deployed against Rodriguez. He beats up on losing teams. He gets big hits when it doesn't matter. He wilts when it does. He's probably not the Antichrist, but he plays bridge with him once a week. You know the drill.

But this article actually acknowledges that the Yankees are better with Alex Rodriguez than without him, and that represents progress.

The Phillies have won ten in a row, the Mets stink, and even though I'm a fan, I'm not sure the Braves have a high enough gear in their transmission to catch up. In light of that, Philadelphia probably doesn't need much more help this season. Unfortunately for their competition, however, they look like they could be getting it:

Pedro Martinez has taken a "really big step" forward after throwing 64 pitches over four innings in a simulated game. The Philadelphia Phillies' new right-hander faced hitters for the first time in 11 days on Tuesday and afterwards said he was excited about the outing.

"Real, real good," Martinez said. "Four innings, I was able to do that. I didn't feel tired. I felt like I could still do a little bit more."

Yeah, anyone can feel good at the driving range and then go out and hit for crap, but the fact that Pedro felt good after throwing that many pitches is a good sign. Given his stamina issues over the past couple of years I'm dubious that he'll be a truly effective starter, but if Charlie Manuel can break conventional bullpen habits, Martinez could certainly be useful as an uber-reliever, serving as a setup guy sometimes, a spot starter other times and a secondary closer whenever the need arises. Kind of a Swiss Army knife of a swingman, deployed in such a way as to better preserve the other arms and to maybe even allow starters to come back on shorter rest during the playoffs.

Little things like that can make the difference.

The Jays are imposing their own trade deadline, and confirming my long-held suspicions about the unlikelihood of trading Doc Halladay:

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi still hasn't received an appropriate trade offer for Roy Halladay, and has set a July 28 deadline to complete a deal for the 2003 Cy Young Award winner.

"At this point, it's probably unlikely that we'll trade Doc," Ricciardi said Tuesday.

Ricciardi says that the the early deadline is necessary because any Halladay deal is going to be complicated, but my suspicion is that it serves two other purposes, one kind of minor and one a bit more significant.

The minor one is that it creates a bit more pressure for teams that really want Halladay to get moving. The more significant one is to give Ricciardi a couple of days to gut the rest of the roster if Halladay is, in fact, traded. Because let's be honest, if Halladay is gone, the fans are going to stop showing up, there will be no need to keep up appearances, and the Jays will deal anything that isn't nailed down.

But I think the real thing to take away from this is that Ricciardi isn't getting anywhere near the offers he needs to unload Doc, and for that reason, he's not likely to be dealt.

I understand the problem, but this solution seems rather troublesome to me:

Confronted with cases of identity and age falsification by Latin American baseball prospects, Major League Baseball is conducting genetic testing on some promising young players and their parents.

Many experts in genetics consider such testing a violation of personal privacy. Federal legislation, signed into law last year and scheduled to take effect Nov. 21, prohibits companies based in the United States from asking an employee, a potential employee or a family member of an employee for a sample of their DNA . . . Last week the Yankees voided the signing of an amateur from the Dominican Republic after a DNA test conducted by Major League Baseball's department of investigations showed that the player had misrepresented his identity.

As explained in the article, this is an area of science and medicine fraught with ethical landmines. This may be the best quote: "The funny thing about this all is that the most famous baseball player with a genetic disorder was Lou Gehrig. Would they have signed him if they knew he was predisposed to A.L.S.?" Not sure if that's as big a concern as it would be in an office setting -- baseball is generally done with its people by the time they reach the age genetic diseases start to affect them -- but it's not as if there aren't other concerns.

What happens when a team, looking to verify someone's biological information, finds out that their shortstop prospect isn't really the son of the man he thought was his father? What happens later, when a player reaches free agency and the team who signed him knows X about his predisposition to bone or ligament injury because they conducted the tests out of the country while other teams -- presumably subject to the new law -- do not and cannot?

I'm sympathetic to the teams in all of this because they're paying out huge amounts of money to players who are quite often lying to them and, unlike any other kind of business transaction, it's not as if they can easily sue to get their money back if fraud is discovered. Absent testing, that signing bonus is going to be long gone by the time a guy's true age comes to light, and the courts in the Dominican Republic may not be too terribly welcoming to the teams. Once a player reaches Miguel Tejada's age suing becomes impractical for numerous reasons, both legal and otherwise.

But are we cool with this? I'll take argument on either side of it, but it gives me some vaguely Orwellian chills.

Nationals 4, Mets 0: Not to take too much away from John Lannan (CG, SHO, 7 H, 1K 0 BB), but David Wright was the only player in the Mets' lineup who has any business starting for a Major League team, let alone one that still pretends that it's contending.

Indians 2, Blue Jays 1: Cliff Lee's starts are beginning to take on the air of street sale rather than a baseball game:

Live from 47th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue-you can't miss it!-it's SABRA PRICE IS RIGHT! Alright so let's go with the game then. Here is the host, URI SHURINSON!

Uri: Alright-alright-alright! Good-good-good! Yes-yes, welcome-welcome to Sabra Price Is Right! I am Uri! Okay so we show you beautiful merchandise; and you people, you guess price. So okay let's look at first merchandise!

[Shot: 30 year-old lefthander]

Harvey: Alright is Cliff Lee! Is pitcher from Cleveland. Is good! (CG, 7 H, 1 ER, 4 K 0 BB)

Uri: Okay-okay now who can tell me the correct price for the Cliff Lee?

Brewers 2, Pirates 0: Milwaukee blanks the Pirates. And Braden Looper beaned five guys because Kevin Young hit a homer off of Doug Jones back in May of 1998. Maybe you think that's extreme, but that's just how the Brew Crew rolls.

Angels 8, Royals 5: You're not going to believe this, but Sidney Ponson got rocked (5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER). Jose Guillen drove in two. It's amazing what you can do when you take ownership over your problems.

Yankees 6, Orioles 4: Neyer yesterday:

The Yankees are probably good enough to get into the playoffs with Sergio Mitre in their rotation ... but is it really worth the risk? And I'm sorry, but I just don't believe it must take a month to get Hughes conditioned for 100 pitches. Anyway, why is that the threshold for acceptability? How many times do the Yankees think that Mitre's going to last for 100 pitches?

Last night's results: 91 pitches, even when pitching with a four-run lead. It's great that he won and everything, but is there any doubt that Phil Hughes could do at least that and maybe save the bullpen some innings?

Braves 8, Giants 1: It's amazing what ridding your lineup of automatic outs can do. With Jordan Schafer, Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur gone, the Braves have been on an offensive tear. In this one, Martin Prado had three hits and scored three runs and Brian McCann hit a three-run homer and drove in four. Now if only the Phillies would lose a game . . .

Phillies 4, Cubs 1: Damn. Jayson Werth with a walkoff three-run homer in the bottom of the 13th.

Tigers 9, Mariners 7: Not a lot of pitching in this one, as seven homers were hit, two by Jack Hannahan of the Ms and one grand slam by Magglio Ordonez. Franklin Gutierrez slammed into the wall and had to leave the game, but x-rays were negative. Which, strangely enough, is a positive thing.

Rangers 4, Red Sox 2: Losing four of five out the gate in the second half is probably not what the Sox had in mind, but that's what happens when you can't figure out rookies with names like Tommy Hunter. They should trade him to the Braves to team up with Hanson. Both "Hunter & Hanson" and "Tommy and Tommy" sound like 1980s action/adventure shows that I totally would have watched back then. It would air right before "Riptide" and right after "The A-Team."

Rays 3, White Sox 2: Bobby Jenks loaded the bases in the ninth but got out of it on Monday night, but last night he wasn't so lucky. Coming in with a one run lead, Jenks allowed single-HBP-single-walk-sacrifice-hit-walk before getting out of it. Spoiled a nice Clayton Richard start too (8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7K).

Astros 11, Cardinals 6: This has to have been Todd Wellemeyer's last start for the Cardinals, no? That one nice start against the Giants back on July 2nd didn't buy him a mile of rope, did it? Wandy Rodriguez (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER), Carlos Lee (grand slam) and Miguel Tejada (2-3, 3 RBI) lead the charge for the Astros.

Angels 10, Royals 2: Erik Aybar was a beast in this doubleheader, smacking seven hits between the two games. He's also 24 for his last 43. Kansas City used nine pitchers in yesterday's games.

Dodgers 12, Reds 3: I think the Homer Bailey experiment is nearing its end as he has a 14.53 ERA over his past two starts and isn't fooling anyone. And I'd like to think that this Dusty Baker quote was meant as a dig at Joe Torre, though it probably wasn't: "You know you've got a good lineup when your eighth hitter's hitting .320-something. I don't know If I've seen that ever." He's referring to Matt Kemp, of course, who has no business hitting eighth. Not that it's hurting the Dodgers at the moment or anything.

Twins 3, A's 2: Runs were a bit more scarce in this one. And, unlike yesterday, Mike Muchlinski called Michael Cuddyer safe when it mattered, this time on his 10th inning RBI triple.

Marlins 3, Padres 2: I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about this game, so I'll just note that "Stripes" was on AMC last night. It's been years since I've seen it, and yes, it holds up. Lee Harvey, you are a madman. When you stole that cow, and your friend tried to make it with the cow. I want to party with you, cowboy. If the two of us together, forget it.

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 5: Same here, really. Sorry, I guess last nights west coast games just aren't speaking to me like Monday night's did. C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

Clay Buchholz is back in Boston's rotation after making a spot start last week, as the Red Sox put Tim Wakefield on the disabled list Tuesday. Wakefield, who was picked for his first All-Star game last week, tweaked his lower back while tossing a bullpen session Saturday and the AL co-leader in wins will have to wait a while for victory No. 12.

Buchholz will pitch in Wakefield's place Wednesday against the Rangers after he allowed one run in 5.2 innings versus the Blue Jays last week. He struggled with Boston last season, going 2-9 with a 6.75 ERA in 76 innings, but Buchholz is still just 24 years old and has definitely earned another chance after going 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA and 89/30 K/BB ratio in 99 innings at Triple-A. He has AL-only value.

While the Red Sox's vaunted starting pitching depth continues to come in handy, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Scott Olsen will miss the remainder of this season following surgery to repair a partially torn labrum, but the good news is that he should be fully healthy in time for spring training. Had it been a fully torn labrum Olsen would've been facing at least 12 months of recovery and rehab, but the Nationals' team doctor described this surgery as "just a clean-up procedure." Healthy or not, he's a question mark.

* Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi revealed Tuesday that he's set a July 28 deadline to deal Roy Halladay, adding: "At this point it's probably unlikely that we'll trade Doc" because "no one has really stepped up yet" with a big offer. July 28 is the deadline because Halladay is scheduled to start on July 29 against the Mariners, although my guess is that a great offer on July 30 would be listened to.

* Hours after some doofus at Circling the Bases suggested that he might be a better trade target than Halladay, Cliff Lee allowed one run in a complete-game victory against none other than the Blue Jays. Two straight complete-game wins have his ERA down to 3.17 and Tuesday's gem involved outlasting rookie Brett Cecil's seven shutout innings.

* Failing to make it out of the third inning in back-to-back outings earned Andrew Miller a trip back to the minors Tuesday. Miller's raw stuff has always been good enough to dominate and he has 206 strikeouts in 258 career innings, but horrible control has too often been his undoing with 143 walks. Also of note is that Miller initially looked like an extreme ground-ball pitcher, but has been neutral recently.

* Gaby Sanchez was recalled from Triple-A to take Miller's roster spot and could get a shot at third base if the Marlins finally realize that Emilio Bonifacio's great speed doesn't make up for a .617 OPS and bad defense. Sanchez hit just .281 with nine homers in 60 games at Triple-A and is already 25 years old, but batted .314/.404/.513 with 17 homers, 42 doubles, and 17 steals at Double-A last year.

AL Quick Hits: John Danks has been scratched from his scheduled Wednesday start with a blister on his index finger ... Carlos Guillen has put his rehab stint on hold to have his sore shoulder examined by a team doctor ... Franklin Gutierrez is day-to-day with left knee and left elbow contusions after violently crashing into the outfield wall Tuesday ... Justin Duchscherer (elbow) threw a simulated game Tuesday and could begin a rehab assignment next week ... Clayton Richard got a no-decision for the best start of his career Tuesday, allowing one run in eight innings ... Jack Hannahan homered twice Tuesday to double his hit total with the Mariners ... Josh Beckett lost Tuesday for the first time since June 14, giving up four runs in eight innings ... Sergio Mitre won for the first time since July of 2007 in his Yankees debut Tuesday ... Jeff Niemann won his fifth straight decision by tossing eight innings of two-run ball Tuesday, whiffing seven and walking none.

NL Quick Hits: Lance Berkman will rest for a few days after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 calf strain ... Ryan Dempster is slated to have his broken toe X-rayed Thursday and may then be cleared to throw ... Jim Riggleman finally got into the win column Tuesday with John Lannan's first complete-game shutout ... Brandon Phillips was benched Tuesday after not running out a fly ball Monday ... Braden Looper combined with three relievers to shut out the Pirates on Tuesday ... John Maine (shoulder) faced Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado in a 65-pitch simulated game Tuesday ... Mark DeRosa homered twice Tuesday for his second straight multi-hit game ... Ryan Sadowski's deal with the devil finally ran out Tuesday, as he coughed up eight runs ... Manny Ramirez left Tuesday's game and was taken for X-rays after being hit on the hand by a pitch ... Oliver Perez allowed four runs in six innings Tuesday and has a 12/17 K/BB ratio since rejoining the Mets.

I promise that this is my last Roy Halladay post of the day. Unless I'm inspired to write another, anyway. Anyway:

Peter Gammons: "Phillies must make trade for Halladay"

This would be the same Phillies team that is now 6.5 games up? I mean sure, he'd be nice to have around, but do you really mortgage the future for a marginal improvement in a race you already stand an excellent chance of winning easily? Gammons says in the article that "One player does make a huge difference," with the implication that in the postseason, having that ace could mean the difference between a championship or going home empty handed. History, however, doesn't bear that out.

The Brewers may have made the postseason because of CC Sabathia, but he didn't get them anywhere in the playoffs. Same with the Cubs and Rich Harden. Go back further and the story repeats itself with the 1987 Detroit Tigers and Doyle Alexander. Same goes for just about every team to trade for an arm at the deadline in recent history, because in the past 30 years, the only starting pitcher acquired midseason to win a World Series game was St. Louis' Jeff Weaver in 2006, and he was a salary dump. [CORRECTION: I forgot Joe Blanton last year, but I don't know that that changes anything]. Weigh all that against the guys who were traded away for those putative final pieces of the puzzle: John Smoltz, Jeff Bagwell, Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek. The list goes on and on.

Sure, Halladay is a special talent. And yes, maybe it's a different calculus if the Phillies and Mets were locked in an epic battle for first place. But they're not. The Phillies, in all probability, are not going to have any trouble making the playoffs. Once they get there, fate will play a greater role in determining whether they repeat as champions than any one player's fastball.

It would be nice to have Roy Halladay. If the Jays decide to sell him at a bargan price you certainly make the deal. They are not, however, in a "must" situation with this, and to the extent Gammons or anyone else argues that they are, they're mistaken.

Terrence Moore on steroids and the Hall of Fame:

Reggie Jackson is right. So is Jim Rice, along with Rick Telander, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, who joins me as a baseball Hall of Fame voter and as a hardliner who agrees with Jackson and Rice:

No steroids guys in Cooperstown.

No Roger Clemens. No Barry Bonds. No Mark McGwire. No Sammy Sosa. No Rafael Palmeiro. No Alex Rodriguez. Nobody within a syringe of evidence showing they were artificially enhanced during any portion of their playing career.

Great, Terrence. And as soon as you tell us how you're going to figure out who did and who didn't do steroids, we'll implement your plan. The greater problem with Moore's column, however, comes after he raises and then ignores the "how do we know who used" question:

That brings us back to the BBWAA, which allows Hall of Fame voters to use their own interpretation of rules that are vague but specific. The rules say each voter should consider a player's "record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."

As a Hall of Fame voter, I'm a strict constructionist. To me, the key words in those rules are "integrity" and "character." You don't have integrity or character by using steroids. So no Hall of Fame entry for any of these knuckleheads.

Simple.

Actually, a strict constructionist wouldn't so easily latch on to two of the six criteria and ignore the other four. To the contrary, he'd be required to figure out how the character and integrity aspects of the test interact with the record, playing ability, sportsmanship, and contributions to the teams on which the player played, because those are all part of the test too.

If it were me, I'd weigh the factors against one another, and if it were a close call, I'd keep the guy out. Such an approach might counsel that you allow in a Barry Bonds, whose clear ability and performance over the years -- including the years during which even his most vehement accusers admit he wasn't using -- likely outweighs whatever boost he received from whatever substances he was taking. On the contrary, it may counsel that you keep out a Rafael Palmiero, who has a much closer Hall of Fame case and a much more nebulous drug history than that of Barry Bonds.

Or maybe you approach it a different way. I don't know. What I do know is that taking the mindless approach Moore advocates -- even calling it "simple" -- is no way to do it. Because it's not simple. It's complicated. And more importantly, it's Terrence Moore's job and the job of the other BBWAA members to deal with. If they're simply going to abdicate their responsibilities in this regard, they should give the task to someone who wont.

Keith Law and others are now reporting that the whole Halladay-offered-to-the-Mets rumor that SI's Jon Heyman was peddling last night is bogus.

It makes one wonder if Omar Minaya -- who is very clearly Jon Heyman's source with respect to other stuff -- just made it up and gave it to Heyman in order to deflect criticism for not doing anything proactive to fix the team. Sort of a "hey, I could go get Halladay if I wanted to right now, but the Jays are asking for too much," kind of statement. Though, as I said earlier today, I don't think that would be asking too much.

Anyway, the Mets-Halladay rumor being bogus makes way more sense than any of the specifics of the rumor itself does. It also illustrates just how nuts rumor season can be. At times like these I just do what Lou Reed said to do: Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.

Jon Heyman, Sports Illustrated: "Mets' manager Manuel, GM Minaya assured jobs are safe."

Adam Rubin, New York Daily News: "Sources: Omar Minaya's job as Mets GM not safe despite contract."

Call me crazy, but someone here is gonna need a new source when all of this is done.

"I hate making excuses. If I suck, then I suck. And I suck. That's the way I'm playing. If you suck, you suck. You have to take responsibility in this game. Right now, that's the way I feel. Yes, I suck. I'm embarrassed by the money that I making, and playing the way I've been playing. I'll swear that on my kids' (lives). I feel very embarrassed. Sometimes, I feel I should take money out of my own pocket and buy tickets for every fan. Because you know what? For a $12 million man, these are not the numbers you should be expecting. I admit it. I'm not playing to my potential."

-- Jose Guillen, taking all the fun out of ripping him. I mean really, how are any of us going to top that?

I mentioned nine potential trading partners in my silly little Roy Halladay post yesterday, but I didn't mention the Mets who, unlike most of those other teams, apparently received and rejected a proposal from the Jays. The rumor comes via TwitterSpeak from Jon Heyman:

#mets rejected request of package of f-mart, niese, parnell and ruben tejada for halladay. #jays

That would be Francisco Martinez, Bobby Parnell, Jon Niese and Ruben Tejada. Which, despite what Mets fans will tell you, is not some elite package or anything. If that's all it takes to get Halladay, I'm going to have to revise my "Halladay is not going anywhere" mantra.

I'm more interested in this from the Mets' perspective. I suspect saying no to this means that the Mets are acknowledging the reality of their situation, and that's that they're not in the playoff race this year. I further suspect that their saying no means that the Jays are making good on their "no one gets to talk to Halladay about extensions" threat from last week and/or that the Mets don't have the dough to spend on a Halladay extension. After all, the Mets have to do this deal if they think they're contenders or if they can be assured of having Halladay around for a while, because really, the requested package is less than they paid to get Johan Santana.

Of course there's one final possibility: The Mets are simply broke and can't pay the dude.

UPDATE: OK, maybe all of this is bogus.

(link via BTF)

Pirates 8, Brewers 5: Pittsburgh snaps their 17-game skid against Milwaukee, and the Brewers look pretty damn immature in defeat, plunking Jeff Karstens in what I guess was retaliation for him hitting Ryan Braun back in April. This despite the fact that they hit three Pirates the day after the Braun thing, and had an opportunity to hit Karstens if they wanted to the same day he hit Braun (why John Russell so frequently has his relief pitcher hitting is a topic for another day). Jason Kendall had to be restrained from, it appeared anyway, going after Pirates' pitching coach Joe Kerrigan, and then after the game kept calling him "Dave Kurwin," even after being corrected. So apparently Kendall is 6 years-old.

Athletics 14, Twins 13: You don't win a lot of games when your starter gives up 11 runs on 10 hits in 2.2 innings, but the A's did. Yep, the Twins led this game 12-2 at one point, but after Matt Holliday's grand slam in the seventh, followed immediately by a Jack Cust solo shot, the lead was history. Largest blown lead for the Twins in 25 years. Largest comeback for the A's in 84 years.

Dodgers 7, Reds 5: Jason Schmidt threw his first pitches in anger in over two years, and got the win to boot. Oh, and Manny Ramirez hit his 537th home run to pass Mickey Mantle into 15th place on the all-time list, which should inspire about 125 rage-filled, single-sentence paragraphs from Bill Plaschke or someone like him. Mantle was pure, you see. At least once you took away the booze and the speed and the painkillers.

Mets 6, Nationals 2: Jeff Francoeur! Livan Hernandez! Now if those two just keep on producing like we know they can, well, then, um . . . crap, this was a fluke, wasn't it?

Phillies 10, Cubs 1: Now that is seems the Phillies have figured out how to win at home, there seems to be nothing that can stop them. Jack Nicholson was at the game, and according to the game story, the Phanatic wore a Batman suit. That's kind of cool, but it would have been way cooler if he had dressed up like Nurse Ratched or the waitress who wouldn't hold the chicken. I mean, I love Batman as much as the next guy, but Nicholson has had better foils.

Braves 11, Giants 3: The Braves hit Jonathan Sanchez and then continued hitting Segio Romo. Tommy Hanson, on the other hand, was much harder to hit (7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 11K). And as Mac notes, not all of those earned runs were really "earned."

Astros 3, Cardinals 2: Carlos Lee hits a three-run homer, receives "stingy kisses."

White Sox 4, Rays 3: Carl Crawford hit an inside the park home run, but as is the case with so many of those things, it was the product of a bad defensive play. In this case, a crappy jump by Scott Podsednik. Sox won, anyhow, and are only a game and a half behind Detroit.

Rangers 6, Red Sox 3: There are a lot of smart people working for the Red Sox, so surely someone will soon realize that John Smoltz only pitches effectively for a few innings and then falls apart. If only there were some place he could pitch where his outings would be shorter, and maybe more frequent as opposed to longer and more sucky (5.2 IP, 9 H, 6 ER).

Yankees 2, Orioles 1: Eric Hinske has started off with a bang in New York, hitting four homers in his first five games. Jose Molina turned in two sweet plays behind the plate late in the game. No need to congratulate him, though. He's a Molina and that is what they do. Walkoff for Matsui, and after the game he was hit in the face with a cream pie. Those zany, zany Yankees.

Marlins 3, Padres 2: The Padres have lost 15 of 19. I'm assuming that will all turn around once Oscar Salazar gets a chance to play more.

Rockies 10, Diamondbacks 6: With Colorado's win and the Giants' loss, the Rockies take a half-game lead in the wild card standings. And no, I don't think it's too early to talk about it. There isn't a ton going on right now, so I'm totally cool with getting an early start on pennant race stuff.

Angels vs. Royals: Postponed: The fitful alternations of the rain/ When the chill wind, languid as with pain/ Of its own heavy moisture, here and there/ Drives through the gray and beamless atmosphere.

Jason Giambi was supposed to provide some power and patience in his return to Oakland, but like many of the A's recent moves things didn't go quite as planned. Giambi hit .193/.332/.364 through 83 games while costing the team even further with his horrible glove at first base, and was mercifully placed on the disabled list Monday with a strained right quadriceps muscle.

Giambi is on a one-year deal with a team option for 2010, so with Oakland out of the playoff picture there's no reason to rush the 38-year-old back. Daric Barton is taking his roster spot and will get another shot to show that he's capable of being an impact hitter. Barton is amazingly still only 23 years old, but so far he's hit just .239/.338/.383 over 170 games in the majors and slugged .432 at Triple-A.

While the A's pay $5.3 million for 328 plate appearances of a .697 OPS, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Starting for the first time since June of 2007, Jason Schmidt allowed three runs in the first inning Monday before recovering to throw four scoreless frames. Five innings of three-run ball is certainly a nice first start for Schmidt, but his final line wasn't pretty with two strikeouts versus three walks and his fastball was clocked in the mid-80s for most of the night.

* Chien-Ming Wang's chances of pitching again this season took a hit Monday as he experienced biceps soreness during a routine game of catch. "It's not exactly the news that I wanted," manager Joe Girardi said. "We were hoping two weeks' of rest would be enough for him to get on a throwing program. Does it mean he won't pitch this year? No, I'm not saying that."

* Scott Olsen might be facing shoulder surgery after an MRI exam revealed what interim manager Jim Riggled called "labrum issues." Labrum injuries are typically far more difficult to recover from than elbow injuries, or as Riggleman put it: "Any time you hear that word, we figure that's going to be a while." Olsen is probably at minimum finished for the season with a 2-5 record and 6.03 ERA in 11 starts.

* Frank Francisco landed on the disabled list Monday for the third time this year, but the good news is that his arm is fine. Instead he has what the Rangers called a mild case of pneumonia and because Francisco hasn't pitched in a game since July 10 he's eligible to return as soon as Sunday. C.J. Wilson will once again get ninth-inning duties in the meantime.

AL Quick Hits: Out since May with a torn tendon in his foot, Carlos Quentin came off the disabled list Monday and went 1-for-4 while batting sixth ... Nelson Cruz sat out his second straight game Monday with a fractured ring finger, but hopes to avoid the DL ... After struggling in 14 games atop the lineup, J.D. Drew slid to the sixth spot Monday while Jacoby Ellsbury led off ... David Hernandez rejoined the rotation Monday with six innings of one-run ball against the Yankees ... Chris Ray (biceps) is slated to begin a rehab stint Friday at Double-A ... Freddy Garcia threw a bullpen session Monday in front of Ozzie Guillen and pitching coach Don Cooper, and will head to the minors ... Mike Scioscia said Sunday that Vladimir Guerrero (knee) will be limited to designated hitter duties when he comes off the DL ... Gio Gonzalez was rocked for 11 runs in 2.2 innings Monday against a Joe Mauer-less Twins lineup, including seven RBIs from Justin Morneau.

NL Quick Hits: Mat Gamel was demoted back to the minors Monday following the Brewers' trade for Felipe Lopez ... Livan Hernandez likely saved his rotation spot with seven innings of two-run ball Monday ... Edinson Volquez (elbow) reported no problems following a bullpen session Monday and is due to throw twice more this week ... Jeff Francoeur went 3-for-4 with a homer Monday and is now hitting .345 in seven games with the Mets ... Pedro Martinez is set to throw a simulated game Tuesday before beginning a minor-league rehab assignment ... Jonathan Sanchez followed his no-hitter with three runs in six innings Monday ... General manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel have been told that their jobs are safe in New York ... Ted Lilly had been pitching well, but was rocked for nine runs in four innings Monday ... Fernando Nieve is expected to miss at least six weeks with a torn thigh muscle suffered Sunday.

Your latest dose of Roy Halladay "news"

-- He's going to the Phillies, Brewers, Rangers and Dodgers.

-- He's going to the Tigers, Twins and Red Sox.

-- Oh, and the White Sox.

-- And if you want to talk ancient history, you can go all the way back to last Wednesday and throw the Yankees into the mix too.

It's all so confusing, it's enough to make you cry.

With the passing of Walter Cronkite over the weekend, one pines for the days when the news happened before it was reported.

And for the record, I still don't think he's going to be traded by the deadline.

Get me, I'm clairvoyant. I said this on July 8th:

The Angels lose Vlad to a knee injury that, while maybe not terribly serious, has to be enough to keep him from ever playing the field again, right? I mean, he has to be a DH at this point, doesn't he?

The Angels said this yesterday:

The Angels plan to restrict Vladimir Guerrero to designated hitter for the rest of the season, raising the possibility that Angels fans have seen him play in right field for the last time.

If you want Tuesday night's Mega Millions numbers just wire me, like, a hundred bucks or so.

If you want something actually worth a damn, however, go read Jason's remembrance of Vlad's peak. He's having a hard time getting his mind around Guerrero not patrolling right field. I am too, actually. I suppose that's the consequence of watching him come up like a beast in the east, but having his physical decline take place on the west coast, where I've only rarely seen him in recent years.

In my mind, he's still in an Expos uniform unloading howitzer shots from right field.

As Matt mentioned over the weekend, it was Old Timers Day in Yankee Stadium yesterday. One of the timers was not so old:

At the new Yankee Stadium on Sunday, the former pitcher Mike Mussina was the newest Yankee old-timer and probably the most physically fit. He started the nostalgia game, allowing hits to the first four batters . . . When someone asked Mussina if he could come back for a partial season the way Roger Clemens did, Mussina smiled and shook his head.

"There's less than half a year left and it would take me a month, easy, to be even close to ready, and I don't know what ready would be for me," Mussina said. "Full speed might be 78 miles per hour . . . I can still play. It's just that there's a lot of other stuff involved, and sometimes that stuff wears you down. All the other old-timers are older than I am. But it's O.K. I'll be an old-timer the rest of my life."

Noted, but I can't help but think that he'd make about 20 rotations better than they currently are. Still, nice to see someone happy in retirement. It's rare that anyone leaves big time sports on their own terms, and rarer still that someone who does so sticks with it, and happily.

It's like he's the Anti-Favre.

This isn't the sort of trade that's going to alter the balance of power or anything, but it does have some gawk-appeal:

The San Diego Padres acquired infielder Oscar Salazar from the Baltimore Orioles for right-handed pitcher Cla Meredith on Sunday.

The trade became more urgent for San Diego after utilityman Edgar Gonzalez was hit in the head with a pitch on Saturday night and remained hospitalized Sunday. San Diego is expected to place Gonzalez on the DL. The brother of All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Edgar was still complaining of dizziness, ringing in his ears and a partial loss of hearing a day after the frightening beaning.

Not to take a thing away from the Edgar Gonzalez situation -- beanings are serious business -- but I'm not sure what was so "urgent" about this deal. The Padres aren't going anywhere this year, and unless they've made the organizational decision to go to a zone defense, they have a second baseman somewhere in the system who can serve as a utilityman in Gonzalez's absence.

What they or any other team don't have a lot of, however, are 26 year-old groundball machines, as The Hardball Times' Evan Brunell puts it. No, Meredith ain't the second coming of Dan Quisenberry or anything, but he does represent something of value in the game of baseball. The kind of which can and should bring more than a journeyman infielder like Oscar Salazar around the trade deadline.

Can anyone give me one good reason why Kevin Towers couldn't fill Gonzalez's hole with an organizational soldier for a week while seeing if he couldn't drum up a little bit more for a decent reliever than Oscar Salazar? Can't anyone point to a team a little more desperate to obtain him than the 40-50 Baltimore Orioles? Maybe this is just a little thing, but when you're a team like the Padres, the little things add up.

Whenever you have a chance to give a vote of confidence to an unpopular manager who has led the team to a 112-140 record amidst sloppy play, you have to do it. You just do:

The criticism isn't likely to go away soon, but at least now Royals manager Trey Hillman knows he won't, either. The news came in a story published in The Star on Sunday, with general manager Dayton Moore saying that Hillman would "absolutely" be back as manager in 2010. "For our general manager to say that," Hillman said, "it certainly gives you a boost of confidence, no doubt, and I'm appreciative of that."

OK, that's not fair. Hillman is no great shakes, but if you have to point to a guy who has sunk this team -- as opposed to say the Fates or Karma or whatever -- that guy is Dayton Moore. Which makes one wonder, by the way, how much a vote of confidence from a GM who himself deserves to be fired is really worth.

On Friday I relayed the news of the contract offers given by the Pirates to Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson. When I did, I said "I can't recall an instance of Pirates' GM Neal Huntington playing games with players." Well, here's an instance of it:

The Pirates yesterday pulled back their contract extension offers to Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez and, though they remain open to new negotiations, there was no indication any are forthcoming. "That time has come and gone," general manager Neal Huntington said of the offers' lifespan. "They feel like we're awfully light both in years and dollars. In our minds, the conversations are at a standstill . . . Typically, in a negotiation, you get a counter-offer. That's how conversations continue. We've not gotten that to this point."

I love how Huntington is trying to make Wilson and Sanchez sound like the bad guys here. But listen to Wilson: "Answer me this: How can we respond with counter-offers when we were told that those were take-it-or-leave-it offers? How do you counter that?" And then listen to Huntington again:

"A year ago, I was an idiot for extending Freddy for $6 million. And now, I'm an idiot for not being willing to give him a heck of a lot more than that. In Jack's case, he has played terrific defense for us, maybe the best of his career. But this is the fourth of five years that he's been a below-average league bat for his position. So, we've got to be realistic in our evaluations."

Except that, according to the wire reports, he wasn't offering "a heck of a lot more than that":

Sanchez was offered $10 million over two seasons, a deal contingent upon him shelving the $8.4 million he will be owed in 2010 if he makes 600 plate appearances this season. Wilson, the most tenured Pirates player with nine seasons in uniform, was offered $8 million over two years - or less than his club option of $8.4 million for next season alone.

To sum up: Sanchez was given an option by Neal Huntington that rewarded good consistent play, and he has delivered it. The new offer he was given, however, takes that away and stands to pay him far less than he can expect to get over the next two years regardless. Wilson is also being asked to drop his option and take a pay cut, all while being bad-mouthed by his boss. Neither of the offers ever stood a chance of being accepted and Huntington had to know it.

Not that they're necessarily terrible offers on some objective level. In fact, they probably represent decent approximations of each players' value going forward. The problem, though, isn't the offers themselves. It's the way in which they were communicated: publicly, and in such a way as to put Sanchez and Wilson on the spot and to make them sound like bad guys when they were rejected.

A GM in Huntington's position sometimes has to make unpopular moves, such as parting with popular players like Sanchez and Wilson. He should have the guts to simply do so, however, rather than make a big phony show of wanting to keep them in an effort to win the P.R. game.

Braves 7, Mets 1: Correlation is not the same thing as causation, but it's worth noting that the Braves are 5-2 since unloading Francoeur. The Mets are now seventeen games back of the Nats in the Bryce Harper sweepstakes. Maybe that makes them a longshot, but I like their chances of winning that race way more than I like them winning the N.L. East.

Phillies 5, Marlins 0: While the Braves trend upwards and the Mets trend down, the Phillies simply don't plan on losing, it seems. J.A. Happ shuts the Marlins down for seven and four others combine to handle the remaining two innings, as the Phils sweep the Marlins. They lead the East by 6.5 games, and no one else in that division looks as though they have a higher gear.

Angels 1, Athletics 0: It was like Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, but only if Jack Morris was lifted after nine and John Smoltz was lifted after eight. And if Dan Gladden was a Venezuelan right fielder with minimal range who homered instead of doubled. And if the game really didn't mean all that much. Hope you didn't blink during this one, though. It was 2 hours, 17 minutes for a 10 inning game.

Giants 4, Pirates 3: The Giants finally find some post-break offense. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to finally win a game. Matt Cain was strong (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER). Heavy hearts in the San Francisco dugout, as earlier in the day Giants' part owner Sue Burns died of complications from cancer. According to reports of her death, she was diagnosed with the disease July 10. Christ, why do we care about most of the stupid crap we care about in this world when any single one of us can go from zero to cancer to the sweet hereafter in nine freakin' days?

Dodgers 4, Astros 3: Big surprise as the Dodgers' seventh hitter goes 3-3, scores four runs and hits the game-winning dinger. Oh, wait. It was Matt Kemp, so I suppose the only surprising thing about it is that he's still hitting seventh. Whatevers, Joe.

Rockies 6, Padres 1: It's Jason Marquis' world; the rest of us are just, quite unexpectedly, living in it. The Major League leader in wins -- I repeat, Jason Marquis, the Major Leagues' leader in victories -- not only pitches eight strong innings, but he doubles and drives in two runs as well.

Cardinals 2, Diamondbacks 1: Joel Piniero is apparently living in Jason Marquis' world too, contributing on the hill and at the plate (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER; 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI).

Rays 4, Royals 3: Roman Colon walked in the winning run after getting ahead of the hitter 0-2 which, like so many other things in Kansas City these days, had to be kind of depressing. Luke Hochevar pitched well. When asked about it, he sounded like he was sending Colon a message: "I got to two strikes a lot and I tried to put them away." "Unlike that no-good sonofa@!$%# Colon," Hochevar thought but did not add. And this may mean nothing, but Joe Posnanski's Facebook status last night said "Something big coming?" I suppose it could mean that a Skyline Chili is opening up in Kansas City, but with Joe that would have inspired an exclamation point. No, if I had to guess, I'd say he heard someone telling someone that someone was getting fired. Or something.

Yankees 2, Tigers 1: Nice weekend for the Yankees as they sweep Detroit, but this one is especially nice as Joba Chamberlain looked good for the first time in a while. Can't say that the Tigers looked bad, though. Leyland pretty much said it all: "If you told me that we'd hold those guys to nine runs in three games in this ballpark, I'd say we'd have won two out of three for sure, maybe even sweep. We just didn't get any hits. Period."

Orioles 10, White Sox 2: Jeremy Guthrie (8 IP, 3 H, 2 ER) and Greg Zaun (3-4, HR, 4 RBI) had nice days to salvage one from the Chisox. In other news, I like to say "Chisox." Chisox, Chisox, Chisox.

Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 1: Halladay was his usual ridiculous self (CG, 6 H, 1 ER, 7K, 0 BB). He's still not going anywhere, despite what the writers of all the game stories say in the seven paragraphs that precede any discussion of the actual game action, but yes, he was impressive. The Sox' lead over the Yankees is now down to one game.

Cubs 11, Nationals 3: Julian Tavarez had another bad outing and was designated for assignment after the game. Chico Harlan has a detailed story about it all, and it's actually kind of sad. Tavarez lives in a hotel room near the stadium in Washington and keeps no friends in D.C. He gets to the park early. He does nothing else but play, go home, sleep, and then come to the park again. He says that baseball is everything to him. You hear about a guy like that and hope that he can stick around a while. When he doesn't, you probably have to worry about him even more than you did when he was on the team.

Mariners 5, Indians 3: If there were any doubts -- and I suppose there could have been a few -- as to whether Ichiro was a Hall of Famer based solely on his U.S. output, they're being put to rest this season. He went 3-4 yesterday, raising his average to .363, which suggests a Tony Gwynn-decline, not a Roberto Alomar one. As for the Indians, I'm running out of smack to talk. There was a "the bright side of the 2009 Indians" kind of article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday, and it focused on Sizemore, Choo, Martinez and Cabrera. Those dudes combined to go 0-15.

Reds 5, Brewers 3: It's curious that the Brewers have now lost four straight Yovani Gallardo starts. I mean, usually you're better off with your ace on the mound. Lots of complaining about the umps in this one from the Milwaukee side of things. "[Dale Sveum] felt that this guy's strike zone was a little erratic," manager Ken Macha said, adding that "the strike zone got a little wide in the eighth and ninth innings." Well yeah. Umps got flights to catch after Sunday games just like anyone else. What does Sveum expect?

Rangers 5, Twins 3: Ian Kinsler starts the game with a leadoff homer and ends it with a walkoff. Pretty neat! Not so neat that he did it off of a knuckleballer, of course -- Karma's gonna kick him in the jewels for that somehow -- but I suppose he's riding pretty high today, anyway.

Disclaimer: I love baseball. I love history. I love baseball history. I'm a Mets fan who does not dislike the Yankees (settle down Benigno).

That being said ... it might be time to put this Old Timer's Day thing on the shelf for a couple years until guys like Jeter and Mariano and O'Neill are old and gray and haven't been heard from in 10 years. Then you celebrate them and everyone's happy and it's a great time for all. Or do it every 5 years.

But do the Yanks really need to do this every year? If you continue to have these ceremonies where the greats (and some non-greats) all trot out, the oversaturation factor kicks in. Within the last 12 months, the Yanks have now had four similar celebrations - All-Star Game, final game at Old Yankee Stadium, opening of New Yankee Stadium, Old Timer's Day - where the team honors its past. Seriously, we get it. The Yankees are the greatest franchise ever. You had us at the 183rd time you told us.

Most of the legends have passed on (Mickey, Joe D). Now, Yogi and Whitey are surrounded by the likes of Dave Eiland, Homer Bush, and Aaron Small. To put things in perspective, imagine the Mets celebrating Old Timer's Day with Tom Seaver, a couple other dudes from '69, but also Rico Brogna, Bill Pulsipher, and Keith Miller. Everyone would make fun of it, right? Not to equate Mets history with Yankees history, but hopefully you get the point.

If the Yanks were inviting these guys because they're truly acknowledging that the lean years are just as important as the championship years, then that's one thing. I applaud that. But me thinks that some of this crew is just roster filler. Guys like John Sterling, Michael Kay, and the YES propaganda crew rarely reminisce about Mike Easler or Pat Kelly.

And let's not even get started about the politics with some of these choices. If you think that Joe Torre ever gets invited back with the current regime in place, you're crazy.

Again, honoring your past is fantastic and the idea of an Old Timer's Day is wonderful. But when it gets watered down and played out, it's time to re-evaluate things. Let it breathe. Let Old Timer's Day take a nap for a couple years. It's return will feel special again.

Quick peek at the best pitching match-ups on Sunday:

Red Sox at Blue Jays: Could it be Roy Halladay's final start as a Blue Jay? Guessing that if he gets traded, it'll be closer to the deadline, so probably not. He's struggled (all relative) lately, going 0-2 with a 4.50 since a DL stint, and had a rough time in the All-Star Game. It's his first start against Boston this year, after dominating them in 2008 (2.56 in 5 starts). Meanwhile, Jon Lester has found it in a big way, rocking a silly 1.48 ERA in his last 8 outings, including 69 Ks in 54 2/3 innings. He's also 2-0 against the Jays this year, giving up a total of 2 runs.

Brewers at Reds: The Battle of Red Hot But Now Struggling Youngsters. Both Yovani Gallardo and Johnny Cueto were dealing for the first 3 months of the year before opponents started soiling their All-Star credentials in July. Gallardo has given up 9 runs in his last 10 innings. Cueto didn't make it out of the 1st inning against the Phillies (very embarrassing), and then got lit up by the Mets (even more embarassing). Interesting albeit useless fact: they were born 12 days apart in February, 1986.

Giants at Pirates: Zach Duke and Matt Cain are linked because the former took the latter's place on the All-Star roster because of an injury. Duke faces a terrorizing G-Men lineup that has scored 1 run in 23 innings this series. To be fair, the Pirates have only scored 4. If Cain doesn't come through today, you can bank on Chris "Mad Dog" Russo's Monday radio show to be even more animated than his rant from a couple weeks ago when he "fired" his whole staff. Go Buccos.

Tigers at Yankees: Sure, the two starters are intriguing (Edwin Jackson vs Joba "5 and a third" Chamberlain). But I gotta think everyone headed to the Stadium today for Old-Timer's Day is just itching to see Pat Kelly put on the pinstripes again. I guess Alvaro Espinoza wasn't available?

Angels at A's: Be sure to tune in as John Lackey helps out his ERA in healthy doses against the woeful Oakland offense. At least the A's have Brett Anderson on the hill, who is only 138 outs shy of Orel Hershiser's consecutive scoreless innings record.

You can follow me on Twitter at mattcasey9.

Yesterday we heard that the feds have subpoenaed a guy named Jeff Blair, who allegedly had the steroids goods on Roger Clemens. Last night, the guy said otherwise:

A former gym owner in the Houston area says he never supplied Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs and is looking forward to meeting with a grand jury investigating whether Clemens lied to Congress . . .

. . . Blair said Thursday night that he's never met Clemens, any members of the Clemens' family or anyone representing Clemens, including personal trainers or attorneys.

"I did not supply Roger Clemens (with) growth hormone," Blair said.

Possibilities:

(a) The feds forgot that the purpose of subpoenaing witnesses to a grand jury is to obtain evidence that helps their case, rather than hurts their case;

(b) The feds knew that, but realized all along that they really don't have a case at all and simply don't want the grand jury to feel like it was convened for nothing; or

(c) This Blair guy was going to spill the beans on Clemens, but then Clemens and his lawyer showed up in the back of the hearing room with Blair's long lost brother from Sicily -- Godfather II-style -- after which Blair decided to trot out this "I never knew no godfather. I got my own family, senator" business.

Though the Godfather fan in me hopes that the Pentangeli option is really what happened, I'm leaning (b) here. Sure, as is the case with Barry Bonds I personally I think that Clemens did steroids and lied about it, but I also think that for several reasons a perjury prosecution of these two guys is both difficult and ill-advised.

In neither case -- Bonds before the grand jury or Clemens before Congress -- did you have prosecutors actually asking concise questions with an aim at truly figuring out what these guys knew. To the contrary, they were exercises in P.R., and because of that the questions that were actually asked to these men and the facts the questioners had at their disposal were lazy and weak.

Go read the transcripts: Bonds played dumber than a bag of hammers, despite the fact that he's actually a fairly bright guy. Clemens went on and on about his life story whenever he was asked anything difficult. Neither was given particularly difficult questions which they were required to answer in an unambigious fashion. To the contrary, each was allowed to talk openly and loosely for long stretches at a time.

Which may very well establish that they were being evasive. In order to make a case of perjury, however, showing evasiveness is not enough. A witness needs to be nailed down. To be given hard and unambiguous followup questions. Neither of these guys faced any of those things during their day in the spotlight, and their answers can be spun and qualified in many ways by their lawyers.

That's a black mark against the prosecution, and in light of it I'd be shocked if either Bonds or Clemens ever go to trial, let alone gets convicted of perjury.

Ryan Howard hit his 200th career home run, reaching the milestone in fewer games than any player in major league history:

The 29-year-old Howard hit his 23rd homer of the season in the sixth inning to reach the 200 milestone in 658 games, fewer than any player in major league history. Ralph Kiner, previously the fastest player to reach 200 home runs, did it in 706 games.

"It's a nice feat," Howard said. "It's a nice record to have. I'll take it and run with it."

He won't run nearly as far as he could have, however, because after "200," the second most significant number in that paragraph is "29." As in Howard's age, which is pretty advanced for a slugger with his talents to be getting his 200th home run. Howard did not play a full season in the bigs until 2006, when he was 26. This despite the fact that he went .291/.380/.637 with 46 home runs in 131 games between AA and AAA in 2004. As of now, he's roughly the same age as Albert Pujols, but 150 home runs behind him.

Not that raw home run totals matter too terribly much in the grand scheme of things. It's just that Howard kind of fascinates me as a player, and he's someone whom I would have liked to have seen in the bigs earlier than I did.

The Cubs made it official and signed B.J. Ryan to a minor league deal:

Left-handed reliever B.J. Ryan's loss of velocity and command might be the Cubs' gain if he can regain his form in the minor leagues. The Cubs signed the two-time All-Star to a minor-league contract Thursday after the Toronto Blue Jays released him last week. Ryan had 1½ years remaining on his five-year, $47 million contract. That's a sign of how far Ryan's stock has fallen during his second season after having Tommy John surgery on his left elbow. His velocity is said to be in the low 80s. But for a Cubs team that needs left-handed bullpen depth, the move represents a no-risk, potentially high-upside signing if Ryan can regain some level of major-league form.

Definitely a low-risk move for the Cubbies that, if it pays off, will pay off handsomely. I mean, it's not too long ago that Ryan was a fantastic pitcher and stranger rebounds have happened. Even with the Cubs very recently: remember how bad Jim Edmonds was with the Padres at the beginning of last year (.178/.265/.233) and remember how good he was after coming to Chicago following his release (.256/.369/.568)? That's certainly the analogy/wish smart Cubs fans I know are making today.

Another analogy: this is the Cubs trying once again to solve a problem they didn't need to have. Just as they signed Ryan Freel and then Jeff Baker in an effort to fill the hole left by the absence of Mark DeRosa, the Ryan move, among others, is aimed at filling a bullpen hole created by the absence of Kerry Wood. Which isn't to suggest that the Cubs should have kept those guys -- they would have been really expensive to keep around -- but it must be disheartening for Cubs fans to see the team continuing to shovel dirt into the same holes, over and over again.

You're not going to believe this, but Bill Plaschke found fault with Manny Ramirez's return to Dodger Stadium last night:

The citizens showed up early in hopes that the mayor would come out early to greet them.

He didn't.

The citizens began cheering as he ran out for the start of the game in hopes that the mayor would acknowledge them.

He wouldn't.

The citizens chanted his name as he finished his first warm-up tosses in hopes that the mayor would at least throw them the ball.

He threw it in the left-field stands instead.

After blowing off honesty, accountability and one-third of the season, Manny Ramirez did something more egregious in his return to Dodger Stadium on Thursday.

He blew off Mannywood.

Given that Plaschke has been beating up Manny for months now, I can only assume that he had a "Manny disingenuously tips his cheating cap to the fans" column ready to go too. Either way it's more of the same ridiculous outrage from a guy who, in addition to being unable to write a paragraph longer than one sentence, is unable to appreciate that no one other than him feels betrayed by Manny Ramirez. The guy's a big flake, and that's one of the biggest reasons why the people who like him like him.

To suggest that the fans out in left field feel diminished by Ramirez's alleged slight is to assume that Dodgers fans are simpletons. Some folks like him. Some folks don't. No one apart from a few columnists lose much sleep over the guy, nor should they.

There's been a lot of talk about the Pirates trading Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez, but a new wrinkle has emerged:

The Pirates have approached shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez about multiyear contract extensions, putting on hold, for now, the possibility that either will be traded by Major League Baseball's July 31 deadline. But the clock is ticking. If the parties are to agree on extensions, they will need to do so far enough in advance of the deadline so that, if the Pirates decide no agreement is possible, they still can pursue a trade for one or both. That likely means something must get done within the next week to 10 days.

Despite all of the drama surrounding recent Pirates' trades, I can't recall an instance of Pirates' GM Neal Huntington playing games with players. Still, it strikes me as odd that contract offers are coming so late in the game and close to the deadline, leaving little time for negotiation. If it were any other GM I'd wonder whether this wasn't a PR move on the part of the team designed to lessen fan -- and player -- ire when two popular players are ultimately moved.

For what it's worth, both Sanchez and Wilson are playing fantastic defense this year, really enjoy playing in Pittsburgh and, based on this article and everything else I've seen, have no desire to break the bank. Against that backdrop, it would make sense to keep them around, both as a stability move and because it will give the fans something to be happy about in Pittsburgh.

Fourteen teams get a day off after they just had three days off. That's like calling in sick the day after Memorial Day.

Phillies 4, Marlins 0: Man, old people love Florida. Moyer: 7 IP, 1 H 0 ER; Ibanez: 2-4, 2 HR 3 RBI. Manuel: hit the early bird special before the game, found a nice close spot to park the Buick.

Indians 4, Mariners 1: Cliff Lee spun a gem (CG, 9 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, K) and, while it's still nothing to write home about, he got at least a little run support. While randomly surfing I found this Indians' notes column that went live just as the game was ending. In it, Eric Wedge gets the quote of the day: "Regarding when the Indians might recall recently-demoted relievers Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis, Wedge said, 'We need to let them pitch down there.'" I presume that the reporter merely cut off the part where Wedge added "mostly because it's not up here."

Cubs 6, Nationals 2: The Jim Riggleman Era begins much like the Manny Acta era ended. I could probably say a few words about Rich Harden pitching well, or Derek Lee going 3-4, but I've decided that this is the point in the post where I complain about the fact that my wife wouldn't let me watch "Ghostbusters" on the big TV downstairs last night because she had recorded something else and wanted to watch it just then. And because I've seen it 150 times and, after each time I see it, I quote the Rick Moranis lines for three straight days which annoys her to no end, I can tell you. Still, very weak on her part.

Brewers 9, Reds 6: Reports of Homer Bailey's resurrection have been greatly exaggerated (5.1 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 4 BB). Oh, and Prince Fielder would like you to know that there is nothing to that post-HR Derby falloff theory (1-3, HR 3 RBI).

Braves 5, Mets 3: Welcome back, Jeff Francoeur! What with the hitting into a double play, striking out, and grounding weakly to shortstop -- not to mention your seeing 14 total pitches in four at bats -- it's as if you never left!

Angels 6, A's 2: Given how he's been rollin' lately, we couldn't have necessarily expected Ervin Santana to pitch eight innings of one-run ball. But he did, and if he's better post-break than he was pre-break, the Angels have a big leg up on Texas in this thing. As for the A's, this might be the most depressing paragraph I've seen in quite a while:

Oakland looked sluggish as it kicked off a grueling stretch of 28 games in as many days and 34 in 35. Nomar Garciaparra is scheduled to get the start at first base on Friday night for the A's, and manager Bob Geren plans to use him once a series in place of the struggling Jason Giambi to keep Giambi fresh.

Rockies 10, Padres 1: Aaron Cook is just livin' right, I guess. You must be if you give up eight hits and walk four guys and come away with it only giving up one run. Oh, and when you're a pitcher and you walk with the bases loaded, which as Pinto notes, is happening an awful lot lately.

Astros 3, Dodgers 0: Forget Manny, it was Wandywood in L.A. last night (6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER). Um, OK, that's stupid, but say "Wandywood" a few times. It's fun!

General manager Kevin Towers revealed Thursday that Jake Peavy is "50-50" to return from his ankle injury to pitch again this season. "We'll know more when he comes out of the cast," Towers said. "I can't speak for Jake, but I'd much rather have him ready for 2010 than risking a more serious injury by coming back too early this year."

The injury erases whatever chance Towers had of finding an acceptable deal for Peavy this year and he also indicated that the Padres won't look to trade Adrian Gonzalez or Heath Bell. However, pitchers like Chad Gaudin, Kevin Correia, and Cla Meredith could be on the block and Towers said that he doesn't "see [Brian] Giles taking playing time away from" the young outfielders once he's healthy.

While the Padres choose to tweak rather than rebuild, here are some other notes from around baseball ...

* Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that Boston is "desperately" trying to trade Julio Lugo with both Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie on the verge of coming off the disabled list. According to Rosenthal the Red Sox have informed teams that they're willing to eat nearly all of Lugo's remaining deal--which pays $9 million this year and another $9 million in 2010--in exchange for a marginal prospect.

Lugo has hit .284/.352/.367 in 37 games since coming back from knee surgery, which basically matches his .271/.335/.390 career line, but his defense has been terrible and the Red Sox clearly prefer Nick Green as their utility man with Lowrie and Lowell set to return this weekend. In the third year of a four-year, $36 million contract, Lugo has hit .251/.319/.346 while missing one-third of Boston's games.

* General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Thursday that Pedro Martinez could be ready to make his Phillies debut as soon as July 30 against the Giants. Martinez was placed on the disabled list with a strained shoulder immediately after signing a one-year deal, but the stint is just about building up arm strength. After seeking a $5 million contract, Pedro ended up signing for under $1 million in guarantees.

* Released last week when the Blue Jays opted to eat the remaining $15 million on his contract, B.J. Ryan inked a minor-league deal with the Cubs on Thursday. Ryan clearly poses no threat to Kevin Gregg or Carlos Marmol at this point, but it costs the Cubs just a prorated portion of the league minimum to find out if he has anything left in the tank as a possible middle reliever or situation left-hander.

AL Quick Hits: Adrian Beltre played catch Thursday for the first time since June 30 shoulder surgery and said that he hopes to play again this year ... According to Joe Maddon there's a "50-50 or 60-40" chance that Evan Longoria (finger) will be available Friday after missing the All-Star game ... Kansas City has a new left side of the infield with Yuniesky Betancourt and Alex Gordon both coming off the disabled list Thursday ... Alexi Casilla will get another chance at second base in Minnesota after hitting .340 following his demotion to Triple-A ... Derek Holland has rejoined Texas' rotation and Orlando Hernandez could request his release from Triple-A after being told that he won't be called up ... Chris Perez revealed Thursday that he's "been getting cortisone shots all year" on a left foot injury that will require offseason surgery ... Justin Duchscherer (elbow) threw 30 pitches on the side Thursday and is hoping to begin a rehab stint by the end of the month.

NL Quick Hits: Raul Ibanez picked up right where he left off Thursday, homering twice ... Chris Volstad served up three homers Thursday to give him 20 bombs allowed in 113 innings after giving up just three in 84 frames last year ... Manny Corpas came off the disabled list Thursday and will resume setting up for Huston Street ... Scott Olsen has been scratched from his scheduled Friday start with shoulder tightness ... Khalil Greene (anxiety) will start another rehab stint Friday at Double-A ... Jamie Moyer tossed seven shutout, one-hit innings Thursday, but his ERA remains ugly at 5.58 ... Chris Snyder (back) is slated to begin a rehab assignment Monday ... Chris Dickerson skipped Thursday's game because as Dusty Baker put it "he looked like Fred Sanford walking around here" ... Omar Minaya said Thursday that Carlos Delgado (hip) is not expected back before August while Fernando Martinez (knee) is likely out until September.