Week in Review – September 20 to September 26

Apologies as the post will be written with numbers through Saturday at 3:00 PM PST due to a scheduling conflict for myself this weekend.

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If the Playoffs Started Today

New York Yankees (92-62) vs. Minnesota Twins (89-60)
Texas Rangers (85-68) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (92-61)

Atlanta Braves (87-68) vs. San Francisco Giants (87-67)
Cincinnati Reds (86-68) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (93-61)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .361
Runs – Albert Pujols (STL) 111
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 52
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 122
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 60

Wins –  C.C. Sabathia (NYY), Roy Halladay (PHI), Adam Wainwright (STL) 20
Saves – Brian Wilson (SF) 45
ERA – Josh Johnson (FLA) 2.30
Strikeouts – Felix Hernandez 227
WHIP – Cliff Lee (TEX) 1.02

Roster Movement

Return from the Disabled List:  Kanekoa Texeira, Ian Stewart

To the Disabled List: Hector Ambriz,

Called Up: Andrew Brackman, Andrew Romine, Greg Halman, Mike Carp, Brandon Beachy

Other Roster Moves:

• The Cardinals released IF Felipe Lopez
• The Red Sox signed IF Felipe Lopez
• The Astros claimed Cesar Carillo off of waivers from the Padres.

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• Joe Torre got himself into a bit of trouble while in New York on Monday. He commented that he might be interested in the Mets job. Unfortunately, the person who currently holds this job, Jerry Manuel, did not particularly appreciate that, and Torre apologized on Tuesday.
• Torre had been in New York this week for the unveiling of the monument to George Steinbrenner on Monday night at the Yankees game.
• Ozzie Guillen made some headlines because he made a statement some interpreted to be a request for a contract extension. Guillen then came out and said “No, that’s not what I meant” and essentially just wants to know where he stands going forward. Gotta love how the media works sometimes.
• Ichiro Suzuki set a record this week when he collected his 200th hit of the season. He now has at least 200 hits in each of his first 10 seasons of his career, and is the first player in the history of the game to have 10 consecutive seasons of 200+ hits ever. He’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame, and he’s going to get to 3000 hits in the US in all likelihood as well. What a player.
• The Diamondbacks hired their permanent general manager this week, tapping former Padres’ GM Kevin Towers to run their organization. Honestly, the moves that interim GM Jerry DiPoto made seemed to be just to make a move and show that he could. Time will tell whether or not the trades he made will work out, but I wasn’t that impressed with the moves.
• Friend of JBB Kristi Dosh of It’s a Swing and a Miss wrote this week in response to an article stating that “Baseball is Broken.” I agree with the entirety of the points Kristi made here, and the idea that baseball needs major fixing is, to me, ridiculous.
• Arne over at Misc. Baseball wrote about the last game of the Montreal Expos, and I have to imagine that being at that game was pretty surreal.
• Ken Burns has apparently finished an update to his documentary Baseball, and will air The Tenth Inning over the evenings of September 28th and 29th on PBS. H/T to the Baseball Journeyman for making note of it.

Upcoming Posts The Next Week:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: I will be doing my final review of the season of the prospects I reviewed back in January and February, starting with the first 10 players

Friday: I am tentatively planning on doing a month in review post for Friday, but I am more inclined to probably just wait until Monday of the following week so that I can include the last 3 days of the regular season.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

Week in Review – September 13 – September 19

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (8) (89-59) vs. Minnesota Twins (5) (89-60)
Texas Rangers (6) (83-65) vs. New York Yankees (14) (90-59)

Atlanta Braves (11) (86-64) vs. Cincinnati Reds (8) (84-66)
San Francisco Giants (13) (84-66) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (10) (89-61)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .361
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 104
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 49
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 118
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 58

Wins –  C.C. Sabathia (NYY) 20
Saves – Rafael Soriano (TAM), Brian Wilson (SF) 43
ERA – Josh Johnson (FLA) 2.30
Strikeouts – Felix Hernandez 222
WHIP – Cliff Lee (TEX) 1.01

Roster Movement

Return from the Disabled List:  Andy Pettitte

To the Minors: Mike Ekstrom

Called Up: Kevin Russo, Juan Miranda, Jared Burton, Rich Hill, Konrad Schmidt, Chris Carter, Vin Mazzaro, Josh Donaldson, Jake McGee, Brent Sinkbeil, Eric Sogard, Guillermo Quiroz, Kyle Drabek, Royce Ring,

Other Roster Moves:

• The Athletics signed IF Akinori Iwamura
• The Reds acquired UT Willie Bloomquist from the Royals
• The Astros acquired P Enerio Del Rosario from the Astros.
• The Indians claimed Chad Huffman off of waivers from the Yankees
• The Pirates claimed P Chris Leroux off of waivers from the Marlins
• The Padres claimed P Cesar Carrillo off of waivers from the Phillies

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• It was announced on Friday that the Dodgers’ manager for 2011 will be Don Mattingly, and that Joe Torre will be retiring from the Dodgers. I think that honestly, Joe Torre is probably going to be managing somewhere else next season, and that he has simply had enough of the drama that surrounds the Dodgers. Mattingly should be an interesting fit for the Dodgers, and I look forward to seeing what he can do as a manager next year.
• Troy Tulowitzki has been white hot for the entire month of September, as he now has 12 homeruns in the month and is helping Carlos Gonzalez to lead the Rockies right back into the playoff race in the NL West.
• Jose Bautista continues to mash homeruns at an epic rate, and has 48 through Friday’s games. I don’t know if it will continue next season, but the power seems legitimate.
• Bit of a scary moment on Sunday when Tyler Colvin was hit with a piece of a shattered bat, and had the bat piece pierce his chest. Colvin will miss the remainder of the season, and I’m wondering if this will spark more debate about what to do about these maple bats.
• Nyjer Morgan had his suspensions totaling 15 games reduced to a total of 8 games, and it seems to me like he got off pretty lucky. The two suspensions seem unlikely to have been reduced to 4 games each had they been separated by more time.
• Misc. Baseball had a great article about Jim Thome and his rapid ascent to the Majors. Well worth the read.
• Baseball Past and Present has been doing a very interesting series where they take a player and discuss what era might have been perfect for him. One of the posts that stood out to me was his post about Rickey Henderson.
• The Baseball Journeyman wrote up his visit to the Louisville Slugger museum, and it’s a place I would still love to visit someday. We were probably as close as we were going to get back in February, but couldn’t quite get it done.

Upcoming Posts The Next Week:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: I’ll be finishing the Original Draft Series with Teams #2 and #1, along with a review post of what I found when I did this project.

Saturday:  I’ll be finishing the trade retro series for the season with the 4th and final post from the Marlins Firesale group.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

Week in Review – August 30 – September 5

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (83-53) vs. Minnesota Twins (80-57)
Texas Rangers (75-61) vs. New York Yankees (86-51)

Philadelphia Phillies (78-59) vs. Cincinnati Reds (79-57)
San Diego Padres (76-59) vs. Atlanta Braves (79-58)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .361
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 100
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 43
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 110
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 54

Wins –  C.C. Sabathia (NYY) 19
Saves – Rafael Soriano (TAM) 41
ERA – Clay Buchholz (BOS) and Mat Latos (SD) 2.25
Strikeouts – Felix Hernandez 209
WHIP – Mat Latos (SD) 0.98

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Jason Motte, Ian Stewart, Ricky Nolasco

Return from the Disabled List:  Nelson Cruz, Aaron Harang, Josh Fields, Ian Kinsler, Lance Berkman, Matt Lindstrom, Edgar Renteria, Jeff Suppan, Eric Patterson, Troy Glaus, Matt Thornton, Rafael Furcal, Luke Hochevar, Alex Rodriguez,

To the Minors: Chris Sampson

Called Up: Kenshin Kawakami, Mike Minor, Mike McCoy, Ramon Troncoso, Aroldis Chapman, Freddie Freeman, Desmond Jennings, Nolan Reimold, Wilson Ramos, Jeremy Hellickson, Yonder Alonso, Tyler Flowers, Carlos Carrasco, Brandon Allen, Mat Gamel, Jeremy Jeffress, Danny Espinosa, Rocco Baldelli, Mike Hampton, Matt Fox, Chris Tillman, Ben Revere

Other Roster Moves:

• The White Sox claimed OF Manny Ramirez off waivers from the Dodgers.
• The Rangers acquired OF Jeff Francoeur from the Mets for IF Joaquin Arias
• The Red Sox traded P Manny Delcarmen to the Rockies for P Chris Balcom-Miller

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• The September 1st roster expansion happened this week, and there was no shortage of top prospects called up. I don’t think that a lot of them are going to get a lot of playing time though, and Danny Espinosa seems like he could be one of the more interesting ones.
• The Padres are in full fledged collapse mode, having lost their last 10 and now only up 1.5 games on San Francisco. They need to win one and they need to do it soon to break out of this funk.
• Nyjer Morgan apparently melted down again this week, inciting a brawl after being thrown at in a game. That fun, in addition to getting clocked WWE-style during the fight, also led to an 8-game suspension for him. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but clearly something’s not right in Washington for him.
• Jim Thome passed Mark McGwire on the Career homerun leaderboard with 2 homeruns on Saturday, and now has 584 on his career. To me, I’d be shocked if he doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame.
• It came out late in the week that Colby Rasmus requested a trade back in July from the Cardinals, most likely stemming from arguments with manager Tony LaRussa. Well, I imagine that one of them won’t be in St. Louis come next April.
• Aroldis Chapman and his 100+ mph fastball made their debuts on Monday, and the heat appears real. He almost reminds me of Joel Zumaya a bit just because of how often he is over 101 mph on the gun. The Reds are using him in middle relief this season, and I think that long term his role may be as a closer.
• Interesting read from Miscellaneous Baseball about a pitching duel between two icons of the Dead-Ball era, Walter Johnson and Smokey Joe Wood.
• Satchel Price of Beyond the Box Score had an interesting post about the historic season that Carlos Gonzalez is having. I knew he was having a great year, but that’s a bit ridiculous.
• Baseball Past and Present responded to a post by Seamheads with his own top 9 starting lineup of non-Hall of Famers.

Upcoming Posts The Next 2 Weeks:

Tuesday and Thursday: I’ll be continuing on with the Original Draft Series, posting team #6 and #5

Saturday:  I’ll be continuing my trade retro series on the Firesale Marlins of 1998.

Note that there will be no Week in Review post next week as I’ll be traveling and unable to finish the post.

Tuesday and Thursday: Original Draft Series #4 and #3

Saturday: Part 3 of the trade retro series on the Firesale Marlins.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

The Month in Review – August

With the roster deadline now past, we look to the final month of the stretch run for the playoffs.

By my own count, here’s the teams I still think have a decent chance of making the playoffs. I’m including teams in their division if they are still in the wild card race.

AL East: New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox (albeit slightly)
AL Central: Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins
AL West: Texas Rangers

NL East: Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds
NL West: San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies

My Award Winners to Date

AL MVP –  Josh Hamilton (TEX)
NL MVP – Joey Votto (CIN)
AL Cy Young – C.C. Sabathia (NYY)
NL Cy Young – Adam Wainwright (STL)
AL Rookie of the Year – Austin Jackson (DET)
NL Rookie of the Year – Buster Posey (SF)

Weekly Links and Weeks in Review

August 2-August 8
August 9-August 15
August 16-August 22
August 23-August 29

August was yet another busy month for stories as we get down to the final sprints of the playoff push.

• Injuries to key players were a big story, with the most disappointing name to hit the disabled list being Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg will need Tommy John surgery, and will most likely miss the 2011 season in addition to the rest of the 2010 season. It’s been a very up and down year for Strasburg, and I know that I look forward to seeing him when he returns from this. There has been a lot of comparisons between the last pitcher touted this highly, and how his career path went. I think it’s a bit early to compare him to Mark Prior though.
• Francisco Rodriguez will miss the remainder of the season after getting into a fight with his girlfriend’s father and hurting his pitching hand. Nothing about this looks good for Rodriguez, and it will be interesting to see what happens as next season approaches.
• Roger Clemens was indicted on charges in the middle of the month, of lying to Congress. We’ll see how this plays out, but the thing that I know for sure is that it is extremely unlikely it plays out quickly. I imagine we’ll still be talking about this story in a year or two.
• Milestone homeruns came for Alex Rodriguez (600) and Albert Pujols (400) this month as well.
• Lou Piniella had previously announced his retirement effective the end of the season, but decided to move that plan up to August 22nd so that he could help with the care of his mother. We’ll miss you, Lou.
• We’re seeing a bonafide Triple crown chase in the National League, as Albert Pujols and Joey Votto are tied for at least 2nd in all 3 major categories. I think Votto has to be the MVP if the Reds win the division, and I don’t think that changes if Pujols were to win the Triple Crown instead of Votto.

What’s Coming in September and in the Future

September is (other than obviously the last month of the regular season) going to be a slightly less busy month here at JBB. We’ll have a Week-in-Review post on the 6th, 20th, and 27th, and I’ll be finishing up the Original Draft Series with the last 6 teams spread over the first 3 weeks of the month, along with a review of the whole series. Trade retrospectives will conclude for the season with a series of posts about the firesale that happened after the 1997 Marlins’ World Championship. After the minor league season ends, I’ll take one more look at how the performance of the prospects I reviewed back in January.

Once the season ends, I am planning on taking a few days to evaluate what will be next and what I’ll be writing about for the offseason. I do plan on having another awards prediction column once the regular season ends like last year.

If you missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago, I have become a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance in July, and am looking forward to working with their community of bloggers. My first such post was some trade deadline thoughts I got from a trio of the bloggers over there, and you can read it here.

Thanks again to all the readers, and if you’re enjoying the writing, please feel free to either write a comment on the posts, and take a few seconds to become a fan of Jason’s Baseball Blog on Facebook. You can do that here.

Week in Review – August 23 to August 29

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (79-50) vs. Texas Rangers (73-57)
Minnesota Twins (75-56) vs. New York Yankees (80-50)

Philadelphia Phillies (73-57) vs. San Diego Padres (76-53)
Cincinnati Reds (75-55) vs. Atlanta Braves (75-55)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .356
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 95
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 42
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 107
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 51

Wins –  C.C. Sabathia (NYY) 18
Saves – Rafael Soriano (TAM) 38
ERA – Clay Buchholz (BOS) 2.21
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) 200
WHIP – Mat Latos (SD) 0.98

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Jeff Clement, Scott Feldman, Guillermo Mota, Stephen Strasburg, Ross Ohlendorf, J.J. Putz, Matt Thornton,

Return from the Disabled List:  Geovany Soto, Matt Treanor, Wade Davis, Kevin Cash, Carlos Gomez, Jeff Niemann, Matt Watson, Jim Johnson, 

To the Minors: Wellington Castillo, Sam Fuld, Taylor Teagarden, Travis Buck, Mike Ekstrom, Anthony Slama, Matt Watson, Mike Minor, Glen Perkins,

Called Up: Casper Wells, Micah Hoffpauir, Chris Valaika, Matt Carson, Fernando Salas, Ryan Roberts, Cameron Maybin, Sam LeCure, Collin Balester, Scott Maine, Alex Cora, Franklin Morales, Jordan Zimmermann, Juan Francisco, 

Other Roster Moves:

• The Twins acquired P Brian Fuentes from the Angels for a player to be named later
• The Giants were awarded OF Cody Ross off of waivers from the Marlins
• The White Sox claimed off of waivers OF Manny Ramirez
• The Rockies released OF Brad Hawpe
• The Rays signed OF Brad Hawpe
• The Diamondbacks released IF Bobby Crosby

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• The biggest story in the sport this week, unfortunately, was the injury to phenom Stephen Strasburg. After it was all said and done, it sounds like he’s going to need the dreaded Tommy John surgery, and will miss 12-18 months. I do find it interesting how much grief that the Nationals have received related to this, and I don’t believe that there is anything that they could have done any differently. I also find it interesting the amount of chatter about whether or not he may not pitch in the Majors ever again. To me, this seems almost ridiculous based on the success rate that has been achieved on this surgery in the past. Time will tell, but I think he’ll come back and should be good to go by 2012.
• Indians’ prospect Hector Rendon is going to be needing the dreaded surgery as well, and I know I had viewed him as a potential keeper for my deep fantasy league until this came up. Check back on him in 2012 also.
• Deadspin ran a group of posts in which they had managed to get their hands on the financial statements of a few of the “poorer” teams in the Majors, notably the Marlins and the Pirates. There’s been a lot of flack aimed at both of them, and it sounds like it may also end up costing the Marlins some extra money as the city of Miami is unhappy with the amount of profit the team is making considering they are publicly financing a new stadium for the team. There’s a great writeup of an interview with a CPA by PiratesProspects (via MLBTradeRumors), and Kristy Dosh over at It’s a Swing and a Miss had a great writeup about it as well.
• Jose Bautista continues to hit homeruns at a rather ridiculous rate considering his past performance, and of course was “accused” of being on steroids last week. I find it extremely interesting, and tend to agree with Jeff Sullivan’s post over at Lookout Landing: why do we initially jump to this conclusion, and why is it not as big of a deal when a reporter with a newspaper makes the accusation?
• The Twins acquired closer Brian Fuentes from the Angels on Friday, and Fuentes took his parting shot on the way out of town. I think that the fact that they booed him had more to do with the fact that he didn’t pitch well, not the fact that they didn’t like you. 6 losses, 3.76 ERA, and 42 walks in 93 innings generally don’t make anybody all that happy with their closer, regardless of how many saves (71) they record in 2 seasons.
• Johnny Damon was claimed by the Red Sox, and there was some debate whether or not he would waive his no-trade clause to return to Boston. Well, he didn’t. Probably better for everyone involved that didn’t happen.
• Roy Oswalt ended up playing in the outfield in an extra-inning game this week after the Phillies ran out of position players and Ryan Howard was ejected. Wezen-Ball had a very interesting write up of the last few times that a pitcher has played the field.
• It was finally determined on Sunday evening, most likely after his ejection after seeing one pitch in the game, that Manny Ramirez would simply be given to the White Sox after being awarded their waiver claim for him. Ought to be interesting to see him and Ozzie interact.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday: I’ll be continuing on with the Original Draft Series, posting team #7

Wednesday: Month in Review for the month of August.

Saturday:  I’ll be starting a month-long (once a week) series on the group of trades that were made by the Firesale Marlins from the end of their championship run in 1997 through the following season. Part 1 will be up on Saturday.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

Week in Review – August 16 to August 22

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (76-48) vs. Texas Rangers (69-54)
Minnesota Twins (71-52) vs. New York Yankees (77-47)

Philadelphia Phillies (70-53) vs. San Diego Padres (74-49)
Cincinnati Reds (72-52) vs. Atlanta Braves (73-51)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .357
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 92
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 38
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 102
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 49

Wins – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL), C.C. Sabathia (NYY), and Adam Wainwright (STL) 17
Saves – Rafael Soriano (TAM) and Heath Bell (SD) 37
ERA – Adam Wainwright (STL) 2.06
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) 188
WHIP – Adam Wainwright (STL), Cliff Lee (TEX), and Mat Latos (SD) 0.98

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Eric Patterson, Nelson Cruz, Jason Berken, Gabe Kapler, David Purcey, Dustin Pedroia, Carlos Guillen, Brian Bannister, Troy Glaus, Chris Ray, Sean West, Lance Berkman, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Josh Willingham, Tony Gwynn, Matt Lindstrom, Jeff Keppinger, Vicente Padilla, Nick Punto, Kevin Slowey, Maicer Izturis, Alex Rodriguez,

Return from the Disabled List:  Carlos Pena, Joaquin Arias, Martin Prado, Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, Juan Gutierrez, Nyjer Morgan, Tommy Manzella, Rod Barajas, John Buck, Andrew Bailey, Jeff Weaver, Ryan Howard, Manny Ramirez

To the Minors: Chris Carter, Jose Morales, Tyler Greene, Brandon Hicks, Greg Dobbs, J. P. Arencibia, Fernando Martinez, Taylor Tankersley, Nick Stavinoha, Everth Cabrera, Jeremy Hellickson,

Called Up: Travis Buck, Rich VandenHurk, Ryota Igarashi, Daniel Nava, Bryan Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin, Will Rhymes,  Alex Sanabia, Travis Wood, Ryan Webb, Sam Fuld, Andrew Miller, Jeff Larish, Jordan Walden

Other Roster Moves:

• The Braves acquired 1B Derrek Lee from the Cubs for pitchers Jeffrey Lorick, Robinson Lopez and Tyrelle Harris
• The Giants released P Todd Wellemeyer
• The Rockies released OF Brad Hawpe
• The Rangers signed 2B Alex Cora
• The Reds designated for assignment P Micah Owings
• The Cardinals acquired 3B Pedro Feliz from the Astros for David Carpenter
• The Giants claimed OF Cody Ross off of waivers from the Marlins
• The Dodgers acquired C Rod Barajas from the Mets for cash considerations.

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• Francisco Rodriguez will miss the rest of the season after injuring his thumb in the incident involving his girlfriend’s father. He had surgery on the thumb earlier in the week, and should be ready for 2011. But it remains to be seen where that could happen, as the Mets placed him on the disqualified list, and will try to avoid paying him the remainder of his salary for this season. There was talk of trying to void his contract for 2011, but that seems pretty unlikely to happen in my opinion.
• In a rather unusual turn of events, Diamondbacks 1st round draft pick Barret Loux was granted free agency, rather than being placed back into the draft eligible pool for following seasons. This occurred it appears because of the fact that the player was ready to sign, but failed his physical exam. Throw in that he would no longer be eligible to play in college because of his contact with an agent for these proceedings, and it actually looks like MLB made a very good decision here. The kid probably won’t get the same kind of money he would have had he passed his physical, but he should still get a chance to start his career in short order.
• White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen had a bit of a meltdown on Wednesday in front of the media. You can google it to find the video, but it was pretty much standard fare coming from Ozzie. Always a good show with Ozzie.
• Ronny Paulino was suspended on Friday for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance. According to him, the substance in question was a diet pill he had taken during the offseason. Tough break for him, as he’s probably cost himself money on next year’s salary as well as the money for this year.
• Derrek Lee was finally traded on Thursday, going to the Braves in exchange for 3 prospects. Clearly, going to Atlanta has a much higher potential to be in the playoffs than the Angels did, and I was actually surprised that the Cubs got back 3 players in return for him.
• The amateur signing deadline came and went, and nearly all of the top picks ended up signed. You can read my thoughts on ways to fix the draft here.
• The biggest story of the week has to be the indictment of Roger Clemens on charges that he lied to Congress when he testified before them back in 2008. Not sure where I stand on this one yet, but it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.
• It was known that this would be Lou Piniella’s last season as a manager, but we found out on Sunday that the game against the Braves would be his last, as he has a situation involving his mother’s care which requires his attention more than managing does. I think that this might have gone a little differently had the Cubs been in the race, but this is clearly the right move for Piniella personally. Kudos to him for a great managerial career, and hopefully the Cubs will bring him back before the end of the season to have a planned out going away/retirement day for him at Wrigley Field.
• Vin Scully announced that he had signed a contract for the 2011 season, and will broadcast for the Dodgers again. To me, there’s no one better to listen to that Scully, and next season will be his 62nd behind the mike for the Dodgers. Just one of the greats of all time.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday and Wednesday: I’ll be continuing on with the Original Draft Series, posting teams #9 and 8.

Friday:  Trade Retrospective of Josh Beckett to the Red Sox. This one really interests me because the players involved had such an impact on both their team’s futures.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

Week in Review – August 9 to August 15

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (71-46) vs. Texas Rangers (67-49)
Minnesota Twins (68-50) vs. New York Yankees (72-45)

San Francisco Giants (67-52) vs. Atlanta Braves (68-49)
Cincinnati Reds (67-51) vs. San Diego Padres (69-47)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .362
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 86
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 36
Runs Batted In – Alex Rodriguez (NYY) 97
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 45

Wins – Adam Wainwright (STL) and Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) 17
Saves – Heath Bell (SD) 35
ERA – Adam Wainwright (STL) 1.99
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) 182
WHIP – Cliff Lee (TEX) 0.93

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Cristian Guzman, Jacoby Ellsbury, Chipper Jones, Adam Rosales, Jason LaRue, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, Geovany Soto, Rafael Furcal, Edgar Renteria, LaTroy Hawkins, Rich Harden

Return from the Disabled List:  Mark Teahen, Carlos Guillen, Stephen Strasburg, Kyle Lohse, Homer Bailey, Travis Hafner

To the Minors: Jess Todd, Dayan Viciedo, Brad Mills, Jeremy Hermida, Travis Wood, Will Rhymes, Ramon Troncoso

Called Up: Michael Bowden, Eric Young Jr, Chris Carter, Jeff Larish, Mark Melancon, Jeremy Hellickson, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Mark Rzepczynski

Other Roster Moves:

• The Giants acquired OF Jose Guillen from the Royals for a player to be named later.
• The Giants acquired IF Mike Fontenot from the Cubs for
• The Giants designated for assignment Todd Wellemeyer
• The Reds acquired OF Jim Edmonds from the Brewers for OF Chris Dickersong

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• Some extremely strange news out of New York during the week with Mets’ closer Francisco Rodriguez being arrested for allegedly assaulting his father in law. He returned to the team on Saturday and has stated that he will seek out anger management counseling after the incident. Let’s hope he can put this behind him, and soon.
• Chipper Jones‘ career may be over after tearing his ACL on an excellent play he made during Tuesday’s game. He had surgery on the injury on Saturday, and is hoping to make a comeback in 2011.
• The Wild-Card leading Rays took a pair of hits to their rotation this week with both Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann going on the disabled list on the same day this week. However, they are one of the few teams that can handle this loss to some extent, as Jeremy Hellickson and Andy Sonnanstine were both moved into the rotation in their place.
• Stephen Strasburg returned from the disabled list on Tuesday, and proceeded to get shelled. He did pitch better in his start on Sunday though, and I’m wondering at this point when he gets shut down for the year.
• Further proof of the volatility of prospects as Oakland’s top international signee from a couple of years ago, Michael Ynoa, will need Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2011 season. To date, he’s thrown 9 innings in his professional career.
• Jonathan Broxton was removed from the closer’s role by the Dodgers on Friday, as he continues to struggle in his appearances. Hong-Chih Kuo will get the majority of opportunities for now, and I have to imagine that at some point Broxton will return to the role this season.
• Brandon Phillips really made some noise in the critical series between the Reds and Cardinals at the beginning of the week, and unfortunately most of it was not good for his team. Between the comments he made and the bat tap on the shin guards of Yadier Molina which lead to the brawl in Tuesday’s game, it didn’t really go all that well for Phillips. Oh, and he had a poor performance as well, which really didn’t help things.
• Apparently the Orioles should have hired Buck Showalter a lot sooner, as the team has gone on a hot streak since he was installed in the manager’s job. Since being hired, the O’s are now 9-3 since Showalter took over the team, after winning only 32 of their first 107 games.
• Ricky Romero received a 5 year, $30.1 million contract extension from the Blue Jays, and I really like this deal for the team. They’ve locked in a really good young pitcher at a reasonable price. You know, unless something happens that doesn’t allow him to finish as well as he’s started.

From the Twitter Followers and Friends

If you aren’t yet, you can follow me over at Twitter here. These are some of the better reads I found from the previous week.

From Wezen-Ball: Larry Granillo posted a presentation that he made at SABR 40 about the statistics of the baseball played by Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. It’s actually really interesting, which surprised me a bit.

From Thunder Baseball: Mike Ashmore posted a great article about the minors and the effects it has on players. It’s an extremely interesting read and I highly recommend it.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday: With the signing deadline for amateur draft picks coming on Monday, I’ll be doing a brief writeup of the notable signings and the few who didn’t sign.

Wednesday: I’ll be continuing on with the Original Draft Series, posting team #10.

Friday:  Trade Retrospective of Dan Haren being traded to the Diamondbacks. We actually have a better idea of how this trade will look for the Diamondbacks after having already been traded by them to the Angels this season. That will finish up the final trade of the series involving the A’s as well.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

Week in Review – August 2 to August 8

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (67-44) vs. Texas Rangers (64-47)
Chicago White Sox (63-48) vs. New York Yankees (69-41)

San Francisco Giants (63-49) vs. Atlanta Braves (64-47)
Cincinnati Reds (64-48) vs. San Diego Padres (64-46)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) – .355
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) – 82
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) – 34
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) – 93
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) – 42

Wins – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) – 17
Saves – Brian Wilson (SF) – 32
ERA – Josh Johnson (FLA) – 1.97
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) – 171
WHIP – Cliff Lee (TEX) 0.92

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Nyjer Morgan, Carlos Pena, Carlos Gomez, Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Howard, John Buck, Kris Medlen, David Hernandez, Aaron Cook, Jason Motte, Russell Martin, Travis Hafner, Jeff Weaver, Carlos Santana, Orlando Cabrera, Carlos Silva, Jesse Litsch, Martin Prado, Mike Cameron,

Return from the Disabled List:  Brett Hayes, Todd Wellemeyer, Reed Johnson, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brandon Inge, Mike Lowell, Orlando Hudson, Jason Marquis, Ryan Doumit, Mike Adams,

To the Minors: Jesus Feliciano, Drew Sutton, Justin Thomas, Jensen Lewis, Wes Hodges, Daniel Nava, Anthony Ortega, Eric Young Jr., 

Called Up: Brad Mills, Fernando Martinez, Ruben Tejada, Kevin Mench, J.P. Arencibia, Felix Doubront, Michael Brantley, Lorenzo Cain, Philip Humber, Chris Nelson, Chris Sale, Peter Bourjos, David Huff, Carlos Torres, Lou Marson, Dan Johnson, Jeremy Hellickson, Thomas Diamond, Mike Minor,

Other Roster Moves:

• The Mets released Alex Cora.
• The Royals designated for assignment Jose Guillen
• The Dodgers designated for assignment Garret Anderson

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• With the trade deadline past, we are now starting to hear about players who have been placed on waivers, with the hopes of potentially trading them before the August 31st roster deadline. Among the players who went on waivers this week: Adam Dunn and Jonathan Papelbon.
• In Anaheim, the Angels actually shifted Torii Hunter to RF with the call up of OF Peter Bourjos. It must say quite a bit about Bourjos to move a 9-time Gold glove winner, and Hunter is apparently on board with this as well.
• Monday was a bad day in Boston for injuries, as Kevin Youkilis and Carlos Santana were both injured in the same game and both will miss the remainder of the season after having surgery for their respective injuries on Friday.
• Ryan Howard will also be out for a bit after spraining his ankle in Monday’s game. It really seems like all injuries are congregating in Boston and Philadelphia, just waiting for another player.
• Jeremy Hellickson made his major league debut on Monday, and had a very solid start. They informed him prior to the start that he would be returning to AAA regardless if he threw a no-hitter on Monday, and should be back at some point this season still.
• J. P. Arencibia had an amazing major league debut on Saturday, hitting 2 homeruns, a double and a single in the slugfest that was the Blue Jays-Rays 18-11 game that day.
• And of course, Alex Rodriguez finally hit his 600th career homerun earlier in the week as well. I’m just not that excited about this unfortunately, and I’m not entirely sure what would make me excited about it.
• In Atlanta, the Braves retired Tom Glavine‘s #47 on Friday night, and the team proceeded to lose in extra innings.
• Chris Sale was the first player to make the Majors from the 2010 draft, making his debut on Friday for the White Sox. This wasn’t too much of a surprise, as it was widely rumored that Sale had signed with the intent that the Sox would bring him up before the end of the season.

From the Twitter Followers and Friends

If you aren’t yet, you can follow me over at Twitter here. These are some of the better reads I found from the previous week.

From Books on Baseball:  Kristi Dosh of It’s a Swing and a Miss posted a very well written article about why MLB is the healthiest of the major sports leagues. Although the NFL is making more money, I’m inclined to agree with a lot of the points he made here.

From Babes Love Baseball: Marea posted (in a post I missed last week it appears) taking Chris Coghlan to task a bit about getting hurt while trying to do the shaving-cream pie celebration. The fact that this happened after the Kendry Morales injury makes it that much worse in my opinion.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday and Wednesday: I’ll be continuing on with the Original Draft Series, posting teams #12 and #11.

Friday:  Trade Retrospective of Mark Mulder to the Cardinals. Considering I just looked at the Tim Hudson trade that preceded it by 2 days, I figured it was a good time to look at this one also. Spoiler: This one went a little better for the Athletics than the Hudson trade did.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ’Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website

The Month in Review – July 2010

With the trade deadline now past, we look to the stretch run for the playoffs.

By my own count, here’s the teams I still think have a decent chance of making the playoffs. I’m including teams in their division if they are still in the wild card race.

AL East: New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox (albeit slightly)
AL Central: Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers
AL West: Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels (also slight)

NL East: Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds
NL West: San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies

My Award Winners to Date

AL MVP –  Miguel Cabrera (DET)
NL MVP – Joey Votto (CIN)
AL Cy Young – Cliff Lee (TEX)
NL Cy Young – Josh Johnson (FLA)
AL Rookie of the Year – Brennan Boesch (DET)
NL Rookie of the Year – Jaime Garcia (STL)

Weekly Links and Weeks in Review

June 28th-July 4th
Midseason Review
July 12th-July 18th
July 19th-July 25th

Trade Deadline Review

June was an extremely busy month for stories, with so many that I had honestly forgotten a few of them before I reviewed my week-in-review posts.

• The trade deadline was at 4 PM EST on Saturday, and we saw an unbelievable amount of transactions get done before then. You can read my thoughts on the deadline as a whole by clicking on the trade deadline review link above. There were some huge names moved (Cliff Lee, Dan Haren, Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman), and also some big names discussed that didn’t go anywhere (Adam Dunn, Manny Ramirez, Jayson Werth)
• Alex Rodriguez is currently stuck at 599 homeruns in his career, and is line for a huge payday when he finally hits #600 at some point. To the tune of $6 million.
• The All Star game was played in Anaheim, and the National League actually won! (I know, it was a huge surprise to me too). This could potentially be really good for the contenders in the National League, as they will have home field advantage in the World Series.
• Also during the All-Star break, the sport lost an icon with the passing of George Steinbrenner. You can read my thoughts on it here.
• The Diamondbacks started cleaning out their house early in the month, starting with manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Josh Byrnes. By the end of the month, they had made trades to move Dan Haren, Chad Qualls, and Chris Snyder. Interestingly, they held onto free agent to be Adam LaRoche, and much rumored player Kelly Johnson.
• We had some pretty big names go on the disabled list this month, with Chase Utley missing nearly the entire month and phenom Stephen Strasburg put on the disabled list towards the end of the month. Justin Morneau is currently out indefinitely as well with issues stemming from a concussion he suffered earlier in the season.

What’s Coming in August

August is a bit of a catchup month, as I play to continue on with the Original Draft series posts with teams 12 through 7. There’s also 5 trade retrospectives planned, including 3 trades involving my Athletics. The amateur draft signing period ends in August as well, and I am planning a post looking at some of the big signings (and non-signings). I am scaling back posting here just a little bit, from 5-6 posts per week to between 3 and 4 per week so that I can also concentrate on some of my other writing ventures.

If you missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago, I have become a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance in July, and am looking forward to working with their community of bloggers. My first such post was some trade deadline thoughts I got from a trio of the bloggers over there, and you can read it here.

Thanks again to all the readers, and if you’re enjoying the writing, please feel free to either write a comment on the posts, and take a few seconds to become a fan of Jason’s Baseball Blog on Facebook. You can do that here.

Week in Review – July 19 to July 25

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (59-38) vs. Texas Rangers (58-41)
Chicago White Sox (53-44) vs. New York Yankees (62-35)

San Francisco Giants (56-43) vs. Atlanta Braves (57-41)
St. Louis Cardinals (55-44) vs. San Diego Padres (58-39)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Josh Hamilton (TEX) .357
Runs – Mark Teixeira (NYY) 75
Home Runs – Jose Bautista (TOR) 27
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) 88
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) 35

Wins – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) 15
Saves – Heath Bell (SD) and Brian Wilson (SF) 29
ERA – Josh Johnson (FLA) 1.61
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) 147
WHIP – Cliff Lee (TEX) 0.92

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Ben Sheets, Aaron Laffey, Luis Atilano, David DeJesus, Ryan Doumit, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettitte, Dustin Nippert, Scott Kazmir, Ryan Sweeney, Orlando Hudson, Carlos Guillen, Magglio Ordonez,

Return from the Disabled List: Mat Latos, Ryan Ludwick, Sergio Mitre, Brian Roberts, Josh Beckett, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Yovani Gallardo, Ramon Hernandez, Kevin Millwood, Nate McLouth, Jed Lowrie, Will Venable, Mike Gonzalez, Oliver Perez, Clay Buchholz, Luis Castillo, Luke Scott, Maicer Izturis, Matt Wieters,

To the Minors: Jhoulys Chacin, Andrew Oliver

Called Up: Cedrick Bowers, Alex Gordon, Jose Arredondo, Scott Sizemore, Armando Galarraga

Trades:

• The Royals traded 3B Alberto Callaspo to the Angels for P Sean O’Sullivan and P Will Smith.
• The Diamondbacks traded SP Dan Haren to the Angels for SP Joe Saunders, Rafael Rodriguez, Patrick Corbin, and a player to be named later.

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• The Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were held on Sunday afternoon in Cooperstown, with Andre Dawson and Whitey Herzog being enshrined for their performances. Back in December, I wrote up my thoughts on whether Dawson was a Hall of Famer or not. (I thought he was)
• Alex Rodriguez hit his 599th homerun of his career this week, and will earn $6 million extra when he hits #600 due to a clause in his contract. Good for him.
• The Mariners are really looking like a mess, and I am thinking it is probably going to cost manager Don Wakamatsu his job before the end of the season. On Friday night, he got into a shouting argument in the dugout with Chone Figgins over Figgins’ lack of effort on a play in the 5th inning of that night’s game. I actually agree that Wakamatsu did the right thing by yanking Figgins from the game, but teams don’t fire players very often for this kind of stuff.
• The Moneyball movie has begun shooting finally, with Brad Pitt set to play GM Billy Beane, Jonah Hill to play Paul De Podesta, and Philip Seymour Hoffman playing manager Art Howe. Having been through the 2002 season as an A’s fan, and having read the book, this one’s going to be interesting. I’m wondering if the movie reopens the stats vs. scouts argument wounds again.
• Major League Baseball, very quietly, announced that minor leaguers will now be tested for HGH in addition to all the other things they are already tested for. I’d be shocked if the next collective bargaining agreement doesn’t have this test in it for Major Leaguers as well.
• The Angels made the big moves this week with acquiring 3B Alberto Callaspo first in the week and then making the huge splash with acquiring SP Dan Haren from the Diamondbacks for 4 prospects. Really like the trade for the Angels, hate it for every other team in the division (including my A’s).

From the Twitter Followers and Friends

If you aren’t yet, you can follow me over at Twitter here. These are some of the better reads I found from the previous week.

From the Hall of Very Good: HOVG posted a series of articles looking at the next group of players to be eligible for the Hall of Fame voting in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 (so far). Excellent reads from all of them.

From the Daily Something: Bill had a guest post from Jeff Polman which went ahead and played out the remainder of the 1994 season via Strat-o-Matic baseball. It’s a really interesting read, and Strat-o-Matic is something I keep reminding myself that I might enjoy when I have some more time.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: A series I had not finished up from earlier in the month, the Original Draft Series, is a group of posts where I look at what an organization’s major league team could have looked like had they held onto every player that they either drafted or signed to their first professional contract. There may be 3 posts this week on this, or there may be 6 if I am feeling ambitious.

Friday:  Trade Retrospective of Johan Santana to the Mets. This one’s a bit newer than a lot of the trades I have reviewed previously, but the players in the deal have pretty much finalized what their value in the trade is going to be, so it’s ready to be looked at I believe.

One Other Thing

Lastly, I wanted to bring up a charity that the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has taken up. Here’s the official word, and what you can do:

Pitch In For Baseball is delighted to have been selected to participate in State Farm’s ‘Go To Bat’ campaign.  Now we need your
help!

‘Go To Bat’ was launched nationally during the State Farm Home Run Derby.  ‘Go To Bat’ gives entrants a chance to win tickets to the upcoming World Series and selected charity partners the chance to receive significant financial support.

Here’s how to play and how to help Pitch In For Baseball:

* Go to  www.statefarm.com/gotobat to register for your chance to win World Series tickets.
* As you register, you will get a chance to designate a charity that could win up to $25,000/week.
* To designate Pitch In For Baseball as your charity, select PUBLIC GOOD as the charity category and then choose Pitch In For
Baseball from the drop down list.
* Revisit www.statefarm.com/gotobat each day and play the ‘Go To Bat’ online game to increase your chances for tickets and Pitch In For
Baseball’s chance at financial support

Thanks to all the readers who help out with this. You can find a lot more information about Pitch In For Baseball at their website