The Tribe didn't score 3 in the 4th, but they made up for it by scoring 6 in the 5th. The Indians now lead the Yankees 15-0, and Westbrook is working on a 2-hitter. Cleveland has 13 hits; the Yankees staff has uncharacteristicly walked six batters.

Update: Oakland has a big lead in their game. They come into today only four games back of the Yankees for AL home field advantage.

Beltran, Bagwell and Berkman go back-to-back-to-back in the 5th inning against the Reds to give the Astros a 4-0 lead. All four runs have scored on solo homers. With the Cubs down 5-0 in the 5th at Montreal, Houston's playoff hopes are very much alive.

The Red Sox are up 4-0 in the first; the Yankees are down 5-0 in the second. A Sox win and a Yankees loss puts the Red Sox 3 1/2 back going into September.

Update: The Indians have scored 3 runs in each of the first three innings to take a 9-0 lead on the Yankees. Westbrook has not allowed a hit through three innings, and has faced only 9 batters.

I'm not a big college basketball fan. When I was an undergraduate, hockey was the winter sport of choice. Being in the Band, if we had a choice of playing a hockey or basketball game, we would go for the ice. However, the basketball team was always very nice to us, because they knew it wasn't the big sport at the school.

Yoni Cohen, however, likes basketball as much as I like baseball, so if you're a college fan check out College Basketball. Maybe he'll give the Harvard Crimson a mention this year. :-)

The Anaheim Angels arrive in Boston today to begin a three-game series with major wild card implications. John Lackey faces Curt Schilling tonight. Lackey has had an interesting August, in that he's struck out a lot of batters (31 in 29 1/3 innings), but he's also allowed a lot of hits (40). Six of those hits have been home runs, and as a result, Lackey is sporting a 7.06 ERA for the month. Schilling is looking for his 5th win of the month, and while he hasn't always been brilliant in August, he's been extremely solid, which is all you need when your team is scoring 6.1 runs per game in the month.

The Texas Ragners head north to Minnesota to open a three-game series with the Twins, sending Ryan Drese against Kyle Lohse. The Rangers need to gain on both the Angels and Red Sox in the wild card race, so they'll be watching the scoreboard this week. Drese's record and ERA is a testament to the Rangers improved defense. He doesn't strike out many batters, but he gives up just over a hit an inning. With few walks and HR allowed, he's turned into a winner for the Rangers. Lohse is a similar pitcher, but his defense hasn't played as well behind him, and with almost twice as many HR allowed, his ERA is 2 points higher than Drese's. (DER behind Drese is .718, behind Lohse .679).

Finally, the Padres have a big test as they travel to St. Louis to face the NL's best team, the Cardinals. Brian Lawrence will oppose Woody Williams. Lawrence has been consisently good since a bad April, posting a 3.20 ERA since May 1. He hasn't gotten much help from his team however, as that only translates to a 10-8 record over that time. Williams is coming off two poor starts against Cincinnati, where he allowed 5 runs in six innings in both starts. (Actually, in each of his last four starts against the Reds, he's allowed 5 runs in six innings!)

Enjoy!

Chipper Jones has named his son after Shea Stadium:

"I love playing there," Jones said. "Check the numbers."

Jones has hit 17 home runs at Shea, his highest total at a visiting park, and his first major league homer came there on May 9, 1995. He is a lifetime .314 hitter at Shea."

(Repeated word removed in the above quote.)

This reminds me of a joke from Eric Idle's excellent satire of Beatles documentries, All You Need is Cash.

On their second visit to the States in early 1965 they played the world's first outdoor rock and roll concert at Che Stadium (named after the Cuban Guerilla leader Che Stadium).

Update: James Joyner has a much funnier take on this.

Nate Robertson did pretty much everything right tonight. He threw a 101 pitch complete game, allowing only six hits and 1 run. He struck out 7, and an amazing 77 of his pitches were for strikes. Yes, it was a very weak KC lineup, but those are the teams starters like Robertson need to easily dominate to give the bullpen a rest once in a while.

In what may be the quickest first inning played this year, a total of 18 pitches were used to get through both halves of the first inning in the Cubs-Expos game.

Julio Franco just tied the Giants-Braves game in the bottom of the 9th with a triple. It's the old man's 2nd triple of the year. The Braves have runners at 1st and 3rd now with no outs.

Update: Andrew Jones singles to win the game. The Giants offense got the job done without Bonds (he made an out pinch hitting in the 9th), but the pitching and defense couldn't come through. The Giants fall 1/2 game out in the wild card race.

J.D. Drew has given the Braves a 3-0 lead with his 29th HR of the year. Looking at his stats for the season, there's nothing wrong with his offensive game. He hits for average, (BA over .300), gets on base (OBA over .400) and hits for power (slugging in the high .500's). He works anywhere in the offense as he both scores runs and drives them in. J.D. is a good percentage base stealer, swiping 10 in 12 attempts. And he's only grounded into 6 double plays all year. Atlanta could not have gotten a better replacement for Gary Sheffield.

Bonds is not in the starting lineup for the Giants today. And I don't remember ever seeing Turner Field so empty.

While on vacation, I located the house where they keep it.

The Giants and Braves finish up their four game series this afternoon at Turner Field in Atlanta. I'll be interested to see if Bonds is playing a day game after a night game. The Giants have been careful to rest Bonds in situations like this, but with the Wild Card race this close and the season in its last 30 games, can they really afford to rest Barry much down the stretch? Atlanta is a tough team; this is a game where San Francisco can really use Barry's bat.

Philadelphia travels to the south side of Chicago to make up an interleague game with the White Sox. The Phillies were involved in a late season makeup with the Red Sox last year, and it was one of the more memorable games of the season.

Enjoy!

Troy Glaus returned to the Angels lineup yesterday and will be the DH down the stretch for the Halos. Another power bat in the lineup makes Anaheim look strong down the stretch. The Angels are near the bottom of the league in HR despite the presence of Guerrero, so Glaus will be a welcome addition.

I was wondering in July if Bonds was going to reach 700 HR this year. He had slowed greatly after his 660 barrage and his injury, hitting only 17 HR from May through July. He's gotten his HR swing back in August, however, with the two tonight giving him 11 for the month and leaving him just 4 short of the 700 mark. He'll still need a pretty good month of September to catch Ruth this season, but if anyone can hit 18 in 30 games Bonds can.

Travis Hafner had another near cycle today, accumulating a single, double and triple as the Indians defeated the White Sox 9-0. Hafner now has 63 extra base hits, in the top 10 of the AL, and in the top five depending on what other players do today. He's on a pace for 77 extra-base hits. It's a good number, but not as impressive as it used to be. For example, in the 1980's, (1980-1989), only 15 players exceeded 77 long hits in a season. That number ballooned to 55 in the 1990's and there have been 58 such seasons through 2003 in the aughties.

Decade	>77 EXBH
1920's	34
1930's	51
1940's	18
1950's	18
1960's	14
1970's	13
1980's	15
1990's	55
2000's	58

It looks like Larry Bowa's days are numbered in Philadelphia.

Bowa Ball has struck out.

Larry Bowa, whose intensity and toughness has been admired by legions of baseball fans in Philadelphia for 35 years, will be fired as Phillies manager after the 2004 season, multiple team sources have told Calkins Media exclusively.

...

Informed of the news, Bowa contacted Phillies general manager Ed Wade to discuss his job status. Wade later issued a statement to the media regarding Bowa.

"Larry Bowa will remain as Phillies manager through the end of the 2004 season," Wade said in the statement. "As is the case at the end of every season, we will sit down at that point to review and address the status of our players, our manager and his staff.

"Until that time, our sole focus will be on our performance on the field, and the Phillies will have no further public comment on this issue for the remainder of the season."

It just seems like Bowa grates on his players:

According to sources, Wade, whose job is safe, has conducted several one-on-one meetings with veteran players to discuss Bowa and the coaching staff in recent weeks. At least one player reportedly told Wade that he doesn't want to play in Philadelphia next season if Bowa returns. Team president David Montgomery also has been discussing Bowa with team employees. From these discussions and internal meetings, Wade and Montgomery came to a joint decision that a managerial change cannot be avoided, sources said.

Interestingly, knowing he's on his way out seems to have relaxed Larry.

In recent weeks, it appears Bowa has accepted his fate. When he talks about moves the organization may make in the coming offseason, he's often referred to the Phillies as "they" instead of "we." He's also shown a different side of himself to reporters, going from being cranky several days a week to being in a great mood on a daily basis before games, sometimes even cracking jokes.

I thought Bowa should have gone a long time ago. I wonder if Mike Schmidt is going to be his replacement?

A fun double play in Cleveland. With Broussard on 2nd and none out, Belliard hit a comebacker to the pitcher. Broussard had strayed too far from 2nd, and Garland had him dead to rights. Garland threw to the SS Valentin, who threw to the third baseman Crede, who ran Ben back to 2nd. As Broussard neared 2nd, Crede tossed back to Valentin who tagged the sliding Broussard. At the same time, Belliard comes into the picture sliding into 2nd from the 1st base side. Valentin just swept his glove to the other side of the bag and tagged Belliard. Two players both out sliding into 2nd.

Soxblog points out factual errors in Allen Barra's piece on do-overs in the Wall Street Journal (Subscription required). The facts of the George Brett Pine Tar game are totally backwards; the ump invalidated the HR and the league reinstated it, causing the game to be replayed from that point on. It's the only game protest that I remember being upheld in my lifetime (although I don't keep track of such things).

Here's a good article on the incident, including the fact that Lee McPhail, president of the AL, had not upheld a protest until this one. More importantly, it mentions the Munson incident, where Thurman lost a hit to excessive pine tar on his bat. I remember watching the Munson pine tar game, so when I saw Brett's bat being measured I thought, "They're going to take the HR away from him." I don't know if the Yankees protested the Munson game or not. But the Yankees had every right to believe that Brett's HR should be overturned.

There are two rules that apply here. Rule 1.10(c) deals with pine tar, and 6.06(d) deals with the penalties for illeagal bats. If someone has a pre-pine tar rule book, I'd love to see what the rules said then. This article has the rule reading (it was 1.10(b) then):

Baseball's Rule 1.10(b) states that "the bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from the end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18-inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game."

The more modern language stipulates that batter won't be called out. My guess is that rule 6.06 was less specific at that time as well. So in the Munson game, the Twins manager Frank Quilici argued that it was an illegal bat, so Munson should lose the hit. The umps agreed. That's where the mistake was made. If the ump in that game had simply said, "The rule is we take the bat out of the game, the hit stands," Brett's pine tar game never would have happened.

As a follow-up to this post, I find the Yankees in a very interesting position right now. The AL playoff hunt is resembling a bicycle race, in which the Red Sox are leading a pack that is trying to chase down a lone, lead rider. The Sox are out front, and the others are being towed along the Boston draft. Normally, the Yankees wouldn't be too worried about the Red Sox catching them since the Yankees would likely end up the wild card anyway. But with Oakland, Anaheim and Texas also in the hunt, it could end up that two or three teams catch the Yankees, and then it's a dog fight not just for the AL East, but for the playoffs as well. New York can't be too happy with what they see in their rear view mirror right now.

One nice thing about vacations for me is that I get to catch up on some reading. I've had Curve Ball by Jim Albert and Jay Bennett sitting on my shelf for some time, and found it a very good book on explaining baseball statistics using statistical models. I like their method of predicting Sammy Sosa's HR totals. Their best guess for Sosa through age 32 was 438 HR; he had 448. Through age 34 it was 527; he had 537. (In the book, they had 2 year intervals). For age 36, the end of next year, they have Sosa at 597, with a 48% chance of being over 600. We'll see.

In general, the book confirmed a number of methods I've used for analysis over the years. I recommend it to anyone interested in methods of testing speculation with mathematics.

The other baseball related book I had a chance to digest was The Teammates by David Halberstam. It's the story of the long-time friendship between Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, John Pesky and Bobby Doerr. I came away wanting a detailed biography of Dom DiMaggio, certainly the most interesting of the brothers as a person. It's short, well-written and worth the read not only to explore the lives to these men, but as a reminder of what baseball was like in the 30's and 40's.

While I was having my own streak of not watching baseball games for almost a week, some major league teams have gone off on streaks of their own. The Boston Red Sox are now 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees, well within striking distance given that they have six contests between each other. The Red Sox have not lost two in a row starting on August 7. They have outscored their opponents during that time 134-86 (6.7-4.3 per game) to amass a 16-4 record. I find it interesting that the big trade was supposed to help the defense (which it did) which has allowed 4.7 runs per game overall this season. But the offense has really come alive, despite the fact that neither Mientkiewicz (.631 OPS) nor Cabrera (.759 OPS) has provided much offensively. I guess all those men the Sox were leaving on base earlier this year are coming around to score.

The Indians, after being on the verge of taking over the AL Central two weeks ago have been banished by the Twins to also ran status. Minnesota now has a commanding 7 game lead in the Central.

Out west in the AL, Oakland and Anaheim are each 9-1 over their last 10 games, with the Athletics holding on to a slim one-game margin. The Rangers are hangin in also, 2 1/2 back with a 7-3 record over their last 10. The Angels are actually on an 11-1 run, in which time they've scored 9 or more runs 5 times, including a 21-6 drubbing of KC. The A's run is 10-1, and they've pitched three shutouts in that time.

Over in the NL, the Braves have won 5 in a row to push their lead to 9 1/2 games and pretty much assure another NL East Crown. Meanwhile, the Cubs have put together an 8-2 run to inch them into the NL Wildcard lead. Nomar, it should be noted, has a .905 OPS in August and 11 extra-base hits.

There are streaks on the losing side, also. The Orioles have lost 11 in a row after being on an 11-2 run. Once again, they've fallen behind the Devil Rays in the race for third in the AL East. And the Brewers, who seemed like an up-and-coming team earlier in the season have fallen off the edge of the earth. The offense disappeared in July and has not been seen since. The pitching followed suit in August leaving the team 5-18 this month. It's a good thing they have such a great farm system on which to fall back on. Of course, this is the kind of performance Milwaukee fans have come to expect; a good start out of the gate followed by poor play the rest of the year, with the team doing nothing to correct the action mid-stream. Usually, it happens at the end of May, instead of July, however, so this was a banner year for the Brewers.

I'm back from a week at the beach. I've not watched news or scores, so I have some catching up to do.

Thanks so much to Jim Storer for musing while I was away!

About two weeks ago I was casually reading my local sports section's article on the previous night's Northeast League matchup between the North Shore Spirit and the New Haven County Cutters when this sentence caught my eye: "Klae Calvert pitched the final 5 1/3 innings to earn the save for the Spirit". And sure enough, the boxscore lists starting pitcher Gordon as garnering the win with 4 2/3 innings pitched and reliever Calvert as pitching 4 1/3 for the save.

Regardless of the discrepancy over Calvert's actually pitching 4 1/3 instead of the 5 1/3 that the text of the article says, this appears to fly in the face of baseball's official scoring rules. Rule 10.19 requires that the starting pitcher complete 5 innings (unless the game itself is shortened to 5 innings) to be awarded the win. Unless the Northeast League has adopted some weird official scoring rules, this appears to be an erroneous awarding of a win and a save. I believe that Gordon is prohibited from being credited with a win, and that the win would have to go to Calvert, who therefore could not get a save.

This got me to wondering: is it ever possible for a reliever to pick up a save in a game in which he pitches more than 4 innings? After all, if the starter goes 5+ innings, then the most a reliever could go is 4 innings in a 9-inning game, and in extra innings the longest one could pitch while earning a save would be one inning. I think the answer would be that if the starting pitcher does not go at least 5 innings, then it would be possible. Hypothetical: starting pitcher leaves without retiring a batter; reliever number one comes in and pitches, say, 4 innings and his team takes a 2-run lead while he's in the game. Reliever number two comes in and finishes out the remaining 5 innings. I believe that the correct scoring would be a win for reliever1 and a save for reliever2 for his 5 innings of work. I just don't remember ever seeing this happen, but I'm sure when Dave returns he'll check this one out.

Jim

Just wanted to offer a tip of the cap to Cat Osterman, Lisa Fernandez, Jennie Finch and the rest of the U.S. women's olympic softball team for so convincingly winning the gold medal in Athens. I wonder, though, if their opponents might have finally discovered a weakness - after all, in the gold medal game the U.S. gave up their first and only run!

Jim

A.J. Brack was a pitcher for the New Haven County Cutters of the independent Northeast League earlier this year. He has ancestors from several generations ago who were from Greece, and thus qualified to play in this year's Olympics for the host country.

Brack tested positive for steroids and was therefore barred from participating in the Olympics.

A.J. Brack was a middle reliever for a lousy team in an independent league, and not even one of the better independent leagues at that! If steroid use occurs at this level - virtually the lowest rung of the professional baseball ladder - how widespread must steroid use be throughout the higher levels?! We'll probably never know unless rigorous testing is enforced throughout Organized Baseball, and frankly, the public does not necessarily have a right to know - the players have their privacy rights - but that is a debate for another day.

Suffice it to say, if players this far removed from the major leagues are using steroids, then the problem might be even more severe as you get closer to the major league level. I wonder.

Jim

Well, he ended up pitching 5 shutout innings and getting the win in his major league debut. I like the fact that Lou left him in for long enough to get the win but took him out after 101 pitches. That should help the kid's confidence. Pitching against the lowly Mariners couldn't have hurt either...

"Schadenfreud" is a German word meaning, roughly, the taking of pleasure in another's misfortune.

Tonight 20-year old former Mets' prospect Scott Kazmir makes his major league debut for the Devil Rays against the Mariners. Last year Mets' management described Kazmir as "untouchable" - I guess that meant that he just couldn't be touched, not that he couldn't be traded for a pitcher (Victor Zambrano) who already had arm problems.

I saw Kazmir pitch in AA this year - for the Binghamton Mets against the New Britain Rock Cats - and he looked good, sharp and poised. His minor league performance seems promising, but this is still a big jump for a kid this age.

Anyway, since Mets' GM Jim Duquette is already catching flak for this trade, he's got to be watching tonight's game with great interest. Although all parties involved will no doubt say the right things in public, I strongly suspect that if Kazmir gets pounded tonight then the entire Mets' brass will breath a little sigh of relief and experience a profound sense of "Schadenfreud".

Jim

I just read in Baseball America that a Cuban player by the name of Kendry Morales has recently defected. I had the great fortune of having watched Morales play for the Industriales of the Cuban League two years ago. I believe that he was only 19 years old at the time, and believe me, the kid can rake! The local fans were very excited about him, and he did hit a homerun in one of the games I watched with my friend Geoff Emerick at Estadium Latinoamericano in Havana. I'll try to locate my scoresheets from those games to provide more details on Morales's hitting exploits.

I am unfortunately unaware of any reliable statistics for Cuba's modern league, and as a sabermetrician I much prefer to make talent judgments on the basis of statistics and performance rather than on just observation the way some scouts do. (It actually amazes me the way they can genuinely see potential that does not readily manifest itself through statistical performance). So based upon just the few games I saw in Havana, Morales looked like the real deal to me.

I believe that he's already taking part in the standard domiciliary shell game to establish himself as a citizen of another country (perhaps the DR?) so that he can circumvent MLB's amateur draft - as any self-respecting foreign free agent would do. This is the route that agent Joe Cubas has gone with some of his clients so successfully in the past. This would make him a free agent and allow him to negotiate a potentially huge contract, rather than make him the indentured servant of the lucky club that drafts him and having then to endure playing 2-3 years for less than his market value before finally becoming eligible for salary arbitration.

Realistically, I wouldn't be surprised if he made a much bigger splash than any of the other Cuban defectors, from Rolando Arrojo to Rey Ordonez to El Duque. And although he doesn't have the extensive body of work of Ichiro Suzuki or Hideki Matsui from Japan, Kendry Morales could well become the greatest player to come to the U.S. from Cuba since the embargo...or he could just join recent Yankee bust Andy Morales (no idea whether they're related) on the scrap heap. It'll be interesting to see what happens, but if Jose Contreras can get $32 million for 4 years, then Morales should soon become a very wealthy young man.

Hi everybody! My name is Jim Storer, and as the author of this blog has already noted, he and I have been the best of friends since our freshman year in college, the year that the Yankees' shortstop officially changed his name to Bucky "Bleeping" Dent in Boston. We watched The Game on tv together since, to listen to multitudinous story-tellers, the Red Sox must have sold about 3 million tickets to that one game, based upon the number of people who claim to have been there!

I'll be guest blogging (sorry but I still think"blog" is an ugly word, much like "mucilage" or "foment", and somehow it's even worse as a verb) while Dave is away. I am flattered to have this opportunity and certainly won't be able to match his volume of material, and I can only aspire to match his standard of excellence in content.

Now that I've finished sucking up to him, on to the business at hand. My perspective about most baseball issues is very similar to Dave's, because he's right almost all the time. I'm a huge fan of the minor leagues and the independent leagues and enjoy studying the legal and economic aspects of the game. (I am an attorney in private practice). Turn-offs include the Designated Hitter Rule, Bud Selig and artificial turf.

This week I'll be prattling on about some strange official scoring decisions, the evolution of relief pitching and why Larry Bowa should have been fired a long time ago.

One quickie just to get started: in yesterday's 12-inning affair with BALCO Barry and the Giants, the Mets won on a fly ball that RF Dustan (Don't call me "Dustin") Mohr just plain dropped. Ouch, poor guy. In what had to be one of the ugliest games ever, the teams combined for 16 walks, 3 errors and a record-setting 10 double-plays. Interesting...Kaz Matsui's been taking a lot of heat in the greater New York metropolitan area for his supposed defensive shortcomings - yesterday Wilson Delgado played the entire game at short and the Mets turned 4 DP's...

Jim

I'm off with my family to spend a relaxing week at the beach. However, my good friend Jim Storer has agreed to guest blog in my absence. Jim and I have been friends since we lived on on the third floor of Thayer Hall North in 1978. I watch Bucky Dent's HR (and you know he only hit 1 HR) on Jim's 12 inch black and white TV. There's no one that I'd rather be with at a baseball game. I'm sure you'll enjoy his insights this week.

The Red Sox are only 7 1/2 back of the Yankees. Maybe it's their turn for the big comeback. :-)

Ramon Ortiz pitched a great game against the Yankees tonight, shutting them out through 8 on only four hits. He's now allowed 1 ER in 14 1/3 innings against New York this year.

Mark Buehrle has only walked one batter so far, but he's given up 7 hits, including a grand slam to Manny Ramirez. The Red Sox are leading the Pale Hose 6-0 in the 2nd.

Alou and Sosa go back-to-back in the first inning to give Chicago a 3-0 lead. It's Sosa's third HR in four games after having only 3 the rest of the month.

Umpire Joe West is threw Julian Tavarez out of the game after examining Taverez's hat. I assume he found an illegal substance on the hat. The announcers claim that Larry Bowa has had the umpires check this in the past. Tavarez threw his hat into the crowd as he entered the dugout, and the fan who caught the lid is having a good time impersonating Tavarez and posing for pictures.

Anaheim at New York. The Yankees of the West face the real thing.

Boston at Chicago. White Sox need some wins to move up the the Wild Card race. Schilling vs. Buehrle should see very few walks issued.

Chicago at Houston. The Astros try to gain ground on another Wild Card opponent.

Mets at Giants. Traschel vs. Lowry looks like the best pitching matchup of the night.

Enjoy!

Update: I forgot the Indians-Twins game, although the series was much more interesting last weekend. The Indians will try to regain the ground they lost during the week.

Alex Belth has a excerpt from Buster Olney's The Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty at Bronx Banter. The excerpt focuses on how Gene Michael and Buck Showalter laid the foundation for the dynasty that continues today. An excellent read.

Athletics Nation has a can't miss interview with Billy Beane. It's coming out in sections, Part I and Part II for now. Here's the money quote:

Blez: How does a team like Oakland continue to stay competitive? The book talks a lot about OBP and my personal perception, and in talking to Michael Lewis, was that the A’s have evolved beyond that into defense and other things.

BB: That’s what’s interesting when you talk about critics. We’ve never really sat down with any of these guys and explained to them what we’re doing. They assumed they know what we’re doing, which is great because they’re out there blasting on the airwaves and they don’t really have a clue what we’re doing. But the closest thing I can say is that we’re in a finite market and we’re always trying to take advantage of any inefficiencies. Right now, you take on-base percentage and it’s en vogue. It wasn’t 10 years ago. We could get guys like Matt Stairs and Geronimo Berroa.

Blez: And guys like Scott Hatteberg.

BB: Exactly, guys like Scottie Hatteberg. Now people are recognizing the value of that and they’re paying for it. And if we’re in a bidding war, we’re going to lose that. So we have evolved. If you look at some of our first playoff teams, the ‘99 team that won 87 games, it was a power, on-base team. Now we’re tops in the league in defense and pitching. For us, it’s all about filling in on the backend and figuring out what people are undervaluing. You know, one day we’re going to have a team with guys who steal 50 bases because people aren’t paying for it. But it’s all about wins. That’s all that matters.

(Emphasis added.) I'm sure when the A's have that team, people will write that the experiment has failed and the A's have gone back to basic baseball.

Looks like another partial season of minor league ball did a world of good for Wilfredo Ledezma. He's striking out more and walking fewer. Tonight, he gave up his 2nd HR in 27 1/3 innings after giving up 12 in 84 innings last year. Looks like he's turning into another piece of the improving Tigers team.

One thing I've done a poor job of this season is keeping up with the ever expanding world of baseball blogs. Here's an excellent blog call Sabernomics (hat tip to the Hardball Times). The blog has posted a number of interesting research papers, including the effects of age on hitting. Please give them a look.

It was a slugfest in Philadelphia as the Astros defeated the Phillies 12-10. The staffs combined to allow 29 hits, six walks and two hit batters. The Phillies managed to blow a 7-2 lead; not a good thing when your manager is on the hotseat. Bowa brought in three consecutive relievers who each allowed runs, doubling the amount Myers had allowed in 6 1/3 innings in just 1 2/3. Not exactly a managerial success.

Soccer Dad states his dislike for Angelos and cites evidence that Washington baseball fans want their own team.

Of course, they'd have a team if they'd just come up with the extortion money.

Bill Kelly alerts me to this story:

Owners on Thursday unanimously voted to extend the term of baseball commissioner Bud Selig for three years through 2009.

Selig took over as acting commissioner in September 1992 after Fay Vincent resigned. Selig agreed to a five-year contract in July 1998 and then received a new five-year deal in November, 2001.

The 70-year-old Selig had previously indicated that he was set to retire when his contract expired on December 31, 2006, but changed his mind after much coaxing by the owners.

Another lie by Selig. And the great commissioner still hasn't resolved the Expos situation How much money can you hold out for Bud? How about doing something right for the players and the community that's going to receive them?

The baseball TV network should be interesting. MLB has done a good job with the internet, and the two should mesh nicely.

Update: And what's with this "unanimously" crap? Have you ever seen Selig take a vote where he doesn't have 30 owners in the bag? I can't believe that every owner agrees 100% with what Selig does. But by compromising enough and hectoring enough to get everyone to say yes, Bud stifles criticism from within. I, for one, would like to hear that criticism.

Two good pitching matchups today. Greg Maddux and the Cubs take the short trip to Milwaukee to face Chris Capuano and the Brewers. Maddux has dominated the Brewers in his two starts this year, allowing just 1 run on a solo HR in 15 innings. Capuano has been almost as good, going 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA against the Cubs this year. The Cubs have only managed a .195 BA off Chris.

The other excellent duel is down in St. Louis, where the Pirates' Oliver Perez challenges Jason Marquis. Perez continues to lead the NL in K per 9. Marquis has not fared well against the Pirates this year, allowing 9 runs and 19 hits in 11 innings.

Finally, a possible first round playoff preview in Los Angeles as the Braves come to town. Both teams have been surprises this year, especially in the size of their leads in their divisions. The four game series gives Atlanta a chance to capture home field for the first round, or for the Dodgers to cement their hold on the 2nd best overall record.

Enjoy!

Okay, Twain added the "greatly" later. But the Twins are still taking him up on the quote. Since Sunday morning they've gone from a team about to collaspe to the surging Indians to a more comfortable 4 1/2 game lead. And they've done it by shutting down the Yankees, while the Indians hit Texas when the Rangers found some new pitching and recovered hitting.

Both Johan Santana and Joe Nathan helped their Cy Young cases last night. Santana walked 1 in seven innings against a patient team. The Twins have only walked four Yankees total in the two games. Nathan struck out 2 in his scoreless inning of work, and has lowered his ERA to 0.82. He's now struck out 66 in 54 2/3 innings.

There's speculation today about how long Larry Bowa will be the manager of the Phillies. It's based on Ed Wade not giving Larry a ringing endorsement, although Ed is far from saying that Larry's days are numbered.

Phillies general manager Ed Wade is one person tired of talking about it. He said several times in a pregame meeting with reporters that Bowa is the Phillies manager but declined to guarantee that Bowa would finish the season or continue to manage the team next season.

"I understand when teams struggle, and the way we are struggling right now, fingers get pointed and people want to discuss the pros and cons of all kinds of issues," Wade said. "Job status. Effectiveness of the club. Over-evaluation of personnel. All that kind of stuff comes into play. So I understand that.

"But at the same time, I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to be out there just because it's sort of the topic du jour to have to put an official face on it all the time. My position hasn't changed. 'Bo' is our manager."

If Wade had given Bowa a complete vote of confidence, then I'd say he'd be gone by the end of the week. :-)

Jack McCaffery sees a different scenario; keeping Bowa around keeps Ed Wade's job secure.

But even as Bowa graciously engaged in job-security questions, something abnormal was beginning to take shape --- a strange-bedfellows dynamic that just might keep him employed into next season and beyond. In the oddest way, Ed Wade needs Larry Bowa now ..for protection. Just think about it: If Wade allows Bowa to play the injury card what else does it do? Why, it allows him, too, to play the injury card --- doesn’t it? More, it allows Wade to play the injury card while preserving the job of one of the most popular individuals --- still --- ever to wear a Phillies uniform.

"I’m not giving daily updates on Bo," Wade said. "He’s the manager. I’m not getting into the subject matter, with all due respect. I’m just not doing this every day."

During the Phillies’ most recent road trip, leaks from responsible media outlets gushed that Bowa’s firing was imminent. Then, the Phillies won five of their final six on the trip and Bowa survived. Now, the odd alliance: Wade and Bowa protected by the same injury shield, with both reciting a familiar talking point. Can this team win? Bowa: "The key word: If they play to their expectations." See?

While a convenient approach to the disappointing season, it is not altogether absurd. Frankly, the players did not play to their capabilities, and that was not just according to management, but to the national baseball media and, proof of all proof, Las Vegas, which predicted greatness for them in the National League. Why? Some players just dipped. Others were injured. Billy Wagner barely played at all, causing irreparable harm to the bullpen rotation. But Wade might get away with playing a similar roster hand next season --- with a quasi-cosmetic change or two --- if he also brings back the popular manager. And Bowa remains popular, if evidenced only by the response at the defeat-ALS carnival Monday, even if it is a captive audience of charity-minded Phillies fans in no mood to be critical.

Frankly, I thought Wade should have fired Bowa after the Rolen fiasco. The fact that he didn't leads me to think that both should go.

Update: Tom Goodman believes that Rolen would have left no matter what. He just didn't want to be in Philadelphia.

The ice cream a young child had at the park last night:

made Doug Baker and Dave Spiro of Yale-New Haven Hospital wonder the following

(Download movie.)

If the chocolate and vanilla are being twisted together, how do you get one side of the cone to be one flavor? I have no clue.

Texas has not been friendly to the Indians the last two games. The powerhouse offense of Cleveland has been shut down the last two games by pitchers who spent most of the season on the DL. It looks like the Rangers have added pitching depth just when they needed it.

I'm having a difficult time figuring out who to root for in the West. The A's, Angels and Rangers all are great stories, but at least one of them has to lose out in the race to the playoffs.

And congratulations to Mark Teixeira on hitting for the cycle! Take a look at his 2nd year numbers vs. 2003. Across the board improvement, and a big increase in power.

Dr. Manhattan at Blissful Knowledge gives a very detailed analysis of the Yankees season so far, giving a good view of the strengths and weaknesses of this team.

The Baseball Crank looks does a study of the 1994 Expos.

I made three audio recordings from Fenway last night, but for some reason they didn't show up on the blog. I'm looking into the problem. Lilly and Martinez pitched pretty evenly; both gave up 2 HR and 4 earned runs over seven innings. The problem for both was when they got hit, they got hit hard. Both Wells and Varitek hit monster home runs. Wells' shot was still rising when it went into the first row of the Green Monster seats, and Jason's probably landed on the Mass Turnpike.

A great ending to the game as Johnny Damon's speed and a bit of luck paid off for the Red Sox. Cabrera won a place in the hearts of the fans last night, too. Roberts walked to lead off the ninth. Damon attempted to bunt him over at first, then swung away. With two strikes he grounded to short, and beat out the DP relay. Then Cabrera launched a screaming line drive that hit the wall. Damon was off an running once it was clear it was going to split the outfielders. It looked to me like Damon was going for home from the time he left first. The ball hit the seam where the top of the scoreboard meets the wall. The seam is sloped, and instead of rebounding toward the fielder, the ball bounced up, giving Damon an extra second of running time. Damon needed it, as the throw was just a second late at the plate.

Hope to have pictures and video later in the day.

This article surprised me a bit:

Sosa certainly noticed over the weekend when he was booed as he was announced during pre-game introductions, as well as every time he came to bat after making an out. His swing seems to get longer, if not harder, the louder the fans go after him.

"You can't tune them out because you hear them, unless he's deaf, which he's not," says Cubs manager Dusty Baker. "It's a different situation. He was held in such high esteem and adoration, and now it seems it's going the other way."

Sosa no longer can count on unconditional love from the fans he thrilled time and time again during his unprecedented run of 243 home runs in four seasons, including three seasons with at least 63. His approval rating has dropped as the price for scalped Cubs' tickets has skyrocketed.

Tim McCarver, working last Saturday's game against the Dodgers, says it is a shame that Chicago fans have become fickle toward Sosa. But these fans would say it's a shame that the aging Sosa has gone into a steep decline at the time when the emergence of a loaded starting rotation, a deep lineup and a winning manager have raised the stakes exponentially for the lovable losers.

I find it strange that fans would start booing Sosa because he's in a slump. While he's not having an MVP season, in no way, shape or form is it a bad season. He has 13 win shares already, tied for 4th on the team. He's having a lousy August, but anything can happen in 50 AB. What gives? Is it that he's not perceived as a team player? Is it that he hasn't built up all that much good will over the years?

Something I'm more interested in, however, is Sosa's assault on Aaron's home run record. My guess is he'll finish the season with between 35 and 40 HR, leaving him about 180 shy of Hammerin' Hank. At age 35, with his number declining, that's not a trivial number of HR to hit. It's four years of 40 HR, and then some. Sure Sosa can do it, but another year of decline and I'd say the odds are going to get a lot longer.

A nice pitching matchup in Fenway tonight as Ted Lilly faces Pedro Martinez, and I'm going to be there (section 30, row 8)! My thanks to Jim Storer for the ticket. Expect some audio updates from the park. Lilly and Pedro are only 0.1 runs apart in ERA. Both have allowed 17 HR; Pedro strikeouts about 2 more per 9, and walks a few less batters. These are two of my favorite pitchers, so I can't wait to see them in action.

It's a possible playoff matchup in Minneapolis as the Yankees visit the struggling Twins. Javier Vazquez takes on Brad Radke. Brad's had three consecutive no decisions, including a game where he allowed 1 run over 9 innings. He continues to walk few batters, giving up 1 every 10 innings this season. It will be interesting to see how the selective Yankee squad handles him. Vazquez pitches well enough to win on this team. Other than the 24 HR allowed, he's probably pitched better than his ERA indicates. Should be a good duel.

The Braves and the Padres continue their series with Jaret Wright hurling against Jake Peavy. Wright ranks 9th in NL ERA, Peavy is 17 innings short of qualifying for the lead. Both have been hot, each posting ERAs in the 1.30's over their last 3 starts.

Enjoy!

Another stellar outing for the Texas Rangers bullpen last night. They went 4 2/3 innings in relief of Mickey Callaway, holding the powerful Indians offense to one hit, one walk and two hit batsmen. Texas reliever now rank 2nd in the AL in ERA with a 3.41 mark. They are keeping runners off base, allowing a measely .318 OBA, tied for 2nd in the AL with the Yankees.

Buck Showalter's strength as a manager is putting his players into situations where they can succeed. He appears to be doing that with the Rangers bullpen this year.

Daryle Ward came very close to the cycle last night. He had a double, triple and homer, but couldn't connect for a single in his other three AB. Ward's having a good power year in his limited playing time; 22 of his 48 hits have been for extra bases. He's a good example of a player who would be much better if he just walked more. He walks about every 15.6 AB. If he could get that down to every ten AB, he'd be playing every day.

The Red Sox are starting Doug Mientkiewicz at second base tonight, due to injuries. He played in one game there for the Twins in 2003, but did not get a chance to make a play. In the first inning tonight, with a man on 1st and 1 out, Wells hit a ball up the middle. Doug made a nice play to glove the ball, step on 2nd for the force, then an off-balance throw to get Wells at first and complete the DP. Not bad for a first baseman. He certainly hits more like a 2nd baseman. Maybe this is the start of a new career. :-)

Cleveland finds itself in two races; two games behind the Twins for the AL Central, and 2 1/2 games behind three teams for the AL Wild Card. They play one of those three teams tonight as they start a three game series at Texas. Staff ace C.C. Sabathia will face Mickey Calloway, who is making his first start since elbow surgery in April. The two teams have had different offensive success in August; the Indians are scoring 5.7 runs per game and have a 10-5 record. The Rangers have scored 3.8 runs per game and are 7-7 (who would have thought the Rangers pitchers would be outperforming their hitters). The Indians would appear to be invading Arlington at just the right time.

The Padres face a tough challenge to their bid for the Wild Card as they host the Atlanta Braves this evening. Mike Hampton will take the mound against Sterling Hitchcock. Teams are hitting Hampton this year, as he's allowed a .308 BA to the opposition. In his favor, he hasn't had a lot of extra-base hits against him. He's pitching in a ball park that should help in that area as well.

Enjoy!

Here's a good article from the Arizona Republic on Jeff Moorad's move from being an agent to being in a baseball front office. The union is wary:

His new job, however, does not sit well with the players union, which is concerned that Moorad has confidential information from his two decades of representing players.

Last weekend, Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the Major League Players Association, said the union wanted to investigate Moorad's appointment. Moorad said the two have talked, and he respects the union's position. Moorad declined to elaborate.

I get the feeling that there is a conflict of interest here as big as when Bud Selig moved into the commissioner's office as an owner. And it appears Moorad's advocacy for players skirtted the edges of being on the up-and-up. Remember Raul Mondesi?

I would think that MLB in the form of the owners has an actionable tort here. They should be complaining to the commissioner that Moorad and Mondesi, by simple virtue of soliciting bids for a new contract, are invalidating the breach of the original contract. After all, if he was going to be able to play three weeks after he went on leave, there are negotiated procedures in place to protect his and the team's rights. If he gets away with this, then every team is going to be hit with Operation Shutdown (I know that was different but the game's the same), and this case will give the player precedent to get his contract terminated.

However, I understand why he wanted to do something different. I've met quite a few lawyers who would rather be doing something else. Moorad is getting his chance.

Brad Penny has gone on the 15-Day DL.

"He is better and he's making improvements but he still has some stiffness in that area from moving up into the lower part of the bicep," said Dodgers manager Jim Tracy. "So as far as actually going out and doing any kind of tossing or throwing on the flat ground, as of this morning we do not have any specific timetable in mind as far as that is concerned."

This is rather different than the prognosis in this article. It makes one wonder if the Dodgers are trying to avoid bad PR here. Jon Weisman has his thoughts here.

You may want to check out the latest win share data from the Hardball Times (AL here, NL here). The top team in each league is led by a dynamic trio. In the AL, Sheffield and Matsui each have gathered 22 win shares to tie for the league lead, while A-Rod is tied for 5th with his replacement, Michael Young, at 20. As good as they are, the Cardinals big three is even better. Rolen (31), Pujols (25) and Edmonds(25) have combined for 81 win shares. Thoese three are responsible for 27 of the Cardinals wins. Again, this is why the Cards wanted to get Larry Walker; too much of the team's ability to win was stored in these three players. Walker gives them depth to protect the team if one of the big three goes down.

With Boston and the Chicago Cubs losing (what else is new) and Anaheim, Texas, San Francisco and San Diego winning, both leagues have a three way tie for the Wild Card! Never had so many teams been able to yell, "We're number two!"

Cary Grant used to try to keep his age a secret. Once a reporter sent the above question to Grant in a telegram. Cary's reply was, "Old Cary Grant fine, how you?"

Old Terry Mulholland was fine today. He allowed just 1 run over 8 innings and walked only 1. Even though Cleveland was putting the ball in play, they only managed six hits off the ancient lefty. He and the bullpen pitched well enough that the Twins offense had time to come around and score two in the top of the tenth to win the game. Nathan pitched a perfect 10th to lower his ERA to 0.84.

The Twins now have a two game lead, and ten games left against the Indians, incuding a three game set next weekend and a three game set in Minnesota the last weekend of the season.

Attendance today was about 38,000. An excellent weekend for the Tribe. The money keeps rolling in.

Mariners Wheelhouse pointed me to a baseball blog I hadn't seen before, Batgirl. She's a Twins fan, and has an Olympic take on the Twinkies recent decline:

The political climate in classical Greece was largely defined by the struggle for supremacy between two rival city-states—Athens and Sparta. Athens (hereinafter the Minnesota Twins) was renowned for its intellectual and artistic achievements, while Sparta (hereinafter called "Cleveland") was known for its military might. While Minnesota was pursuing advances in philosophy and astronomy, Cleveland was devoting itself to expanding its power. Minnesota's citizens thrived under a democracy, while Clevelanders cowered under the rule of tyrannical kings. Minnesota's youth were encouraged to become thinkers and artisans, while Cleveland's served only the state. All Minnesota children were cherished and educated with the hope that they might further advance civilization, while all Cleveland babies were examined at birth for physical fitness, and those found inferior were drowned or abandoned in the woods where they were eaten by rabid New York Mets.

But do any Twins have a blog?

Via the Hardball Times, I see that ESPN is now offering RSS feeds for their columnists. What this means for me is that I can use my news reader to get Rob Neyer's columns without having to be an insider! Here's his latest on players and teams who have suffered bad luck in baseball this year.

I'm so old, I remember when Terry Mulholland was good. Actually, in the context of his career, it was a very brief moment. From 1991-1993, Mulholland went 41-33 with a 3.58 ERA. So basically, he was a good #2 stater for three years, and somehow has turned that into a 19-year career. But that's who the Twins are sending to the mound this afternoon to try to stop their slide into a tie with the Indians. Cleveland sends Chad Durbin, not the best of pitcher either. Durbin, like Elarton, strikes people out but has a tendancy to give up the long ball (and a few too many walks). He's improved the HR numbers since moving from the pen to the rotation. But neither walks nor HR are the Twins forte, so Durbin may do as well as Elarton against them.

Will the real Mark Prior please stand up? Being good every other start is not going to get the Cubs to the playoffs. After shutting down the Rockies at Coors for six innings, he comes back to Chicago and gets pounded by the Padres. As he faces the Dodgers today, at least he's due for a good start. Jose Lima will oppose Prior. Lima doesn't walk many, so the 20 HR he's allowed haven't hurt him too much; 16 have come with the bases empty.

Enjoy!

The Plain Dealer has updated! Here's the story from last night's game. It seems there was a little heat between the combatants:

It wasn't so much the players who were caught in the emotion of the game, it was the managers. Anytime Eric Wedge and Ron Gardenhire can do a good imitation of Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker, there must be something at stake.

After the Indians beat the Twins for the second straight night with a big first inning, Gardenhire looked to make things right.

In the third, with Victor Martinez batting, Kyle Lohse's first pitch was up and in to the Tribe catcher.

Tribe bench coach Buddy Bell started yelling at Lohse. Gardenhire signaled to the Indians bench, putting up three fingers and making a fist. It was baseball sign language for the 3-0 pitch Martinez took a full rip at in the eighth inning Friday night with the Tribe leading, 8-2.

It was Gardenhire's way of saying, if you're going to get upset about that pitch, remember what Martinez did the night before.

As plate umpire Mike Everitt turned to address Gardenhire, who was already coming out of the dugout, Wedge ran out of the Indians' dugout and was intercepted by first-base umpire Larry Young.

"I don't know what he was so upset about," said Wedge. "Someone yelled from our dugout when the pitch was around Victor's head and it went on from there."

Wedge said he came out of his dugout because it "looked like Gardy was yelling across at me."

Gardenhire, who said there was no intent behind the pitch, maintained that he was not upset at Wedge.

"They're screaming at my pitcher and catcher," said Gardenhire. "I can't let that happen. I can't just stand there and let one of their coaches [Bell] yell at one of my players. I'm going to defend my guys."

The yelling did nothing to inspire the Twins. They were only able to score 1 run the entire game. They've been outscored 15-3 in the first two games of the series, and a win by the Indians tonight creates a tie in the AL Central.

The Indians came close to selling out last night as well, drawing nearly 41,000 fans. Attendance like that again tonight, and Cleveland will have put nearly 50,000 more fans in the seats this weekend above average. That probably put an extra $2 million dollars in the Indians pockets. While I would not fault them for saving the money for improving the team over the winter, $2 million would play 1/4 of an $8 million dollar salary, or 1/6 of a $12 million dollar salary. If Shapiro can put together a deal for a good player, he has the money to complete the deal. And that may mean sellouts for the rest of the season and a playoff berth.

What's up with the Cleveland Plain Dealer web site? For the second day in a row, I go looking for local reporting about a Tribe victory, and the news on the sports page is a day old? Don't they have middle of the night deadlines like other newspapers? Don't they have programs that automatically format a story for the web? Cleveland may rock, but the Plain Dealer doesn't know how to roll out a web site.

I posted a comment here on Bobby Grich's Hall of Fame credentials.

I once drafted Bobby Grich for my 1979 SOM team, the Pinto Hatchbacks. I then traded him to an NL team for Willie Randolph and Bill Madlock.
Bob Watson won the MVP for my AL team that year, and Grich won the MVP in the NL. Two MVP's in one draft isn't bad.

Jamie Moyer continues to get hammered with home runs. Sheffield and Williams each hit a solo shot for the Yankees in the first. Moyer has now allowed 33 HR this season; that's five more than he's ever allowed before, and it's only the middle of August. He only needs to allow 7 more to make it into the top 10 single season leaders.

A marquee matchup in Atlanta pits Jason Marquis vs. Russ Ortiz. Both have excellent records, and both have been hot lately. Marquis has given up just 5 ER in his last 26 2/3 innings, including just 1 HR. Oritz has allowed 8 ER in his last 35 1/3 innings, again, allowing just 1 HR.

The White Sox have fallen lately, but with their victory last night they are still in both the Central and Wild Card races. Jon Garland faces Curt Schilling, and both have had problems lately. Schilling has had only one good start in his last four outings. He's only struck out 15 in his last 26 1/3 innings, 5.2 per game. That's not Schilling. Is he tired? He hasn't missed a start this year (despite an injury). The Red Sox haven't abused him; he's 8th in pitches thrown (behind Pedro) and 7th in innings pitched (tied with Pedro) in the AL. Maybe the season is just taking it's toll on his 37 year-old body.

The Twins try to hold off the Indians again tonight in Cleveland. The game looks good for the Tribe, and Jake Westbrook twirls for them against Kyle Lohse. Lohse is allowing a lot of hits this year. The opposition is hitting .314 against Lohse vs. .279 for his career. And the Twins learned last night that Cleveland is not a team you want putting the ball in play. Westbrook in 2-0 in August despite an 8.74 ERA. When your team is scoring a ton of runs, you just have to survive on the mound. :-)

Enjoy!

Omar Vizquel is enjoying Cleveland's surge:

"I'm having the time of my life," said Omar Vizquel, the last remaining piece of the World Series teams of 1995 and 1997. "I can't ask for anything better than the year we are having."

Is Vizquel surprised? "Yes," he said. "We have a lot of young guys who have made improvements in a quick way."

Vizquel, 37, said the raucous atmosphere brought back memories. "It was kind of like deja vu out there," he said. "It was obviously nice to see so many people behind us."

Vizquel had four of the 13 hits off four Twins pitchers Carlos Silva (10-8, 4.52 ERA), Matt Guerrier, Joe Roa and Jesse Crain.

There were 30,000 at Jacobs Field last night, about 9,000 more than usual for the Indians this year. I was told once by an independent league GM that a fan in a seat was worth $20 to him; I assume for a major league team like Cleveland it's somewhat more. Let's say $50. If they can do 30,000 a game for the rest of the season (22 more games), that's an extra $10 million in their pockets for next year (and I believe I'm being conservative here). That's a good chunk of money to use to improve your team.

Khalil Greene had four extra-base hits in the Padres drubbing of the Reds last night, two doubles and two HR. So far, it looks like PETCO is masking Greene's power. Look at his home/road split:

Greene 2004	Home	Road
AB	187	194
Hits	45	56
Doubles	5	18
Triples	3	1
Home Runs	2	7
Slugging Pct.	.332	.500

Neifi Perez at home, Nomar on the road.

Ben Broussard does it again. After a two-run double by Victor Martinez, Broussard lauches a three-run HR to give the Indians a 5-0 lead. That's six HR in 65 AB since the ASB for Ben.

Silva faced eight batters, walked one, and the other seven put the ball in play. Four got hits. Meanwhile, Elarton struck out 2 of the first five batters he's faced.

Update: A baserunning mistake by Hunter. Jones hit a ball to the wall that was caught by Lawton. Hunter was by 2nd, and by the time he got back to first, the ball was already there. Still 5-0 in the top of the 2nd.

Update: The double play really hurts as the Twins follow it with a single and a double to plate their first run. 5-1 in the top of the 2nd.

San Diego gets to Paul Wilson early. Giles hits a three-run shot, and Klesko follows two batters later with a two-run homer of his own. The Padres are up 5-0 in the first on the Reds. With the Cubs losing to LA, a win will tie SD for the Wild Card lead.

Jim Gerard sends this E-Mail:

I'm writing a book called Yankees S**K (Penguin, April 2005) and one chapter explores the reasons why fans of other clubs hate the Yankees. I'd like you and your fellow posters to share your thoughts on this topic.

I don't care of the title, but it sounds like an interesting approach to gathering opinions. So if you'd like to help out and express yours, feel free to do so in the comments.

This post doesn't really answer the question, but it does offer an explanation for the Red Sox inferiority complex.

Greg Maddux just came to bat, and the crowd spontaneously stood and applauded. The home plate ump delayed the game so Greg could enjoy the crowd honoring his 300th victory. A nice baseball moment.

I don't understand the makeup of the Dodgers lineup. The player with the lowest OBA of the eight position players is leading off. The player with the highest OBA is batting seventh. The player with the 2nd highest OBA is batting sixth. In general, the OBA goes up as you go through the lineup.

The what really gets me as I watch the first inning is the use of 1-run strategies. Izturis singles, then steals. Fine. Izzy is an okay basestealer. But then, Finley, who has a .500 slugging percentage, sacrifices Izturis to third! You had the runner in scoring position, with a player up capable of not only driving him in, but putting himself in scoring position with a hit! Why bunt?

The Cubs then help them out with a poor fielding play, putting Bradley at first and scoring Izturis. The one-run strategy works! Not content to build on the mistake, Bradley runs (he has a bad wheel) and is thrown out. Inning ends with 1 runs scored. I guess that Dodgers think that's enough in Wrigley.

I hope all my readers in Florida are safe and that you ride out this storm with minimal damage. Take care!

It's the Twins at the Indians. Carlos Silva faces Scott Elarton. Cleveland does not appear to be going with their strongest pitcher here. It is interesting to note, however, that Elarton strikeouts fell off greatly when he was with the Rockies, but have come back to their Houston levels since joining the Tribe (7.2 K per 9 with Houston and Cleveland, 4.2 K per 9 with Colorado). Is this another example of a pitcher's breaking ball being hurt by Coors Field? And despite leaving Denver, Elarton is still giving up the long ball, 11 in 55 innings with the Indians. Lucky for him, the Twins aren't a great HR hitting team (8th in the AL).

Silva is not a strikeout pitcher at all. His 3.42 K per 9 ranks last among the 40 AL ERA qualifiers. That plays into the hands of an excellent offense that puts the ball in play (Indians are 8th in strikeouts). But he doesn't walk many either, only 24 in his 147 1/3 innings (he's 4th in walks per 9), which takes away a strength of the Indians (3rd in walks drawn in the AL).

My guess is for a high scoring affair. Look for the bullpens early in this game.

Enjoy!

I've chided the fans of a number of contending teams (Royals, Marlins, Twins) for not getting excited about their teams. That's not happening in Cleveland. People are buying tickets, and Indians fans are ready to win.

Andrew Grover, 21, of Moreland Hills, brought a broom to Thursday's game that he planned to bring again Sunday in anticipation of an Indians sweep of the Twins.

"I'm confident that these young players have the talent and pitching to go all the way and definitely win the division," he said. "They're just starting to come together."

Doug Cocklin, 56, of Canton, agreed. "I was a little leery for a while, but it seems like these young players are finally jelling."

The Tribe's No. 1 fan, John Adams - who has been beating a boom-booming bass drum in the bleachers at every home game for the last 31 years - has noticed an increased fervor in the stands.

"There's a lot more excitement going on with the fans," he said. "They're not just watching to see what these guys do. Now they're excited about what they're doing."

One nice thing about this surge in fan interest is that it will provide the Indians with a little more money to use over the winter to improve the team.

Ben Broussard is having quite a 2nd half. His pinch-hit grand slam tonight was his fifth HR in 64 AB since the All-Star break. He has 25 hits, 11 for extra bases. His game winner tonight sets up the big weekend series with the Twins. A sweep by the Indians puts them into a tie for first place.

Another perfect outing by Joe Nathan of the Twins. Nathan has not saved 33 games in 34 opportunities. He has an 0.85 ERA and has struck out 64 in 52 2/3 innings. He's not quite Eck in 1990, but he's getting close. I wonder how much Cy Young consideration he'll get?

Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus takes an indepth look at the Cleveland Indians.

Pedro Martinez picked up his first shutout since the 2000 season this afternoon. He was the model of efficiency, using just 109 pitches to strike out 10 over 9 innings. He also matched his season high game score of 85. With the highest team ERA in the AL since the All-Star break, the Red Sox really needed a game like this.

The Book of Mike remembers the destruction of the Expos.

Victor Zambrano has set the Astros down in order for the first four innings. He's struck out three and only thrown 51 pitches, 35 for strikes. Stay tuned.

Update: With two out in the fifth, Vizcaino hit a ball hard down the third base line. Wright smothered it to keep it from being a double, but the Astros get their first hit. Vizcaino immediately gets caught stealing, so Zambrano has still faced the minimum.

Correction:: The ball was hit down the third base line, not the first base line as originally stated.

Andy Pettitte returns to New York today as the Astros face the Mets and Victor Zambrano. Zambrano did not fare well in his first start for the Mets; although he struck out 7 in 5 1/3 innings, when he wasn't striking out batters they were finding holes with their bats as he allowed 6 runs. Pettitte is pitching through elbow problems, but is coming off a 6 inning, 1 hit performance against Pittsburgh.

Once again, the Padres try to close to within 1 game of the Cubs in the NL wild card race as Jake Peavy faces tough luck Matt Clement. Peavy is 17 innings shy of qualifying for the NL lead in ERA. While he's very good overall, he's been especially good with men on base this year. Only 1 of the six HR he's allowed this year have come with men on base. Meanwhile, Matt Clement is 2-8 since July 1, despite a 3.48 ERA. If Clement had a winning record in those decisions, the Cubs would have a comfortable wild card lead right now.

Finally, the rejuvenated Orlando Hernandez faces the not-so rejuvenated Scott Erickson as the Yankees and Rangers play the rubber game of their series in Texas. Hernandez has struck out 40 in 32 innings since returning to the Bronx. Erickson has 6 K in 13 2/3 innings by comparison.

Enjoy!

Cleveland is now just three games back of the Twins in the AL Central. They are 18-10 since the All-Star break, the best record in the American League. They've improved their ERA a little, from 4.91 before the break to 4.72 now. But couple that with scoring over 7 runs a game, and you have a powerhouse.

I'm impressed with Mark Shapiro's prediction, and I'd love to see him make a pitching move to put this team over the top.

Ken Griffey Jr. will miss the rest of the season with a very bad hamstring tear. I think at this point, the chance of Griffey catching Aaron is nil. He really had to have a very good rest of his career to do it, but at this point it seems every time he moves he gets hurt. Here's a post on Griffey's Hall of Fame chances from last year. I still think it's an interesting discussion.

Brandon Webb has his sinker working tonight. The first eight batters all hit grounders, seven of them for outs, including a double play. Webb finally got a non-groundout when he K'd the pitcher, Patterson.

Update: The Expos get to Webb in the 4th. Three hits, two walks and a grand slam by Schneider plate six runs.

Matt Welch and this blogger are battling over who's the better wild card team, the Angels or the Red Sox. The winner gets to yell, "We're number 2!"

Yes, you truly can blog about anything!

(Warning, TV-14 blogs.)

I'm watching the Red Sox pre-game show on NESN. They have Dennis Leary and Lenny Clarke on to promote Rescue Me. They're going to throw out the first pitch tonight, and Bob Tewksbury is giving them hints (throw it cross seam, so it doesn't sink). Then Bob starts showing them how to scuff the ball. He has a round piece of emory board glued to the underside of his glove hand middle finger. "Take the glove off and rub up the ball." He then shows a clear scuff mark on the ball. If the umpire comes out, you just flip the emory board off your finger as you remove the glove. Dennis then asked Bob if he ever scuffed the ball. He said, "I never did it, but I never threw one back that was scuffed, because I know how to use it."

Good job, Bob, teaching all the children watching how to cheat.

Only Baseball Matters looks at the issue of the Giants losing money and concludes that it's unlikely.

Why have they been lying? What is the purpose of all this disinformation? That's what I don't understand. And more importantly, why take a championship team apart? For more money?

When the Florida Marlins dismantled their 1997 World Champion team, (many of whom ended up here in SF), owner Wayne Huzienga was widely derided as the worst kind of owner. He did it for the money, and he was honest about it; and the press and the fans vilified him. I know this isn't exactly the same, but three quarters of a championship-contending team has been lost in some 18 months, ostensibly because of financial burdens that appear to have been exaggerated, if not completely made up.

From a pure baseball fan standpoint, I stand by my original point: You absolutely have to take advantage of Barry's last seasons to get a ring. The Giants have not, to this point, and they've been telling us it's because they can't afford it, and it looks like they've been lying about that. Why?

The Giants are one of five teams (Cubs, White Sox, Red Sox and Indians) who have gone the longest without a World Championship. These teams have an obligation to their long suffering fans that when they have a chance to win to go all out to win. I agree with John, the Giants should be putting a team around Bonds that can win the Series.

Sterling Hitchcock makes his 2nd start of the year for San Diego this evening as the Padres chase Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs for the NL Wild Card. Hitchcock, a lefty has had success in his limited appearances against Sammy Sosa. Sosa is 3 for 17 against Sterling with 1 HR.

Zambrano has had a great year at Wrigley, going 6-1 with a 1.99 ERA, the best home ERA in the NL. It's not clear why he's so good at home. He gives up more walks and HR per 9 than on the road, but opponents are batting .174 against him at Wrigley vs. .255 on the road. Does the defense see the ball better in day games at Wrigley, or has the wind been blowing in?

Enjoy!

Tom Glavine was in a car accident yesterday.

Mets pitcher Tom Glavine lost his two front teeth and needed stitches in his lower lip after the cab he was taking from LaGuardia Airport collided with an SUV yesterday afternoon. He was released from the hospital last night but will miss his scheduled start tonight against the Astros.

Since Glavine was a hockey player in high school, I'm surprised he had two front teeth to lose! All kidding aside, I'm glad Glavine is okay. I'm always had an affinity for Tommy John lefties, and Tom is one of the best of that breed.

Wow. What a game in Florida. The Cardinals had 2 hits; a HR by Pujols in the 6th, and a HR by Edmonds in the 10th. Despite seven hits and four walks, the Marlins could only muster 1 run. This has to be a devestating loss for Florida. They had the game in their grasp any number of times, but just couldn't push a run across.

Great pitching on both sides. Beckett pitched a strong 6, striking out five and walking three to go with the Pujols HR. Seanez pitched three perfect innings of relief. For the Cardinals, Carpenter left in the third with stiffness in his back, but Eldred, King, Tavarez and Isringhausen allowed only two hits among them, Julian and Jason getting the last 11 batters in order.

Good defense all around, also. Lots of ground balls, and Rolen and Lowell especially flashed the leather at third. A fun game to watch, but it could have ended the Marlins season.

You need to tune in to a baseball highlight show tonight to see Cal Eldred's attempted third pitch to Do Luca in the bottom of the fifth. As his arm came forward, the ball squirted out of his hand and flew over to third base. It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen. As it turns out, it wasn't considered a pitch, although I don't know what rule covers that.

I'm scoring the Cardinals-Marlins game tonight, and Beckett has a no-hitter through five. He's thrown 82 pitches, however, so I don't know how long he'll last in this game.

Update: Pujols homers in the 6th to break up the no-hitter.

Nice baserunning play by Paul Lo Duca in the first inning of the StL-Fla game. Lo Duca hit a medium liner to right center for what should have been a single. Edmonds came over and cut it off, but took his time getting the ball back in to the infield. Lo Duca took advantage and got into 2nd with a double by a hair. I bet you don't see Edmonds do that again.

I like this vignette from Gibbons first game:

Gibbons wanted to calm down closer Jason Frasor, something he'd done for years with pitchers as a catcher in the major and minor leagues. One could hardly fault Gibbons for some concern, considering the New York Yankees had drawn within a run and had the tying marker at first base with nobody out.

But Gibbons insisted with a straight face that neither he nor Frasor was the least bit nervous.

"I just told him, `No big deal. You've still got a one-run lead so just make your pitches and don't worry about it,'" Gibbons said after Frasor got the final three outs for a 5-4 victory in the series finale.

Frasor had looked up at his manager with surprise, despite having just surrendered a two-run homer to Hideki Matsui and walking Jorge Posada to get the Yankee Stadium crowd of 49,853 roaring.

"I guess I was more surprised to see him instead of (pitching coach) Gil (Patterson)," Frasor said. "He just said, `Relax, we're still up by one run.'"

It's always good to hear your boss say that he trusts you to do your job. Nice move by Gibbons.

Somebody's birthday is wrong. I can believe he had a child at 13, but not 7.

Update: A quick check of the 2001 Phillies media guide yields different dates for the birth of the children. Yamley was born 1/15/1984, not 1974. However, the Philadelphia media guide does not list Ralph at all.

Dr. Manhattan has more thoughts on the managers Moneyball GMs hire at Blissful Knowledge.

Edgar Martinez announced he's retiring at the end of the season. Given how Roger Clemens' retirement went last year, you never know.

The debate now is, does Edgar belong in the Hall of Fame. The two positions appear to be:

1. The DH is a position, so people who play the position should be considered for the Hall.


2. DH's can't play anywhere else, so their careers are artifically extended. If Edgar had to play the field, his career would have been over long ago.

I lean more toward the first argument. One thing you need to do when considering Hall of Fame qualifications is look at the position people play. The offensive qualifications for a short stop should not be as high as for a first basemen, for example, because shortstops are not expected to be great offensive players. And yet, we tend to judge shortstops for the Hall of Fame more on their offense than their glove skill. So why put such a high price on defense for a designated hitter?

To a certain extent, I reject the idea that DH's would have had earlier ends to their careers due to their fielding. Hitting has always been considered valuable; you can always find a place to hide a poor fielder. Just look at the 1992 World Series. Cito Gaston played Molitor at first base when he lost the DH instead of Olerud (who was also a good hitter and a better fielder) because he wanted Molitor's bat in the lineup. If there were no DH, someone would have found a position for Edgar Martinez.

So I think the rule of thumb should be that if you are going to put a DH in the Hall of Fame, he should be a truly great hitter. Martinez has a career .300 BA, .400 OBA and .500 slugging percentage. He's the greatest DH ever. He's what a DH should be. If there is a DH in the Hall of Fame, Edgar should be the one.

The Globe and Mail have a very good article about J.P. Ricciardi today, describing him as facing a consumer confidence issue. I find this quote amazing:

There are some managers with major-league track records who are available, such as former manager of the year Jerry Manuel and Davey Johnson, who played for Earl Weaver and was fiddling with computer printouts before most other managers knew how to find the power button and has always stressed on-base percentage. There has not been a situation Johnson hasn't faced, and he was interviewed for Blue Jays jobs in the past.

But Ricciardi said: "I just don't know Davey Johnson. I don't know if it's right to say that the next guy we hire is the guy who has to take us into the postseason."

"I don't know Davey Johnson?!!?" This is someone who uses computers to scout players. How many players did he draft whom he's never met? To know Davey, just look at his record. Look at the record of his teams before and after he managed them. J.P. wants a teacher? Davey brought the Mets of the 80's throught the minors and into the majors! What can't you know about Davey Johnson that a little research can't tell you? Ricciardi supposed to be a smart guy. Maybe he's not as smart as we think.

I was going to wait until this game was over before commenting, but it's a wild one in Chicago tonight. The Indians had an 8-0 lead. The White Sox scored 7 in the bottom of the 6th. Cleveland extended their lead to 9-7, and the Sox scored a solo run in the 8th. With the socre 9-8, the Indians loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the 9th, and ended up scoring four runs to make the score 13-8. There's now 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, and the Sox have already scored 3 runs to make it 13-11. They have a man on 2nd and Everett at the plate.

Update: Everett flies out to center. Tying run at the plate in Jose Valentin, who has two HR in the game already.

Update: Valentin pops out to 2nd to end the game. A big win for Cleveland. They take three out of four to take 2nd place in the AL Central. With the Twins losing three out of four and the Rangers getting swept, the Indians gain on three of the teams they are chasing. They're in the hunt for the division and the wild card; they need to find some pitching.

Curt Schilling deserved some boos tonight. He gave up three HR and walked two over five innings. Tampa Bay appeared to be fouling off a lot of pitches, bringing Curt's total to 100 before he could get an out in the 6th. Meanwhile, John Halama also gave up 10 hits, but walked no one while striking out six. One problem the Red Sox was that they couldn't sustain any offense. Seven times Ortiz or Mueller made the last out of the inning. They always had a man on, they just couldn't push them around very often.

The Athletics defeated the Twins today, taking three out of four in their weekend series against Minnesota. More importantly, the A's moved one game ahead of the Twins in the race for the 2nd best record in the AL. Whoever winds up 2nd will not have to play the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs, plus will get home field in that round. (That is of course, if the Yankees hold the division and overall lead in the league.)

Jairo Garica is making his ML debut for the A's today. The graphic they displayed as he entered the game showed his number in a short stint in AAA. He was in three games, pitched five innings, and struck out 10. He didn't walk a batter and only allowed 2 hits. We'll find out if he's ready for the majors.

Update: Garcia strikes out one and walks one in his first inning of work. No hits and no runs, however.

Update: Garcia pitches the ninth as well. One more walk, no hits, no runs, no K.

John Gibbons gets off to a good start with a 5-4 victory over the Yankees, avoiding a sweep by the New Yorkers. He also discovered how difficult it is to manage against the Bronx Bombers, as they started the ninth with a single, homer and walk. Gibbons came out and settled down Frasor, who got Williams, Olerud and Sierra to end the threat and pick up the save.

Estaban Loaiza continues to show why the White Sox wanted to get rid of him. Since the trade, Estaban is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA, while Contreras is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA.

The Orioles just completed a four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers and won their 7th game in a row. Today's 7-3 victory has been typical of the streak, in which they've outscored their opponents 50-24. They've caught the Devil Rays, and with a Tampa Bay loss tonight, would be in third place by themselves.

It looks like Buck Showalter shook up the Texas lineup today. But if you're going to make these kind of changes, why not leadoff with Eric Young?

The Indians try to take three out of four from the White Sox this evening, and based on the pitching matchup it looks like the Tribe has a good chance. Jake Westbrook faces Neal Cotts. Cotts is someone who looks like he should be a pretty good pitcher, in that he strikes out a good number of batters. But he allows too many walks and too many HR. His only start of the year, on May 22 against the Twins, was a disaster as he allowed 4 ER in 2 1/3 innings.

Westbrook's main weakness has been his tendancy to give up HR with men on base. Eight of the fourteen HR he's allowed have been with men on base this year.

Enjoy!

Carlos Tosca was fired yesterday from his job as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. Former Mets catcher John Gibbons will take over for the rest of the season.

I liked the moves the Blue Jays made in the off-season. I thought they had improved the team. What the team couldn't afford, it appears, is to have its superstar, Carlos Delgado, fall to very mortal levels of production. I don't know how much the rib cage injury caused this performance; he's been hitting better in August. But if your plan for winning is to surround your superstar with a group of okay players, the superstar needs to produce.

On top of that, the pitching has been just awful since the break. In 205 innings, the Blue Jays have struck out 133 while walking 84. They've also allowed 33 HR. All those stats are near the bottom of the AL.

The question that must be asked on a Moneyball team is, how much of this is the manager's fault? Riccardi put this team together. Those of us who support this type of management would certainly be giving him credit if the Jays were succeeding. We need to assign Riccardi some blame for the failure as well. And what I want to know is why Moneyball GM's do such a poor job of hiring managers?

When Ricciardi hired Tosca on June 3, 2002, he lauded his new skipper's abilities as a teacher, a reputation Tosca honed in a lengthy minor-league career in which he managed 1,759 games. Ricciardi said the entire coaching staff will be under evaluation for the rest of the year and did not rule out the possibility of hiring another "teacher."

But with Ricciardi eyeing a timetable of 2006 or 2007 for the Blue Jays to be a serious contender, he may decide he can't afford to hire an unknown commodity for next season.

Why do they go for teachers like Tosca, or player's managers like Francona, or people with a presence like Art Howe? Why don't they go for someone like Earl Weaver or Whitey Herzog or Davey Johnson, who basically agree with their philosophy of running a baseball team without being obvious about it? Are these GMs afraid to share the limelight with a strong manager?

In Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov posits that a weak empire cannot have both a strong emperor and a strong general. That sort of group dynamic seems to be going on with Moneyball managers. There must be a Casey Stengel out there. Beane and his ilk are very good at finding undervalued players. Maybe they should find an undervalued manager to go with them.

Blissful Knowledge offers a look at the AL after 2/3 of a season. I love his bit on Texas.

There is no team I am rooting against more this year (except for the Red Sox, of course). I should be grateful for their generous donation of A-Rod to the Yankees along with $67 million or so. And all Yankee fans will always root for Buck Showalter, and I hope Soriano does well. But the Rangers’ success this year (which even they clearly didn’t anticipate) feeds the common confusion of correlation and causation – i.e., their success will be attributed to the A-Rod trade, facts be damned (Soriano’s production is down from the last two years, despite moving to a better hitters’ ballpark, and how has the A-Rod trade contributed to the shocking and sudden competence of the pitching staff?). That must be stopped, for the good of all that’s logical.

If Texas had not made the A-Rod deal, they'd be a better team. Rodriguez has earned 20 win shares through August 1. Soriano has earned 10. That's three games. With A-Rod, Texas would likely be leading Oakland by 1 1/2 games, rather than trailing by that margin. While this deal might be better for the future, in that it frees up a little money, I don't see any moves the Rangers made after the trade that they couldn't have made with A-Rod on the team.

Correction: Link added.

Avkash Patel's the raindrops has moved. Adjust your bookmarks!

Lots of fun today in the major leagues. Tim Wakefield gave up six HR and won! That's more HR than he had given up in any month this year, and 30% of his total for season.

Baltimore continued it's drubbing of the Texas Rangers, winning today 11-5 to extend their winning streak to 6. Melvin Mora went 3 for 5 with his 18th HR to raise his BA to .348. If Mora played in his twenties like he is in his thirties, we'd be talking Hall of Fame.

It was such a nice day in Minnesota, the Twins and A's decided to play two. :-) Not really but they went 18 innings to settle the winner. Oakland scored 3 in the top of the 18th on five singles. Dotel did his best to give it back in the bottom of the 18th, giving up a 2-run HR to Morneau before retiring the side. The win puts Oakland 1 1/2 games up in the AL West.

Finally, bad news for LA as Brad Penny leaves in the 1st inning with a bicep injury. It's not clear how bad it is yet.

Mark Mulder goes for his MLB leading 16th win of the year in Minnesota as Carlos Silva and the Twins battle in game three of their four game series. The Bay area has been the place to find winning pitchers this year as Schmidt leads the NL with 14 Ws. Silva is an extreme control pitcher, having only walked 23 batters in 104 1/3 innings, ranking him third in the AL in BB per 9 (behind Radke and Schilling).

The Indians and White Sox continue their four game series as well. The Indians have won the first two games, vaulting them into 2nd place in the AL Central and putting them only 4 1/2 games back in the wild card race. The Indians have scored the most runs in the AL this year, but they have also allowed the most. I'm surprised the Tribe has not made a move for a pitcher, since it wouldn't take that big an improvement in their ERA to put them into the wild card. They also have 13 games left with the Twins; an AL Central title is not out of the question for this team.

Finally, the ESPN HD game tonight brings us an excellent pitching matchup as Kerry Wood of the Cubs faces Noah Lowry of the Giants. Lowry has had a short MLB career, but an impressive one. In 36 MLB innings he's struck out 30 while walking only 12. He's kept the ball in the park, giving up only 2 HR. If he can maintain numbers like that for any length of time, he'll have a fine career.

Enjoy!

In the piece Baseball Tonight broadcast on Maddux, John Smoltz had a very interesting quote (I'm transcribing from Tivo):

"He's got, for the most part, one of the best minds that I've ever seen as far as memory and being able to recall things about hitters that most people have to look at film and look at notes."

Malcom Gladwell discusses this in his New Yorker article, The Physcial Genius.

What sets physical geniuses apart from other people, then, is not merely being able to do something but knowing what to do--their capacity to pick up on subtle patterns that others generally miss. This is what we mean when we say that great athletes have a "feel" for the game, or that they "see" the court or the field or the ice in a special way. Wayne Gretzky, in a 1981 game against the St. Louis Blues, stood behind the St. Louis goal, laid the puck across the blade of his stick, then bounced it off the back of the goalie in front of him and into the net. Gretzky's genius at that moment lay in seeing a scoring possibility where no one had seen one before. "People talk about skating, puck-handling, and shooting," Gretzky told an interviewer some years later, "but the whole sport is angles and caroms, forgetting the straight direction the puck is going, calculating where it will be diverted, factoring in all the interruptions." Neurosurgeons say that when the very best surgeons operate they always know where they are going, and they mean that the Charlie Wilsons of this world possess that same special feel--an ability to calculate the diversions and to factor in the interruptions when faced with a confusing mass of blood and tissue.

As a computer scientist, I'd say these people are very good at solving pattern recognition problems. They answer the question, "Where have I seen this before, and how did I solve it then?" very well. Maddux fits into this category perfectly.

Congratulations to Greg Maddux on his 300th victory! It wasn't the best game he ever pitched, but his offense came through with plenty of support as Maddux just had to go five to pick up the win. The Cubs will at least maintain their wild card lead today.

Woody Williams has a no-hitter through five innings. He's walked 1 and struck out five. He's thrown 72 pitches, but only 40 for strikes. At 14 pitches per inning, he should be able to finish the game.

Kris Benson is also pitching well, but has allowed a run on three hits through four.

U[date: Reyes broke up the no-no with a double in the 6th, and the Mets have tied the game at 1.

So far the A's-Twins pitching matchup is living up to its billing. Hudson has allowed 2 hits and no runs through three, while striking out three. Santana has seven K through four innings. He's also allowed just two hits, and one of those base runners was taken out with a caught stealing.

Update: Santana keeps mowing them down. He now has 10 K through six innings and the Twins have a 2-0 lead.

I was just over at the ESPN.com Baseball statistics page to look at the Beane Count, and noticed that their link for productive outs is in bold. I followed it to the team page, and what did I find? Their is one team in major league baseball that is heads and shoulders above the other in productive outs. Not only does this team's batters have the higest percentage of productive outs, but their pitchers have the lowest percentage of productive outs allowed! This must be the greatest team in the history of baseball! They're productive on both sides of the ball!! What powerhouse is so good at productive outs?

The Montreal Expos.

I rest my case.

Greg Maddux makes his 2nd try at 300 wins as the Cubs face the San Francisco Giants on the west coast. He'll be opposed by Brad Hennessey, who is making his first major league appearance. Talk about being thrown into the fire. He has to oppose a legend going for a huge milestone win, and the Giants need to win the game to gain in the wild card and division races. Hennessy pitched well in four starts in AAA, going 3-1 with a 2.17 ERA (I could not find K and BB numbers). Too bad Fox isn't broadcasting this game nationwide, or at least making it available on MLB extra innings. I remember when Ryan was going for 300 against the Yankees, Steinbrenner allowed ESPN to show the game in the NY area.

The best pitching matchup of the day, however is in Minnesota, where Tim Hudson faces Johann Santana. Hudson is coming off a bit of a drubbing in Boston, while Santana pitched a great game against the Twins. Oakland hits lefties very well; their OBA is 20 points higher than against righties, and their slugging percentage is 30 points higher.

Enjoy!

Correction: I misread the ESPN Probables page. Hudson is coming off the DL. His last start before that was a tough one against Anaheim. Santana's good start was against the Red Sox. I guess I should wake up before writing these. :-)

Larry Walker is now a St. Louis Cardinal.

"What I like about (the trade)," said La Russa, "and what our team likes is that it sends the message that ownership and our front office recognize we've been humping for four months and they're trying to give us every chance they can to get to the finish line and get into October.

I like teams that don't rest on their laurels. The Cardinals have taken on a good chunk of salary to hire an injury prone star for a year and a half. The Cardinals are 2nd in the NL in runs scored (behind the Rockies). They are first in the NL in runs scored on the road by a wide margin, leading me to believe they have the best offense in the NL. Why would you want to spend money on a player like Walker to improve a strength?

Take a look at how the St. Louis lineup has fared 1-9 this year. The Cardinals have most of their offense concentrated in the three people at the heart of the order; Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen. This demonstrates two things to me:

1. You don't need a lot of great players to score a lot of runs. Bunching the good ones together helps.


2. The Cardinals aren't very deep, so an injury or a slump by one of the three would hurt the team's run production.

Walker adds another .400 OBA guy to the lineup. He provides insurance against an injury to the big three. And in the playoffs, he's one more great player the opposition is going to need to shut down to win. A great player can be shut down in the post-season (Ted Williams, Dave Winfield, Barry Bonds). The odds are pretty good that you could even shutdown two such players. But the odds of shutting down four of them are low. With their team as constructed before the trade, the Cardinals very likely going to make the playoffs. This move ups the odds of the Cardinals being successful in the post-season.

Update: Redbird Nation also likes the deal.

The Astros had men on 1st and 2nd, 1 out and Oswalt up. Vargas, who is pitching because Biddle was hit in the right leg with a line drive and had to leave the game, throws four straight balls to Oswalt, who is squared to bunt. He's the pitcher! Throw the ball over the plate! Astros have the bases loaded now, and the top of the order up.

Update: Vargas redeems himself by getting Biggio to ground into a double play to end the inning. Astros lead 2-0 after 4.

In the comment to this May post, a reader wrote (emphasis added):

So, in other words, do exactly what the Brewers are doing right now? They have the number one farm system in the big leagues according to Baseball America. They actually have a winning record currently and a team with a shot at adding a good 8-10 wins to last year's total. They made some really good moves in the offseason getting Overbay, Spivey, etc. for Sexson and signing Ben Grieve. They've uncovered diamonds in the rough like Keith Ginter and Scott Podsednik. I could go on. This is a well run organization that writers such as Peter Gammons seem to be noticing and more will soon enough.

A few Brewers fans have been telling me that this organization is turning around; they've had good drafts and the players are developing. I'm willing to buy that. But Ginter and Podsednik have turned out to be more like lumps of coal than diamonds. A diamond in the rough is someone like Scott Hatteberg, who has useful skills that are ignored for other reasons, or David Ortiz who is good but let go for financial reasons. From a post about Podsednik not winning the rookie of the year honor:

Another thing that might have worked against Scott Podsednick is his age. He is an old rooke, age 27. Of the 114 Rookie of the Year honorees, only 8 have been 27 or older. Two of them were Japanese players, and one other was Jackie Robinson, who for obvious reasons didn't have a chance to earn the award when he was young. So you have an old rookie, who is having a year out of line with his minor league career, and two young sharp pitchers to choose from. I would have voted for Webb, but I understand the vote for Willis. They are up and coming stars. We've probably seen the best Podsednik has to offer, unfortunately.

Podsednik's OBA has dropped to .318 this year. Keith Ginter is down to .318 also and he's hurt. Milwaukee got lucky for a year with these two; it wasn't the sign of a smart organization seeing talent others couldn't see.

The Brewers are 7-18 over their last 25 games and have pretty much dropped out of contention. It's too bad, it was nice to see the team competing again. I'd like to believe they are doing things right in Milwaukee; the Sexson trade was a good one. They've been bad long enought that they should be ready to explode with great players coming out of their system, as the Mets did in the early 80's, the A's did in the late 80's and the Twins did a couple of years ago. But unitl I see some sign of that actually happening, I remain skeptical.

Cleveland has a shot at 2nd place this weekend as they start a four game series with the Chicago White Sox trailing by only 1 game. It's an excellent pitching matchup as Sabathia faces Buehrle. Milliliter has been knocked around lately, posting a 7.50 ERA over his last three starts, while Mark mark is the Karen Valentine-ish 2.22. Roberto Alomar makes his debut for and against his former team.

Fresh from taking 2 of 3 from the Angels, the Twins host another AL West hopeful, the Oakland A's. Mark Redman faces Brad Radke. Redman has pitched much better on the road this year, posting a 3.53 ERA away from Oakland, mostly because he walks fewer batters. That's a strange park effect.

Finally, a big wild card battle by the bay, complete with two great sluggers. Sosa battles Bonds as the Cubs face the Giants. The Cubs have a 2 game lead in the wild card and send bad-luck Matt Clement to the mound. The Giants counter with Tyler Walker, who makes his first start of the year and 2nd of his big league career. In 51 1/3 major league innings, Tyler as allowed 9 HR.

Enjoy!

Correction: It's a four game series in Chicago against the Indians, not a three game series.

Actually, not bad for anywhere. Mark Prior pitches six scoreless inning at Coors today, striking out eight while walking two. Now the Cubs need him to continue to have these kind of outings at a lower altitude.

Aaron Sele won his 7th game of the season today, and he still has a zero in the loss column, this despite a 4.60 ERA. The highest ERA for an undefeated pitcher over an entire season was 4.03 by Howie Krist, who was 10-0 for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1941, a team that won 97 games by finished 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers. Krist was a very good pitcher who went 37-9 before WWII interrupted his career.

Great pitching in the Texas-Detroit game today. The three Tigers pitchers combined to throw 66% strikes, allowing only two runs. The main problem was that four of the five hits the Tigers allowed were for extra-bases. That allowed the Texas pitchers to withstand allowing 8 singles and five walks to pick up a 2-1 win.

Talk about history repeating itself, not only do the White Sox get Carl Everett again, today they picked up Roberto Alomar again. Roberto and his .382 OBA should fit well into the White Sox two slot, where they've had a .297 OBA this year. Of course, what the White Sox really need is a power bat to replace Thomas and Ordonez, but improving a team's OBA is always a good thing.

John Olerud hits a 2-run double on his 36th birthday. He needs 13 more to reach 500 for his career.

(Picture taken from this site.)

Update: From some of the comments, it strikes me that it wasn't obvious that you have to click on the picture to find out why it's there. That said, a reader made the following comment.

I know that Selig isn't all that well liked, and some of his decisions have been pretty poor (like everything regarding the all star game), but baseball is doing better than it has in years. Old fans are returning, new fans are made, attendance is up... things seem good. Isn't some of that attributed to Selig's leadership?

Seriously, I'm curious. I've yet to have a friend give me a decent answer, perhaps you could give me one. Why is Selig so hated?

I've been asked this question before, and in this post laid out my arguments against Bud. One thing I didn't put in the positives at that time was baseball's embrace of the internet. Rather than shun the new technology as they did with radio and television, MLB has done a great job of being at the cutting edge, providing statistics, audio and video coverage of their games.

But when you boil it all down, my sense is that Selig is not the commissioner of the fans. Fay Vincent was. Fay put his job on the line to stop an unneeded work stoppage in 1990. Fay cared about the fans. Since Vicent was deposed, there's been no one in MLB who a fan can trust, no one who holds his or her interest above all else.

In the above link, I suggest that we need a new way of selecting the commissioner, with input from the players and fans. It's my belief that we need a partnership between owners and players, and one way to get that is to have the two parties split the cost of the commissioner's office and each have a say in selecting the commissioner. The fans should have a say as well. Maybe then we'll have someone who works in the best interest of baseball, rather than in the best interest of the owners.

Brian Michael has a new blog about the Phillies. Stop by and say hi.

Travis Hafner needs a triple for the cycle. He's ten days from the anniversary of his 1st cycle on 8/14/2003.

Update: Hafner didn't get the triple, but he did get his 2nd HR. They're only in the 6th, so he should get another shot at the cycle.

The Athletics are playing for a good offensive Beane Count in this Yankees series. Not quite half-way through the 2nd game, and they have 8 walks and 5 HR in the series alreay.

I was sorry to hear of the passing of Bob Murphy. I always enjoyed listening to him announce Mets games. My thoughts go out to his friends and family.

Brad Penny's performance last night is making the Dodger's trade look very good. An eight inning two hitter in which he walked just 1 and struck out 4. Eric Gagne almost blew the game, however, giving up 2 runs in the top of the ninth to make it a one-run game. Maybe he does need Mota setting him up! :-)

I'm sorry I didn't look at this sooner, but here's a copy of the Hardball Times pitching and fielding graph from 7/28. This graph belies the notion that the Sox couldn't win with their current defense. DER measures plays made and not play, including errors. Per ball put in play, the Red Sox were making about as many plays as the Yankees, Rangers and Twins, all teams at the time in a position to be in the playoffs. Given their position on the graph, I would say the Sox combined defense (pitching and fielding) were better than those other three teams.

While their defense wasn't great, maybe it wasn't the main problem. Here's another chart from the Hardball Times, through games of 7/29.

Team Pitching Stats
          RA    ERA    FIP    DER   LD%   G/F IF/Fly  K/9  BB/9  HR/9   SLG
ANA     4.57   4.29   4.36   .696  .166  1.03  .146   7.0   3.1   1.1  .416
BAL     5.43   4.98   4.54   .679  .179  1.28  .153   6.7   4.4   0.9  .407
BOS     4.89   4.12   4.00   .687  .192  1.34  .133   6.9   3.0   0.9  .406
CHW     4.83   4.56   4.83   .699  .187  1.15  .140   6.0   3.2   1.3  .437
CLE     5.40   4.93   4.65   .678  .187  1.26  .156   6.7   3.6   1.2  .445
DET     5.20   4.89   4.77   .690  .174  1.30  .165   6.3   3.5   1.2  .436
KC      5.76   5.13   4.98   .675  .182  1.15  .167   5.2   3.3   1.2  .477
MIN     4.41   4.07   4.19   .687  .176  1.16  .173   6.7   2.6   1.1  .413
NYY     4.96   4.58   4.36   .688  .176  1.13  .153   6.4   2.5   1.2  .434
OAK     4.45   4.04   4.37   .695  .178  1.39  .184   6.5   3.4   1.0  .410
SEA     5.02   4.78   4.92   .699  .169  0.94  .157   6.5   3.6   1.3  .442
TBD     4.98   4.58   5.01   .714  .169  1.07  .164   5.6   4.0   1.2  .426
TEX     5.10   4.71   4.73   .686  .174  1.23  .151   6.0   3.3   1.2  .439
TOR     4.85   4.58   4.56   .694  .176  1.32  .199   6.2   3.7   1.0  .415

League  4.99   4.59   4.59   .690  .177  1.19  .160   6.3   3.4   1.1  .429

The Red Sox pitchers give up more line drives and get fewer infield flies than any other team. Line drives tend to go for hits, and infield flys tend to go for outs. So the Red Sox staff is not making it easy on the defense, and adding Adding Doug Mientkiewiz and Orlando Cabrera isn't going to change that.

Theo knows errors by themselves don't matter. What matters is the number of plays you make vs. the plays you don't. He knows this because Bill James has known this for over 20 years, and Bill works for Theo. This is a case where the pitchers aren't helping the defense, not the other way around.

Skip Carary had the line of the night when he described the Astros' closer's performance. "Lidge is putting the Braves in the fridge." Brad Lidge struck out the side in the ninth to gain his 12th save. Miceli was unable to hold the lead for Clemens in the 8th, allowing the game to be tied at 2. There should be a rule about the pitcher who allows the game to be tied getting the win.

Here's a picture of Jack LaLanne from the 1940's. Seems he was able to build big muscles without the juice.

The Twins are up 9-0 on the Angels in the 7th. Silva has the shutout, despite allowing 10 hits over 7 innings. He's helped himself by only walking 1, but his defense has helped him more by turning 4 double plays.

Update: The Twins just turned their 5th double play of the game in the 8th.

Update: Twins win 10-nothing, Silva getting the complete game shutout. And yes, the Twins turned their 6th double play in the 9th.

I was watching the pregame chat among the Red Sox announcers tonight, and they seemed excited that Roberts, Cabrera and Damon were batting 1,2,3. They thought it was great to have all that speed at the top of the order. Of course, there's a problem with speed; you have to get on base to use it. Tonight, those three went 0 for 12 with 1 walk. Meanwhile, the Sox won the game the old fashioned way; power pitching by Schilling and power hitting by the rest of the lineup.

Schilling struck out 7 and allowed 2 earned runs as he pitched a complete game. He only needed 116 pitches, as the Devil Rays did not show much patience at the plate (they only drew 1 walk). Meanwhile, the Sox scored 4 of their five runs on a two run HR by Varitek and a two run double by Mueller. Varitek scored from first on that double; I guess he's fast for a catcher. :-)

Dean's List has an interesting article that tries to adjust ERA for the number of innings a starter pitches. I understand the point, but I don't think the number is very intuitive.

Albert Pujols hit his 30th HR of the year in the 1st inning for the Cardinals. It's his 4th straight season of 30 HR, every year he's played in the majors. With two months to go, Pujols now has 144 HR and 458 RBI over his first four seasons. He's laying down a great foundation to a Hall of Fame career.

Tricia, one on the most knowledgable baseball fans I know, writes me abou the Nomar trade:

I'm glad to hear that you think it was a bad deal too. Since he has been my favorite player for so long, I'm sure I lacked objectivity. I've started to run into a lot of disgruntled fans who were ready to trade him nothing, so it looks like they got their wish. And Theo seems to be changing his "spin" on this. He started out claiming it was about improving the defense (although the Sox still lead the known universe in unearned runs by a large margin before Nomar had even played his first game this season). Now it looks like he's citing concerns about Nomar's health and his availability to play regularly.

I really hate this organization. It's not like I've never seen a good player run out of town and then trashed in the media before, but I had hoped that this administration would handle it differently. Apparently they have learned their lessons well from their predecessors. Why couldn't they just make the trade, thank him for all he has meant to the team through the years, and wish him the best of luck. I don't see the need in trying to make the fans hate him. They think it will help people accept this unpopular trade, but what it is really doing is turning people agains the organization. I'm not too angry with Theo though, because it looks to me like the order to get rid of Nomar at all costs came from above. I don't think he even likes the trade he made.

I've been a Sox fan since before Nomar was even born, but I'm really finding this team difficult to root for right now. I hope he finds happiness, since he certainly has looked miserable lately. Go Cubbies! (I bought a hat ....)

I think these emotions are getting back to management. I just saw John Henry on the Red Sox broadcast praising Nomar. He also put this deal squarely on Theo's shoulders. Theo's biggest worry right now has to be the Cubs winning the World Series because of Nomar. If that happens, especially if it happens against the Red Sox, I would not be surprised to see Epstein joining Grady Little in the world of ex-Red Sox management.

Ichiro went five for five this afternoon to take the lead in the AL batting race. He now stands at .354 to Ivan Rodriguez's .349. Despite his great game, the Mariners lost once again as the Orioles beat them 9-7. Ponson had another poor outing, but the Baltimore bullpen came through allowing no-runs while striking out five over three innings.

In perusing the leader boards, I noticed the Yankees did not have a man in top 20 in batting average, but 3 in the top 10 in OBA.

A possible pachaderm playoff preview post-meridian. The Athletics travel to the big Apple to take on the Yankees in the Bronx. Mark Mulder takes his 14-3 record against Jon Lieber, who has won 1/2 as many and lost twice as much. Mulder has not fared well against the Yankees this year, allowing an 8.03 against the Bombers in two starts, picking up one loss along the way. The A's staff as a whole has pitched poorly vs. NY, going 1-5 with a 7.06 ERA.

Another possible post-season matchup takes place in Minnesota as the Twins host the Angels. John Lackey faces Carlos Silva, and they have identical 4.52 ERAs. In three games against the Angels, the Twins have only allowed 7 runs and 0 HR, but have scored only 7 themselves, losing two out of three. The scoring might be a little higher tonight.

Philadelphia has a chance to climb back in the wild card race as they open up a three game series in San Diego tonight. The three contest between the teams have generated some offense, with each team scoring 17 runs and the Phillies taking 2 of the 3 games so far.

Finally, Brad Penny makes his debut for the Dodgers this evening as he faces Oliver Perez of the Pirates in an excellent pitching matchup.

Enjoy!

The Red Sox have Cabrera batting third again tonight. I don't understand this at all. At least they had the good sense to bat Youkilis 2nd.

The Transaction Guy is up with the complete list of weekend moves, along with his analysis.

Cliff Lee has a rough first inning for the Indians. Wells and Phelps go over the fence back-to-back to give Toronto a 4-0 lead. Lee had a great 1st half, but has been horrible since the All-Star break. He's now given up 20 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings since the break (through 2 innings today), including six HR. He had allowed 12 HR in 107 1/3 innings before the break.

There are stories out about the Yankees looking to build a new stadium across the street from the current home of the Bronx Bombers. Interestingly, the first thing that hit me about these stories was that the Yankees were going to absorb all the construction cost, with the city of New York kicking in for infrastructure improvements. Neil deMause at Baseball Prospectus explains why.

The Yankees would foot the bill for the stadium itself, though, a remarkable turnaround from earlier plans to have the city kick in at least half of the cost. How will they do it? The explanation is buried in a tiny clause hidden deep within MLB's Basic Agreement. According to Article XXIV, Section a(5) of the 2002 collective bargaining agreement, teams must make revenue-sharing payments on all baseball revenue, but can deduct "the 'Stadium Operations Expenses' of each Club, as reported on an annual basis in the Club's FIQ [Financial Information Questionnaire]."

That's all it says. But according to baseball sources, teams have been quietly allowed to count stadium construction debt as "stadium operations expenses," thus claiming it as a deduction against revenue sharing.

A few moments with a calculator--and a copy of Andrew Zimbalist's May the Best Team Win, which lays out the details of the new revenue-sharing plan starting on page 99--reveals the impact of this clause on George Steinbrenner's stadium plans. The Yankees currently pay a marginal revenue-sharing rate of about 39% of local revenue. (Low-revenue teams, interestingly, pay an even higher marginal rate, which may help explain why teams like the Twins are seemingly so disinterested in such aspects of the business as, oh, selling tickets.) Taking a deduction for $40 million a year in stadium bond payments would thus earn the Yankees a $15.6 million-a-year write-off on their annual revenue-sharing obligations. Over time, about $300 million of the House That George Built would be paid for by the other 29 teams.

(Emphasis added.) I disagree with that last statement. George Steinbrenner would be building the stadium with his own money. The other 29 teams are currently building themselves up with Yankees money, and this would simply give them less of it. It's a brilliant move on the part of the Yankees.

Neil does notice the big positive to all this:

If you approach this as a taxpayer, it's great news. While as a fan I'm horrified at the prospect of one of only three remaining pre-war ballparks meeting the wrecker's ball just so that George Steinbrenner can build a 162-man starting rotation, as a New Yorker it's at least nice to know I wouldn't have to pay tax money for the privilege.

I'm glad the Yankees continue to violate the spirit of the CBA. They won't reign in their spending, which benefits other clubs. They find new ways to hide money, exposing problems with the CBA. And they keep winning. Maybe baseball should embrace the Yankees model, instead of trying to tone it down. After all, it's a roaring success.

Greg Maddux pitched six okay innings today, but didn't get the win. He only threw 87 pitches, but he felt he would hurt the team going out for the 7th. It's too bad. The Cubs scored four in the bottom of the 7th and ended up winning the game 6-3. His old Atlanta teammate Kent Mercker got the win. Nomar batted 2nd, and went 1 for 4 with an RBI in the 4-run 7th. He also looked good chasing popups into the outfield late in the game.

All those years of talking to Eric Chavez about process appear to have finally paid off. Chavez has a .406 OBA this year, after a double, HR and a walk today. His batting average, .272, is just a hair below his lifetme mark. But his OBA is 50 points higher. Chavez has found the sweet spot where he's still producing power and hits, but making a lot fewer outs doing so. He's made the jump from star to super star.

They didn't need the air conditioning on in the Metrodome today as Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana got batters to supply plenty of whiffs. The two combined for 23 K, with Santana getting 12 of those. Joe Nathan also got 1 as he pitched the ninth for his 30th save.

Orlando Cabrera made his first start for the Red Sox and hit a solo HR. What I don't understand is, why was Cabrera batting third? The third slot usually goes to your best hitter. Do the Red Sox really think Cabrera is the best hitter they have against lefties? Sure, Cabrera has a little power, but basically he hits like a shortstop. And getting on base has never been his strong suit. Move Manny up to third, bat Mueller and Millar and Varitek in front of Cabrera. The last two days are really making me wonder about the Red Sox management.

There any number of good pitching matchups and important playoff contests, but today's focus will be on Greg Maddux as he goes for his 300th win against the Philadelphia Phillies. In his last Historical Abstract, Bill James ranks Clemens ahead of Maddux in this generation of pitchers. And while I understand the ranking, I don't necessarily buy it. Yes, Clemens did strikeout more batters and walk very few, the exact things you want a pitcher to do well. Maddux had his strikeouts as well, but no one considered him a strikeout pitcher. And no one had better control of the strike zone than Greg Maddux. And Maddux used that control of the strike zone to take himself deep into games. From 1990 to 1999, Greg Maddux led the majors in total innings pitched by about 160. Yet with all those extra innings, he was 10th in total pitches thrown! In a decade where many pitchers were afraid to throw the ball over the plate, Maddux owned the strikezone, got hitters to chase bad pitches early, and kept his arm healthy.

The biggest thing that has changed about Maddux in the last two years is his propensity for allowing the long ball. The next HR allowed will be his 24 of the season, matching his career high from last year. From 1992 to 1996 inclusive, Maddux allowed only 44 HR. He still issues walks rarely, and his K per 9 is a smidge below his career average of 6.27.

Today he'll face Randy Wolf. Wolf deserves better than his 4-6 record. He's pitched well enough to win in at least five games this year where he ended up with a no decision. That's another thing about conserving your pitches; you're in the game long enough to get a decision.

And on top of all this, Nomar comes to town. It's a good day to be a Cubs fan.

Enjoy!