EVIL~! alkeiper

This is awful so far.

Frank Robinson gets much more credit than he deserves. 15 years and he has never managed a club to the postseason. Good news for Philly fans. Cole Hamels pitched six scoreless, giving up three hits and striking out seven.

Real interesting single A pitching matchup tonight in the Florida State League. A.J. Burnett makes a rehab start for Dunedin and opposes Cole Hamels and the Clearwater Threshers.

It's tough getting swept, but the Cards seem like an absolute juggernaught at times. Albert Pujols is the best damned hitter I may have ever seen. I think they can get by with their corner outfield. Encarnacion isn't a great player, but he certainly isn't bad. If they can find a real second baseman or left fielder they'll win 100 games.

The bizzare thing is that Rodriguez routinely performs in the clutch. He singlehandedly beat the Twins in the 2004 ALDS. In game four of the ALCS that year, Rodriguez's two run home run was the reason Mariano Rivera had a damn save to blow in the first place. Rodriguez has a higher postseason on base percentage and slugging percentage than Derek Jeter. Situations? A-Rod in his career is a .302 hitter with the bases empty and a .304 hitter with runners in scoring position. I know most people won't care about that, so let me just point out this tidbit. David Ortiz's MVP supporters cited the fact that 20 of Ortiz's home runs last year either tied the game or put his team in the lead. A-Rod had 19 such home runs last season.

Personally, I'd say "Enter Sandman" is more fitting for a redneck Virginian than a Panamanian, but that's just me. It's a stupid thing to get worked up over.

I don't know how much this means. Of the seven players who had longer streaks, five (Dimaggio, Keeler, Molitor, Sisler, Cobb) are in the Hall of Fame. The sixth is Pete Rose, a HOF caliber player on the field. The seventh, Bill Dahlen, is a borderline candidate who has no real shot as a 19th century player.

Rollins extended his hitting streak to 38 games with a leadoff double. Even if the streak ends tomorrow, it's historic. Only seven other players have collected longer streaks. More players have pitched perfect games, won 300 games, or hit 500 home runs than have done what Rollins has accomplished.

I think most Philly fans are reasonable about the Thome trade. If Thome outproduces Howard you might see some whining, but that happens with any trade. There isn't any backlash visable from where I sit.

Are they? Even if Thome has a great season it was a good trade. Ryan Howard's a good player in his own right and there's a difference between DH'ing and playing first base. Like Mike said, he battled injuries. Plus, he could only DH most of the time and a DH who hits 20 home runs with a .339 OBP is decent, not spectacular. I don't anyone anticipated that he's blow up like he did after that season.

Duke wasn't the highest profile prospect, but he posted a 20-5 combined record in AAA and the Majors last season. He was legit.

This has gone far enough.

He can't possibly do worse than Jon Lieber. And on a similar note, when the hell did Aaron Miles learn how to hit? He had 17 extra base hits all of last season and he hit three yesterday.

I think it's a terrific move, value wise. Tejeda walked 3.8 batters per nine career in the minors. He walked 51 in 85.7 big league innings. His 2005 season has fluke written all over it. Delucci provides a needed fifth outfielder and prevents stupid ideas such as Alex Gonzalez: LF. The move also unites Jake Blalock in Texas with his brother Hank. Blalock's shown little indication of being any kind of real prospect.

Clint Hurdle should be the first to go. That the Colorado Rockies were second in baseball in sacrifice attempts last year was inexplicable. Small ball might work some places, but Coors Field is not one of them.

I think the writer made some valid points. The tournament is in large part a crapshoot. Rationally, why should the 65th best team in the country have a shot at the national championship? The current teams do not diminish my interest, but some times there are going to be some unsatisfying consequences with the format.

I don't buy it. Anderson had one single year where he hit 50 home runs. It seems incredible to me that someone would take steroids, hit an enormous number of home runs, and then stop. Why wouldn't he have kept taking them? I think it's more likely that Anderson's season was one of those once in a decade flukes. Davey Johnson once hit 43 home runs and never hit more than 18 in a season. Heck, Roger Maris' 61 was a full twenty-two home runs more than he hit in any other season. Steroids are quite suspicious when it comes to late career performance spikes. But I don't think they are an easy explanation for single season fluke performances.

And your qualifications in making this determination are?

That could be a bad deal by the end of the contract. There's a fine line between being David Ortiz and being Mo Vaughn.

Mets/Cardinals playing currently on ESPN. Pedro Martinez is on the mound.

Most teams have a few off days in the first few weeks so they carry a four man rotation and carry an extra player off the bench. Olsen would get called up when the team needs a fifth starter.

1. Called up Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano from AAA Rochester. 2. Traded two pitchers for 2B Luis Castillo. Second base was a black hole for the club, with Luis Rivas and Nick Punto not producing. 3. Signed Rondell White. The pitching is there, it's just a question of the offense. Jason Kubel could provide production, and Justin Morneau will almost certainly have a better season.

The accident shortened his career no doubt. The funny thing is it took a year to show up in his stats. A sort of delayed reaction drop. Kendall's numbers in 1998 are almost exactly the same in 2000. Kendall had the worst isolated power in baseball last year, even worse than Willy Taveras. You can get away with that when you steal 50 bases, but not when you ground into 27 double plays. Kendall's comps aren't helpful. Of the ten most similar players, only four are catchers. Two suffered drastic career ending injuries (in Thurman Munson's case, quite drastic), and one was a left handed catcher from the 19th Century. As for the Pirates, Kendall is their franchise catcher. He leads the team in games played at that position. He also happens to be the franchise leader in hit by pitches.

Wellemeyer's entire resume consisted of a good season at the age of 24 in the pitcher friendly Florida State League. I'm surprised the Marlins made this deal because there's little to suggest Wellemeyer will be a capable pitcher in the majors. For the Cubs this is just a tidy way to clear a spot on the 40 man roster.

The Nationals' effort to finish below the Florida Marlins continues. Yesterday they demoted Ryan Church. What's truly maddening is that Church is the best outfielder on the entire team. He's better than Soriano, Brandon Watson, Marlon Byrd, Daryle Ward, and possibly Jose Guillen. Brandon Watson is now the starting center fielder. Watson boasts a minor league resume featuring six home runs in 732 games. This team has now taken the league's worst offense from last year and dumped two of their only productive players (Church and Brad Wilkerson). I can appreciate the effort to add speed, but it doesn't help when you don't carry any hitters.