Marlins Land Their Fish, Shore Up Bullpen

After seeing their star reliever Joe Nelson jump ship and head over to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Florida Marlins countered with the signing of RHP Scott Proctor.

The Marlins and Proctor agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with an additional $250,000 in incentives.

Proctor battled elbow ailments last season, posting a 6.05 ERA in 38 2/3 innings pitched. Some have predicted these elbow issues, as he was often overworked by manager Joe Torre while in New York and later in LA.

Proctor's signing has made this fan glad he's found a new home.

Offseason 2009: Weekend Wrap Up

All's quiet on the western front, a front that's holding the General Managers meetings. It was a relatively subdued meeting, with the normal free agent filings going as expected.

The big news out of the meeting was the talk of Peavy leaving San Diego. Outside of the Manny Sweepstakes, CC's eventual bidding war, and AJ Burnett opting out of his contract, very little noise was made.

Andy Pettitte filed for free agency, as expected.

Cardinal fans shouldn't get their hopes up, as a deal to acquire Matt Holiday is all but dead.

The Padres made an odd move, for a team that's touting its fire sale and cost cutting moves, picking up Brian Giles $9 million option for next season.

The Rangers picked up Hank Blalock's option, either hoping to trade him or have him play a full season without getting injured.

And, in closing, our big shocker; according to Scott Boras, the Dodger's offer to Manny fell a bit short.

NL Gold Glove Awards Announced

Baseball officials announced the winner of the 2008 Gold Glove Awards, which are handed out to the best defensive players around the league.

Notable names on the list include Greg Maddux, who captured his 18th career Gold Glove. There were five first time award winners making the list this season, as the World Champion Phillies had two of their own bring home hardware.

P	Greg Maddux, Dodgers
C	Yadier Molina, Cardinals
1B	Adrian Gonzalez, Padres
2B	Brandon Phillips, Reds
3B	David Wright, Mets
SS	Jimmy Rollins, Phillies
OF	Nate McLouth, Pirates; Carlos Beltran, Mets; Shane Victorino, Phillies

Guillen Restrained From Fan

According to numerous news services and the associated press, Royals outfielder Jose Guillen had to be restrained by third base coach Luis Silverio while security guards removed a heckling fan.

Excerpts from Associated Press article posted on ESPN.com:

Kauffman Stadium security removed the fan, who started in on Guillen after he stopped at first base in the second inning after hitting a drive off the wall in left field.

"When I got that hit to left field, that guy started saying all kinds of stuff. 'Why didn't I make it to second?'" Guillen said. "Hey, I hit the ball hard. People who know baseball know the guy [Rangers left fielder Marlon Byrd] made a nice play. I had no chance to make it to second. I can deal with that."

When Guillen flied out to left to end the fourth, the fan's heckling apparently escalated.

"The [next] at-bat, when I hit the ball to left field, he said the magic words," Guillen said. "Something personal about my family. I don't deal well with that. That's enough right there."

"I understand who I am and the money that I'm making," Guillen said. "I understand that I'm hitting .250, and the fans are expecting a lot more than they're seeing. But the word he said, trust me, anybody would want to go there."

Baseball to Impliment Instant Replay

Once in a while, baseball fans are subject to moments that will change the game for ever. Recently, for better or worse, these fans have seen things that baseball's forefathers may have never dreamed of; Barry Bonds destroying the All-Time Home Run Record, the steroid scandal rocking the game to its core, a no hitter pitched by a cancer survivor, the list goes on.

Now, it seems, baseball fans will exhibit another change to the game; Instant Replay.

Baseball Officials have determined that human error, once considered to be a beautiful part of the game, is no longer going to be a factor in the game. Instant replay will now be used to determine "boundary home run calls".

It is with much displeasure that the staff here at 108 Red Stitches has come to accept the fact that technology has once again stuck its ugly head into America's Pastime.

We have only one comment to add, a suggestion per say. We're hoping that baseball puts more thought into the process and technology used to aid in the replays than they did when they began to install the QuesTec cameras throughout Major League Stadiums.

Trade Deadline Produces Big Name

Atlanta, Georgia
By Chris Lima
River Avenue Staff Writer


The AL Central leading Chicago White Sox acquired Reds' outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., adding a bit of offense to their lineup. It's not currently known where or how Griffey will play in this lineup, but it was a huge addition to their lineup.

The Manny Ramirez saga is officially finally over in Boston, a last minute trade involving the Dodgers and the Pirates rid Beantown of their perpetual whiner.

The Dodgers received Manny from the BoSox and send third
outfielder Brendon Moss from the Red Sox, in exchange for left fielder Jason Bay.

The Bay trade is a bonus for the Red Sox; addition by prevention. The Tampa Bay Rays were holding talks with the Pirates, attempting to move Bay into Tropicana Field. The request from the Pirates was a bit high, and Tampa Bay quickly fell out of favor.

Ramirez is reunited with former BoSox teammate, Nomar Garciaparra, and joins former rival manager Joe Torre in what looks to be an extremely

The Yankees made a significant improvement to their lineup by adding Pudge Rodriguez and shipping Farnsworth over to Detroit. They also added former Bucs Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to help solidify their outfield and rotation, respectively. baseman Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris to the Pirates. The Pirates also received RHP Craig Hansen and crowded Dodger outfield (Matt Kemp, Juan Pierre, Andre Either, and Andruw Jones).

A-Rod Allegedly Says Good By to C-Rod

According to reports from the Daily News, ESPN News services, and the Associated Press, Alex Rodriguez and wife Cynthia have allegedly split after what inside sources say, were a rocky past three months.

This news comes amid allegations that A-Rod has been a late night guest to superstar Madonna on many occasions. Here is the report, as seen on ESPN.com:

NEW YORK -- Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and his wife have split less than three months after the birth of the couple's second daughter, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

Rodriguez refused to address the topic on three occasions Tuesday, once saying "no" when asked if he had any comment.

Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner also criticized the team's lack of hitting before an 18-7 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night, suggesting "a little less outside distractions and a little more concentrating" might help the team at the plate.

The Daily News reported Wednesday night, citing an anonymous source, that Rodriguez and wife, Cynthia, have separated after having "problems" for about three months.

The couple was married in November 2002 and has two children, Natasha Alexander and Ella Alexander, who was born April 21.

Chacon Throws a GM

According to the Associated Press, " Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely by the team Wednesday for insubordination after reportedly grabbing general manager Ed Wade by the neck and throwing him to the ground."

Chacon had been upset with management after being demoted to the bullpen. According to the AP story on ESPN.com;

...this problem began when Wade saw him in the dining room before the game against Texas. Wade wanted to meet with Chacon in manager Cecil Cooper's office, the pitcher said.

"I sat down to eat and Ed Wade came to me and very sternly said, 'You need to come with me to the office,'" Chacon said. "I said, 'For what?' I said, 'I don't want to go to the office with you and Cooper.' And I said, 'You can tell me whatever you got to tell me right here.' He's like, 'Oh, you want me to tell you right here?' And I said, 'Yeah.' I'm not yelling. I'm calm."

Chacon said things went downhill from there.

"He started yelling and cussing," Chacon said of Wade, according to a story on the Chronicle's Web site. "I'm sitting there and I said to him very calmly, 'Ed, you need to stop yelling at me.' Then I stood up and said, 'You better stop yelling at me.' I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling."

Chacon said that after Wade told him he needed to "look in the mirror," it got worse.

"So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him," he said. "Words were exchanged."

Chacon said players quickly came and separated the two. He recalled outfielder Reggie Abercrombie pulling him away from Wade.

108 Red Stitches, River Avenue News Announce Partnership

Authors of baseball Blogs 108 Red Stitches and River Avenue News have reached an article sharing agreement today, allowing for the two blogs to cross promote each site, and share viewership and readers between each site.

108 Red Stitches founder, Chris Lima, is excited about the prospect of merging both sites' information and dedication to the sport, "While we understand that River Avenue News is a relatively new site, we feel that their commitment to journalism and their unbiased approach to covering the Yankees, allows for us to share articles between sites. Their goals and ideas fall in a similar place with ours, so we welcome them aboard as we try to extend the 108 Red Stitches network and grow our family".

You can read the River Avenue News site here.

Farnsworth Injures Hand; Doesn't Expect To Miss Time

From MLB.com writer, Willie Bans:

The Yankees right-handed reliever entered the game in the eighth inning and got the first two Reds hitters out, then gave up a solo home run to Ken Griffey Jr.

The next batter, Brandon Phillips, hit a grounder toward the mound, and Farnsworth tried to snatch it with his right hand. The ball deflected off his hand, and Phillips reached first base on Alex Rodriguez's throwing error.

Farnsworth was taken out of the game, and later received three stitches in the webbing between his pinky and ring fingers. He doesn't anticipate going on the disabled list, as he suffered the same injury earlier in his career. At that time, Farnsworth received four stitches, taped the fingers together and didn't miss an outing.

Let's Take the Vote Away From the Fans

So, everyone has probably heard the rumblings through the grapevine; "If the game matters so much, why are we leaving the outcome to chance?"

TRANSLATION: If we're going to be wasting our time in an All-Star game that determines who has home field advantage in the World Series, why are we letting some dweeb influence the outcome?

I agree with that statement, and I'm proposing that the fan's should not be allowed to select players for the All-Star Game.

Why should baseball's BIGGEST GAME, the game that could help determine the outcome of the World Series, be influenced by a computer dork who hates his job and sits at his desk all day, with his 20 different email accounts, voting over and over and over for some washed up short stop that shouldn't be even playing the game on a regular basis, let alone in an All-Star Game.

Yeah Omar Vizquel, I was talking about you.

There are millions of dollars riding on the outcome of this single game. If the series goes to a full seven games, obviously the team with home field advantage will generate millions of more dollars in hot dog, beer, merchandise, parking, ticket, pretzel, (and if the game was ever held in Vegas; prostitution) revenue.

You want to leave that up to the fans to decide? What kind of business model are you running on?

Why should owners and players let the fans have their one last shred of dignity? Fans are overcharged, overcrowded, overweight, and over the CDC's recommended daily limit concerning searching the internet for random useless baseball trivia.

Don't trust the fans. They'll ruin everything.

Wang Out; Yanks in Search for 19 Wins

Just when it looked like the Yankees were starting to come out of their funk, the baseball Gods send the boys in pinstripes reeling again. This time, Yankee starter Chien Ming Wang is headed to the disabled list after damaging his tendons a ligaments in his right foot.

Wang will be out for at least six weeks, while some are reporting that Wang could be shelved for the remainder of the 2008 season.

The Yanks are in need of a starter, now more than ever. After losing out on the Santana sweepstakes in the offseason, Cashman will almost certainly exhaust every option he has in a search to replace Wang.

Pickings are slim:

C.C. Sabathia: started off poorly, and will be a free agent at the end of the season. If Cleveland falls any farther out of the playoff race, they might be willing to deal their ace. Its a long shot for the Yankees, especially this early in the season. Cleveland knows that teams will be more desperate around the trading deadline, and would be more likely make to make a bonehead move.

Joe Blanton: A's pitcher is having a statistical nightmare of a season; he's 3-9 with a 4.23 era, but has a relatively low WHIP (1.36). Blanton is a tough cookie, he's thrown over 200 innings twice in the past three seasons (194 in 2006) and has started over 30 games when he's been on the roster for a full season. He might come cheaper than Sabathia, but do the Yanks really need another right hander?

Dan Giese: Yanks could promote from within the organization. Giese has done a pretty good job in long relief as Joba transitions into the starting role. Yanks would hope to catch lighting in a bottle with Giese, like they did with Joba a year ago.

What a Fine Game

Baseball is a great sport, it always has been. It's grown up with the country that adopted it; they've seen each other through thick and thin.

No, some might say, that both the country and the sport have become fat cats, arrogant brothers.

It's time for a change. Obama promises change for America, and I'm here to promise change for the game we love.

Starting with fines.

Not the typical fines for staying out late, throwing at a batter's head, or getting tossed for arguing balls and strikes. We're talking about performance based fines and compensation.

Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, your team is up by three runs. The closers comes trotting out to throw water on the fire. He takes his warm up pitches, and you notice that the ball just isn't flying out of his hand, like normal.

The first pitch he throws towards home, lands 450 feet in the upper deck, for a walk off, game winning grand slam. The closer walks off the mound, only to find a clubhouse official waiting for him with an invoice totaling $25,000.

You're closer was docked for a poor performance.

On the other side of the field, after celebrating the walk of salami, the other team's clubhouse official is signing off on a check for $50,000. He hands it to the game's hero, who'll need it.

He was docked $10,000 the night before for his four errors.

Commissioner 2010

Photographers wait impatiently , tv cameras rolling. There is a podium on a stage, microphones clutter the top of the podium. A glass of water rests next to a pile of neatly shuffled papers.

A young man approaches the podium and the light bulbs begin to flash with unstoppable ferocity.

The man at the podium has just been named baseball's next Commissioner.

He's only 25.

Ladies and gentleman of the press, thank you for coming out today. Over the next ten minutes, I will outline my goals and ideas that will change the course of baseball. Some of you will not like what I have to say, some of you will be confused at first. I'm not deterred by the prospect of being disliked by you or your colleagues, because I know deep down, I have the answers and the common sense that will change the game for the better.

As my first act as commissioner of Major League Baseball, I am removing the lifetime ban placed on Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose. Both will be eligible for their names to be placed on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. However, Mr. Jackson estate and Mr. Rose will not be allowed to profit off of their entry into the Hall, if they are so elected. Appearance fees and sales generated off Jackson/Rose Hall of Fame Materials will be donated to a charity of choice.

Second, as of tomorrow, I am removing any outstanding copyright claims held by MLB Advanced Media. It is time that our game embraces the world of viral video and Web 2.0. In efforts to reach younger audiences and audiences around the globe, we will allow for our videos to be distributed throughout the internet as long as the user does not stand to profit from the materials.

My next act, which is currently in progress, is to draft a letter to Congress, asking them to cease their decade long efforts to look into the steroid scandal that has plagued our game since the early 90's. In exchange for the diffusion of said committees, I am willing to break the American League and National League into two separate companies. This will remove the threat of Congress constantly waiving the anti-trust edict in baseball's face, and allow for the game to continue to grow.

This act will allow for the removal of inter-league play, which will then allow for the shortening of the season. 162 games is excessive, and was put in place to make the owner's richer. This move will be placed to safe guard the players, and extend their careers. As a recent study conducted by my office has concluded, by removing nineteen games from the schedule, season long injury rates will decrease by 40%.

While some may see the shortening of the season as a direct jab at the owners, we have decided to eliminate the luxury tax to compensate the owners for their potential loss in revenue. This will force teams to develop their farm systems, and force owners to put money back into their teams.

We are also developing ways to measure "Owner Reliability", or ways to track whether the owner is more interested in turning a profit, as opposed to turning out a winning team. This formula will flag owners and send "probation warnings" to owners who violate the "Owner Reliability Clause". Continued practices that violate this clause will conclude with the suspension of the owner, and a pre-selected group from the Commissioner's Office will run the team until the owner can either "repent" or be replaced.

Finally, in an effort to keep the game completely void of performance enhancing drugs, we will use the latest advances in blood testing to detect HGH, steroids, or any other banned PEDs. Players will have clauses inserted into their contracts stating that "the violation or failed drug test will result in a one year suspension from the game and a second failed test will result in a lifetime ban from the sport".

Thank you for your time. I regret to inform you that I will not be taking any questions, because as you may have noticed, I've got a lot of work to do.

Conspiracy 101- MLB Replay

What do JFK's assasination, 9/11, Area 51, and Major League Baseball all have in common?

They're all ripe with conspiracy theories.

Up until last week, MLB was not technically on that list, but we'll prove otherwise.

ESPN keeps running highlights of what they call, a "bad week for umps". Was it really a bad week for umps? Or was a message sent from the commissioner's office to umpires, issuing an edict demanding that umpires around the league deliberately blow home run calls?

How often can one find this many bonehead calls in such a short time frame? Let's examine:

Yankees-Mets Series: Carlos Delgado hits a ball down the left field line for an apparent home run. Third base ump calls the ball foul, however. Instant replay shows that the ball, did in fact, hit (and left a mark) the foul poll. Should have been a home run, instead, its a foul ball.

A-Rod Home Run: Alex Rodriguez hits a fly ball to right center in Yankee Stadium. The ball ricochets off a yellow stair case in right field, bouncing back onto the field. Umpires signal a ground rule double, but instant replay shows otherwise.

Geovany Soto: got an inside-the-park three-run homer in the fourth inning despite replays showing that it should have been an automatic home run. The ball bounced just to the right of the yellow line on the wall in left-center field.

Ben Francisco: Umpires botched another home run call Friday when Damien Beal missed a ball hit by Cleveland's Ben Francisco that cleared the fence in the sixth inning. Television replays showed that Francisco's ball was clearly a home run. Instead of being a three-run shot that got the Indians within 12-9 to the Texas Rangers, it was ruled an RBI double.

These examples are just from one week of games. It just happens to be the same week that baseball announced it will try to implement instant replay in its Arizona Fall League.

Baseball purists are quivering at the thought of implementing machines to help determine the outcome of the nation's last pure sport. The NFL, NHL, and NBA have all taken to instant replay to review potentially blown calls, but baseball need not follow their lead.

Announcing the New Sports Curse

Well, it was bound to happen some time. Sports Illustrated has it's cover curse, we have our "Can't Miss Fantasy Prospect Advice" curse. We're not saying we're big enough to actually rival SI's cover curse, we're just saying we're not listening to our advice anymore. You probably shouldn't either.

Nick Swisher: Swisher has been the cover boy for this new 108 Red Stitches curse. Drafted in our fantasy league in each of the past four seasons (after Swisher's dominating welcome to the majors), Swisher has either run into a wall, had a tough season, or was traded to a team who mis-used him by making him their lead off hitter. Currently, our favorite hard nosed ball player is batting .213 with 13 RBIs. Hard nosed is no longer considered a stat in most fantasy leagues, which lead us to dropping Swisher in favor of the young Joey Votto. Look for Votto to fail miserably within the next few weeks.

Santiago Casilla: One of our latest "touted prospects" for your fantasy team needing a quick boost, here's the update on Casilla, courtesy of Rotowire;

Casilla was placed on the 15-day DL with soreness in his right elbow.

Spin: He left Thursday's game with a right elbow injury, but there's no word yet from his medical evaluation.

Ryan Garko: Could we have screamed any louder on draft day when Garko fell quietly into our laps way late in the draft? Yes, we could, and have. Garko has looked more like a gecko at the plate than his previous self. After hitting 21 dingers last year, Garko was given the keys to first base, and has been spinning his wheels in neutral all year. Four home runs (majority coming in the past week or so) and a scorching .235 BA have left Garko owners (cough...us....cough) pounding our heads into our keyboards.

So, does three players actually qualify as a curse? No, probably not. But just to continue to earn curse points, lets just name a few players in this blog, and see what happens in the next few weeks: Santana, Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Wagner, Schneider, Church, Pedro, Alou, Perez.

Yes, I'm a Yankee fan currently watching the Subway Series. Hey, they need help.

How Not to Fix the Yankees

As is the norm on our little baseball site, our goal is to shift from the standard deviation of thinking. Every blogger, writer, announcer, fan, guru, and anchorman is voicing their opinion on how to fix the Yankees. Things that need to be changed, people that need to go into the rotation, people that need to be removed from the rotation, etc...

We're working on ways to "Not to Fix the Yankees". Here's what we'd do.

Sign Mike Mussina to a Multi-Year Deal. The Moose has been lights out this season, so it's safe to assume that he'll be dominant for another three to five years. We should ink him now, before there's a fierce bidding war in the offseason. I'd give him 4 years at $11 million per.

Move Giambi Up in the Order. There is no reason that a guy hitting .188 with seven home runs should be wasted in the four hole. Move Giambi into the three, no let him bat leadoff. His low stolen base total (1) is a great way to deceive teams into thinking Giambi isn't the next Rickey Henderson.

Move Joba into Center Field. Why waste all that built up energy for just an inning late in the ball game? You want to spark some life into the lineup? Put Joba in center. Melky could use a day off.

Trade Jeter. This team is going nowhere right now. Now's a good time to start selling the team off for parts. It worked for Billy Beane, right?

Acquire the Best Left Handed Pitcher on the Market. David Wells wants to pitch in pinstripes again? We say "We've got the contract, but we'll only sign you if you put on another 40 pounds". We can't have some skinny guy moping around the dugout.

Designate the Backup Catcher for Assignment. Who needs Moeller when you've got Joe Girardi on the bench? He's the manager, its not like he'd be doing anything different behind the plate!

That's phase one of our twelve part plan. I'll be sitting be the phone, waiting for Hank to call.

Sorting Out the Closer Mess

This week has been fairly unkind to a handful of closers around the league. Multiple meltdowns, closers questioning whether or not they can mentally perform their jobs, blown saves wrecking havoc on your fantasy stats. Lets take a minute to sort through the muck.

Jason Isringhausen had a meltdown, crying to reporters that he couldn't and shouldn't do his job anymore. Here's a snippet from an AP News Story, as seen on ESPN.com:

After blowing his fifth save Friday night -- tying Milwaukee's Eric Gagne for most in the major leagues -- in a 4-3 loss to the Brewers, the Cardinals' embattled reliever will no longer close games, manager Tony La Russa said Saturday.

"He's still prepared to pitch important innings, but for a while we'll try to keep him out of the ninth inning," La Russa said. "There's still going to be games where you can't cherry-pick his situations because if we're playing well, you need your bullpen."

That move makes perfect sense, keeping your closer out of the ninth inning. I think I read somewhere that MLB is considering awarding closers save situations if they come in during the fourth inning, with their team leading by five or more runs.

A little ways north, the Brew Crew are seeing similar results from their 10 million dollar man Eric Gagne. Here's a blurb from another AP News story run on ESPN.com:
The Brewers yanked Eric Gagne from the closer's role on Sunday after the reliever called his latest performance embarrassing and said he didn't feel he deserved to pitch the ninth anymore.

Manager Ned Yost said he read Gagne's comments and will use a closer by committee approach while Gagne takes what Yost called a "mental break."

"He's really pushing himself really, really hard and taking it really, really hard," Yost said. "We'll probably just mix and match, I'm not going to do anything crazy."

So what are the proud Fantasy League Owners of Gagne and Izzy to do? Let's take a quick peak at some options:

Guillermo Mota (Brewers): Stay as far away from this guy as you can. If you thought Gagne/Izzy's statements were falling short on confidence, take a look at what Mota had to say about his potential closer assignment:

Yost said anyone in his bullpen may be called on to close, and that he might take it batter-by-batter depending on matchup. Guillermo Mota has pitched well in the eighth inning, going 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA in 14 appearances, but asked what he did wrong when reporters approached him before the game Sunday. He said he's not planning to become the closer.

"I don't expect that, but if there's a chance, if they put me there, then I'll try to do the best I can," said Mota, who has seven career saves. "I'm used to setting up. That's my role for many years. I'm comfortable there, but I used to be in the ninth, too."

Ryan Franklin (Cardinals): Franklin is a better option to replace Izzy than Mota is to replace Gagne. Franklin is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA so far (in 19 appearances).

Other Options Around the League:

Santiago Casilla (Oakland): We've said it before, get Casilla on your team. He's currently sporting a devastating pitching line; 2-0, 22 K, 0.47 ERA, and a 0.87 WHIP. Rotowire had this to say about the rookie flame thrower:

Casilla has delivered 17.1 scoreless innings on the season, so it is time to take notice. Huston Street had pitched two days in a row and blew a save opportunity Monday. It doesn't look like Casilla will threaten to take Street's job, but he could be a good insurance policy to Street and he should be the man if Street should be traded later this season.

Rick Ankiel Nails Two Runners

ESPN Power Rankings: May 9th

ESPN.com released their weekly power rankings report; take a look at who's on top:

2008 Power Rankings: May 9
	RK	LW RANK	TEAM	REC	COMMENT
	1	2	Athletics	22-14	Frank Thomas is hitting 100 points higher (.267) than he did with Toronto, but he has yet to hit a homer for the A's.
	2	1	Diamondbacks	23-12	It's almost scary how good Justin Upton can be. After hitting .340 in April, he's off to a .429 start in May.
	3	9	Red Sox	23-14	While Clay Buchholz's ERA (4.50) doesn't look pretty, he has allowed only three home runs in 38 innings pitched.
	4	4	Cardinals	22-14	Tag up on Rick Ankiel? No way. He probably could nail a base runner from the warning track -- on the fly.
	5	10	Dodgers	19-15	Andy LaRoche is stuck in Triple-A largely due to the play of Blake DeWitt (.500 BA with a 1.462 OPS in his past six games).
	6	5	Angels	22-14	Bad Vlad? Vladimir Guerrero has one RBI since April 25, which also was the last time he homered.
	7	7	Phillies	20-16	Kyle Kendrick isn't fooling anyone this season: He has given up eight or more hits in four of his seven starts.
	8	15	Braves	18-15	Tim Hudson has allowed just one extra-base hit -- a double -- in his past two starts (16 innings pitched).
	9	3	Cubs	19-15	Carlos Marmol leads all major league relievers in strikeouts, with 28 in 21 innings.
	10	13	Mets	17-15	It's safe to say Ryan Church has been the Mets' most productive offensive player this season.
	11	16	Marlins	20-14	Scott Olsen is 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA in his past five starts, and in three of those outings, he didn't allow a single run.
	12	6	Rays	18-16	Andy Sonnanstine has allowed the most homers (five) of anyone on the Rays' staff, but he hasn't given up one in his past four starts.
	13	18	Astros	18-17	Can't get much hotter than Lance Berkman. The first baseman has 16 hits (three homers), 10 runs and eight RBIs in his past six games.
	14	21	Twins	17-16	If Carlos Gomez is going to be a legitimate leadoff threat, he has to draw more than three walks in 126 plate appearances.
	15	22	Blue Jays	17-19	Shaun Marcum (six) and Dustin McGowan (five) both have more quality starts than Roy Halladay (four).
	16	8	White Sox	16-17	The blowup doll. Ozzie Guillen's profanity-laced tirade. Gavin Floyd's near no-no. A bunch of losses. What a week it was.
	17	12	Indians	16-18	DH Travis Hafner ranks 76th in the AL in slugging (.339). He has three hits and one RBI in 15 at-bats this month.
	18	20	Yankees	18-18	Road warrior: Chien-Ming Wang has dazzled in three starts away from the Bronx this season (3-0 with a 1.64 ERA).
	19	17	Orioles	17-18	Jeremy Guthrie has given up three or fewer earned runs in six of his eight starts, but he has just one win to show for it.
	20	27	Pirates	15-19	The Pirates have three everyday players -- Xavier Nady, Ryan Doumit and Nate McLouth -- batting .324 or better.
	21	11	Brewers	16-18	Eric Gagne has allowed four home runs and blown five saves. How much longer can he hang on as closer?
	22	26	Nationals	15-20	Odalis Perez remains winless (0-3) in eight starts, despite having a very respectable 3.43 ERA.
	23	29	Rangers	16-20	The Rangers have the AL's second-worst ERA (4.80), yet they gave up only one earned run in winning three straight over Seattle.
	24	14	Tigers	15-21	The Tigers are 7-8 with Curtis Granderson and his .956 OPS in the lineup.
	25	25	Royals	15-19	Jose Guillen, who signed with K.C. for three years and $36 million, is batting .185 with three homers and slugging a feeble .339.
	26	24	Reds	14-21	Aaron Harang has to be lights-out to win, because the Reds are averaging only 2.75 runs per game in his eight starts.
	27	19	Mariners	14-22	There's no O in Seattle: The Mariners have hit .195 and scored only 14 runs in their first eight games in May.
	28	28	Rockies	14-21	It looks like RHP Greg Reynolds, the second overall pick in the 2006 draft, will make his major league debut Sunday.
	29	23	Giants	14-21	So far, Aaron Rowand has been a good investment for the Giants (.336 BA-.390 OBP-.523 SLG).
	30	30	Padres	12-23	Considered NL West contenders in the preseason, the Padres face the largest deficit (11 games) of any team in baseball.