FOX: Rosenthal: Brewers lead pack making serious run at Sabathia

The Milwaukee Brewers are serious about trading for Indians left-hander C.C. Sabathia — more serious, perhaps, than any other club. The Brewers’ offer for Sabathia includes Class AA left fielder Matt LaPorta, according to sources with two other clubs that are interested in acquiring the pitcher.

Class AA shortstop Alcides Escobar also may be in the Brewers’ proposed deal, one of the sources says.

The Brewers likely would prefer to substitute a lesser player for Escobar, or perhaps would insist upon additional talent if the Indians demanded his inclusion. But if the Brewers indeed were willing to give up both LaPorta and Escobar, the Sabathia sweepstakes might be over before they started.

“I can not imagine anyone would top that,” the first source said. The second added, “That deal should get it done.”

MIL Journal-Sentinel: Sabathia trade rumors fanned

As the Milwaukee Brewers continued to scout Sabathia in his outing for Cleveland against Chicago on Wednesday night, word came out of Brevard County, Fla., that the Indians were looking at specific Milwaukee minor-leaguers… According to a source in attendance, the Indians had scouts looking at Class A Brevard County third baseman Taylor Green, the Brewers’ minor-league player of the year in 2007.

ESPN: Stark - Rumblings & Grumblings - Deadline deals don’t match the hype

Here’s an interesting development: Clubs that have spoken with the Mariners report they’re back-burning their attempts to deal Erik Bedard, for the moment at least, because they have more pressing priorities.

And what might those priorities be? Moving the likes of Richie Sexson, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista and Adrian Beltre. That’s what. Not surprisingly, unloading Sexson heads that list—not that they’re getting anywhere.

Seattle is even expressing reluctance to deal Raul Ibanez—at this point, anyway. One club reports the Mariners would like to package Ibanez with someone like Washburn or Batista, in hopes of maximizing the return. Otherwise, they’re saying they would move their left fielder only “for a quality young outfielder” and another piece.
...
Another left-handed arm who looks as if he’ll be tough to pry loose is Pittsburgh’s Damaso Marte. The Pirates have been telling teams they project Marte to be a Type A free agent—so they would want the equivalent of a first-round pick and a sandwich pick to trade him. Our read of the market right now is this: They’re not likely to get it.
...
We heard from three different teams this week that the Reds have “zero” takers on Adam Dunn. Hard to believe Dunn wouldn’t be a fit for an AL team with a lineup deep enough that he wouldn’t have to be a middle-of-the-order presence.

Cardboard Gods: Wilker: The Coach’s Son

As Eric Enders said..."Yikes. What a haunting and creepy story.”

Baltimore Sun: O’s interested in Toronto’s Eckstein

Seeking to fill what has become the team’s most glaring deficiency, the Orioles have engaged in talks with the Toronto Blue Jays regarding shortstop David Eckstein, according to industry sources.

Eckstein, 33, is hitting .273 with one home run and 18 RBIs in 198 at-bats. However, he has become expendable on a roster that includes infielders Marco Scutaro, John McDonald and Joe Inglett, who has seen his role increase with regular second baseman Aaron Hill injured.

Because of the glut of middle infielders, the Blue Jays’ asking price for Eckstein isn’t expected to be too high. The two-time All-Star and former World Series Most Valuable Player signed a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the Blue Jays and will be a free agent at the end of the season.

MLB.com: Bartlett on DL with right knee sprain

A day after playing a significant role in the Rays’ 7-6 Wednesday night win over the Red Sox, shortstop Jason Bartlett was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right knee sprain on Thursday. To take Bartlett’s place, the Rays recalled shortstop Ben Zobrist and selected Reid Brignac from Triple-A Durham. To make room, right-hander Mitch Talbot was optioned to Durham.

Bartlett’s injury occurred when stealing third base in the Rays’ pivotal six-run seventh inning Wednesday night.
...
Bartlett is expected to be back after the All-Star break.

SportTicker: Mets place 2B Castillo on DL

Prior to Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Mets placed [Luis] Castillo on the 15-day disabled list with what they classified as a strained left hip flexor… To take his place on the roster, the Mets purchased the contract of infielder Argenis Reyes, 25, from Class AAA New Orleans.

Reyes batted .290 with 22 RBI in 79 games for the Zephyrs. He was signed by the Mets in the offseason after spending the first seven years of his professional career in the Cleveland Indians’ organization.

The Mets also recalled outfielder Chris Aquila from New Orleans and optioned righthander Carlos Muniz to the Zephyrs.

MLB.com: Brewers stunned in ninth by D-backs

I thought there was a good chance they’d lose the Webb-started finale, but not like THIS…

The D-backs rallied for all six of their runs in the bottom of the ninth inning without recording an out to stun the Brewers, 6-5, at Chase Field on Thursday.
...
Mitch Stetter and Eric Gagne each worked a scoreless inning in relief of [Manny] Parra, but the rest of Milwaukee’s relief corps was not as effective. Reliever Guillermo Mota surrendered a pair of infield hits and a walk before exiting in favor of left-hander Brian Shouse, who surrendered a bases-clearing, three-run double to pinch-hitter Chad Tracy.

That prompted a call for Brewers closer Salomon Torres, who was 13-for-13 in save opportunities since Gagne went on the disabled list in mid-May. He surrendered three straight hits; a single to Justin Upton that made it 5-4, a double to Orlando Hudson that left runners at second and third and a single up the middle to Connor Jackson that drove home the tying and winning runs.

Ken Herman: Hustle doo!  Korean baseball’s an audience participation sport

Former major leaguer Karim Garcia, a first-year player here and the leading vote-getter in fan balloting for the Korean all-star game, is hailed by Giant fans with a song that repeats Gar-ci-a over and over again.

Also in the Giants’ dugout is former major leaguer Jerry Royster, who, as the Giants’ skipper, is the first American to manage a Korean team.

‘’I’m having a blast,’’ Royster said. ``I’m having an absolute blast.’’

Royster loves the enthusiasm and respect in the stands but is trying to get his team to play more aggressively, which is somewhat out of character in Korea.

‘The approach that the players have here is quite different than what we are used to in the United States. It’s not very aggressive baseball and they are very respectful of each other. That comes into play quite a bit on double plays. They don’t break up double plays. And when guys get hit (by a pitch) there is somewhat of an `I’m sorry’ kind of attitude for hitting you,’’ he said.

I think Ken Herman is a political writer, writing here mostly from a marketing perspective, but this is a pretty entertaining article.

Here is a related article that’s entirely about Royster.

The Korean league, now with eight teams playing 126-game schedules from March through August, was formed in 1982, long after baseball was brought to the nation by U.S. missionaries in the early 20th century. In 1994, pitcher Chan Ho Park became the first Korean to play in the U.S. major leagues.

On the field, the play is solid and entertaining, but nowhere near as intriguing as what goes on in the stands.

It’s four hours of wonderment for Tennyson, his sister Erica and her two American friends, who, like her, teach English here.

‘’I’m a big fan of the cheerleaders and the guy who actually leads cheers,’’ Tennyson said. ``That’s a great job. We need that back home.’’

‘’They all know every song, every dance move,’’ Erica Tennyson said as fans around her sang and danced.

Could this work back home?

‘’It would be amazing,’’ said Andrea Mullen, a Greenville, S.C. native. ``I would go to more games if this happened.’’

BPro: Seidman: Max Scherzer talks about his own numbers-crunching.

20 Minutes into the Sabermetric Future...with Max.

MS: Last year my brother came across the whole BABIP theory and explained it to me, but I was initially very skeptical because I just could not imagine all pitchers were essentially the same. As my season went on, I kept an eye on it, and he was right—pitchers really do not have control over the balls put in play, [that’s on] the defense and luck. I’m very numbers-oriented myself, so I kept digging into this wealth of information. Sure enough, the K/BB and HR/9 were really the driving numbers behind the success of pitching. It really made sense to me, but the pitcher inside couldn’t comprehend that, of everything involved, just three outcomes can determine one’s success.

ES: So part of you embraces the BABIP and three outcomes of controllable skill, but the other part struggles to comprehend it. How do you deal with that?

MS: Well, I’ve been challenging Alex over and over on different scenarios to see how they affect the three outcomes, and it never seems to fail. By digging deeper and deeper into the numbers, it really has allowed me to take away the fear of failure.

ES: How so?

MS: I’m going to have success, and I will have failure. So when failure comes, it really has allowed me to brush it off and say it was meant to happen, and the next 10 batters will never do that. Basically, it has allowed me to be even more aggressive and work ahead better.

Yahoo: Pasan: Inoa becomes a sign of the times

Meet Jeff Pasan…
...his boy Inoa

Oakland – low-revenue Oakland, immortalized in the book “Moneyball,” about winning with a scrimp-and-save payroll – signed a 16-year-old named Michel Inoa on Wednesday. Along with his $4.25 million bonus, Inoa got an Anglicized name, Michael, and a ticket to the Dominican Summer League, where he can add weight to his lithe 6-foot-7 frame, throw his 94-mph fastball, unleash his polished breaking ball and work on his changeup.....

The meeting convinced Oakland to shatter signing-bonus records for a Latino amateur not from Cuba. It’s been nearly a decade since the Yankees gave outfielder Wily Mo Peña a $2.44 million bonus and seven years since the Dodgers gave infielder Joel Guzman $2.25 million. The top bonuses each year since have vacillated between $1 million and $2 million.

SNY: Salfino: Small-market Rays are outclassing Yankees, Red Sox

A beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire states of New York and Massachusetts!

Not many expected that the Fourth of July series that begins today in the Bronx would pit New York and Boston in a Wild Card scrum. But that’s where we stand because there’s little doubt the Rays are for real.

Yes, their run differential of 59 should give them 48 wins, or four fewer than they have. But no one on their team is hitting above expectations except for Eric Hinske and maybe Evan Longoria, a rookie with a 135 OPS+ (which means he’s about 35 percent better than an average hitter). Longoria, though, was viewed as one of the top hitting prospects in baseball, so there’s a chance he’s just a quick study and will hit even better.

Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena are all good bets to produce much better in the second half. Even if they don’t, the Rays are likely to play at that .570 rate their net-runs total suggests, and that would give them 96 wins, which should win the East given the questionable health of David Ortiz and myriad of injury problems for the Yankees.

Their pitching, which everyone should have seen as being very good heading into the season, is the reason the Rays’ middling offense has been good enough. Remember, Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza, so skillfully acquired for badly overhyped problem child Delmon Young (who hasn’t yet hit and maybe never will), missed seven starts so far due to injury. They’re both healthy now.

ESPN.com: Olney: Brandon Webb is busy resting

Webb is as laid-back as a seventh-inning stretch in spring training. Failure, which is inevitable in baseball, does not threaten his confidence. His drive home from Chase Field takes about 25 minutes, and by the time he turns off his car, Webb has managed to put the game in his rear-view mirror—even after a loss. “There’s nothing you can do after a start to change the outcome of what you did,” he says. “So why sit there and sulk and pity yourself for five days? Forget about it, then just go work in the bullpen on what you need to work on.”

Roy Halladay, with his bat-breaking sinker, is similar to Webb in stuff and style, but the Blue Jays ace pores over videotape of opposing hitters, dissecting their swings. Webb rarely watches video, and he doesn’t study scouting reports. His preparation is in the maintenance of his pitches.

When Haren takes the mound tonight, Webb plants himself on a bench at the front of the dugout, next to lefthander Doug Davis, and they watch a ball game. It’s great work if you can get it.

Here’s a long article by the blogosphere darling Buster Olney, who spent a week hanging around the Dbacks’ clubhouse.

Webb is almost always happy to allow others to do the heavy mental lifting. One time this season, when Snyder called for a fastball, Webb stuck with his instincts and struck out the hitter on a changeup. Snyder was waiting in the dugout. “That makes hitters now 5-for-6 when you shake me off,” the catcher said. Mostly, if you see Webb shake off a sign, it’s because Snyder is telling him to shake it off to confuse the batter. Snyder is a natural-born extrovert; when asked how great it is to catch Webb, he responds, “You should ask him how great it is that he can throw to me.”

Surviving Grady: “Open Letter to the Tampa Bay Rays” or “The Thing About Karma”

Okay, you swept us. And while I do question a few moves made by the Glorious Teets—such as not pinch hitting Casey for Tek in the ninth last night, when it is painfully apparent to all that the Captain has become the Craptain in any situation that requires him holding a bat—I’m man enough to say that you guys came out of this series looking spry and hungry. We just look like a team that desperately needs a steak and a triple shot of Papi.

But instead of just taking the high road, letting your performance on the field speak for itself and figuring a sweep of the defending World Champs would be message enough to send to the rest of the world at large, you had to go and do it.

You played “Sweet Caroline” after the final out of last night’s game.

That’s a play right out of Smug Upstart Wannabes 101--the mark of a team that’s so confused by its own success, it feels it has to take these opportunities to step on the 600 pound gorilla’s nuts when he’s down, because it’s not sure it’ll ever have another chance to do so. It was sophomoric--instantly recalling the “1918” chant that was popular ‘round Tampa Bay before our 2004 heroics--and frighteningly lame. But it doesn’t surprise me.

Gotham Baseball: Healey: A Vast Wasteland

Bernazardoz: Beyond 2008, Beyond 2010, Beyond Love, Beyond Death...I have seen the future and it doesn’t work!

But, because of “their vast wasteland of a farm system”, the acquisition of a player like Xavier Nady is “totally unlikely”, one NL scout told Gotham’s Rumor Mill.

“Fernando Martinez is a special player, but he hasn’t been healthy (for the last two seasons) and is really young still.  If you’re going to deal a player like that for an All-Star, he’d better be a max-value player.  Fernando isn’t quite there.  Jon Niese and Mike Carp are having solid minor league careers, but you’d have to put them in a package together (or even with another prospect) to get Nady, and I don’t think the Mets really want to do that.

“Plus, a lot of us are enjoying the fact that they’re having such a inconsistent year.  There’s a great deal of arrogance in that organization right now.”

I pressed this scout for a explanation, saying that Minaya doesn’t have that reputation around the league.

“You’re right, he doesn’t.  It’s the other guy (Tony Bernazard).  According to him, the Mets have a deep farm system with all kinds of talent that (we) don’t have the vision to see.  I disagree.

“Let’s just say that there are players out there that like him a lot.  Nobody else does.”

Courant: Plaque To Be Unveiled July 26 At Historic Hartford Field

Can’t be too bad in Hartford… They haven’t had the blues for more than 130 years.

A plaque to commemorate the site of one of the original eight National League baseball fields on the grounds of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford is scheduled to be unveiled July 26 at noon.

...That land and a section of Grand Avenue Park in St. Louis, home of the Brown Stockings, are the only two of the original eight major league fields that have not been built upon.

As far as I can tell, neither of the local Vintage Base Ball teams (the 1886-era Hartford Senators, and the 1861-era Hartford Dark Blues) have a game scheduled there that day. Otherwise I’d suggest a Hartford-area meetup.

The Good Phight: Homefield Advantage

It appears as though homefield advantage is not a persistent thing—the Phillies have not squandered homefield advantage and the Rays have not capitalized on it for any specific reason and there is no reason to expect that the Phillies will have a weaker homefield advantage next year than the Rays.

So what does cause homefield advantage and can teams learn to exploit it—or keep other teams from exploiting their own?  For one thing, the correlation in between winning percentage and homefield advantage is strongly negative, -.190, and significant at the 97confidence level!  That means that there is only a 3% chance of getting a value so far away from 0 by random chance.  In other words, homefield advantage probably entails a disability on the road more than an advantage at home.

Brockton Rox offering fans their own Yankee Stadium wrecking ball

Meet me at the wrecking ball
Wrecking ball
Wear something pretty and pinstripe

Baseball fans have only a precious few remaining opportunities to visit one of America’s most historic ballparks before it is destroyed, as the New York Yankees are playing out the final season in the history of their 85-year-old ballpark.

With this in mind, the Brockton Rox have created a memento that they believe will entertain an especially fond reception by baseball fans in and around Boston. On Saturday, August 2 at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, the first 1,000 fans through the gates will receive a Bobble Wrecking Ball, comprised of a replica of the old stadium in New York with a wrecking ball swinging above it.

“We have tremendously passionate baseball fans in this area, and they appreciate the history of the game,” said Rox GM Brian Voelkel. “They also have very clearly placed allegiances, and we are excited to create an original piece of memorabilia that embodies both of those ideas.”

Thanks to the legendary Art Martone.

Uni Watch: Lukas: In the interest of equal time, we head to the South Side

Which reminds me...Doesn’t Nyls Nyman have a piece of Stromboli’s Circus on Carnaby Street? If not. He should.

So in the interest of equal time, here’s a top-10 breakdown of great (or at least noteworthy) moments in White Sox uniform history, along with Uni Watch’s assessment of which ones might’ve been better off staying on the drawing board.

1. Who Wears Short Shorts?

When people talk about the bizarre uniforms of the 1970s, Chicago’s shorts are usually cited as Exhibit A. Broadcasters love to name-check them, saying things like, “Yeah, remember when the White Sox spent a few seasons wearing those shorts?” Actually, the shorts were worn for only three games in 1976, but they’ve nonetheless assumed legendary stature over the years.

Uniqueness Factor: The Sox are the only MLB team to have exposed their knees. They weren’t the first pro team to do so, however: Back in 1950, the minor league Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League wore pinstriped shorts paired with non-striped jerseys (additional view here, and there’s a personal recollection from one of the Hollywood players here).

Official Scoring: Ridiculous? Sure. But hey, sometimes you have to dare to be ridiculous. Uni Watch wouldn’t want to see a team dress like this for a full season, but three games was just about right. Wouldn’t baseball history be much duller without this little episode? Hit.

Thanks to Alex Perros

N.Y. Observer: Megdal: The Mysterious Case of Oliver Perez

Good thing Fat Jack Hamilton Berger ain’t on the case...and Howard Megdal is!

Perez has been mystifying for nearly five seasons now. In 2004, then with the Pirates, he posted an ERA+ of 145—the 142nd-best mark of any starting pitcher since 1980. But he did so at age 22—only three pitchers beat that mark at a younger age: Mark Prior, whose brilliant career has been derailed by injuries, Dwight Gooden, who lost his career to arm injuries and personal problems, and Bret Saberhagen, who went on to post a better-than-average ERA+ in 11 of his next 12 seasons. Even Prior and Gooden together posted another 11 such seasons.

But Perez followed his 2004 with a 5.85 ERA in 2005, good for an ERA+ of just 72. In 2006, he got even worse, putting up a 6.55 ERA for an ERA+ of 67. A pitcher who had electrified at age 22 got dealt to the Mets by age 24—and as a throw-in. It didn’t help that the Pirates tried to remake Perez’s motion completely—though they lacked any success in doing so with pitchers, they tried it with their finest prospect. The results were predictable.

Sabermetric Research: Birnbaum: Clutch hitting: a new study from Pete Palmer and Dick Cramer

Or as first-sacker turned Allison Steele wannabe, Adrienne Barbeauchamp, once said..."There’s something missing in the fog!”

Of the many excellent presentations at last weekend’s SABR convention in Cleveland, one of my favorites was the study by Pete Palmer and Dick Cramer, on clutch hitting. I have to admit that the subject has been done to death (notably by Palmer and Cramer themselves). And there are probably a lot of people like Chris Jaffe, who is “sooooooo very tired of clutch hitting studies.”

So this study could be accused of beating a dead horse – other studies, I think, have already convincingly shown that clutch talent doesn’t exist – but, on the other hand, on a controversial issue like clutch, you can never have too much evidence.

More important, the highly-regarded “The Book” (along with a previous study by author Andy Dolphin) does believe there is some evidence for clutch. So the debate isn’t completely settled.

That’s why I think this study does add valuable evidence to the pile.

USA Today: All-Star nod affirms Hamilton’s climb from addiction depths

And marvel at the super-powers of Mr. Sensitive, Milton Bradley (sans rubbery antennae sticking out of his head, of course).

Texas Rangers outfielder Milton Bradley can’t hide the fact it will be an emotional experience if he’s elected to the American League All-Star Game on Sunday.

“I’m sorry,’’ he says, “but I don’t want people to see my soft side. I’m sensitive. I’m emotional. I know if I make it, I’m probably going to start crying.’’

“I want to show people the real me, not what they hear on TV or read in the papers,’’ Bradley says. “I’m not the nicest guy in the world. Not the most open guy. But I’m a whole lot different than the perception of me.’’

..."You try to be a Teflon-Don,’’ says Bradley, “but after so long with people keep chipping away at you, that armor cracks. I’m supposed to be accountable for my actions. The press should be accountable, too.’’

Cowlishaw: It’s time for NL to adopt the DH (RR)

Must crawl through wreckage and find Tony’s reali-cool point button to bump up Cowlishaw.

Small ball made sense when NL teams played in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, Houston’s cavernous Astrodome, San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Those have all been replaced by parks that favor hitters and home runs. There’s no reason for NL teams to play a game no longer suited to their surroundings.

The AL and NL don’t have separate offices anymore. They don’t have separate umpiring crews with their own rules anymore. And interleague play means they no longer maintain separate schedules.

The NL needs to quit embarrassing itself. The league nearly adopted the DH rule in 1970s when the AL did. It lost by a 6-4 vote when Phillies owner Ruly Carpenter could not be located (he was fishing) and Pirates owner John Galbraith had instructed his representatives to vote the way the Phillies did.

It’s time to retire that “Gone Fishin’ “ sign and join the 21st century.

Seattle pi: M’s Cairo seeing double

AA, I trust...and take talent evaluator delaxe, Jim Riggleman with you.

Maybe Jim Riggleman had a hunch.

Maybe the Mariners manager is just lucky.

Either way, he pushed a button Wednesday night that paid huge dividends.

Miguel Cairo, getting a one-game start at second base with Jose Lopez getting the night off, hit a pair of huge doubles in consecutive at-bats in the third and fifth innings to carry the Mariners to their fifth win in six games, 4-2 over Toronto.

..."I saw him for a bit in Chicago (in 1997) when I was there,” Riggleman said of Cairo. “He’s become a much better player now. How old is he? Thiry-four? He’s got a lot of baseball left to play.”

Dino Rossi campaign apologizes for sending e-mails to AquaSox fan list

The dirty tricks of Robert Walden continue!...Walden was Rossi became Segretti and now back to Rossi?

Republican Dino Rossi’s campaign apologized Wednesday to Everett AquaSox fans for using the club’s private e-mail list to solicit them for an upcoming fundraiser at the ball park.

Rossi, one of seven minority owners of the Seattle Mariners Class A affiliate, did not know the addresses of 5,500 names had been obtained for use in drumming up attendance for the Monday event, campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait said.

AquaSox General Manager Brian Sloan provided the information at the request of Everett businessman Tom Hoban, chairman of Rossi’s fundraising committee in Snohomish County and also a minority owner.

“The campaign believed that since we had received the list from AquaSox management, we had permission to send an e-mail about the upcoming event,” Strait said in a prepared statement.

“We were wrong. It is our fault for not double checking,” she said. “We apologize to AquaSox fans who received this e-mail.”

No agreement between White Sox, announcer Darrin Jackson

Using their annoying built-in programmable illogical controller, Nehrube and Jackson unisonic out...“YESSSSS!!!”

The Sox hold an option on Jackson, and they don’t plan to let him know their intentions until late in the season or after the season, when they’re obliged to do so contractually.

“Common sense lets you know that obviously if they want you back, they would have already picked your option up,” Jackson said Tuesday in the Sox’s dugout at U.S. Cellular Field. “And if they wanted you back for a long time, they would have given you a long-term contract. But that doesn’t mean none of that’s going to happen. It still could.”

Sure, it could. But there’s a reason the Sox are biding their time, and two industry sources with knowledge of the situation say it’s an obvious one: Steve Stone.

If Stone doesn’t join a Cubs ownership group, the Sox would strongly consider moving him from their radio booth to TV to pair him with Hawk Harrelson. That could open a radio position for Jackson alongside Ed Farmer.

Bloomberg: Houston General Manager, Decked by Pitcher, Now Slammed by Fans

Even Lisa Gray gets klumped in with the rest of ‘em!

Wade was right to step in at that point, said Steve Phillips, a baseball analyst with ESPN and a former New York Mets general manager. ``When there’s continuous insubordination from the player to the manager and pitching coach, at some point the general manager needs to get involved,’’ Phillips said.

Fans are weighing in to object to how Wade did it, though. ``Actually, I think Wade, as a senior executive, has no business screaming at and cursing ANY of his employees, whether in private or public,’’ said Lisa Gray, who contributes to an independent blog called The Astros Dugout.

Joshua Raisen, a Miami-area resident who has a Web site called Astroland, said he thinks the Chacon-Wade incident raises questions about the operation of the whole organization.

``What kind of environment has to be existing where things can even get to that point?’’ Raisen said.

In Search of the Perfect Arm Action

Asking if the elbow should pick up the ball or the ball should pick up the elbow or if there is any one right way to do it.  Part 2 of this series on pitching mechanics and arm action…

...Clemens and Maddux don’t let the “elbow pick up the ball” as much as somebody like Nolan Ryan, but they do not maintain an arm action that lets the ball pick up the elbow nor do they resemeble Manship’s arm action.

The important thing to point out is that arm actions come in many forms and not any one arm action is correct. However, you’ll notice all the arm actions displayed in this article are different than Manship’s arm action.

(Pedro) Martínez Fails in Early Going, and Bullpen Flounders Late

That estimation put Martínez into the bottom of the first inning, when the Cardinals were smacking him around for four runs. But by the end of a long and exhausting evening, which featured inspired comebacks by both teams, Martínez had become a footnote. The Mets lost a two-run lead in the eighth inning, then lost the game with two outs in the ninth, when Troy Glaus homered off Carlos Muniz to lift the Cardinals to a 8-7 victory at Busch Stadium.

With the Mets leading by two runs heading into the bottom of the eighth, Aaron Heilman stayed in to pitch. It would have otherwise been time for Duaner Sánchez, but Sánchez said that his left knee, which was struck by a batted ball Tuesday night, felt sore and that he was unable to pitch.

Is Pedro Martinez done? The velocity is there but he continues to get pounded. This might be the end of the line for him. His next start is scheduled to be against Philly and things could get ugly.

MLB.com: D-backs fall after Lyons falters in ninth

The D’backs are now the proud leaders of the NL West at 42-43.
(but they do have Webb starting tomorrow, so they may return to the land of .500 tomorrow)

Mike Cameron’s ninth-inning single scored Russell Branyan with what proved to be the winning run as the Brewers beat the D-backs, 4-3, on Wednesday night in front of 22,324 at Chase Field.

Branyan reached to lead off the inning on an error by Mark Reynolds, who was playing in his first Major League game at first base. After being sacrificed to second, Branyan scored when Cameron squared up a curve from closer Brandon Lyon (2-3).

NBC: Robinson: GIANTS BETTER OFF WITHOUT BONDS

Ted Robinson: Menace anyone?

It struck me while recently watching the Giants in person in San Francisco. Left field