Kudos to the Cincinnati Reds bullpen. Although they've lost a number of players in trades this week, Ryan Wagner and John Riedling combined for three no-hit innings to give the Reds a win in 10 innings. They struck out two and walked one, and 19 of their 30 pitches went for strikes.

The Rockies also had a fine bullpen performance, going 4 2/3, but unfortunately allowing the winning run in 10th.

Pedro Martinez has thrown over 100 pitches, and the Rangers are getting to him. They've scored 2 in the 6th to take a 3-2 lead over the perennial Cy Young candidate. Pedro can use some of that vaunted Red Sox offense tonight. Colby Lewis has struck out six through six, and he's only walked two. He's thrown 67 of 104 pitches for strikes, and doesn't look like a guy with a 7+ ERA.

Placido Polanco is finishing up a great July in style. He comes into tonight with 23 runs and 15 RBI in 24 games in July, a .444 OBA and a .583 slugging percentage. He's hit a HR in three AB to add another run scored and three more RBI.

Carlos Lee has two HR tonight, solo shots that account for both runs in the 2-2 White Sox/Royals game. Over his previous 13 games, Lee has hit .310, with 10 of his 18 hits being for extra bases, including six HR. He's slugging .690 in those games, and the White Sox record is 11-2. Interestingly, he's only had 1 walk and 2 SF, so his OBA is only one point higher than his BA. With the two HR tonight, he has 18 RBI in his last 14 games.

The three big trades of the day were the Red Sox picking up Jeff Suppan, the Yankees getting Aaron Boone, and the Giants acquiring Sidney Ponson. Let's start with Suppan.

Suppan, like Jose Guillen, is having a career year. Prior to this year, his lowest ERA in a year in which he pitched 100 innings was 4.37. He's never been a strikeout pitcher and he ususally gives up a good number of HR. His walks are usually between 2.5 and 3.0 per 9 IP. This year, he's gotten those down to 2.0. He's also reduced his HR rate by 45%. Is it real? There's a good chance it's the park in Pittsburgh. He had a 2.88 ERA in Pittsburgh and a 4.36 ERA on the road. He's probably better than Mendoza, but I would not be surprised to see him get pounded at Fenway.

The Yankees were getting nothing out of the third base position. They led the league in walks at the position, but that was about it. Since June 1, Yankee third basemen have combined for a .222 BA (39/176) with nine doubles, one HR and 25 RBI. They did draw 23 walks, but that still is not a very good OBA. Boone had two good years in 2000 and 2001. Looking at his range factor and zone rating, he looks to be above average, although he does make errors. If he can keep his OBA at .330, he'll be an improvement. The Yankees weren't doing badly with Ventura playing; I'm not sure that it was really worth losing Claussen to pick up Boone. Of course, I suppose you can blame this all on Drew Henson not developing into a major leaguer.

Sidney Ponson is now part of the Giants staff. Like Suppan, he's having a career year, and he's going to be a free agent. Like Suppan, he's having a good year both preventing walks and HR. He's cut his HR rate by more than half compared to his career numbers. Of the three trades, I think this is the best one.

The Red Sox and Yankees look like they are going to fight to the death. I get the feeling that the management of the Red Sox is on a mission to win no matter what. Epstein's made some very good trades. It's going to be a fun stretch run.

Just because the deadline has passed, we will still hear about trades. Teams have to get the info to the commissioner before 4 PM EDT, but they can announce any time.

Jon Miller just reported while broadcasting the Giants game that ESPN is reporting that Sidney Ponson has been traded to the Giants.

Update: Here's a story from SunSpot.net.

He's not in the A's lineup today. Rich Harden had an easy first, however, and retired the side on four pitches, all strikes.

Here's the story from ESPN.com confirming both the Aaron Boone to the Yankees and Suppan to the Red Sox.

Dan reports an unusual play:

Eddie Perez of the Brewers just scored from second on a wild pitch! Edwin Almonte of the Mets threw a wild pitch that bounced off the corner of the plate, into Jason Phillips' mask, and ricocheted to nearly first base. Perez was running from the start from second base and scored standing up. When was the last time something like that happened?

Ramon Vazquez of the Padres last did it on 8/31/2002 against the Reds. It's the forty seventh time it's happened from 1990 on.

Jim Brower is pitching for the Giants instead of Rueter. However, Sosa doubles in the first run of the game anyway.

David Duncan writes:

Sports radio 1510 in Boston is reporting that the Red Sox trade Freddy Sanchez (2b prospect) for Jeff Suppan, and receive Brandon Lyon back

However, I'm listening to the Pirates game and have not heard a mention of it.

The Devil Rays are leading Toronto 5-1 in the fifth. If they win, they'll be 14-12 this month, the first time they've been over .500 in a full month since August of 2000. It's the offense; they've been averaging five runs a game in July, while the pitching has an ERA of 5.58 through yesterday. Looks like a little luck was involved as well.

Nothing yet. Sometimes I think the trade deadline is more for the media than it is for the teams.

Alex Belth is backing off his Boone to the Yankees rumor. Three hours to go.

Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, passed away.

"We're just trying to celebrate his life at this point. When he did it, it was considered a national disgrace," said Knox Phillips of his father's legendary recordings of black and rock and roll musicians. "Now it's considered a national treasure."

Phillips said his father fell ill Wednesday while watching a Chicago Cubs baseball game and was taken to St. Francis Hospital.

Must have been Kerry Wood giving up the grand slam to Alfonzo. :-)

(Thanks to Darren Viola for the link.)

Alex Belth is reporting that Aaron Boone and Gabe White have been traded to the Yankees. Stay tuned.

Boone makes errors at third, but his range appears to be above average. He's not a great offensive player, but Ventura and Zeile have been horrible.

The Indians face the newest addtion to the Oakland rotation today as Jake Westbrook takes on Rich Harden. Harden has two starts so far, and has allowed 1 ER in seven innings in each. We'll see if Guillen makes it to today's game as well.

The Chicago White Sox send their best starter to the mound to try to complete a sweep of the KC Royals. Esteban Loaiza goes for his 14th win against Kyle Snyder, and more importantly, tries to bring the White Sox within a game of first place in the AL Central. Both Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez missed the cycle by a triple last night.

Pedro Martinez faces Texas tonight. Pedro is 8-1 vs. Texas in his career, with a 1.19 ERA. During the time Pedro has been in the American League (1998 on), the Texas offense has averaged 5.47 runs per game. Amazingly, this isn't Pedro's best ERA vs. a team. He's 10-0 vs. the Mariners with an 0.94 ERA. Pedro has not allowed an earned run vs. Texas in 13 innings this year.

The premier game of the day in the NL is the rubber match of the Giants-Cubs series in Chicago. It's Kirk Rueter vs. Carlos Zambrano. Rueter has been pitching poorly lately, with a 6.53 ERA over his last five starts. Sosa has been killing lefties this year, with a .517 OBA and a .700 slugging percentage vs. them. Sosa is 10 for 28 career vs. Rueter, and seven of the ten hits have been for extra bases.

Alex Belth's Bronx Banter has moved to a new location using MovableType. Congrats, Alex! Check out his Luis Sojo/Raul Mondesi story.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1587	1589
Attendance	27633	28464

The White Sox are winning 10-4 in the 7th. It's the third straight game in which they've scored at least nine runs, and they've scored 100 now in their last 14 (including tonight). The fewest runs they've scored is 4 (twice) in that time frame. KC is feeling the heat.

The Yankees are doing something tonight that I think they should have been doing all year. With Soriano sitting down, Jeter is leading off and Bernie Williams is batting 2nd. Posada is hitting cleanup. I've thought for a long time that at this point in their careers, Bernie would be better at the top of the order and Soriano better batting cleanup. Jeter led off with a double; it will be interesting to see if Bernie has a good game (made an out in his first PA) if Soriano will bat in the cleanup spot when he returns.

The Marlins have won again. Dontrelle Willis gave up a HR in the 1st inning, and that was the only run the DBacks would get in a 3-1 loss. With the Phillies leading 4-2 in the top of the ninth, the wild card race is slowly becoming the race for 2nd place in the NL East.

Update: Over 37,000 at Pro Player tonight. Good for you, fish fans! Keep it up!

The A's traded three pitchers today for Jose Guillen of the Reds. It's an interesting trade. The A's must believe that Guillen's game is really different than it has been in previous years. I discussed this two days ago, and thought it was likely that the improvement was real.

Neifi Perez pinch hits for Schmidt. He only threw 90 pitches, but I guess Alou felt he was tired. It's 82 in Chicago, and Schmidt is a white guy, so I guess he couldn't take the heat. :-)

Kenny Lofton breaks up the no-hitter with a two-run HR. Schmidt had issued a leadoff walk to Paul Bako. It's 4-2 Giants in the bottom of the sixth. Schmidt had been throwing a lot more pitches in the last two innings.

Kerry Wood is being replaced by a pinch hitter. He only allowed three hits through six innings, but four walks and a HR at the wrong time hurt him. He's not walked 28 in his last 40 innings.

Jason Schmidt has retired the first nine batters. He has five strikeouts, and 30 of his 42 pitches have been for strikes.

Update: Schmidt extended it through four innings. I guess the Cubs decided to swing at the first good pitch, because the side went on four pitches and three fly balls. Thirty three of forty six pitches for strikes. Schmidt will give the bullpen a day off at this rate.

Update: Through five now. Schmidt walked Karros, but that's been his only mistake so far.

Edgardo Alfonzo just hit his first HR since May. Unfortunately for the Cubs, it came with the bases loaded. It's 4-0 Giants in the 2nd.

The White Sox try to cut the Royals lead to two games tonight in Kansas City. Jon Garland takes on Runelvys Hernandez. Garland has been pitching well of since the middle of may. Although he has good average run support, it seems to be all or nothing. He's as likely to get 1 run as he is to get 10, hence the 5-4 record since then.

Three great pitching matchups in the NL today. This afternoon's game in Chicago pits Jason Schmidt against Kerry Wood. Wood has had control problems over his last five starts, walking 24 in 34 innings. Schmidt shutout the Cubs earlier this year, and is tied with Wood for 2nd in the NL with a .202 BA allowed.

The old and the new in Miami tonight. Randy Johnson faces rookie Dontrelle Willis. Johnson has never lost to the Marlins; he's 6-0 with a 1.38 ERA against them in nine starts. They expect a big crowd.

Finally, NL ERA leader Kevin Brown visits Philadelphia to face Brett Myers. Despite a 2.61 ERA over his last five starts, Brown is 0-4. Myers has only walked four batters over his last 31 innings and is 3-0 in his last five starts. If the Dodgers are going to get back in the wild card race, they need to take the next two against the Phillies.

The Baseball Crank puts the Red Sox slugging percentage into historical perspective. Another way of looking at it is that the Red Sox are averaging 1.71 bases per hit. That also is near the top, but what differentiates this Red Sox team from the others in that top group is their high batting average. Most of the other teams were that hit as hard but not as often. The Red Sox are an unusual team in that as a group they hit for both average and power. There have been ten teams since 1900 that have averaged 1.71 bases per hit or better. The combined BA of those 10 teams is .270; the 1998 Mark McGwire Cardinals were the lowest at .258; the 1997 Mariners were highest at .280. The Red Sox are batting .295. It's a lethal combination; they have scored 43 more runs than any other team; they have scored 99 more runs than the NY Yankees; they have scored over 300 more runs than the Detorit Tigers! Not a bad job for a first year GM.

Michael Blake of View from the 700 Level comments on my Rolen post:

I have been imagining a team with Rolen and Thome at the corners all season. More so when David Bell comes to the plate. But the fact of the matter is this: had the Phillies kept Rolen, and had he signed for the $140 million or so they were said to have offered him, they probably would not have had the money to sign a guy like Thome. Now, the possibility exists that ownership may have opened the pursestrings a bit more, but I doubt it.

So while I can dream of an infield with Rolen and Thome, it probably would have never been more than that: a dream.

Mike is probably right. However, a third baseman who can hit and field is a rare commodity. The Phillies would be better off in the long term if they had kept Rolen, and found a cheap slugger for first base.

One of the things I loved about my time working at ESPN was every day baseball gave you something new to talk about, often something that had never been done before. Last night, Bill Mueller became the first person to hit two grand slams in one game from opposite sides of the plate. Now, to do something like that requires a bit of luck, but on the bench for the Red Sox is Tony Cloninger, the only pitcher ever to hit two grand slams in a game. Nice coincidence. Mueller added a solo shot for good measure.

The team raised its slugging percentage to .504 from .501 last night. Pretty amazing.

Nice to see the Royals fans turn out last night. Over 24,000 at the game in KC. The White Sox won, but the Royals never gave up and mounted a decent comeback try late in the game. Roberto Alomar extended his hit streak to 11 games; he's 16 for 40 during the streak, an even .400. Alomar has a .400 OBA since joining the Sox

Dan Shaughnessy has a surprisingly positive story on the Red Sox deal for Williamson. It appears that since the Red Sox lost out on Contreras (if you really want to call that losing), Epstein has gotten both Sauerbeck and Williamson, both pitchers the Yankees wanted. Shaughnessy is giddy:

You gotta love it. While George Steinbrenner issues statements, signs old guys, and worries about the Red Sox, Epstein keeps dealing for the best available Scott. He got Scott Sauerbeck last week and last night it was the hard-throwing Williamson.

Dan still has the #2 mentality, always having to compare the Sox to the Yankees, but he clearly likes what Theo is doing.

One thing I would be concerned about with Williamson is his high walk rate. Fenway is one of those parks, due to it's configuration, where strange things can happen on balls in play. It's best to have the bases empty when those things occur. Williamson walks better than one every other inning. That could be dangerous. But Theo keeps going after the weak spots, and says he's not done trading. Stay tuned.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1572	1574
Attendance	27636	28481

Only 11,000 at the Fish game last night. Dontrelle Willis is going against Randy Johnson today, and I heard that they have an advance sale of 20,000 and expect a big walk-up gate. Folks, this team is worth supporting even when Dontrelle isn't pitching.

The Yankees traded Raul Mondesi to the Diamondbacks last night for David Dellucci and two minor leaguers. The trade doesn't appear to be one made to improve the team, but one to rid the Yankees of a player who didn't fit their mold.

Still, Cashman said, Mondesi might have finished the season with the Yankees if not for Sunday night.

"He was upset he was pinch-hit for and he didn't stay and root on the rest of the team," Cashman said. "He decided to shut it down, shower and leave. He left the clubhouse and took off. He went back to New York and flew to the West Coast on the off-day (Monday), I guess.

"I'm not trying to create an issue with Mondy publicly," Cashman added, "but the facts are the facts. I guess he's not accustomed to different alternatives for managers.

"I'd rather have 25 guys one for all and all for one."

Dellucci is a part time outfielder that can't hit. The Yankees got a reliever in Bret Prinz, who traveled like a yoyo through the DBacks system over the last few years, A ball to the majors. They also got a 22-year-old catcher, Jon Sprowl, who strikes me as a Billy Beane ballplayer. He's spent the last four years at A ball, despite the fact that he has a career minor league OBA of .388. He has doubles power, and his average isn't impressive. He's never been a regular. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees recognize the potential of his OBA and give him more of an opportunity to play.

The Diamondbacks were willing to take Mondesi because their offense has been so poor lately. However, how much help can Mondesi give them? Since June 1, Raul is 31 for 155, an even .200 BA. His OBA is .273. Frankly, I'd rather have David Dellucci. Garagiola had better hope that Raul his like he did in April. The Arizona press seems to like the deal, focusing more on Mondesi's career than his recent failures. When I look at his career, however, I see only one good year, 1997, when he had a .360 OBA and a .541 slugging percentage. I think the DBacks will be disappointed.

The Phillies held on for the 2-0 victory over the Dodgers. They maintain their one-game lead over the Marlins for the wild card, and put a little distance between themselves and the western contenders.

The trades are starting to come fast and furious, and teams are grabbing relievers. The White Sox just picked up Scott Schoenweis from the Anaheim Angels. Schoenweis has a good K/BB, 2.9 to 1, and has only allowed 2 HR in 38.2 innings. He should be an improvement over Gary Glover.

The Red Sox also traded for a reliever, picking up Scott Williamson for a minor leaguer.

In a trade I don't understand, the Mariners have taken Rey Sanchez off the hands of the Mets for a minor leaguer. Why Pat Gillick would want Sanchez is beyond me. The Mariners are in a bit of a free fall, but you don't turn that around by picking up one of the worst offensive players in baseball.

The Red Sox have two doubles so far tonight, giving them 274 on the season. The 1997 Red Sox and the 1930 Cardinals hold the record for doubles with 373. The 1930 Cardinals have the doubles rate at 2.42 per game. The Red Sox this year are doubling at a rate of 2.62 per game! If they keep this up for the rest of the year, they will obliterate the doubles record by about 50. They have eight players with over 20 doubles.

Vicente Padilla is doing his best to keep the Phillies in the lead for the wild card. He has a three hitter through eight innings. Seventy-two of his 102 pitches have been for strikes.

The Cardinals won that fast game in nine innings, 2 hours and four minutes. Rolen drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly.

Royals draw first blood in their battle with the White Sox. The Royals used little ball, following a leadoff single with a bunt, but still managed to score two runs. The White Sox came right back with three runs of their own on back-to-back HR by Konerko and Crede. Konerko now has four hits vs. the Royals this year, three for extra bases.

It's less than two hours into the game, and the Cardinals and Expos are in the 9th. The score is 1-1, so it may not be the fastest nine inning game this year. Both pitchers have been efficient; there have not been 200 pitches thrown yet.

Update: There have been four games under two hours this year. The two fastest games both involved the A's beating the White Sox, and both those games pitted Mark Mulder vs. Mark Buehrle. The played a 1:49 game on 5/6 and a 1:54 game on 4/30.

Tom Glavine and Roy Oswalt had to leave their games this evening with injuries. Glavine appears to have injured his rib cage, while Oswalt's injury has not been reported.

The Colorado Rockies lead the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 in the sixth. Eight of the nine starters have hits tonight; the only one not to reach base is leadoff man Tony Womack. Tony's woeful OBA is .266 through six innings; pitcher Darren Oliver, who's 2 for 3 tonight, has an OBA of .292. Why Womack is leading off for anyone is beyond me.

Webb got hit in the fifth. Three consecutive singles and an error led to two runs. The way the Arizona offense has been playing lately, that may be all the Marlins need.

Scott Rolen hit a solo HR to give the St. Louis Cardinals their only run tonight. Rolen now has a .390 OBA and a .550 slugging percentage. Philadelphia third basemen have a .313 OBA and a .327 slugging percentage. The Phillies drove away one of the best players in game with their criticisms when they should have been finding a way to make him happy. Imagine that team with Rolen and Thome at the corners.

Webb and Penny are matching shutouts through four. Penny has only allowed 2 hits, while Webb has his strikeout pitch working, with five K's already. Forty-four of his pitches have been for strikes.

I was hoping the Arizona-Florida series would feature a Webb-Willis matchup, but we are getting them on consecutive nights. Webb faces Penny tonight, and Willis takes on Randy Johnson tomorrow. Webb has lost his last two starts, despite giving up only 2 runs in each of them. Penny has a 1.57 ERA in 28.1 innings against the DBacks in his career.

The AL Central moves back into the spotlight tonight with the Royals hosting the second place White Sox. The White Sox are 9-1 over their last 10 games. They've outscored their opponents 65-35 over that time, and have gained four games on the Royals. Mark Buehrle faces Darrell May, and both have been pitching well of late.

In a battle of first place teams, Houston visits Atlanta. Roy Oswalt takes on Russ Ortiz, assuring there will be a couple of standing O's. Ortiz is going for his 15th win. Eight of the nine HR Russ has allowed this year have come in Atlanta.

Finally, the Giants visit the Cubs, and Dusty gets another chance to beat this old team. He's 2-1 vs. the Giants this year.

Enjoy!

The other day, Rob Neyer wrote a column in which he touted the virtues of Fenway Park over Yankee Stadium. It looks like he came in for a lot of criticism for that column, because today he defends himself against charges of bias against the Yankees.

When I read the original column, I had a quibble that I thought of bringing up but didn't. Since everyone else is piling on, I might as well, too. :-) Rob makes the following observation:

So that's three problems. Another is that Yankee Stadium must be the most class-conscious ballpark in the major leagues. It's not uncommon, around the majors, for ushers to ask for proof that you do actually belong in the expensive seats. But at Yankee Stadium, the ushers actually block off the box seats with chains. Show your ticket, the chain is withdrawn, and you're allowed to mingle with the fat cats. Otherwise, keep walking mister.

Fenway Park is everything that Yankee Stadium is not.

Well, that's not precisely true. Both are mind-bogglingly expensive. But otherwise, Fenway might best be described as The House That Ruth Didn't Build. And for that, baseball fans should be grateful.

Just as Yankee Stadium is decidedly class-conscious, Fenway Park is not. You won't find any chains separating the obscenely expensive seats from the silly expensive seats, and most of the time you won't even find an usher. In fact, you're expected to grab any seat that's not occupied, even if it happens to be six feet from the home team's on-deck circle.

The part about Fenway not being class conscious is a very recent change. I was amazed when I sat in the bleachers there a week ago that the fence had come down between the bleacher area and the rest of the ballpark. I don't know when it happened, but I know that fence was there in 1999 when I was at the All-Star game. And I also had no problem having an usher grab my ticket and wipe my seat off in section 35. Fenway is much more fan friendly since Henry bought the team, but that's only two years. It was every bit as class conscious as Yankee Stadium before that.

Lou Hansell pointed out to me how high scoring the Braves-Expos series was. The lowest number of runs either team scored in a game was 8. The Braves hit .414 with runners in scoring position; the Expos .349. The amazing thing to me is that this series was played in a pitcher's park with two decent pitching staffs. Seventy seven runs in four games. Pretty amazing.

Read David Duncan writes in response to this post. He starts by quoting the post.:

"As a Red's fan, I say good riddance. Unfortunately, I doubt that the penny-pinching owners are going to bring in anyone dramatically different. They'll find someone who can manage the bottom line, not someone who understands building an organization."

Big Fan of the site and big Red Sox fan. I disagree this Reds fan. The Reds have an excellent choice to replace Bowden, Tim Naehring. I believe he is in charge of player development or something similar. Very well respected and thought of highly. In the mold of the good up and coming young GM prospects. Easy choice for the Reds to make. Mistake if they don't promote Naehring.

Naehring is indeed in charge of player development. Unfortunately, I can't find much about him in this role on the internet. Here's an article from the start of the 2002 season about how Naehring is putting prospects in AAA rather than keeping them in AA.

Most Triple-A teams aren't home to loads of young talent. Many organizations prefer to groom their prospects at Double-A while keeping their Triple-A club stocked with journeymen.

''It's the equivalent of guys in the NBA who sign 10-day contracts because of injuries,'' said Jim Callis, executive editor of Baseball America. ''That's where you see 30-year-old veterans, incase-of-emergency guys. A lot of teams aren't as hesitant anymore to bring up young guys straight from Double-A.''

The Reds sometimes have chosen that path. Dawkins twice has been called up to Cincinnati from Double-A and returned there without stopping in Louisville. Four Chattanooga pitchers underwent a Triple-A bypass en route to the big leagues last summer.

But Tim Naehring, in his second year as farm director for the Reds, has tried to change TripleA from what he calls ''a holding zone for players who can be used as insurance for the major league team.'' The emergence of Adam Dunn last season and the two productive months he spent in Louisville proved to Naehring that prospects have a place here.

''It's no longer taboo to put a prospect next to a so-called 'recirculated' sixth-year free agent,'' Naehring said. ''We have some older guys who know how to play and who will be a great influence on these (younger) guys.''

At least he's willing to go outside the box. A decision won't be made for a while. This article by John Fay sums up the candidates.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1557	1559
Attendance	27665	28508

Ryan Franklin had a tough first inning. After Willie Bloomquist allowed Texas leadoff hitter Mike Young to reach on an error, Franklin gave up three straight hits, culminating in Palmeiro's 3-run HR. The Mariners come to bat trailing 4-0.

When Ugueth Urbina was traded from the Rangers to the Marlins, he moved from the closer role to the set-up role. Interestingly, he may actually be pitching in more difficult situations as a set-up man than he was as a closer. For instance, tonight he came into the game with the bases loaded and 1 out. He walked a batter sandwiched between two strikeouts and preserved the lead. When he was with Texas, he came into 39 games and inherited 13 runners. Seven of those scored. In 7 games with the Marlins, he's inherited 7 runners (including tonight) and 3 of those have scored. I'm not impressed with either of those ratios, and maybe the move to the closer role was not the right one for Urbina.

As for tonight's attendance, a measly 10,472. The people who were there were treated to a great game; they were very vocal in supporting the team. It's time for them to start getting their friends and neighbors to start attending. I'd love to hear from some Marlins fans about why people are not going out to see this surging team.

Richie Sexson is 3 for 3 tonght with a single, double and home run. Just a triple away from the cycle. Richie has only one triple this year. He's also driven in both runs in the game.

The Diamondbacks continue to sputter on offense. They are in the 7th against the Marlins, and have only one run tonight. Shea Hillenbrand went deep for the only run of the game for the DBacks. Meanwhile, rookie Miguel Cabrera has driven in all three Marlins runs with a homer and a double. He's now slugging .553.

I was going to blog more about the AL Cy Young race, but Ben Jacobs has done it for me. He does a good job of evaluating the candidates, and he concludes that Halladay does deserve it. To put in my two cents, here's the AL ranking for pitchers in short form Win Shares:

Pitcher	Win Shares
Tim Hudson	18.4
Esteban Loaiza	18.3
Mark Mulder	14.5
Keith Foulke	14.1
Roy Halladay	13.9
Joel Pineiro	13.1
Pedro Martinez	13.1
Barry Zito	12.7

Win shares gives it to Hudson right now.

Red's fan Matt Rumbaugh writes:

Bowden was a classic "tools" guy. Under his tenure, the Reds stocked up on supposed "five-tool" outfielders. Almost every trade seemed to involve one. The current roster has Reuben Mateo, Reggie Taylor and Wily Mo Pena. All may be fine players at some point, but Bowden seemed to think they all were Willie Mays. He has no concept of plate discipline.

For pitching, his approach was even worse. Basically he picked up guys off the scrap heap of other organizations and hoped that pitching coach Don Gullet could do something with them. He loved guys coming off injury. I can't think of a single Reds prospect that developed into an effective starting pitcher in Bowden's tenure.

As a Red's fan, I say good riddance. Unfortunately, I doubt that the penny-pinching owners are going to bring in anyone dramatically different. They'll find someone who can manage the bottom line, not someone who understands building an organization.

Or they could get someone like Billy Beane, who understands both.

Jeff Suppan pitched a complete game shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon. It's Suppan's third complete game of the year and 2nd shutout. (he's one of eight National Leaguers to have at least two shutouts this year. Former Priate Jason Schmidt has three to lead the NL). He allowed seven hits, all singles and one walk. He's cut way down on his HR's allowed this year, and you can see the improvement in his ERA.

This is what I get for looking at the scores and not the news wires. Bob Boone and Jim Bowden were fired today (thanks to Daniel Shamah for the heads up). Shamah was surprised Bowden was fired, but I can't say I am. Bowden has been there 10 years, and the Reds have done very little in that time. He was smart enough to hire Davy Johnson as manager, but he also hired Ray Knight to replace him. More importantly, I never discerned an overriding plan in Bowden's work. What type of hitters did he like? What type of pitchers did he like?

Bowden became the youngest general manager in major league history, only 31 when he took over before the 1993 season. He immediately built his reputation as an impatient boss by firing manager Tony Perez only 44 games into the next season.

Impatient, I think, is right. He was about outcomes, not process. I have a plan, but if it isn't working, abandon it and come up with a new one. Maybe with an organization with more money, he'll do better. But I have never been overly impressed with Bowden.

Update: The Reds win on a bases loaded single by Kelly Stinnett in the 10th. Nice job by the bullpen, 4 1/3 innings of one hit ball. Okay Marlins fans, one more big reason to get out and support the Fish tonight. A win puts your team one game out of the wild card!

They've gone to extra inning in Cincinnati. The Red pen has been superb so far, allowing 1 hit and no walks in 3 1/3 innings. Florida fans, I hope you are actively rooting for the Reds in this one!

Last night I turned on Baseball Tonight for a few minutes, and Karl Ravech, Bobby Valentine and Harold Reynolds were discussing Roy Halladay. The three agreed that there was no question about Halladay winning the Cy Young award. I then changed the channel to watch Trading Spaces in high-definition.

Haven't these people learned by now that wins aren't everything? I don't want to knock Roy Halladay. He's a very good pitcher. But I can make good arguments for Loaiza, Pedro, Mulder and Hudson. Valentine's basis seemed to be Halladay's low walk percentage, but Loaiza hasn't issued that many walks, doesn't give up as many HR, and strikes out more batters. Plus, he gets three fewer runs a game in support than Halladay. I haven't done the rigorous work yet to decide if Halladay is better than Loaiza, but:

1. There should be plenty of questions about Halladay winning the Cy Young award.


2. A discussion of the award should start with ERA, not wins.


3. As the daily show about baseball, BBTN owes it to their viewers to do a better job with the discussion.

I'll have more on this later.

Jose Guillen homered today for the Cincinnati Reds. It's his 23rd of the year, nine more than he ever had before. Coming into today, he was posting a .389 OBA; his career OBA is .316. Jose Guillen has never had a good offensive year before, and this year his OPS is over 1.000! At age 27, has he suddenly found himself? Or is he a fluke?

One way of answering this question is by asking, what are the odds of a player having a .389 OBA when his career OBA is .316? A more percise way to ask the question is "What is the probability of a player with a .316 OBA reaching base at least 130 times in 334 opportunities?" If you use the binomial distribution and do the math, you get the answer 0.0027. In other words, if you take 1000 players with .316 OBA and give them 334 plate appearances, only about 3 of them will reach base at least 130 times.

My guess is that Guillen has turned a corner in his career. There is something different about his game. The increase is all in his batting average, so I would bet it's some kind of Bret Boone bulk up. And as Boone showed, that can work very well.

It's the wild card chasers facing each other as Arizona visits the Florida Marlins. It's a very good pitching matchup as Miguel Batista takes on Mark Redman. They are extremely evenly matched in BB, HR and strikeouts. The Diamondbacks offense has been in a slump, scoring only 7 runs in the last six games (2-4 record). The Marlins, on the other hand, have outscored their opponents 48-27, going 6-1 over their last seven games.

It's time for Florida fans to come out and support this team. They are in the race, they are hot, they have a number of good players. I chided Royals fans for not turning out earlier in the year for their team, and I'm not going to let the Marlins fans off the hook. :-) Yes, the Marlins have the 2nd highest attendance increase in terms of percentage this year:

	2002		2003
Through Same Period	Games	Avg. Attendance	Games	Avg. Attendance	Pct. Change
Angels	52	25789	52	37000	43.5
Marlins	53	10655	51	14321	34.4
Reds	51	23047	51	30026	30.3
Expos	51	9812	51	12155	23.9
Royals	47	18181	50	22487	23.7
Phillies	51	20923	50	25864	23.6

But 14,000 fans a game for a contending team is a joke. And like the Royals of a few weeks ago, there is no buzz about the big series starting tonight. C'mon Miami, get out to the stadium!

Alex Belth has a interview with Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball. I was surprised to learn that Lewis did not read Bill James until he saw the books in Billy Beane's office. I got the impression from Lewis' writing that he had read James in the 1980's. Good research on his part.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1550	1553
Attendance	27679	28515

Mike Timlin showed the others how to relieve. He comes in, K's Garica, gets Sierra on a force out, and then K's Soriano to end the inning. Soriano has shown no selectivity tonight; he's 0 for 5 with 2 K, and he's just swinging at everything. Someone needs to sit him down and remind him to take pitches out of the strike zone.

Benitez, Orosco and Sauerbeck have all pitched in this game, and none of them did very well. Benitez and Orosco each got an out, but each also allowed a run. Sauerbeck walked the leadoff man after the Sox scored six in the 7th. Timlin came on to relieve him and struck out Karim Garcia looking.

Jeff Weaver got into a little trouble in the 7th, walking 1 and hitting another batter. Chris Hammond comes in to turn Varitek around to bat right, and Varitek takes it over the Monster Seats to tie the game at three. The fans haven't sat down after two minutes. 1 Through 9, the Red Sox are dangerous. Another great game between these two rivals.

Update: Damon follows up Varitek with a HR of his own. Hammond had only given up 1 HR all year. Two batters, two HR tonight.

Yankees had the bases loaded after the Red Sox intentionally walked Ventura to set up the double play. Mondesi hit a hard shot to Mueller. If he had fielded it cleanly, he could have gotten the DP to get out of the inning, but it was such a hot shot that all he could do was knock it down and get the play at third. Yankees are leading 3-0 after 5 1/2 innings, and Weaver has been good, allowing only two hits so far. He (and Lowe) seem to be getting the calls on the inside of the plate.

Nomo and Schilling did turn out to be the duel of the day. Despite walking five, Nomo pitched 7.2 shutout innings. Schilling did not issue a free pass, and K'd 8, but allowed one run, which is all the Dodgers needed to salvage a game from the series. Gagne got the last four outs for his 35th save. It's his third long save of the year (4 outs or more). John Smoltz leads the majors with 8.

A great series for the Florida Marlins. The sweep the Philadelphia Phillies to move within 2 games of the wild card, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two newer Marlins had big games as Juan Pierre had 3 hits and the game winning RBI in the 9th, and U.U. Urbina pitched two innings, only allowing 1 hit and striking out 4 for the win. Unfortunately, there were only 12,400 at the game today. I guess it's time to get on the case of Miami fans like I did with Kansas City. You have a fun team. Mike Lowell and I-Rod are worth seeing everyday. Don't just show up for the Dontrelle Willis games! Get out and support your team.

The A's starters have been putting it all together lately. Over the last seven games, the starting pitchers have posted a 5-1 record with a 1.44 ERA. They've pitched 50 innings (better than 7 per game) with 42 K, 15 BB and only 2 HR. Is this the start of another great A's 2nd half?

Tough loss for the Twins today. Rick Reed and LaTroy Hawkins combined for 8 innings and 0 walks. Hawkins threw 10 pitches, all strikes in his one inning of relief. Guardado and Romero each walked two, but were able to keep runs off the board. Rincon came in and pitched four, but got into trouble in the 14th, and lack of offense cost him the game. Tim Laker went 3 for 5 for the Indians and drove in the winning run.

The Cubs play the rubber game of their three game series with the Houston Astros, and send Shawn "Wilting Man" Estes against rookie Jeriome Robertson. Robertson is another rising star this year. He's improved every month:

Robertson by Month	Record	ERA
April	1-3	7.99
May	2-0	4.94
June	3-0	3.58
July	4-0	2.36

Robertson hasn't lost since 4/25, and has won nine in a row. On the other hand, since Dusty made his "white guys can't stand the heat" comment, Estes is 0-1 in two starts with an 11.88 ERA.

Jose Lima tries to extend his record to 7-0 against Mike Maroth and the Detroit Tigers. Lima's been a great surprise for the Royals. And having been released by Detroit last year, Lima really wants to beat them.

The best pitching matchup of the day looks like Hideo Nomo vs. Curt Schilling as the Dodgers visit the Diamondbacks. Nomo is 3-4 in his career against the DBacks, despite a 2.79 ERA. The two teams have played 24 innings in the first two games, and have managed 4 runs combined.

Finally, the national game in High Definition on ESPN will be the Yankees-Red Sox. With Weaver and Lowe on the mound, a slugfest could be in the works. They've played 12 times so far this year, and both teams have scored exactly 61 runs. The Yankees lead the series 7-5, and the last three meetings have all been 1-run contests.

Enjoy!

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1535	1538
Attendance	27636	28465

Rich Harden pitched another fine game today for the Athletics. That's two starts, 14 innings, 2 ER. He also induced four double plays (the A's turned five in the game). The Angels got the leadoff man in each of the first three innings, only to have the next batter hit into a twin killing. Oakland was near the bottom of the league in inducing GDP's coming into today.

Oakland faces Anaheim today with rookie Rich Harden. Rich had a good first start, giving up 1 earned run in seven innings. He's been a terrific strikeout pitcher in the minor leagues, with 395 in 329 innings. His walks about 1 every other inning, which is a little high, but he gives up very few HR. Another A's star on the horizon.

The Cubs continue to try to climb back in the race for the NL Central against the Astros today. In what may be a high scoring game, Estes takes on Redding.

And just when you thought the Pirates were done, they've won three in a row since trading away Lofton and Ramirez. Josh Fogg faces Woody Williams today as the Pirates try to extend their winning streak. They are 7 1/2 out of first, and it's probably a longshot, strange things do happen in baseball.

I don't write about the Giants enough, becuase they are usually playing when I'm asleep. :-) But John Perricone has them covered at Only Baseball Matters. He's downright giddy about their lead in the NL West!

Quite the pitching performances in Phoenix last night. Randy Johnson and Odalis Perez battled each other to a 1-run draw over eight innings last night. Johnson walked 1 and struck out six; Perez issued 1 walk and 7 K. Amazingly, the DBack bullpen was even better than Johnson; they pitched hitless innings, allowing two walks and striking out five. The Dodger bullpen was as near perfection, but still put in six scoreless innings before Shea Hillenbrand got to Quantrill with a game winning single in the 15th.

Stephen Randolph picked up the win in relief to take his record to 5-0. He strikes out batters at a good rate, but walks almost as many (he gave up both of the relief walks last night). But so far he's gotten the outs when it counts. With runners on base, the league is batting only .190 against him.

Larry Walker had a good night at Coors last night, going 2 for 2 with a SF and a HBP, and his 10th HR of the year. What caught my eye was 10 HR for the year for Walker. For the last nine years, Larry has managed a slugging percentage of .500, usually over .600. But this year he is at .390. The fall off really shows up in his road numbers:

Larry Walker, Road Stats	2003	Career
Batting Average	.229	.280
On Base Average	.369	.370
Slugging Percentage	.399	.494

I think the OBA/BA tells the story. Walker can't hit the way he used to, so he's compensating with walks. He has 67 walks over all right now, and his career high is 82 (30 on the road, career high 49). He has a good number of doubles and triples, but that's mostly the Coors effect. As long as he keeps the OBA up, he's effective, but on the road at least, he's more of a table setter than a #5 hitter.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1520	1523
Attendance	27576	28369

Yankees win. Rivera was not sharp, but with men on first and second with 1 out, Mariano struck out Millar and got Giambi on a soft liner to end the game with a 4-3 victory. The Red Sox fans' favorite shortstop, Derek Jeter drove in the winning run with a sac fly in the ninth. And of course, Enrique Wilson was the catalyst, going two for three with a walk, two stolen bases and two runs scored. It will be Mussina vs. Burkett tomorrow.

A real slugfest in Montreal tonight. The Expos got off to a 2-1 lead, but Atlanta came storming back with seven unanswered runs. Unanswered, until the 8th when the Expos scored five runs, and then added one in the 9th to tie the game and send it into extra innings. John Smoltz blew the save with an assist from the defense, giving up an unearned run. It's still 8-8 in the bottom of the 10th.

Frank Thomas hit his 24th HR of the year, giving him 400 for his career. He's 36th on the all-time HR list.

Carlos Zambrano survived the three unearned runs in the first and shut down the Astros the rest of the way. On top of that, he hit his 2nd HR of the year to tie the game in the 7th. Alou put the Cubs ahead 5-3 with his own 2-run HR in the 8th. It was the 6th HR of the year for the Cubs pitchers; no other team has more than 3 HR out of their pitching staff.

The Twins managed to keep pace with the Royals tonight with a comeback win against the Indians. With the score tied in the ninth, Mientkiewicz drove in Guzman with his 2nd double of the night. Guardado pitched a perfect ninth (2 K) for his 24th save. The Twins are 7-2 since the All-Star break.

The Red Sox Yankees game has been great. Neither Pedro nor Wells was great, but they bent instead of breaking. With a 3-2 lead and a runner on third, Rivera comes in with a 2-0 count on Nixon, walks him, then gives up a 0-2 single to Rivera to earn his 2nd blown save of the year. Rivera got out of the 8th by striking out Damon, and it's 3-3 going to the top of the ninth.

The Mets got a win tonight with good games from veteran Al Leiter and rookie Jose Reyes. Reyes had 3 hits (including a triple) and scored 2 runs. That would be all the Mets would need, as Leiter pitched seven shutout innings, and the bullpen allowed 1 run on a HR by Jose Guillen.

Dontrelle Willis pitched six good innings, but the Marlins' pen has given the game back to the Phillies. Nate Bump and Armando Almanza set up Urbina to give up a three-run HR to Placido Polanco. It's 4-3 Phillies in the bottom of the 7th.

Steve Timberlake pointed out to me that Jody Gerut of the Cleveland Indians now has a blog on Cleveland.com. He's been a decent power hitter so far, and it will be interesting to see his take as the Indians rebuild. It's worth putting in your demographic info to take a look.

The Tigers have 10 hits through seven innings tonight, including four doubles. But they are 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position; they just don't have enough good hitters to put together three or four hits in a row. They are down 8-2 to Kansas City.

David Wells has walked two tonight. He walked two in one other game this year, also against the Red Sox. He's walked five Red Sox players this year; against all other teams he's walked three.

Dontrelle Willis has another gem through four innings. One hit, no runs, and only 58 pitches thrown. The Marlins are leading the Phillies 3-0. The Marlins are only five games back in the wild card, and this weekend is an excellent chance for them to gain ground.

The Twins are staging a comback vs. the Indians. Down 4-0 after 3, they have closed it to 4-3 in the 6th. Shannon Stewart continues his hot hitting with a three for three. He's now 15 for 30 since joining the Twins.

I'm sitting here watching Fred Lynn being interveiwed at the Red Sox game, and I can't get over how much he looks like Ted Williams. Must be something about being a left-hand hitting outfielder from Fenway. :-)

Aramis Ramirez made an error in the first inning against the Astros, which has led to 3 runs so far. It was Ramirez's 25th error of the year; coming into tonight, no other third baseman had more than 16.

Horacio Ramirez is having trouble finding the strikezone tonight. He's walked five batters through 3 2/3 innings, including opposing pitcher Claudio Vargas. He's losing two to one, since Montreal is only 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.

After a very un-Pedro like first two innings, Martinez has settled down and is fooling everyone with his curve ball. After walking three in the first two innings, he's retired all the batters in the 3rd and 4th, and struck out three of them. And after throwing 49 pitches in the first two innings, he's only used 23 over the last 2.

Carlos Delgado hit a three-run HR in the 4th inning to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 over the Orioles in the battle of the birds. With the 3 RBI, Delgado cracks the 100 RBI mark this year (102). There had been talk of him having 100 by the All-Star break, but he only had 2 since the break before tonight.

Yankees are doing a good job early of making Pedro work. Jeter just had a nine-pitch plate appearance in which he drew the Yankees third walk of the night, and it's only in the second inning. He also walked Enrique Wilson on four pitches. It appears Pedro does not have his best control tonight. He's just missing the plate, but he is missing. He's thrown over 40 pitches, and he's not out of the 2nd yet.

Update: Giambi worked Pedro to a 3-2 count, then Martinez got him pitching on a low pitch with great movement on the outside corner. Yankees leave the bases loaded, and it's 1-1 after 1 1/2 innings.

Cecilia Tan has a nice post on her time at the annual SABR Convention.

A couple of people have pointed this story out to me, so I thought I'd include a link. Maybe the funniest thing that happened to the Mets this year.

Lots of good pitchers going tonight; Loaiza, Runelvys Hernandez, Moyer, Dontrelle Willis and the return of the Big Unit. All worth tuning in. But the big game of the day has to be the Yankees at the Red Sox, as control specialist David Wells takes on the Ace of Aces, Pedro Martinez. Wells career at Fenway is 10-10, but with a 5.12 ERA. In his last five starts, he's 3-1, despite a 5.13 ERA. The Red Sox are 8-4 when the opposition starts a lefty in Fenway (although, one of those losses was to Wells). In other words, this is a pitching matchup made in heaven for the Red Sox. Pedro is on a roll, with a 1.56 ERA in his last five starts. A good night by Pedro and a bad night by Loaiza could put Pedro in the ERA lead in the AL.

Joel Sherman of the NY Post says that Pedro doesn't scare the Yankees, and points out how successful the Yankees have been when Pedro starts. Jay Greenberg, on the other hand, points out that this Yankee rotation will be severely tested by the Red Sox offense.

On the Boston side, Dan Shaughnessy revels in the rivalry.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1505	1508
Attendance	27527	28309

David Eckstein has been having a disappointing season. Through July 19th, he was only getting on base at a .311 clip, well below his .351 career pace. He's picked it up in the last few days, getting on base 12 out of 20 times, including a 3 for 3 tonight in the 4th inning vs. Texas.

Livan Hernandez was pitching like his old self tonight (or maybe it was that he was pitching against the Mets). He pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing only seven singles and a walk, while striking out five. He's lowered his ERA to 3.50, and that should put him in the top 15 in the NL this year.

I thought I just saw a rare play. Brian Hunter was on second when Jeff Bagwell launched a double to the right field wall in Milwaukee. Hunter tagged, then thought the ball was gone and was jogging to third. He then realized that the ball wasn't out of the park, but by then he didn't have time to score. So a double only advance a runner one base. I figured this didn't happen very often, but it was the 6th time this year, and the 193rd time since 1987.

Update: I did not see the play correctly. Al B tells me that Brian Hunter was on first when the play started, and stopped at 2nd. He should have been able to score on the play, however. So change the numbers to 5 times this year, and 192 times since 1987.

The Shawn Chacon - Keven Brown matchup turned out to be better than expected. Shawn went 7, Brown 8, and each allowed 3 hits and no runs. There were 10 hits in the whole 11 inning game, and they were all singles. The disappointing Shawn Green had 2 hits and drove in Alex Cora with the winning run in the 11th. After batting .181 in June, Green is 26 for 84 in July (.310) with half his hits for extra bases.

Brandon Webb gave up two HR to Ray Durham today to ruin an otherwise superb performance. Webb, one of the big three W rookies, went eight innings, only allowing runs on Durham's two solo shots. Mike Myers lost it in the ninth on Barry Bonds' 33rd HR of the year. Bonds is now 14 HR short of tieing Willie Mays for 3rd on the all-time HR list.

A rough day for Kerry Wood. He was gone after 5 innings and 8 runs, despite striking out 9. The eight runs match a career high for Wood, matching a 4 inning performance last year on June 16th. In that game, he only allowed 2 hits, but walked six. Polanco and Abreu were the hitting heros for Philly, driving in four and five runs respectively.

Sidney Ponson has a 1-hitter through five innings against the Yankees. Soriano has the only knock, a single. Meanwhile, it looks like Roger Clemens had nothing today, lasting only four innings and giving up five runs. It that time he allowed 9 hits and 2 HR.

The Devil Rays now lead the Red Sox 11-3 in the sixth. Every Devil Rays starter has at least 1 hit, and Perez and Rolls have four RBI each. Chad Fox entered with the score 5-2, then gave up a single, walk and grand slam. Just not Boston's day. Of course, the Red Sox do have a good offense and four more innings in which to bat. :-)

It's only been a few games, but the DRays new third baseman, Antonio Perez has been impressive offensively so far. He hit his 2nd HR in 20 games today. He's getting hits (.333 BA) and he's drawing walks (.409 OBA). He's also 3 for 3 stealing. So far, nothing not to like. He had good walk numbers in the minor leagues, but his BA wasn't as high as this. Still, Perez looks like a good addition to the offense.

Update: Ben Jacobs points out to me that this is Perez's first game at third base. He's a middle infielder, which makes his stats more impressive. Ben wrote about Antonio here.

This afternoon's Orioles-Yankees game offers a nice pitching matchup between Sidney Ponson and Roger Clemens. Clemens has pitched 130 innings, Ponson 132. Both have walked 37 batters. Ponson has allowed 16 more hits than Clemens. Why? Clemens has struck out 44 more batters, or Ponson has had about 44 more balls put into play against him. Since both teams have DER's of .677, we could expect 14 of those extra 44 balls in play to go as hits. Pretty cool, huh? Of course, Clemens has given up 14 HR to Ponson's 10, so Sidney has a bit better ERA, and a better record.

Another good pitching matchup in Seattle, and the Mariners try to put even more distance between themselves and the A's. It's Mulder vs. Meche. Mulder has been pitching better than Meche over their last five starts. Also, has anyone else noticed John Olerud's decline? I love the guy, but his slugging percentage is the same as his OBA, .379. It's a good OBA, but not what we're used to from John (Career .403), but he has no power. Those sort of numbers are okay for a middle infielder, but a first baseman job is to supply some power. I know he strained a hamstring earlier this month, but the power hasn't been there all year.

In the NL, Shawn Chacon faces Kevin Brown in Dodger Stadium. Chacon has not pitched well there, posting a 6.65 ERA in four starts there. Maybe he has to pitch in Coors to be good. That would be something, a Coors pitcher! :-)

In San Francisco, Brandon Webb is being called upon again to stop an Diamondbacks losing streak against the Giants. He won on 7/13, ending a six game skid against the Bay Boys, and tonight he'll try to stop the three game losing streak against the NL West leaders.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1491	1499
Attendance	27487	28295

Eric McErlain at Off Wing Opinion has a good roundup of criticism of the Ralph Wiley piece on Bill James.

On a more interesting note, I received an e-mail today which was also addressed to a number of baseball bloggers from Steve Sailer, UPI National Correspondent. The piece is titled Analysis: Baseball's hidden ethnic bias and is inspired by the Toronto Star's claims of racisim in the way the Blue Jays are run. The piece is thoughtful and well researched. He does call Beane the first Jamesian GM, although Sandy Alderson may fit that bill more precisely. But his historical research points to the long tension between power and speed:

Strikingly, the dispute between the baseball establishment and the sabermetricians is in essence a continuation of baseball's first great argument over strategy, the one between Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. Cobb, the greatest star of the early 20th century, believed baseball revolved around line drives and stolen bases. Ruth won the hearts of fans by bombing previously unimaginable numbers of home runs. Yet, in the minds of many baseball insiders and sportswriters, Cobb's cunning, elegant style remained preferred over Ruth's seemingly vulgar, showy antics.

What the elite didn't understand, however, was that that Ruth had a second arrow in his offensive quiver. By intimidating pitchers with his power to slam out of the park balls thrown down the middle, he forced them to try to nibble at the edges of the strike zone. When they missed, he'd accept a walk, earning as many as 177 free passes in a season. Batting behind Ruth, Lou Gehrig ran up enormous RBI totals.

Although Cobb's career batting average of .366 was the highest ever, significantly better than Ruth's .342, Ruth's on-base percentage of .474 substantially beat Cobb's .433.

Please read the whole article.

The other thing I want to note is that this is the first time a national writer has sent me a link to an on-line article, I assume, in order to get broader attention for the article. Bloggers send things to each other all the time in the hope of getting linked and reaching a broader audience. But now professional writers appear to be discovering blogs as a way to get their work seen by an audience interested in the work. That's great news for the blogosphere.

A great game pitched by Glendon Rusch tonight. He went seven innings, giving up 4 hits and striking out 9 as he allowed only 1 run. Seventy of his 109 pitches went for strikes. He lowered his horrible 7.99 ERA to a less horrible 7.50.

I just watched the Toronto Blue Jays give away the lead in the top of the ninth inning. Acevedo and Reichert have combined to allow 3 runs so far, and the bases are loaded with 1 out. Reichert threw what looked like a wild pitch, but the ball bounced right back to the catcher, and Frank Thomas couldn't score from third. Then he hits Konerko to force in the go-ahead run anyway. Toronto has now blown 13 of 32 save opportunities this year.

Update: Let me note that the White Sox have a worse save percentage than the Blue Jays, and they are in the process of trying to give the game back to the Blue Jays. Gordon came in and got 1 out, along with giving up a hit and a walk. Damaso Marte has replaced him, and as I write this gets the DP to end the game. Now that's a save!

What's left of the Pirates offense is having a pretty good night. They've moved Kendall to the leadoff spot and he's reached base three times and scored a run. Jose Hernandez has added a HR to go with his usual two strikeouts. Stairs and Simon have also gone deep, and the Pirates lead the Reds 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth.

Bobby Kielty is doing a good job setting the table for Toronto tonight. He has two hits and a walks and has scored twice. He's now 10 for 22 with 4 walks and for the Jays, and has scored 9 runs in 6 games.

The Expos offense so far has done all it's damage in the first inning. They batted around, scoring five runs. So far, that's all Vazquez has needed, as he's allowed 2 runs and struck out 11 Mets through 8 innings.

Jae Weong Seo seems to have gone south with the Mets. After posting a 3.09 ERA through the end of June, his ERA in July is 7.77.

With the Royals up 4-0 on the Twins, Angel Berroa but the game away with a three-run HR off reliever Juan Rincon. The Royals are looking more and more like the Central champs this year. A nice turnaround for a troubled team.

It's an interesting game in Chicago, as Wolf has allowed 4 hits and Clement has allowed 3. But 2 of Clement's hits have been for HR, giving Philadelphia a 3-0 lead in the 7th. Clement as also walked five. The Cubs have had their opportunities, as they are 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Mark Redman is throwing a two-hitter, despite striking out only 1. The Marlins don't have a great defense (they have the third worst DER in the NL). I guess the Braves are hitting everything right at somebody.

Phil Nevin was activated today and played in a losing effort against the St. Louis Cardinals. He had a single and a walk in a successful 2003 debut.

Wil Everts rightly chides me for jumping on Schilling's case last night.

Just so you know, Schilling did pretty well, especially since he came back early from a broken throwing hand.

A broken hand means that you can't throw or keep your pitching arm up the entire time you are healing. Thus, his arm strength isn't there yet. His fastball is only hitting 93 (due to that weakness) where at full strength he'll hit 97+. Meanwhile, not fooling anyone? He had Bonds about a foot away from his 93 mph heater and made quite a few batters look pretty ugly.

Only giving up 3 runs and still not getting the grip on the ball or pitch speed he's used to is a pretty nice job if you ask me. 15 K and 3 earned runs in the last 2 starts since the break is not bad, and he'll be getting better.

Not automatic may be a true statement, but, in all fairness, no one is expecting him to be, at least if they know what they are talking about. His game isn't at 100% yet and by no accounts should it be.

That's what I get for not staying up late and watching the game.

Two good pennant race games in the AL today. In the earlier game, Kansas City travels north to take on the Twins. The Royals have handled the Twins so far this year, taking 7 of the 10 matchups, despite posting a 5.15 ERA vs. the Twins. The Twins have posted a 5.04 ERA vs. the Royals, but the Royals are 4-0 in 1-run games vs. the Twins.

A good pitching matchup in Seattle as Barry Zito and the A's face Ryan Franklin of the Mariners. Both the A's and the Twins have to hope to win the division, as it looks more and more like the Yankees and Red Sox are going to push each other to very high win totals. Barry Zito is 6-1 with a 3.30 ERA career vs. the Mariners, and the Mariners have had very good teams during Zito's career.

The Florida Marlins are 14.5 out in the NL East, but only four back in the wild card race. They send Mark Redman to the mound against Mike Hampton of the Braves tonight. Taking a couple of games from the Braves would do well to boost this team; if you beat the best, you can beat anybody. The Marlins starters rank 4th in the league in ERA, the Braves starters 9th.

Finally, the Arizona-San Francisco series continues. The Giants are 8-2 vs. Arizona, and now are in command of the division. The Diamondbacks did a great job to get within striking distance of first place, but when given the opportunity to take the Giants head-to-head, they could not deliver.

Colby Cosh talks to three Expos minor leaguers, and finds that Moneyball is a favorite book of theirs.

I had meant to ask them if they'd heard of Michael Lewis's Moneyball, the hot book about the sabermetric revolution, after I completed the businessy part of the interview. I didn't even have to wait that long. I was asking them to name their favourite books, as part of a list of questions my editor provided for some back-page filler, and Sledge immediately chose Moneyball. I was blown away. If there was a natural Moneyball guy at the table, I would have expected it to be Pascucci, with his .434 on-base percentage. Sledge is a classic "tools" guy, a traditional scout's darling, or at least that's the rep he came to the organization with. But when we started talking about Moneyball he showed he'd absorbed at least part of the rationalist message, even mentioning OPS and Bill James. Man, that's how you know times have changed--you interview a ballplayer and he mentions Bill James to you.

There's a famous book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. In it (if I remember correctly), he argues that paradigm shifts in thinking don't come all of a sudden, but happen as an idea introduced by a young person gains acceptance as the old guard dies out. You're seeing that in baseball now. Twenty years ago, Bill was the young upstart. A few people in the business, like Sandy Alderson, got it. More importantly, young people got it, and as my generation comes to take charge of the game, those ideas are starting to push out the old guard. In another 20 years, the old guard will be retired or dead, and we'll all think how silly it was to judge players on batting average, RBI and wins.

The Clark and Addison Chronicle have a good set of links on the Cubs-Pirates trade.

Alex Belth got up early and has the news on the lefty reliever moves in the AL East. The Red Sox got Sauerbeck from the Pirates, and the Yankees tried to match that by getting Jesse Orosco from the Padres. Jesse is one of two players in the majors who is older than I am (the other being Rickey).

I don't think either move is especially great. People haven't hit Sauerbeck this year, but he walks a lot of batters, and when he has been hit it's been with men on. Orosco is completely neutralized by pinch hitting with a righty. RHB are 20 for 47 vs. Orosco, a .426 BA. Belth is not impressed either:

The Yanks answered by picking up old man Jesse Orosco from San Diego for a player to be named later. So far this summer the Yankees have added Dan Miceli, Karim Garcia, Ruben Ruben, Armando, and now Orosco for their stretch run. Not exactly an imposing group of players.

Excuse me for sounding like a mope, but I just don't get that championship feeling from this team. Which is not to say they can't do it. But they have a rent-a-wreck quality about them that is hard to deny. Orosco's theme music should be Quincy Jones' theme song for "Sanford and Son."

Maybe it's time for Orosco to join Elizabeth. :-)

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1476	1484
Attendance	27477	28284

Curt Schilling is not fooling anyone tonight. Through two innings, he's given up five hits and two runs. And no strikeouts. He's not as automatic as he used to be.

Derek Lowe has only thrown 85 pitches through eight innings tonight. I wonder if Little will let him finish the game? No walks and four K for Lowe, but he did allow two HR, which accounted for all three Detroit runs. Boston leads 7-3 in the eighth.

I'm not sure I understand this trade from the Pittsburgh point of view. I guess they took Jose Hernandez because they need someone to play third base. Bruback is okay, but it's not like he lit up the minor leagues. He's 43-45 with a 4.20 ERA in his minor league career. Maybe the Pirates will hit a HR with the player with no name.

As for the Cubs, their centerfielders and third basemen are below average. Lofton and Ramirez should improve them there, and so far the Cubs haven't given up too much to get them. I'm a bit disappointed in Pittsburgh, I thought Littlefield would do a better job of acquiring talent in trades. We'll see who the third player turns out to be.

Jason Kendall's 23 game hitting streak is in jeopardy. He's 0 for 3 tonight, with two innings to go. He's was 39 for 99 during the streak coming into tonight.

Tomo Ohka and Carl Pavano are involved in a good pitcher's duel in Florida tonight. Ohka is losing 2-1, his mistake being a 2-run HR by Derek Lee. Pavano is letting his defense do all the work. He hasn't struck out a batter through seven innings and only walked one. The defense is doing the job, as the Expos only have 3 hits.

Tim Hudson put up another brilliant outing today. Seven innings, 1 hit, 8 K. In five of his last six starts, he's allowed 1 run or less.

Rich's Weekend Baseball Beat did a long article on this. Also, scroll up to the next post by Rich for the follow up.

Julien Headley is blogging about baseball at julien's baseball blog. For some reason, however, his shift key doesn't work.

Frank Thomas hit his 23rd HR of the year today. Despite all the talk I heard of his demise over the last few years, Thomas still is an offensive force. His OPS is .970; any team would take that from first base or DH. He's 1 HR away from 400 now, which would match his twin, Jeff Bagwell (born on the exact same day). And just think, over the winter any team could have had him cheap.

Thomas and Griffey make for interesting Hall of Fame discussions. They pushed a lot of greatness into the early parts of their careers, and may hang around long enough, despite injuries, to reach HOF milestones. It will be an interesting vote when they retire. How much does the first half of your career count?

The Texas-Baltimore game has seen 10 runs scored in four innings so far. They aren't really slugging, however, as only 2 of the 14 hits have been for extra bases, and they are both doubles.

Update: Blalock just went deep. It's 7-4 O's now.

Jeff Duncan seems to be doing his best to solidify himself as the Mets leadoff man. He singled leading off the first and scored, and raised his OBA to .525. He has 9 walks in 31 AB. As a point of comparison, entering today, there are 170 players (including pitchers) who have more AB but fewer walks, including Jacque Jones, who has 7 walks in 319 AB! Duncan has a career minor league .381 OBA, so this isn't likely a fluke.

Mike Naftolin points me to this post at Mike's Baseball Rants, taking down much more strongly than Rob Neyer the Wiley piece on racism among sabermetricians.

I get the feeling, looking at the list of probable pitchers that there are going to be a lot of runs scored tonight. Not many starters scheduled for tonight with an ERA under 4.00. So if you like runs, tonight should be your night. Two games ripe for scoring are Texas at Baltimore and St. Louis at San Diego. In the Orioles game, John Thomson and Rodrigo Lopez both have ERA's in the low 5.00's. However, neither walks too many batters. Both have given up their share of HR, however.

In SD, Jeff Fassero takes his 7.17 ERA against Oliver Perez's 5.72. Perez strikes batters out at nearly 1 per inning, but when he's not striking them out they are walking and hitting HR. Fassero has given up 7 HR in 37 2/3 innings; that would work out to 37 if he pitched 200 innings. So for chicks who dig the long ball, these two games offer your best chance to see them.

The Twins Geek takes a look at this trade, with some very insightful remarks. I'll also point out that the Cardinals trade of Keith Hernandez to the Mets in the early 80's was along these lines.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1462	1469
Attendance	27486	28271

Coming into today, Pineiro and Lohse were headed in different directions; Lohse was doing poorly in his recent starts, while Pineiro was unbeatable. Lohse is at his best tonight, however, reaching the seventh before allowing 2 runs. Hawkins is on to get the last out of the 7th. It's 4-2 Twins. Stewart has 2 more hits tonight; he's now 7 for 15 with the Twins.

The Red Sox have nine doubles tonight. That's the third time this year they've had at least eight doubles in a game. The Yankees have done it twice this year, including a 10 double outburst on 6/5, the most in a game this year.

Josh Beckett is pitching a great game tonight; Seven innings, seven hits and seven strikeouts. All the hits are singles, and he's only walked one batter. Eighty of his 106 pitches have been for strikes. We'll see if he hangs around long enough to get the shutout.

Jeff Weaver went four 1/3 innings and gave up 11 hits. It's amazing he only allowed five runs. Every starter in the Toronto lineup got at least one hit off Jeff. I have to think that Weaver's days in NY are numbered. He's become the Ed Whitson of the aughties.

Pat Hentgen put up his 2nd good start in a row. Six 1/3 innings, six K, 2 runs. It takes a while to come back from Tommy John surgery, and Hentgen is reaching the time where you're able to throw well again. He's 34; if the surgery works, maybe we'll see a few more years from this formerly fine pitcher.

I saw in some notes from STATS, Inc, that Jeremy Bonderman had a number of quality starts recently. He is 3-5 in nine quality starts this year, which led me to wonder what was the worst record for a pitcher in his quality starts? I looked at pitchers with at least 10 QS from 1987 to 2003. Here are the worst winning percentages:

Pitcher             Year  QS   W   L   WPct
Kyle Abbott         1992  10   0   6   0.000
Danny Darwin        1997  12   1   6   0.143
Steve Cooke         1994  13   1   5   0.167
Rick Mahler         1988  18   4   8   0.333
Omar Daal           2000  12   3   6   0.333
Vicente Palacios    1994  11   2   4   0.333
Ken Hill            1989  18   5   9   0.357
John Dopson         1988  17   3   5   0.375
Willie Blair        1998  10   3   5   0.375
Bruce Ruffin        1991  11   3   5   0.375
Frank Castillo      2002  11   3   5   0.375
Tony Saunders       1998  19   5   8   0.385

Bonderman will make this list if he loses his next quality start, which won't be tonight, since the Red Sox are up 12-3 on the Tigers.

Tom Tippett has done an extensive study of DIPS (defense-independent pitching stats), and finds that pitchers have more influence over hits rates than Voros McCracken thought, but that influcence is much smaller than pitchers have over K, BB, HR and HBP. A long read but worth it.

The Mets jumped on Brandon Duckworth in the first, getting a three-run HR from Cliff Floyd. But Heilman allowed the first two batters to reach base, and the Phillies have men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the bottom of the inning. Could be a slugfest tonight.

Update: Abreu singles in two.

Sean Kirst, a columnist with the Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY, has written a book of baseball essays entitled, The Ashes of Lou Gehrig. He sent me a sample essay on patch jackets, which I just loved. When it's published, I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing.

Here's an excerpt:

I just got around to reading this Rob Neyer piece on why Sabermetrics is color-blind. He's trying to refute the Toronto Sun article and a more recent Ralph Wiley column. Ralph Wiley is my favorite Page 2 columnist, and his column is typically excellent. Rob takes issue with this paragraph:

It is usually the American-born blacks' records and place that are resented instead of celebrated. For example, it's the stolen base that is denigrated as a weapon by baseball sabermaticians like Bill James, at precisely the time when a Rickey Henderson steals 130 bases in a season. There are sour grapes when a baseball man uses stats to tell you a stolen base isn't important. Any time a baseball manager will give up an out for a base, as with a sac bunt or groundball to the right side, any time a base is so precious, then it goes without saying that the stolen base must be important. Not the CS, the caught stealing, or stats of success rates, but the stolen base itself.

To which Rob replies:

Let's start with Bill James, and his supposed disdain for Rickey Henderson's game.

In 1982 -- before Henderson stole 130 bases in a season -- Bill James wrote, "The greatest lead-off man in baseball, Henderson might be on his way to being the greatest lead-off man in baseball history."

In 1983 -- after Henderson stole 130 bases in a season - James wrote, "Henderson ranks as the best lead-off man in the league, which is not news."

In 2001 -- (apparently) near the end of Henderson's career -- James wrote, "Somebody asked me did I think Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer. I told them, 'If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.'"

But as I remember it, Bill did make a disparaging comment about Rickey's 130 steal season. His blurb about Henderson in his 1983 Baseball Abstract basically points out that Henderson's stolen base record did little for the team. He estimated that it only added 4.5 runs to Oakland's offense. He finishes the Henderson article with this:

Four and a half goddamn runs, and they want to give him an MVP award for it. But is it even that? What about Dwayne Murphy's hitting 0 and 1 or 0 and 2 all year? What about closing up the hole on the right side 172 times? Rickey Henderson's stolen base attempts didn't mean anything to the Oakland A's -- nothing at all. He's a great young ballplayer, but his selfish pursuit of the stolen-base record did not help the Oakland A's. It hurt them.

Rickey's 42 CS that year were also a record, and James is focusing on that, instead of the positive of the SB record. Wiley suggests that it is racist, but I think James would have made the same argument if Brett Butler had done it.

Rob's piece doesn't work for me because it's basically, "I have (choose your race) friends, so I'm not a racist." It's even weaker when he selectively quotes Bill James positively, without including his negative comments. I think his defense should be stronger than that.

Also, there is a misconception about the Sabermetricians and the stolen base that I want to clear up. Sabermetricians don't think the SB is bad. What they recognize is that the stolen base is a high risk play. Therefore, if you are going to use it, you better be in a situation in which the SB has a high likelihood of working. So you need a high percentage base stealer like Tim Raines, or be facing a team that can't throw out runners, like the Toronto Blue Jays. I believe, in those cases, sabermetricians would say, "Go wild!" But it's a secondary skill, and if you are choosing between Vince Coleman and Wade Boggs, don't take Vince Coleman simply because he can steal bases. Take Wade Boggs because he doesn't consume outs getting to first. Stolen bases themselves are not bad baseball; valuing them too highly is.

Two big games in each league today. The Oakland A's, having been swept by the Twins head south to KC to take on the AL Central leading Royals. The Royals tried to do the A's a favor by taking three out of four from the Mariners, but instead lost a game in the standings to Minnesota. The Twins host the same Mariners, who send Joel Pineiro to the mound against them. Pineiro is 5-0 in his last five starts with an ERA of 1.77. He'll face Kyle Lohse, who is as cold as Pineiro is hot. In his last five, Lohse is 0-4 with an 11.45 ERA. He's striking out batters (21 in 22 innings), but he's given up nine HR in those same 22 innings.

In the NL, the Cubs visit the Braves. Not a great pitching matchup as Estes faces Reynolds (let's hope it's not too hot tonight), but a great matchup between two of the top right-handed power hitters in the game, Sheffield and Sosa. In their 91 career games head-to-head, Sheffield has hit better (.316 BA, 67 BB vs. .263 BA, 28 BB for Sosa), but Sosa has out homered him 21-18. Both have scored 61 runs, while Sosa has knocked in 67 to Sheffield's 60.

In the other big game in the NL, the Diamondbacks try once again to gain ground on the Giants as they send Elmer Dessens against rookie sensation Jerome Williams. Williams pitched six scoreless innings against the DBacks his last time out.

Enjoy!

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1447	1459
Attendance	27483	28284

Attendance is starting to catch up to last year's numbers. We're also going into the period where attendance started to dip last year due to the negative coverage of the labor negotiations. With a number of teams still in playoff races (and different teams than last year), the hit attendance took in August of last year may not happen, and the September numbers may be higher, also.

It's the bottom of the first, and there have been three HR so far in the StL-LA game. Rickey Henderson just led off the bottom of the first with a HR, the 81st time he did that. It was Henderson's 297th career HR. He's 98th on the career HR list, and Chuck Klein is just ahead of him at 300.

Update: It continues. The Dodgers now have three solo HR. The Cards have two two-run HR. It's four to three Cards.

Well, I finally got all the pieces in place. After two months in the shop waiting for a part, I have my high definition TV back. I've signed up for the expensive DirecTV HD package (I'm sorry, ESPN-HD should be free). I'm watching the Cardinals-Dodgers, and I love the picture. One of the biggest differences I noticed was in the open, as Joe Morgan and Jon Miller were talking. You could see what they really look like, including the flaws. The blue of the walls of Dodger Stadium and the yellow of the seats just pops. They have a camera angle from behind home plate where you can see nearly the entire infield. I have to admit, it's really like being at the ballpark. You can see the sweat glistening on the neck of Odalis Perez.

Oh, and Rolen just went deep to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first.

Randy Johnson made a successful return today. He pitched 6 innings with 6 K, but allowed two runs. He also was not efficient, using 100 pitches, after which he was removed. He's in line to get the loss right now, due to the outstanding performance of Kevin Jarvis. It's 3-2 SD in the bottom of the eighth.

Brett Myers did everything right today except complete the game. Eight and two thirds innings, 10 strikeouts, no walks. He threw 126 pitches, 89 for strikes, 71%. He appeared to tire in the 9th, allowing a two-run HR to Wilkerson, but Mesa came in to get the last out. In his last six starts, Myers is 5-0 with a 3.19 ERA, 6.8 K per 9, and 0.9 BB per 9.

The DRays tied their franchise record with 15 runs scored today. It's the fourth time they've accomplished that, and the 2nd against Texas. It's the most they've ever scored in a home game, however.

I just saw the highlight. Mora was hit on or near the left eye.

The Mets scored three in the top of the eighth to extend their lead to 8-3, and it looked like they were going to get Leiter a win. But Edwin Almonte and Mike Stanton have combined to give up five runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game and send Al Leiter to a no-decision. Only 1 out, and the Braves are still batting with DeRosa on first.

Update: Marcus Giles, pinch hitting, just drove in the go-ahead run. The Mets continue to a a pathetic team.

Dontrelle Willis had a bad outing today, giving up six runs in two innings. There was a rain delay, and Willis came back into the game after that, so I don't know if that made a difference. It hasn't hurt Zambrano, as Carlos has only allowed 1 run through 4 innings.

Kip Wells lived up to my Games of the Day hype, although Matt Ford did not. Wells allowed eight hits but no walks through 7, and struck out 9. Tavarez is pitching in the eighth to try to preserve a 6-1 lead.

I'm watching the Yankee game right now, and Jim Kaat a couple of times has pooh-poohed Beane and Bill James by name. I also read an article in the unofficial Red Sox magazine that you can get outside the ballpark that did the same. The thesis of the argument is that OBA isn't everything. Fine. But neither of these people try to actually prove that. Kaat's talking about the psychology of pitchers, and how you have to look at that makeup. But if a pitcher doesn't have a good psychological makeup, you'd think he wouldn't have a good opposition OBA, and that you'd see that in the stats. Besides, if Kaat had actually read Moneyball, he'd know that there is a standard psych test given to players these days.

The article (which I don't have, sorry) said things like "Barry Bonds had a .700 OBA but the Angels won." Huh? That's apple and oranges. Look at the team OBA (Giants, .359, Angels, .370). Doesn't that tell you a lot more? The other thing that got me was a statement that teams should look for role players who are tough outs. Again, huh? Isn't a tough out a person who gets on base a lot? Or is it just a person who makes a lot of outs, but has 10 pitch AB all the time?

The level of writing and announcing on this subject is sometimes amazingly bad.

Update: A mistake in the original post that had the Giants with a better WS OBA than the Angels has been corrected.

Tampa Bay has scored 13 runs against the Texas Rangers today through five innings. The most runs ever scored by the team is 15, so that record is within sight. Huff, Lee and Martin each have three RBI for the DRays.

The top of the Twins order has gotten to Ted Lilly today. Stewart is two for two with a run and an rbi, Rivas has a hit and a run, and Mientkiewciz hit a three-run HR.

Nomar came up with 2 men on today and hit a three-run homer for the Red Sox. He had gone five straight days without an RBI. In that time, he was up 22 times, only once with a man in scoring position. Walker is on the bench today and Mueller is hitting in the #2 slot with his .404 OBA.

Al Leiter has walked four today in five innings, giving him 67 for the year in a little over 100 innings pitched. Last year, he walked 69 all year in 204 1/3 innings. His career high is 119, which he posted in 1996. He also posted a 2.93 ERA that year, his best til that point. The difference is that year, the league hit .202 against him, while in 2003 the league is hitting .284 (throught today's game). Al is out after five innings, and stands to get the win if the Mets bullpen can hang on to a 5-2 lead.

Melvin Mora was hit by a pitch today and left the game for a pinch runner. I did not see the injury, so I don't know how extensive it might be.

While Toronto trading Shannon Stewart certainly had a lot to do with saving money, it also, I believe, had something to do with the fact that the Blue Jays played extremely well when Stewart was on the DL. During the 21 games Stewart missed, the Blue Jays went 14-7 and outscored their opponents 140-106. It was clear that Stewart was not needed for the health of the Blue Jays lineup. Kielty, talentwise, probably isn't that different from Stewart, so why didn't the Twins just put him in the leadoff spot? My guess is they wanted speed there, and Stewart gave them that.

Wade Miller brought his good stuff to the ballpark today. He has seven strikeouts through four innings. He's only given up one hit, but he's walked four. The Reds are losing 3-0 in the fifth.

The Reds have lost nine in a row to the Astros, and single-handedly have vaulted the Houston team into first place in the NL Central.

A nice pitching matchup in Kansas City today as Jamie Moyer and the Mariners face Runelyvs Hernandez and the Royals. Runelvys pitched well in his first outing off the DL, despite giving up three runs in four innings. Moyer is going for his lucky 13th win. Thirteen other pitchers have racked up 13 wins or more during the year they were 40 (seasonal age) and the best season by a 40-year-old looks to be Pete Alexander's 1927 season. Alexander went 21-10 with a 2.52 ERA for the Cardinals that year. Four players at age 40 have won 21 games; in addition to Alexander, Phil Neikro, Warren Spahn and Cy Young all accomplished the feat. Pretty good company for Moyer to be trying to join.

In Minnesota, Ted Lilly tries to prevent the A's from being swept by the Twins. It's a battle of lefties, as Lilly faces Kenny Rogers. Rogers is 4-2 at home with a 4.30 ERA, 3-3 with a 5.63 ERA on the road. The A's have lost a chance to gain on the Red Sox for the wild card by dropping games to the Twins. Yesterday, Stewart contributed for the first time, getting on base three times and scoring two runs.

Three very good pitching matchups in the NL today. The Cubs at the Marlins features Carlos Zambrano vs. rookie sensation Dontrelle Willis. Zambrano has struggled in his last five starts, posting a 4.94 ERA, while Willis continues to be lights out. Can't wait to see the attendance in Florida today.

In Philadelphia, Claudio Vargas takes on Brett Myers. Myers has won 4 in a row. Montreal needs a win today to stay close to the Phillies in the wild card race.

Finally, a game that features two good pitchers on bad teams, Matt Ford of the Brewers faces Kip Wells in Pittsburgh. Both have ERA's in the 3.70's, which on most teams would produce a winning record. Maybe one of them will pitch well enough to win today. :-)

Enjoy!

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1432	1444
Attendance	27439	28260

I'm at Fenway sitting in the bleachers blogging on my friend's palm pilot. Mendoza is perfect through two with four ground ball outs. This is my first time blogging from a game, and I love it.

I'm back at home for a few minutes. I'm off to Boston to meet some college roommates and attend the game at Fenway tonight. There's been a lot happening the last few days; I think the Shannon Stewart deal will help both clubs. I'm not a huge Armando Benitez fan, but I'm willing to believe he'll help the Yankees. I see Rickey homered last night! Tony Womack is gone from Arizona; all the injuries seem to be allowing the DBacks to cut loose the dead wood. Enjoy the games today, I'll be back full blast tomorrow.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1417	1429
Attendance	27353	28178

I've been thinking about why the All-Star game isn't that popular anymore, and I believe the reason is that we see these players all the time now. I have MLB extra innings, and can pretty much watch any game I want on any night. Shows like Baseball Tonight bring the best players into our houses each evening. Instead of reading about or hearing about the great players, everyone gets to see them nearly every day. Twenty years ago this wasn't true. NBC and ABC had a game of the week, but if someone was did not play in your home town, you saw them a few game a year or not at all. The All-Star game was a treat, because we got to see all these tremendous players in one spot.

Now, if there's a no-hitter or a possible 4-HR game, we are taken there live. Everyone got to see Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds break HR records. We get to see Randy Johnson set strikeout records and Roger Clemens win his 300th game. In other words, we've all seen these great players be great; the All-Star game is just another game.

I will be watching, however, and since I'm on vacation, I can stay up late and watch the end. :-) Enjoy.

The Dodgers have signed Rickey Henderson. He should help; the Dodgers have the lowest OBA from the #1 slot in the NL, .289. The next closest is the Expos at .304. Even if Rickey is lousy by his standards, he should help the team. I'm glad to see him back. I got to see Rickey play earlier this year when Newark visited Bridgeport. I thought he could play then.

The Dodgers also got Jeromy Burnitz from the Mets to replace the injured Brian Jordan. He's probably a good fit; if he could generate a slugging percentage in the high .500's playing half his games in Shea, he should have similar results in Dodger Stadium.

Last week, a reader wrote me to inquire about the Yankees DP's, specifically, did they ground into a lot of double plays. The answer is yes and no. If you look at GDP totals, the Yankees lead the AL, and are tied for 2nd in the majors with 88. However, the Yankees have had many more DP situations than any other team, due to the fact that they get on base so well. If you look at DP's as a percentage of situations, the Yankees have the 12th lowest percentage in the majors, at 10.9%.

The positive not about the Tigers is that they not only have hit into the fewest GDP's in the majors (51), but they have the 2nd lowest percentage per situation. One might expect, that with their anemic offense, Detroit would not have many chance to hit into DP's, and that is true. But at 9.8% of GDP per situation, only the Texas Rangers (9.3%) have done better. Part of this, of course, is that the Tigers strike out a lot (2nd in the AL), and you can't hit into a DP striking out. But, they don't kill rallies with DP's either.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1388	1354
Attendance	27291	28132

The last word on the Randall Simon affair goes to my good friend Jim "The Official" Storer:

It has come to my attention that Pirates' 1B Randall Simon was recently involved in a controversial incident involving a mascot.

It seems that in a promotional footrace between staffers dressed as a bratwurst, a kielbasa and an Italian sausage, Simon slapped the unsuspecting Italian sausage in the buns with his bat.

When will this senseless violence against anthropomorphized processed meat products end?! If Simon had a beef with the sausage, then he should have mustard up the courage to address the sausage to his face instead of hot-dogging it. Though he may not relish this approach, with the Pirates red hot and on a roll, the steaks were simply too high, and Simon's suspension will hurt his team's chances to ketchup in the standings instead of remaining one of the NL's wurst teams.

Had Simon played in an earlier day, would Turkey Mike Donlin or Bob Veale have been safe? Chicken Stanley or Coot Veal? First excoriated in the media, then suspended by league officials, Simon himself has now moved from the frying pan into the fire. Fortunately, appropriate discipline has been meted out.

As Simon contemplates his punishment, he should embrace Luis Tiant's words of wisdom: "It's nice to be with a wiener!"

I'm off on vacation. I'll be gone for a little over a week. Blogging will be light to non-existent over the next seven or eight days, but luckily, during a lot of that time, nothing that counts will be going on. :-) Enjoy the many great blogs listed on the right, and enjoy the all-star game!

The two best pitching matchups pit Mike Mussina against Roy Halladay and Jerome Williams vs. Curt Schilling. This is Mussina's second time this week facing the opponent's staff ace. He battled Pedro Martinez to a draw on Monday. He's 16-8 career vs. the Blue Jays, while Halladay is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA over his last five starts. The Blue Jays need to win the next to games to stay close in the AL East and wild card races.

Curt Schilling returns from the DL against one of the many up and coming rookie pitchers of 2003. Williams hasn't had the innings of Webb or Willis (why do they all have last names that begin with W), but he's been very good so far. The DBacks are hoping that the return of Schilling and Johnson can push them over the hump to the playoffs, although they've been really good without them.

Enjoy!

The Toronto Blue Jays woes continue. With six games against the Red Sox and the Yankees, they were poised to make a move in the AL East. Instead, they have lost the first four of these and find themselves nine back in the division and seven back in the wild card. With Bernie Williams back, the Yankees are great 1-6 in the lineup, and last night it showed. The 1-5 hitters each had 2 hits, half for extra bases, and Posada in the #6 slot walked 3 times. This allowed the Bronx bombers to easily absorb a poor outing by Andy Pettitte.

Runelvys Hernandez made his return to the mound in as KC beat Texas 13-3 last night. A combination of hits and miscues led to him allowing 3 runs in four innings, but he overall pitched well. The Royals bullpen, however, with the worst ERA in the league (5.46), pitched brilliantly, allowing 1 hit in 5 innings.

Tim Hudson and Rodrigo Lopez hooked up in a great duel last night, as the A's beat the Orioles 2-0. It was a Billy Beane pitching performace as Hudson walked 1, struck out 9 and had 81 of his 115 pitches go for strikes. It was only the 2nd double complete game of the year (nine inning games).

The Reds picked up their first win in a while as Ryan Dempster pitched seven strong innings and the offense scored six runs. It was the first time since 7/2 that the Reds allowed less than six runs in a game.

Finally, in the big NL matchup of last night, the Giants nearly blew a 7-2 lead against the DBacks last night. Schmidt pitched eight strong innings, but gave up a run in the 8th to make the score 7-3. The Giants padded the lead to 10-3 in the top of the 9th, but Arizona came storming back against three Giant relievers in the 9th to score four runs. Grissom went 4 for 5, and at age 36 is having the best year of his career.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1357	1323
Attendance	27128	28078

Ugueth Urbina has been traded to the Flordia Marlins for three minor league players, only one of them a pitcher. The question in my mind is why Flordia thought they had to replace Looper in the closer role. Yes, Urbina is a better strikeout pitcher, but Looper has only given up 1 HR to Urbina's six. I'm not really sure it improves the team, although Looper and Urbina should make a really good 8th-9th inning combo.

It is good to see a team like the Marlins trying to win instead of dumping players.

Yes, he Wil. Brad Penny is pitching a great game tonight, throwing 35 of his 47 pitches for strikes. But he made a mistake to Cordero with the bases loaded, and after the grand slam he's down 4-2.

Derek Jeter, after a 2 for 2 start in Toronto tonight, is batting .318 with a .385 OBA and a .457 slugging percentage. That's pretty close to his .317/.388/.462 career numbers. In his previous 12 games, dating back to 6/28, he's hitting .522, 24 for 46. I guess the shoulder is finally healed.

Coco Crisp hit his fourth triple of the season and 14th of his career. He only has three HR. It's an unusual ratio. Recent players who had extreme triple/HR ratios like that were Larry Bowa who had 99 triples and 15 HR, and Roger Metzger who had 71 triples and 5 HR.

Of all the hitters in the Atlanta lineup, you would think that Vinny Castilla would not give Prior much trouble. He doesn't walk, and Prior is a good strikeout pitcher. Yet Castilla has two hits off him today and has driven in all four runs, two with his 15th HR. The rest of the Braves lineup is 1 for 13 against Prior.

I didn't get an e-mail, but the counter has gone over 200,000. Thanks to all who have come by over the last season and a half. It's been a lot of fun for me.

KC at Texas features the return of Runelvys Hernandez, after almost two months off due to injury. The Royals will find themselves in first place at the all-star break, and adding Hernandez back to the rotation should help in their effort to remain there.

The Twins try to fix their pitching woes by sending Johan Santana to the mound vs. the Angels tonight. Santana has made three starts this year, and is 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA in those games.

Finally, the Giants visit Phoenix to take on the 2nd place Diamondbacks. The DBacks are now only four games behind the Giants, and this series could move them very close to the top of the NL West. It's a great pitching matchup with Schmidt going against Batista tonight.

Enjoy!

I think we can lay "Sausagegate" to rest.

With one swing Wednesday night, Simon sent 19-year-old Mandy Block tumbling to the ground in the heavy costume. A fellow racer dressed as a hot dog also fell.

Simon, cited for disorderly conduct and fined $432, issued a public apology before leaving town after the Pirates' 5-4 victory over the Brewers on Thursday. Block said a team representative told her Simon would call her Friday to apologize.

"One of the public relations ladies called me and she talked to me and she was really nice and offered a lot and said, 'Anytime you're in Pittsburgh ... the best seat in the house is yours,''' Block said at her South Milwaukee home Thursday night.

"But all I wanted was the bat.''

Fifteen minutes of fame, good seats in Pittsburgh and an autographed bat! Not bad for a swing that didn't even hit her:

"I saw the bat before I got to him. I thought he was just going to fake me out,'' said Block, who stands 5-foot-3. "I am real little and I didn't take the blow very well.''

Block said the blow didn't hurt because it hit the head section of the costume, which is above her head.

Did the police really need to be involved with this? Is crime so rare in Milwaukee that the city's legal system can waste time with an incident that could have been cleared up with an autographed bat and an apology? Please.

With the Boston sweep of Toronto, and the Yankees losing two out of three to Cleveland, the Red Sox made up the two games they lost in NY last weekend. The Yankees now travel to Toronto, while the Red Sox visit Detroit. The Red Sox should have a much eaiser time with the cats than the Yankees with the birds, so it is conceivable that the Red Sox will be in first place at the All-Star break.

Looks like the counter below is going to hit 200,000 sometime today. If you come here, please scroll down to the counter and see if you hit 200,000. If so, please e-mail me (click on the contact link to the right) and let me know. It took eleven months to get to 100,000, but with all of your loyal support, we've doubled that in five months. Thanks to all of the readers who visit daily, and thanks for all the e-mail and comments that keep this site fresh. If you are new to the site, I hope you enjoy the opinions presented here, and that you'll come back often.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1342	1308
Attendance	27086	28050

Both the Twins and Reds are off to bad starts in their efforts to turn around their team slumps. Paul Wilson has given up four runs in the first so far and has not recorded an out. The Rangers scored three in the first on Rick Reed, all on Juan Gonzalez's 22nd HR of the year.

With Johnny Damon on the bench with an injury, the lowest OBA in the Red Sox lineup tonight is Todd Walker, who is at .338 after an 0 for 2 so far. The AL average is .335. That gives the Red Sox 9 out of 9 over the league average in OBA.

Meanwhile, the team whose GM lives by OBA, the Oakland A's, but out a lineup where six of the players were below the league average in OBA. I'm waiting for a house cleaning in Oakland around the end of July.

It was 80 degrees at game time today in Chicago, and Shawn "Wilting White Guy" Estes proved Dusty Baker right by allowing six runs, all earned in 5 1/3 innings. However, the heat didn't seem to bother Greg Maddux, who went six innings striking out seven for the win. It was his 280th victory.

Interestingly, Antonio Alfonseca, who was born in the Dominican Republic, also pitched poorly. I guess Dusty should stick to hitting and pitching and leave the genetics to Watson and Crick.

My DSL line is still down, so I'm at Starbucks for an hour, trying to keep up with things. I hope the line will be back tomorrow.

Garrett Anderson of the Anaheim Angels broke out of his July slump today with two HR. In 8 games this month, entering today, Anderson was batting .258 with 0 HR and four RBI. He doubled his RBI total for the month today, and is now 10 for 34 on the month.

Nate Cornejo pitched eight scoreless inning to lead the Tigers to a sweep of the White Sox. This has to be the most embarrassing sweep of the year for the White Sox, especially after adding Alomar and Everett. Loiaza pitched a great game, going all eight innings and throwing 80 of his 107 pitches for strikes. The league's leading pitcher shut down the league's worst offense, but still lost.

A heart-warming story involving Jeff Kent. Thanks to Casey Abell for pointing it out.

Randall Simon hit a racing sausage with a baseball bat during last night's Pirates-Brewers game. He was arrested and questioned, but this seems more like a prank gone wrong to me:

Simon insists he did not deliberately try to knock down the female mascot.

"That wasn't my intention in my heart for that to happen," he said before Thursday's Brewers-Pirates game. "I was just trying to get a tap at the costume and for her to finish the race."

Simon said he hopes to apologize to the woman before he leaves Milwaukee.

"I thought at the moment they were trying to play with us. They were running right next to the players," he said. "I'm a fun player, and I've never hurt anyone in my life."

We know Simon is a good contact hitter, having only walked 54 times and struck out 107 times in 1214 career AB. Of course, food activists are getting involved.

In the future, they should just use dachsunds. :-)

It has to be the Braves-Cubs matchup. Greg Maddux returns to his original stomping grounds to face Shawn "Wilting White Guy" Estes. The high is supposed to be 76 and it's only partly sunny, so maybe Estes will be able to get through this game okay.

On a more serious note, the Cubs, if they are going to win this season, have to beat teams like the Braves. They did well against the Yankees and Giants, but lost to the Blue Jays, Phillies, White Sox and Cardinals. This is their first meeting against the Braves. Maddux has not been pitching well lately, so this is a another great opportunity for them to show they can play with the best teams.

Reporting, editorializing, then Scrappleface.

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquier wonders if Boone will be fired.

There also are reasons to make a change. The Reds have performed poorly in fundamentals all year. They lead the majors in errors and haven't executed well on sacrifices. And they've made more than their share of base-running blunders.

Part of that can be attributed to their youth, but the manager also shares at least part of the blame.

I see Barry Bonds hit career HR 640 last night. That leaves him 20 to go for a tie for third place with his god father, Willie Mays. Your dad's Bobby Bonds, your god father is Willie Mays. What are the odds that you manage to eclispe them both? Also how many players can go down 90 points in OBA and 100 points in slugging percentage from one season to the next and still be the best hitter in the game?

How do the White Sox feel this morning? They add Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett, but they lose to in a row to the Tigers! Nice to see things going a little better for Alan Trammell, and nice to see Bonderman get a win.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox had a great comeback victory last night. That's two tough 1-run games they've won after that loss to the Yankees on Monday. Looks like Toronto's pitching isn't keeping up with it's offense right now. Can Ricciardi make some Beane like moves in July to shore up the staff? With so many teams still in contention, there may be less of a buyer's market this year.

The Reds lost their 7th in a row to the Astros last night. They've been outscored 53-22 in the streak, and the pitching staff has allowed at least 6 runs in every game. This coincides with the 2nd and third rounds of the Reds attempt to have a 4-man rotation. The interesting thing, however, is that the Reds four man rotation is working! The Reds started the rotation on 6/27. Before that, the starters' ERA was 6.34. Since, it's been 5.17. I hope the Red don't abandon the rotation due to the losing streak.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1328	1295
Attendance	27078	28074

Dr. Manhattan alerted me to this post, based on this Rob Neyer interview with Larry Dieker. I'd like to comment on both.

First on the Neyer interview. Larry Dieker has written a book in which he discusses his life in baseball. It turns out Dieker is a fine writer and a sabremetrician to boot. But he also talks about balancing his desire to do the mathematically correct thing with doing what the players expect of him:

"When I became the manager, I kind of knew what were the smart things to do. But I also knew that if I did all of them, it would be at the expense of my credibility with the players. With that in mind, I just had to use my instincts to both win the game and keep the whole team in the spirit of pulling together. I didn't want to come off as an egghead guy who was just looking at numbers and ignoring people, and sometimes those considerations ran into each other."

This is actually the right way to do things. Being a manager has two aspects; you have to manager a game, but you have to manage people, too. Davy Johnson was great at the game, but he lacked in managing people. Joe Torre's not that great at the game, but he's fantastic at the people side. Both can work, given the right team. Dieker, to his credit, tried to do both well. I'm looking forward to reading his book.

Dr. Manhattan at Blissful Knowledge brings this column over to Moneyball and the A's, asking:

But it stands to reason that Beane wouldn't mind having a manager like Dierker, who would commit to the sabermetric program out of intellectual conviction rather than career preservation. So who would be the best candidate?

Now, for some reason, I thought the answer would be Dieker. But no, Dr. Manhattan has another idea:

The perfect managerial match for Billy Beane would share his intellect and volatility. He would not be afraid to cause controversy in his commitment to doing what he felt was the right move (in baseball terms: to tell his detractors and the media to go f$#% themselves). And a connection to the Mets wouldn't hurt.
Bobby Valentine, would you like to move to Oakland?

I think this would be a terrible move. There is a reason good-cop/bad-cop works. People need an alternative point of view. If you put Valentine in charge of the A's, you'd have bad-cop/bad-cop, and that would be just too much intimidation. You need the guy who can call the star who just got chewed out by the GM into his office and say, "Yeah, he's a jerk, but he pays our salaries. Let's try it his way for a while and see if we win."

Secondly, Beane wants people who come cheap, and Valentine would not come cheap.

I'm heading home. Probably won't be able to blog tonight due to my DSL outage. I suggest you check out one of the fine blogs listed to the right.

Tom Glavine had another rough outing against the Braves today. Five 1/3 innings, five earned runs, five walks and no strikeouts. He actually lowered his ERA against Atlanta this year to 9.19! Julio Franco had a big hit, a 2-run HR, his second of the year. Both his HR have been off Glavine.

Looks like the best pitching match up will be between David Wells and Milliliter Sabathia as the Yankees visit Cleveland. It will be interesting to see what lineup Torre uses tonight.

Tom Glavine faces the Braves for the third time this year. If you take out his two starts against the Braves, Glavine is 6-6 with a 4.06 ERA. He'll face Russ Ortiz, who is 4-1 with a 2.14 ERA over his last five starts.

My pick for slugfest of the day goes to the San Francisco-Colorado game. Not only is it at Coors, but the starters, Foppert and Cook both have ERAs over five.

Brandon Webb is indeed at the top of the NL in ERA this morning. Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic has noted the all-star snub:

Dusty Baker should apologize immediately.

Not for his comments linking skin color and heat tolerance, which drew predictable gasps aboard the bloated barge of political correctness.

No, the Cubs manager needs to come clean for his impaired vision while assembling an All-Star pitching staff. A staff that should represent the best of the National League somehow omitted Dontrelle Willis and Brandon Webb.

"Unfortunately, the one statistic a pitcher has no control over - wins and losses - is the one a lot of people weigh heavily," Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly said. "Look at the rest of his numbers, and it's a no-brainer that (Webb) should be there."

Webb lacks the showmanship of Willis, and the one hit outings, but he's been every bit as good.

They are the most promising freshman pitchers in baseball. They are locked in a statistical draw for Rookie of the Year honors, but there are noticeable differences.

As in, only one guy gets noticed.

I'm glad Dan has noticed, and I hope others in the National media pick up on this story.

Going into last night, the game I would have picked as close to a sure thing was Oakland and Barry Zito defeating Tampa Bay and Rob Bell. Zito, instead, had his bell rung. Zito gave up 15 hits in 5 1/3 innings! Everyone in the TB lineup had a hit, and 8 of the starters had multi-hit games. Meanwhile, Bell pitched 6 decent innings for his first win of the season.

Congratulations to Billy Traber for one-hitting the Yankees last night. A couple of things:

1. Traber only threw 102 pitches. Very efficient.


2. With the lineup that Torre put out there, I'm not surprised.

Now, when your table setters go down, it's going to cause a hole in the lineup. But why just stick the two replacements in the 1-2 slots? Wilson led off, and had the worst OBA in the lineup. Zeile batted 2nd, and has the 2nd worst OBA in the lineup. This is managing? He should have led off with Matsui and batted Almonte 2nd. Then, maybe Giambi would have someone to drive in. If I get a chance later, I'd love to see how many early pitches Wilson and Zeile swung at.

The Baseball Crank is using DIPS to look at the pitching in the NL East.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1313	1295
Attendance	27088	28074

Jason Roach is pitching for the Mets tonight against the Braves. I don't have much to say about the game, but I wish Atlanta had started Jung Bong against him. :-)

With his three for three tonight, Placido Palanco is now 12 for 30 in July. His solo HR and two runs scored have helped the Phillies to a 3-1 lead over Montreal in the top of the 6th.

Lew Ford of the Twins has a two-run double as the Twins have taken an early 4-0 lead vs. the Rangers. The way the Twins pitchers have been going lately, they'll need it. Lew has played well since making the majors, posting a .407 OBA after a double and a walk tonight. Six of his 16 hits have been for extra bases.

They are in the 7th in Toronto after an hour and a half with the Red Sox and Blue Jays tied at 1. Halladay and Wakefield have both been dominating throwing strikes and giving up few hits. Halladay's only mistake was a HR by Mirabelli, while Stewart and Delgado combined for Toronto's lone run. An important game for both teams.

The Tigers Wil Ledezma is pitching a nice game tonight. Five innings, four strikeouts so far, and all five hits have been singles. He's also erased two runners with double plays. Unfortunately for him, the Tiger offense is dormant, and he's clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Jeff Weaver looks like he's in trouble again. It's the first inning, and he's already given up four hits, a walk and 2 runs to the Indians. He's been given the easiest assignment of the last five games, and he's blowing it. Claussen may be looking for his ticket to NY in the mail tomorrow.

My neighbors are having a new pool installed. The construction workers were there today digging up the old pool, and when I came home I found they cut my DSL line in two. So I've just spent 45 minutes setting up an accout at my local Starbucks so I can blog a little tonight. If things are light the next few days, you'll know why.

The Marlins are now 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position, and they did not score on their one hit. Zambrano's BA against in that situation is now down to .202. He's thrown over 100 pitches through 6, so it's not clear how much longer he'll be in the game.

While the Cubs game remains scoreless, the Cards and Giants hitters started off strong. A triple by Bo Hart led to a run for the Cardinals, while Jose Cruz Jr. has hit a three run shot for SF. That gives Hart 17 runs in 19 games. And after hitting 4 HR all of June, Cruz has 3 in July.

I haven't put up a picture of Phoebe in a while. See if you can spot the dog. :-)

Carlos Zambrano got himself into and out of a jam in the first inning. He threw a Juan Pierre bunt into RF, allowing Pierre to go to third, then walked Castillo. I-Rod flew out shallow, Lowell struck out and Encarnacion bounced back to the pitcher. That 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position lowers Zambrano's BA allowed with runners in scoring position to .206.

Rookie day in the NL. Dontrelle Willis faces Carlos Zambrano and gets to show Dusty Baker why he should be on the all-star team. Willis is 4-0 with a 1.26 ERA over his last five starts. Note, however, his road ERA.

Meanwhile, no one seems to be complaining that Brandon Webb was passed over for the All-Star game. Over his last five starts, he's 2-1 with a 1.80 ERA. His last outing was also against the Rockies. In Colorado, he went 7 innings and gave up 1 run. Now that's impressive. And remember, if Webb goes five or more good innings tonight, he'll wake up the NL ERA leader tomorrow.

I found this link through today's Bambino's Curse:

So of course the Yankees found a way to win by a 2-1 score, and when it was over Niagara Falls took up residence on Steinbrenner's face. The Boss bawled some serious tears of joy. Seriously. He was really crying. When it comes to this rivalry, there is never any need to make things up. Fact has been kicking Fiction's butt now for nigh onto nine decades.

''Yes, I was emotional,'' said Steinbrenner, who might still be hanging around his locker room spilling his guts to the journalistic set if team public relations man Rick Cerrone hadn't wisely run off the media hordes when his boss began to repeat himself for about the 10th time. ''We lose the first two, and then come back like we did. Winning is emotional to me. If it isn't, I'm losing the whole thing of what winning is all about.''

I wonder what John Henry did after the game yesterday? Did he break some chairs? Did he threaten to fire the manager? Did he question the heart of his players? Probably not. Steinbrenner wants to win more than anything. He hates to lose.

Maybe that's what the Red Sox need. They don't need a desire to win, but a hatred of losing. Cossette summed it up well last year:

At the risk of receiving a rash of e-mail's describing me as a quitter or giving up on the team, man no very little faith, I'm going to say that I'm unsettled.

``We only lost these last two games,'' Garciaparra said. ``We played well over the weekend, we easily could have taken all three. We're not doing anything wrong."

Horseshoes and hand grenades anyone? (Where close is good enough …)

The Red Sox don't hate to lose. Maybe someone up top should start breaking some chairs.

Dusty Baker is standing behind his comments about heat and race:

"I'm not playing the race card. I'm telling it like it is," Baker said by telephone Monday.

"What I meant is that blacks and Latins take the heat better than most whites, and whites take the cold better than most blacks and Latins. That's it, pure and simple. Nothing deeper than that."

Of course, in this way, Dusty is no different than most managers. The do not let facts get in the way of their beliefs, whether it be the usefulness of bunting or racial stereotypes.

In case you were wondering. :-)

In looking at last night's scoreboard, there were no close games in the NL last night. The closet was the Cubs 6-3 victory over the Marlins, and that one was decided early.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1298	1295
Attendance	27110	28074

Looks like Arizona got the best of the Hillenbrand-Kim deal yesterday. Hillenbrand hit HR in three consecutive innings to tie a record yesterday.

Although they are losing 6-3, the Marlins have added two HR tonight, bringing their season total to 99 in 90 games. The Marlins, in their history have had only 1 season when they had more than 1 HR per game. In 2001 they hit 166 HR in 162 games. Their .439 team slugging percentage this year is easily the best the franchise has ever posted.

Robin Ventura and Vinny Castilla look like they are on the way out to me.

OPS, 2003	Ventura	Castilla
March-May	.869	.807
June-July	.512	.549

I don't care how good their defense is, that's unacceptable offense. The Yankees' Drew Henson is having a lousy year at triple A. I still think the right thing to do is move Jeter to third and find someone who can play defense at SS. The Braves have put up with Castilla's offense for two years now. I'm not sure what their options are, but maybe they could move Chipper back to third and find another slugging outfielder.

Livan Hernandez is pitching a great game against the Phillies. Through six innings he's given up 1 run while striking out 7. And he's throwing strikes, 59 of 88 pitches. His only mistake has been a solo HR by Rollins in the first. He's pitched well vs. the NL East this year, going 3-2 with a 3.15 ERA entering tonight.

Bradly Bettin is wondering what's happening with the Twins:

When last have you seen an implosion like that going on in Minnesota right now?

Starters getting shelled (though Radke appears to have put two good starts in a row together), relievers throwing BP (thank you, Everyday Eddie!), hitters who don't hit & fielders who don't field.

This is 1964 Phillies material .....

The Twins were 38-28 through games of June 14th. Since then, they've gone 6-15 and have fallen out of first place. However, it hasn't been the fault of the offense. Their batting average is higher, and the Twins runs per game is the same. The difference is the staff's ERA has gone up over 2 runs, from 4.10 to 6.16 Both the staters and relievers have been poor; the staters have put up a 6.83 ERA, while the relievers have chipped in with a 5.11 ERA. It's been all about the pitching.

With the bases loaded in the 9th and 1 out, Pride grounds hard to Walker, who bobbles the ball and loses a chance to get the runner at the plate. He threw the ball over Varitek's head, but there was no error charged. Yankees win 2-1 in a great pitching duel.

The Red Sox needed this game. Now they are back where they started before the series began.

The Red Sox just brought in Kim. At least he doesn't have to face Brosius and Tino.

Update: Grady Little just had Kim issue an IBB to Giambi with two outs and none on to face Sierra.

Update: It works, Sierra flies out.

Pedro Martinez is pitching a great game against the Yankees. No runs through four innings, and he's struck out 7. He's held the Yankees 0 for 4 when batting with runners in scoring position. However, the Yankees have worked Pedro hard. He's thrown 69 pitches through the first four innings (60 through the first three). At this rate, the Yankees could get three innings to face the Red Sox bullpen, and the Sox are only up 1-0. Pedro's great, but if he's only great for six innings, you need a good pen to back him up.

Update: Pedro allowed a run in the sixth. He's now up to 102 pitches. We'll see if he will come out for the 7th. Meanwhile, Mussina allowed 2 hits in the first (one a misplay by Pride), and that's it. A great duel.

Update: Pedro does come out for the 7th. Must be an important game. :-)

Pedro has taken Soriano and Jeter out of the game. Soriano got hit in the hand and the bat, so it went as a foul ball. Jeter got hit in the hand and took his base. Both have come out of the game and the extent of the injuries has not been determined. The Yankees infield is now Zeile at 3B, Wilson at SS and Ventura at second. It's Ventura's first big league game at second.

Eric McErlain has his thoughts on Dusty Baker:

What we have here is what's commonly known as a gaffe. Baker should be allowed to apologize and move on -- something Campanis (whose record as a player and a scout marked him as anything but a bigot) should have been allowed to do after his infamous appearance on Nightline so many years ago.

You know, I'd like to agree with Eric. I've had a few e-mails saying that Dusty shouldn't be punished for this, that it's not so bad. But there is a history of people in baseball being punished for exercising their rights to free speech. Al Campanis, Marge Schott and John Rocker were each punished for saying stupid wrong things. But it was easy to punish those people. Campanis was a minor figure in baseball. Schott was a horrible person who was easy to dislike. Rocker pissed off New York. None of them should have been punished by MLB, other than the commissioner pointing out how stupid and wrong their comments were, and how he hoped they would learn something about a subject before talking about it. Then, if the fans want to punish these people by booing or not showing up at games, or if other GM's want to avoid trading with Campanis, that's fine. Let the market decide, if you will.

But MLB does punish this type of speech. And since they do, they should punish Baker, or announce that they have a double standard. I would love to see Selig come out and say that the three offenders above were treated unfairly, and the commissioner's office would no longer take action against speech. But until then, Dusty needs to be suspended, just like the rest of the bigots who shot off their mouths.

(Yes, I'm talking about two wrongs making a right. This is one of the few cases where I think it applies.)

Update: Here's a 1997 article from Salon in which Dusty talks about race, and he's really very positive about it. The article points out what a multicultural person Dusty is. Makes you wonder why he would make the remarks he did.

A great pitching double header in the Big Apple today. Game 1 pits two of the great pitchers of the last 10 years, Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina. There is likely to be a sellout crowd today at Yankee Stadium for a Monday afternoon game! That will be impressive. Since 1994, when Pedro became a starter, Mussina has 156 wins, 3rd in the majors, and Pedro has 148 wins, 5th in the majors. In terms of winning percentage, Pedro is 2nd to Randy Johnson at .715, Mussina 16th with a very respectable .632. Pedro is #1 in ERA at 2.62, Mussina 11th at 3.60. We're looking at a good battle between future Hall of Famers here, which means the final score will probably be 12-11. :-)

Game 2 is a battle of rookies, as Horacio Ramirez visits Shea to face Jae Weong Seo. Both have ERAs in the 3's. Seo has a bit of an advantage, as he's given up half the HRs of Ramirez (5 to 10).

Finally, the Expos host the Phillies for a three game series. The Phillies just got swept by the Marlins, but Montreal could not capitalize as they lost 3 out of four to the Braves. This is a chance for the Expos to regain 2nd place in the NL East.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1289	1295
Attendance	27093	28074

Dusty Baker has put his foot squarely in his mouth, as Rick Morrissey reports.

The Cubs had two problems in the first inning Saturday: It was hot, and Shawn Estes was white. Then it cooled off a bit, and Estes was still white. Worse, he was still Estes.

It is Dusty Baker's opinion that blacks fare better in hot weather than whites do. How we arrived at this topic is something of a mystery, but the discussion started with the rigors of day games at Wrigley Field and ended with a Baker commentary on skin color and heat.

Is the Cubs' manager right? There is enough evidence to suggest he isn't, but his theory does give Cubs fans another out should their team fall apart this season. To the normal excuses—too many day games, organizational cheapness, the Billy Goat curse, etc.—you can now add the Wilting White Man theory.

"You have to pretend that you're a construction worker out there," Baker said before Saturday's game. "You have no choice. It's easier for me. It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people. Most of us come from heat.

"You don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Right? We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we can take the heat?"

Now, I was always taught that you wear light colors in the summer, because light colors reflect heat, while dark colors absorb heat. Morrissey goes on to point out studies that blacks suffer more during the heat than whites.

Kevin Blackistone, who I believe Dusty would call "a brother," does not refrain from criticizing Baker:

It should be pointed out that The Associated Press prefaced Baker's comments by noting that he was chuckling when he launched into his dizzying dissertation. That was to suggest that maybe he wasn't taking his own words seriously. Unfortunately, he plowed ahead.

"[Black's] skin color is more conducive to heat than it is for lighter skin people, right?" he went on. "You don't see brothers running around burnt. Yeah, that's a fact. I'm not making this stuff up. Right? You don't see some brothers walking around with white stuff on their ears and noses."

Who, boy.

Now, I'd like to just chuckle along with Baker, too. In fact, had he said the same thing to me in the privacy of a corner booth in some watering hole, I probably would have just chuckled at his commentary and shook my head.

But he said what he did to the media. Outlets around the country, including The Dallas Morning News, picked it up, and it was incorrect. It stood only to fuel a misnomer that has led to a stereotype.

Isn't that always the case. I really didn't mean what I said. It was just in fun. Al Campanis was just joshing. Trent Lott was just complimenting an old man. John Rocker was doing stand-up comedy! Blackistone finishes:

I don't want any of my previous or future condemnations of similarly foolish statements out of white mouths to be dismissed because I refrained from criticizing my own. After all, wrong is wrong, no matter the perpetrator's skin color. And Dusty Baker was flat-out wrong.

OK, Baker was wrong. What should be done about it? Should he be fired? Should he be suspended? More importantly, should we re-examine the complaints made about Bonds by Kent, that Dusty gave Bonds special treatment. Did Dusty do that simply because Bonds was black and Kent was white? If so, this isn't someone who should be managing a major league team, despite his talent for doing so. I'd like to hear other people who have been managed by Dusty give their opinion on this.

I think the commissioner should at least suspend Baker for his remarks. Possibly not let him manage the all-star game. Tony La Russa was the runner-up last year, let him manage the game. Oh, I'm sorry, he might melt in the Chicago heat.

Thanks to Darren Viola for pointing this story out to me.

Update: I have more to say here.

The top two rookie ERAs in the majors belong to Brandon Webb (2.04) and Dontrelle Willis (2.13). (Minimum 50 IP.) Willis is getting most of the publicity right now, but there is some evidence that Webb is the better pitcher. Pro Player Stadium has the 4th fewest runs/per game in the majors this year (8.25). In Marlins road games, 10.43 runs are being scored. BankOne Ballpark, on the other hand, allows 9.95 runs per game, while DBacks road games see only 7.86 runs per game. So Willis has his ballpark working for him, Webb against him. And you can see this in their home/road splits:

ERA, 2003	Home	Road
Webb	2.79	1.29
Willis	1.07	3.64

They are both very good. Willis has better K, BB and HR numbers right now, but we need to see how much that is a result of the park over a full season. Right now, I would vote for Webb over Willis for rookie of the year, at least among pitchers.

Andrew Good is being very efficient so far tonight. He's thrown 16 pitches through two innings, 14 for strikes. He's putting it up there for the Dodgers to hit, and letting his defense do the work.

Wiltopia has moved. The new URL is http://www.wileverts.com/ball/. Adjust your bookmarks.

I finally have ESPN-HD. I'm a bit upset, since DirecTV is now charging for the service. They called me up a couple of months ago to see if I needed to upgrade my equipment for HDTV. I didn't, but they said I'd be able to get it when I became available. So they add 3 HDTV channels, and they add a charge.

I would think they would want viewers to move toward the HD equipement, and the easiest way to do that would be to give people ESPN-HD as part of the basic package. I must admit, I don't know if it's ESPN or DirecTV who is responsible for the charges, so I'll withhold direct criticism until I know the details of the deal.

Meanwhile, my real HD-TV is in the shop, and I've watching it on a lower resolution digital TV. The picture is still excellent. The biggest difference between HD and regular analog or digital TV is the depth of the picture. You really see a 3-D effect. Right now, however, I don't think ESPN can really take advantage of the format. They are framing the scene so that the normal broadcast can be generated by cutting the sides off the wide screen HD picture. So we're seeing the same centerfield camera angle, but we're seeing more of the stands. The bug in the middle of the HD screen, which would be the left edge of the regular screen. I'm hoping, as this becomes the dominant way of covering games, that we start to see new angles; will they be able to fit in a runner at first, the pitcher and the batter at the same time? A view from behind the plate that shows the positions of all the infielders? For now, I'm going to enjoy the great picture, but I'm hoping for so much more.

Just watching the interview with A-Rod during the selection show. He was very diplomatic, but he seems very cool to the idea of having the all-star game decide home field in the world series.

Albert Pujols went from 4th in the outfield voting just recently to the top vote getter in the NL. Good for him, and a great job by the fans rallying to bring him up instead of Sosa.

A surprising turnaround in Cincinnati today. Paul Wilson pitches a fine game and leaves after 7 with a 5-2 lead. The the Reds bullpen, with a 24-7 record, most wins in the NL, blow the lead. The other reclamation project, Todd Van Poppel was responsible for most of the comeback. This has to cheer Met fans. A sweep of the Reds after the trade of Alomar is a good sign.

Tim Hudson, despite a 5-1 lead, gets a no-decision today. Chad Bradford and closer Keith Foulke each allowed two-run HR to allow the Angels to tie the game. Bengie hit one off Bradford in the 8th, Spiezio in the 9th. It's Hudson's 10th no-decision of the year, tying him with Kip Wells for the most in the majors.

After a terrific June, Brian Giles has taken it up a notch in July. He hit his 10th HR of the year today, and third of the month. So far, in six games, he's batting .409 with a .480 OBA and a .954 slugging percentage. He has 9 hits, and six of them are for extra bases.

With their first two choices at second base injured, the Cardinals have turned to rookie Bo Hart, and he's come through in a big way. In 17 games, he's turned in a .427 OBA, mostly from the leadoff spot, and has scored 16 runs. Vina may have trouble getting the job back.

The All Star team will be announced in a few minutes, and I'm just not excited by the whole thing. There will be the same old arguments there are every year; so-and-so deserved to go, why did they pick what's his name instead? The fans shouldn't vote, the players should vote. The managers shouldn't be allowed to stuff the team with their own players. Fine.

But of course, none of this has been part of the buildup to the game. The buildup has been, THE GAME FINALLY COUNTS! Well, frankly, I don't want it to count. I want the All Star game to be a meaningless exhibition where players wear different uniforms and you get to see Alex Rodriguez and Cal Ripken together in an infield; you get to see Randy Johnson pitch to Larry Walker; you get to see Reggie Jackson hit a massive HR. In other words, I want a bit of fun.

I sort of hope that the ratings go down this year. It will just show that Selig once again doesn't know what he's doing.

The Red Sox continue to try to pound the Yankees as John Burkett takes on Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has a great history against the Red Sox, going 11-4 with a 2.55 ERA in the regular season against Back Bay club. Burkett has had no luck against the Bronx bombers, with an 0-5 record and a 10.09 ERA. Of course, the way the Sox are hitting, allowing 10 runs could still get you a win.

A good pitching matchup in KC as rookie Matt Roney takes on resurected veteran Jose Lima. Both have ERAs in the low 3's in limited duty.

Two good pitching matchups in the NL. Mark Redman faces Randy Wolf as the Phillies host the Marlins. Redman has only walked six in his last five starts, after walking 18 in his first 8 starts. In the rubber game of the series in Chicago, Woody Williams of the Cardinals faces Mark Prior. Both have pitched well overall, but recently they are moving in opposite directions. Williams has a 6.27 ERA over his last five starts, while Prior is at 1.95 over the same period. Williams seems to have lost some control, walking 11 and striking out 17 over those five games, while Prior has struck out 46 while walking only 6.

Enjoy!

Here's a table showing the change for each team through the same period as last year.

	2002		2003
Through Same Period	Games	Avg. Attendance	Games	Avg. Attendance	Pct. Change
Angels	45	24685	43	36368	47.3
Expos	39	8427	40	12191	44.7
Reds	44	22653	42	29886	31.9
Marlins	46	10778	43	13390	24.2
Royals	36	18137	43	22221	22.5
Phillies	45	20655	43	25199	22.0
Blue Jays	41	18702	41	22603	20.9
Athletics	47	24549	45	26687	8.7
Cubs	37	34324	41	35503	3.4
Twins	44	21433	44	21975	2.5
Devil Rays	40	12804	46	13009	1.6
Dodgers	42	37117	45	37661	1.5
Red Sox	44	32817	40	32938	0.4
Giants	40	39663	40	39049	-1.5
Cardinals	46	37572	44	36416	-3.1
Yankees	44	42680	42	40826	-4.3
White Sox	46	21806	44	20724	-5.0
Pirates	45	22930	42	21396	-6.7
Tigers	38	18634	40	17362	-6.8
Rangers	45	30078	43	27585	-8.3
Braves	47	32595	41	29593	-9.2
Astros	40	31350	43	28230	-10.0
Mariners	46	43155	41	38350	-11.1
Diamondbacks	45	39245	42	33562	-14.5
Orioles	39	34502	44	29186	-15.4
Padres	43	29138	44	24584	-15.6
Mets	39	36108	38	29546	-18.2
Rockies	46	36373	46	28799	-20.8
Brewers	42	24091	44	18609	-22.8
Indians	39	31564	40	20639	-34.6

It seems winning the World Series really helped the Angels, and playing games in San Juan made a difference to the Expos. The new stadium has given Cincinnati a boost. In general, however, winning seems to have helped teams. Seven of the team that are showing a positive gain are either building on last year's wins or have improved themselves this year. It's good to see KC and Toronto both gaining in attendance.

I also find Texas interesting. It seems that the lure of Alex Rodriguez alone is not enough to keep fannies in the seats. Texas will have to find a way to win to get the fans back.

Update: I was curious about the Marlins increase, and I wondered how much it had to do with Dontrelle Willis. The Marlins are getting a boost when Willis pitches, but they would still be up without him. The Marlins are drawing 15,542 when Willis pitches, 12,697 otherwise.

Looks like Billy Koch is being demoted from his closer role with the White Sox.

On the heels of his most recent mound misadventure, Billy Koch appears to be out as White Sox closer.

Koch, who served up a game-winning, 3-run homer to the Devil Rays' Carl Crawford in the ninth inning Friday, hopes that's not the case.

"I think that's extreme,'' Koch said Saturday. "I know how to get the job done. And I will get the job done. I've gotten the job done in my career 85 percent of the time, or whatever the number is. I consider that being pretty (darn) successful.

It that really being successful? Koch came up in 1999, and between 1991 and 2002 the ML save percentage was 67%. However, that's not the right number for comparison. Middle relievers tend to get blown saves without the chance for the corresponding save to offset. So, let's just look at closers; pitchers who have had 20 saves in a season. The save percentage for this group was 85%. Billy Koch over that time was 86.2, a little better than average. Keith Foulke was 86.5, ranked just about Koch. So Koch was pretty much an average closer.

So the trade looks like another great deal for Billy Beane. As Jim Callis said in his analysis of the trade at the time:

Though Koch set a career high for saves in 2002 while Foulke had his worst season since becoming a closer, Koch has been a bit overrated while Foulke has been underrated. Koch throws 5-7 mph harder than Foulke, but Foulke has been more statisically dominant, averaging fewer hits, fewer walks and more strikeouts per nine innings than Koch over the course of their careers.

Buy low, sell high. Koch has a career K/BB of 2, while Foulke is near four. Beane will let him go at the end of the year, and use the compensation draft pick to improve his depth, and go out and find another decent closer. Pretty impressive.

Lou Piniella will dye his hair blonde today to celebrate Tampa Bay's first three game winning streak of the year. Of course, now he has to endure the jokes.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1274	1280
Attendance	27096	28057

One of the reasons I thought the Red Sox would have a good offense this year is that Jason Varitek was going to be a very good #9 hitter. Well, he's been even better than that. Here's the #9 hitters rated by On-base by Slugging:

#9 Hitter	OPS
Varitek	1.056
M. Young	.836
R. Ordonez	.805
C. Singleton	.747

Overall, Varitek has a .968 OPS, 14th in the majors. At some point, you have to wonder if the Red Sox should move him up in the lineup. He has a nine-game hit streak in which he's hit .500 with 5 HR and 15 RBI.

Former Yankee Ramiro Mendoza takes on former Red Sox Roger Clemens at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. It will be Mendoza's first start of the year, and he hopes he gets the support Lowe got yesterday. Clemens is 2-2 in his last five starts despite a 2.25 ERA.

Baltimore hosts a battle of 10 game winners as Cory Lidle takes on Sir Sidney Ponson. Although they both have 10 wins, Ponson has pitched much better, posting an ERA over a run lower than Lidle. However, Lidle has gotten the best run support in the AL, 7.6 runs per 9 innings pitched.

At the opposite end of the run support spectrum are the Tiger pitchers, including today's starter Mike Maroth. Maroth will be trying to avoid joining Jeremy Bonderman as the 2nd 13 game loser in the AL as he takes on Brad Voyles at KC. The top three Detroit pitchers have combined for 37 losses this year.

Montreal at Atlanta could be titled "When Good Pitchers Go Bad" as Javier Vazquez faces Greg Maddux. Both are 1-3 over their last 5 starts with ERAs in the 5.40s.

Finally, Jason Schmidt and the Giants host the hot SD Padres. The Padres are 6-2 over their last eight. Schmidt has the best ERA in the league, but the Padres have been scoring nearly six runs a game during this winning streak.

I just discovered Larry Mahnken's Replacement Level Yankees Weblog. I love his motto, "Hey, it's free!" Check out his comparison of the Yankees and Red Sox pitching staffs.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1259	1265
Attendance	26990	27992

Yankees are up 2-0 in the first. Four of the first six hitters have pulled the ball, and all got hits. The two that went the opposite way grounded out.

Not one of Kerry Wood's best outings today. Through 2 innings he's struck out 1 and walked 2, while giving up back-to-back HR to Edmonds and Pujols in the first and five runs overall. Including today, in his last six starts, Wood has given up 9 of his 15 HR.

ESPN Classic is showing Righetti's no-hitter. It looks like they got a copy of a VHS recording of the game, given the quality. As you watch, notice how skinny the players are. Body building had not become part of the game yet.

Twenty years ago today, The Red Sox went into Yankee Stadium and were no-hit by Dave Righetti. He ended the game striking out Wade Boggs. The box and play-by-play are here; notice how Rags pitched very carefully to Jim Rice. Today, the Red Sox once again visit Yankee Stadium to face another Yankee lefty, David Wells. Wells is another Yankee lefty with a no-hitter, a perfect game. The Red Sox send Derek Lowe, who is 4-0 over his last five starts and is pitching well. The Red Sox come into this series four games behind the Yankees, and the A's are close in the wild card race. The Sox need three out of four in this series; after losing the series to Tampa Bay, a series loss to the Yankees will unleash the full negativity of the Boston media. Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe has a positive outlook for now.

On the west coast, the Diamodbacks and Dodgers battle for second place in the NL West and a chance at the wild card. Miguel Batista goes against Kazuhisa Ishii with identical ERAs of 2.91. The road to the 2.91 is different, however. Ishii has given up about 20 fewer hits, while Batista has given up about 30 fewer walks. The Dodgers are in contention despite horrible season from Shawn Green and Fred McGriff. If either of them starts hitting like he should (and I suspect it's more likely to come from Green), the Dodgers could make a huge run. But right now, it's the DBacks that are surging to the top of the division, winning 18 of their last 23.

Enjoy!

I hope everyone who celebrates the day has a great time with family and friends. Read about the day here.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1244	1250
Attendance	26892	27890

It's been a pretty good game between Detroit and Kansas City so far. The Tigers had a 2-0 lead, but Bonderman let in 2 in the fifth and one in the sixth to give KC a 3-2 lead. Bonderman is throwing strikes; 53 of 81 pitches through six have gone for strikes, and he's had seven K. Affeldt only has 2 K, but he's also only given up 5 hits through seven innings.

Claudio Vargas is making quick work of the Braves tonight. Through seven innings he's only thrown seventy six pitches, or 11 an inning. He's letting his defense do the work, as he has neither struck out nor walked a batter. It will be interesting to see in this game if there were a lot of first pitches put into play.

Everything worked for the Phillies today. The 1-2-3 hitters went 8 for 13, the team drew 8 walks, and starter Brett Myers did not walk a batter to earn his 8th win. The the pen came in and threw 2 2/3 hitless innings. The Expos are beating the Braves 5-1 in the 8th; looks like the NL east keeps getting tighter.

The Red Sox lost 6-5 tonight in 10 innings. Despite the 5 runs, the Red Sox were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position. They scored on four HR, three of them solo shots. This season, the Red Sox have now hit 106 HR, but only 41 have been with runners on. That's 38.7%, the third lowest percentage in the American League. First is the Yankees, who have hit 61 of their 123 HR with men on, 49.6%. In second place are the Devil Rays, and their only HR of the night was Al Martin's two run shot.

The Cardinals are having a good 2nd inning. They've scored seven runs on two three-run homers (Renteria and Pujols) and a squeeze play by Bo Hart. Earl Weaver and Gene Mauch would both love this inning.

Update: The Cardinals wind up with 8 runs in the 2nd, as Scott Rolen hits a solo shot.

Barry Bonds is not playing this afternoon. Not playing Bonds in day games after night games appears to be a trend the Giants are sticking to. Coming into today, the Giants had played 26 day games, but Bonds had only played 16. He's played 55 of the 57 night games.

Dad of Four at SportsPages.com offers his reasons for the decline of Maddux and Glavine. I think the QuesTec theory is particularly interesting.

In a bit of a must win for Oakland, Barry Zito takes on Ryan Franklin and the Seattle Mariners. The A's have lost 2 of 3 in this series so far, and are 4-6 vs. Seattle this year. Zito is 5-1 in his career vs. the Mariners.

Jeremy Bonderman goes for his third win today, although he may end up with his 13th loss. He faces Jeremy Affeldt in the battle of the Jeremy's in KC.

The Giants and Cardinals finish up their four game series today. The Cardinals have been outscored 14-3 in the series, and Bonds has gotten the best of Pujols. Bonds is 4 for 11 with 4 RBI, while Pujols is 1 for 12 with no runs or rbi.

Look for another low scoring game in Philadelphia as Carlos Zambrano takes on Brett Myers. Both have pitched well overall, but have been hit a bit in their last five starts. The Phillies and Cubs are 2-3 in the NL in ERA.

I just wanted to confirm this post from yesterday. The Yankees will be skipping Claussen in the Red Sox series.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1231	1236
Attendance	26861	27826

Once again, Barry Bonds is getting the best of the matchup with Albert Pujols. Bonds hit his 23rd HR of the season tonight, and has scored 2 runs. Pujols is 0 for 3, bringing him to 0 for 11 in the series so far. The Giants lead 3-1 in the 8th.

Nothing-nothing in the 8th in Philadelphia. Clement has allowed 1 hit through seven innings, but he's walked six. He's also added a double, but Chicago is 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. Duckworth went six and struck out six. Wendell is currently on in relief.

I thought there were two potential blow outs tonight. In Detroit, the Blue Jays are finally getting the best of the Tigers. Adam Bernero did not make it out of the fourth, and Delgado has hit home runs off Bernero and Sparks, both solo shots. Vernon Wells has 4 RBI, and that gives them 171 combined RBI so far this season.

In Tampa, however, the blow out has not materialized. Pedro had a 3-0 lead in the fifth, but a fielding error by Nomar led to a three-run Huff HR. All the runs were unearned, wiping out the two RBI Nomar had tonight. Rob Bell has pitched okay, but Boston is only 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position tonight.

Correction: I originally had 191 combined RBI for Wells and Delgado. It should have been 171.

Over at Musings From RSN (Red Sox Nation), Tim Daloisio has a mid-season report card for the Red Sox.

Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett are both in the lineup for the White Sox tonight. Not much yet from them; Alomar is 0 for 3 in the leadoff spot; Everett is batting 5th and is 0 for 1 with a walk. Chicago is tied with the Twins 4-4 in the fifth. Frank Thomas hit his 19th HR of the season, and now has a .427 OBA and a .580 slugging percentage. Just what you want from your #3 hitter. Yes, his BA is down, but he's having a great year.

It turned out to be as good as billed. Horacio Ramirez went seven innings for the Braves, and allowed 1 run despite walking four and giving up six hits. The only hit that hurt him was Mike Lowell's 26th HR, a solo shot.

Dontrelle Willis pitched even better, going eight innings, giving up six hits and one walk while striking out six. Atlanta had their chances to score, but have gone 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. It's 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, and from what I heard on the broadcast, they had a very large walk-up gate for this game. If you win, they will come. (And I guess fireworks don't hurt. :-))

This gives the Yankees two days off before facing Boston. Clemens was scheduled to pitch Friday, with Claussen going on Saturday. But now the Yankees can leadoff with Wells, give Clemens an extra day of rest and send him Saturday, and skip Claussen and go with Pettite on Sunday and Mussina on Monday vs. Pedro. And Claussen can move to the long relief role, and Torre can get a starter out early if there is trouble. It's nice to have options.

Update: Confirmed here.

The mid-afternoon game find David Wells pitching against one of his former teams, the Baltimore Orioles, vs. a pretty good Jason Johnson. Both have good ERAs, but Johnson walks a lot more batters than Wells. Heck, there currently are 12 pitchers this year who have pitched 9 inning or less and have walked more batters than David Wells. Anthony Ferrari has walked 5 in four innings (great name, though). Johnson is 1-6 career vs. the Yankees, despite a 3.88 ERA against them.

If you are looking for potentially lopsided games, check out Toronto at Detroit. Toronto is trying to avoid the embarassment of being swept by the Tigers, and they are sending 11-2 Roy Halladay to face 1-11 Adam Bernero. Bernero's era is over 2 runs higher than Halladay's. Also check out Boston at Tampa Bay, where Pedro Martinez faces Rob Bell, who in 13 innings has given up 14 earned runs. Remember to watch Rey Ordonez. He has two walks this year, and Pedro issued one of them. He's also hit two of his three HR this year against the Red Sox.

The premier pitching matchup in the NL tonight is in Florida, where Dontrelle "What you talking about?" Willis hosts Atlanta's Horacio Ramirez in a battle of lefty rookies. Willis is about 20 innings short of qualifying for the NL ERA leader board; Ramirez should qualify if he can go seven tonight. Both are undefeated in their last five starts.

I think a lot of people would agree with this description of the Yankees, but not for the same reason.

Elphants in Oakland make a good case for being selective at the plate.

Just want to point out that Nomar went 3 for 6 last night with no RBI. The table setters went 1 for 12 in front of him. Garciaparra's hits are being wasted because no one is on in front of him. In June, Garciaparra had more extra-base hits than RBI! You know what kind of hitters generally have more extra-base hits than RBI? Leadoff men. Guys who bat a lot with the bases empty because they are guaranteed to start the game with no one on and the bottom of the order doesn't get on very much. Nomar's batting third, but essentially, he's leading off for Manny.

I was re-reading the ESPN article on the trade, and listening to the BBTN commentary (link on the same page), and I kept reading and hearing this, first from Everett:

"I'm going to go there and play the game I always play," he said. "I play hard and I play to win. It feels good that a team like that thinks that I'm one of the missing pieces to their team."

Then from Palmeiro:

"He's a very good player. He knows how to play the game. He plays the game hard and plays to win. He's a great team guy," Texas first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said of Everett.

Peter Gammons repeats this in his commentary. My question is, how many players doesn't play to win? It appears to me that most hitters and pitchers on the White Sox are currently playing to win. If some Chicago White Sox fans want to point out White Sox players who are playing to lose, I'd love to hear from you.

My second question is, where's the evidence that Everett plays to win? Here's a picture of Everett's career through July 1, 2003 (thanks to STATS, Inc.). Everett is in his 11th year of major league ball. He's had two outstanding years (1999 and 2000), one very good year (1998), and half a good year (1995). Other than that he's been ordinay to bad. His teams have made the playoffs twice, Houston in 1998 and 1999. Everett was 4 for 28 with 2 walks and 12 strikeouts in the playoffs, and Houston did not get out of the first round either year. So Carl may know how to play to win, but he certianly doesn't play to win all the time.

Off Wing Opinion has an excellent roundup of the fallout over the Toronto Star's article on the lack of racial diversity on the Blue Jays. He includes links to fine work done by the Wall Street Journal on the article.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1217	1221
Attendance	26869	27778

Yesterday, after the Alomar trade, I suggested the White Sox more urgently needed help in centerfield. They got it last night when they traded for Carl Everett. Teddy Greenstein talked to White Sox players, and they feel he'll fit in just fine.

"Once the game starts, he plays as hard as anybody in the league," said Brain Daubach, a former Red Sox teammate. "That's all you can ask for."

Yeah, as long as he gets along with the manager, and as long as he's playing for a contract. I think most fans in Boston have a different view of Everett. He's not a nice guy. The trades and the Sox climb into the pennant race are already boosting attendance:

Word is out on the White Sox. They're no longer any secret.

The largest walk-up crowd in the 13-year history of U.S. Cellular Field, 14,573 out of a total attendance of 30,694, saw Sox sluggers hit three home runs Tuesday night to support Mark Buehrle's pitching in a 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

The AL Central has now turned into an even more exciting race. With Alomar, Everett, Thomas and Ordonez at the top of the order, the White Sox have as good a 1-2-3-4 punch as anyone. They've set themselves up to win the Central, and they did it a month sooner than most teams. All six divisions have good races. It's going to be a fun summer.

The Prior-Wolf matchup turned out to be very good, although neiter pitcher will get a decision. Wolf went six and struck out seven; Prior last 6 2/3, also with seven K. Both gave up three runs, and both threw over 100 pitches, causing their early departures.

Jose Cruz Jr. homered tonight off Woody Williams. It's Cruz's 13th HR of the year. He started off hot in April, hitting seven, but this was his 6th since then. He only had one the month of June.

Once again, Bonds is coming out on top in the matchup against Pujols. Bonds has a double and an RBI, Albert is 0 for 2.

Mike Lowell continues to impress. Three for three in a blow out of the Braves tonight, with two doubles and three RBI. His has an OBA of .362 and a slugging percentage of .609.

The Braves are 3-5 over their last 8 games, while being outscored 47-28. As I pointed out earlier, the Braves had been somewhat lucky and the Phillies somewhat unlucky. We may be seeing that luck even out.

The Tigers pitchers, for the 2nd day in a row, are handling the Blue Jays. Matt Roney went seven strong innings, allowing only one hit, no runs and two walks. The relievers have pitched one inning so far, and have preserved the shutout. One inning to go with the score 3-0.

Mike Mussina visits his old haunt at Camden Yards as he takes on the Orioles. Mussina is 5-1 against Baltimore since joining the Yankees.

The White Sox try to continue their drive to the top of the AL Central as they host the Twins again. Expect some runs in this one, as Radke and Buehrle both have high ERAs. Don't know if Roberto Alomar will play tonight.

Oakland tries to even the series with Seattle in the best pitching duel in the AL tonight. Gil Meche goes for his 11th win against Tim Hudson. Both have ERAs in the low 3's.

The Cubs vs. the Phillies presents the pitching matchup of the night in the NL. Mark Prior takes on Randy Wolf, and both have good ERAs, high strikeout totals, and few walks. Wolf is undefeated in his last five starts. The Cubs have not seen that many lefty starters this year, going 9-10 in those games.

ESPN.com is reporting that Roberto Alomar has been traded to the Chicago White Sox for three prospects. The interesting thing to me is that the White Sox are not that bad at 2nd base. They are 9th in OBA and 7th in slugging percentage. Where they have a real glaring hole in the offense is centerfield, where only the Rangers have worse offense. Yes, Alomar improves the team, but not where they desparately need improvement.

Update: I forgot to mention the reason for the title. Roberto will be joining his brother Sandy on the team.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize this when I wrote today's attendance report.

Last night's game, was the makeup game for the second half of the Japan Trip kaiser Selig canceled. The game was not available on many of the A's or MLB promotional calendars and handouts. In fact, Roy Steele the A's public address announcer, was alerting fans after games last weekend against the Giants that the A's would be playing on Monday the 30th. Essentially, the 24,831 were all 'walk ups' (or log ons). The two Japan games, and eventually the two makeup games, were not part of the season ticket holder's package.

My apologies to A's fans everywhere. That was a nice turnout for an unscheduled game. And thanks to Elephants in Oakland for pointing this out to me.

For me, at least. PortlandSoxFan.com is a Red Sox blog by a fellow in Portland, CT. (I grew up in CT and didn't know there was a Portland!) The Sox fan is looking for big things on the current road trip. And the Tigers have a couple of fans blogging about their woes at The Detroit Tigers Weblog. they currently have a nice recap of the Tigers season so far. Give them both a look.

Erik Yeager writes:

You may have seen this before, but I thought I'd throw it out there in relation to your Win Shares postings. This is from an ESPN chat with Bill James, May 15.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=3503

Jake (Mountlake Terrace, WA): Bill, can we gleam anything from the Win Shares system after only 40-odd games, or is it a tool that's truly accurate after a full 162-game schedule?

Bill James: Nothing. Win Shares are a tool used to analyze a season after it is over. They have no relevance at all to a moving object.

Having looked over the chat session, Bill was very short with his answers. I find it hard to believe that win shares mean nothing halfway through a season. You certainly can't use them to project anything, since you don't know how a team will do the rest of the season. I certainly would not look at them every day like one would with batting average. And, with a smaller sample, they are not going to be as accurate in mid-season as at the end of the year. But as a quick way of ranking players, I think they are fine. You just have to be careful what you read into them.

Here's the list of win share leaders through the end of June:

Player	Win Shares
Carlos Delgado	22.3
Albert Pujols	19.4
Todd Helton	19.1
Barry Bonds	18.5
Jason Giambi	16.8
John Smoltz	16.5
Nomar Garciaparra	16.0
Gary Sheffield	16.0
Jason Schmidt	15.8
Luis Gonzalez	15.7
Bret Boone	15.6
Esteban Loaiza	15.2
Larry Walker	15.1
Rafael Furcal	15.0
Manny Ramirez	14.9
Mike Lowell	14.7
Corey Koskie	14.7
Eric Gagne	14.6
Vernon Wells	14.4
Garret Anderson	14.3
Jim Thome	14.3

You can compare this list to the top 20 through May 25th. Looks like the cream is rising to the top, as Bonds, Giambi and Pujols are now near the top of the list.

Attendance, through same period	2003	2002
Games	1202	1205
Attendance	26889	27797

The big crowds from the weekend didn't carry over in KC last night. Only 14,645 for the double header. I guess Cleveland fans won't drive that far. :-) What's even more disappointing was the crowd in Oakland. The A's are in a battle for the AL West, the Mariners show up, and only 24,831 are at the stadium. Maybe that's pretty good for a Monday night, but there were 38,000 in Baltimore to watch the O's battle the Yankees. Oakland fans, you can do better! You have a great organization there. The more you show up, the more they'll be able to keep that team viable!

Update: Seems I was wrong about the low turnout of A's fans. The game was a makeup from the aborted Japan trip, and season ticket holders did not have tickets for the same. So the 24000 were walk ups.

I want to thank everyone who came to visit in June. It turned out to be the best month ever for Baseball Musings. Thanks for reading!

In looking at my referral list, I noticed someone found this site with the google search, "What are you talking about, Willis?" For some reason, Baseball Musings comes up 2nd with that particular query.