Chicago Tribune: Wood, DL about to meet for the 12th time

Who holds the record among active players?  Griffey?

The blister on Kerry Wood’s right index finger is likely to send him to the disabled list for the 12th time in his career.

“We’re coming to the point where we’re going to have to come to a conclusion about what to do,” manager Lou Piniella said Sunday.

Wood hasn’t pitched since July 11, so the Cubs can backdate him on the DL to July 12, meaning he can return Sunday against Florida at Wrigley Field. That means Carlos Marmol will assume the closer’s role in Arizona and for most of the four-game series against the Marlins. Marmol pitched a perfect ninth Sunday with a seven-run lead after being booed at Wrigley Field last week when he blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning.

“It’d be nice if that day didn’t happen, but that’s life,” Marmol said. “Every day is a different day.”

Do Cubs fans expect Marmol to be perfect every time out? “I think so,” he said. “Last time I was there they were booing me. I don’t know why.”

The Columnists: Fox: Fresh cheers and jeers, ala The Buckster

Bucky Fox is no Bucky Sinister and Bucky Fox is no Sonny Fox.

Yea: Gary Carter. The man who made sure the Mets caught the 1986 world title had a ball at the recent All-Star pre-game show. There he was yukking it up with fellow Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra. Good for Carter. He was one of the jolliest crunch-time players New York ever saw. Now he’s sharing that attitude with the minor league Orange County Flyers, whom he just managed to a playoff spot. I caught up with him a few weeks ago at their stadium in Fullerton, Calif., and he gladly gave me a signed baseball.

Yea: Tim McCarver. Why so many tune him out I’ll never know. When he’s doing color, I turn it up. Especially during the recent All-Star Game. As usual, he made a point I’d never heard. Namely that catchers usually don’t hit well because of the pounding their glove hand takes on every pitch. He was explaining why Joe Mauer’s 2006 batting title with the Twins was a first for an American League catcher. McCarver should know. He was a champion catcher with the Cardinals.

Boo: Alex Rodriguez. Did you catch A-Rod’s act in the All-Star Game? Twice up, twice down. Zero when the stage is big. Which is why he’s Mr. April alongside two other pinstripers who stood out at Yankee Stadium that night, Mr. October (Reggie Jackson) and Mr. November (Derek Jeter). With A-Rod, the Yanks will reach the World Series, but won’t win it--even with Madonna in the front row.

N.Y. Times: Sandomir: Citigroup Puts Its Money Where Its Name Will Be (RR)

Now that’s the barclays
Now that’s the sound of the world today!

Losses or not, there is no stopping the Citi Field deal, even if some of its laid-off employees may not be able to afford to take their families to a game, or even if some of them could have been retained with the $20 million a year being spent on baseball.

Even in the flush times during which it was signed, the deal seemed questionable. With high name recognition and a place among the world’s banking leaders, Citigroup hardly needed the Citi name plastered on a ballpark to enhance itself. Will fans move their C.D.’s to a Citibank branch because of the Mets relationship, any more than air travelers will consider flying American Airlines because its name is on two professional arenas?

Will the corporate suite-holders at the Mets’ new home want to do more or new business with Citigroup because they share deluxe accommodations at Chez Wilpon?

ESPN: Pascarelli: Red-hot Pedroia becoming a force at the plate

Dustin Pedroia: The Steve Marriott (small face) of baseball?

After just a season and a half, Pedroia seems like he’s been in Boston forever. On a team of considerable age that is yet becoming younger, Pedroia has all the look of becoming a Derek Jeter-like leader for the next generation of Red Sox. Pedroia doesn’t have Jeter’s natural ability and grace, but he uses dogged intensity and his love of the game to do the same thing Jeter has done for more than a decade in New York—be a daily role model for how a Yankee is supposed to play.

It was interesting Tuesday to watch the American League dugout throughout a long night at the All-Star Game, and see how Pedroia constantly gravitated to Jeter, who like most of the AL players (the exceptions including Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Ichiro Suzuki and Jonathan Papelbon), remained in the dugout after being removed from the game and spent the rest of the night rooting from the top step.

“He’s been a star for a long time and someone who has always played the game right,” Pedroia said of the Yankees’ captain. “I don’t have his ability, but I learn an awful lot by just watching him. And having this chance in my first All-Star Game to have a chance to be a teammate, I tried to soak up as much as I could.”

N.Y. Daily News: Promoting their small businesses

Guiding You to Victory!!! (okaaay) A quickie look at the fantasy baseball sherpa...Scott Swanay.

Seventeen years as an insurance actuary followed by a stint in market research helped Scott Swanay learn how to analyze dry statistics. By devoting himself to his interest in fantasy baseball, he put those skills to work in a new way.

More than 8 million Americans played fantasy baseball in 2007, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, assembling rosters of players and competing against each other based on their players’ stats. Swanay, 42, used $400,000 in savings to launch a company and Web site that uses his quantitative analysis to provide fantasy baseball advice.

“My role is similar to an investment manager’s role in recommending stocks,” he said. “I’m like a coach or manager on the sidelines, giving player rankings and projections so that people can put together the most efficient team possible.”

MLB.com: Miles drills walk-off slam for Cardinals

ST. LOUIS—Everything added up perfectly for the Cardinals on Sunday. They had a series win in hand before they even took the field. A definitively miserable St. Louis summer day sapped the energy of even the most dedicated players. A rookie pitcher put the Cards in a late-innings hole, and the club’s deposed closer endured another disheartening day.

If ever a game were made to be mailed in, this was it. So, of course, the Redbirds rallied twice in the late innings for a thrilling 9-5 win over the Padres, capped by possibly the unlikeliest game-ending scenario of the year: an Aaron Miles walk-off grand slam.

Newsday’s 100: The super elite Hall of Fame

Phil Rizzuto on the outs! Bill White and Yogi Berra look to form a committee...any committee!

What follows is an attempt to break out the great players and the legends from the very good and good players. That’s the dividing line for what we are calling the Newsday 100.

A simple concept, but not an easy task.

We know it’s not a perfect list. It’s not based on any magic formula, or statistical benchmarks. Much weight is given to how the player was viewed in his time. Negro Leaguers and 19th-century stars are particularly hard to assess, but like other Hall of Famers, some of them were great or legends in their time, and some were simply very good or good players.

No player is being “kicked out” of the Hall of Fame; they all deserve to be there. All 234 players in the Hall of Fame are Hall of Famers. No one can take that away. We have no intention of doing so and no right to.

So if your favorite player didn’t make our list, try to change our minds. Tell us why Nellie Fox or Heinie Manush or Cristóbal Torriente or Paul Molitor is great or a legend, and we’ll listen. Maybe you’re right and we’re wrong.

Rays’ Maddon miffed over plunking of Navarro

He’s miffed? How do you think Tilly Walker feels!

Rays manager Joe Maddon took issue with the Blue Jays plunking C Dioner Navarro with a pitch in the eighth inning Saturday.

..."I really disagree with what they did,” Maddon said. “We’ll stop trying to score runs when they stop trying.”

Maddon pointed to how the Jays scored four runs in the ninth and got the tying run to the plate. Navarro said afterward that the Rays were just trying to score runs off All-Star Roy Halladay.

“Too many times people have had things passed down through legend or lore in regard to the appropriate or inappropriate things to do,” Maddon said. “Maybe in 1922, you wouldn’t (bunt) because nobody is going to hit a home run. But in the year 2008, people hit home runs. And you could see how they came back. Once again, in baseball, for me, there are moments when people definitely mentally move at a glacier pace, and they really have to get beyond it. That’s what I think about that situation. And it stunk.”

N.Y. Times: McCain Through the Yankee Prism (RR)

The Yankees were playing the Oakland Athletics in 92-degree heat, and for Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president after vanquishing Mr. Giuliani and others in the primaries, the game offered an unusual diversion from the rigors and predictability of the campaign trail. He arrived in New York on Friday afternoon to do the Conan O’Brien Show, and spent Saturday in the Hamptons at a pair of fundraisers, including a dinner event at the waterside estate of the billionaire Ronald Perelman.

Before the game on Sunday, Mr. McCain, with Mr. Giuliani in tow, chatted on the field with Joe Girardi, manager of the Yankees, and Bob Geren, manager of the A’s. He also toured Monument Park, where plaques honor Yankee greats beyond the center field wall. When the game began, he and Mr. Giuliani settled into a front-row box seat right next to the Yankees’ dugout, munching on hot dogs.

On the field, Mr. Geren asked Mr. McCain about the experience of running for president. “It’s like being in Double A and all of a sudden you’re playing in Yankee Stadium,” Mr. McCain replied.

Hey...Washington made it out of Trenton.

LA reportedly hosting ‘09 Classic finals

Dodger Stadium, which has been undergoing a major facelift, will be home to the semifinals and finals of next year’s World Baseball Classic on March 21-23, the Los Angeles Times reported in its Friday editions, with the second round going to San Diego’s PETCO Park and Dolphin Stadium in Miami a week earlier.

Joe Posnanski Blog: Musial

My Stan Musial card from Challenge the Yankees.

2 Triple
3 FlyBall
4 Home Run
5 Strike Out
6 Ground Out
7 Single
8 Walk
9 Fly Ball
10 Single
11 Single
12 Double

Here’s the thing: A lot of baseball fans have forgotten Stan Musial. Anyway, it seems like that. His name is rarely mentioned when people talk about the greatest living players. He’s never had a best selling book written about him. A few years ago, when baseball was picking its All Century team, Stan Musial did not even received enough votes to be listed among the Top 10 outfielders. The Top 10.

ajc: Moore: Braves must keep Teixeira (RR)

What do you think...putouts grow on peachtrees?

Since joining the Braves on last year’s trade deadline from the Texas Rangers, Teixeira has shown often why he has two Gold Gloves and counting. There was the sixth inning Saturday, for instance, when he converted a nasty hop into an easy out to increase his major-league lead in putouts by a bunch. He also is a switch-hitting terror at the plate. He has hit safely in nine of his past 11 games, and after a slow start earlier this season, he has accumulated 12 homers and 38 RBIs since late May.

No wonder Cox said emphatically before the game, “We’re buyers, not sellers. We’re trying anything to improve. We’re not seeking to move anybody. I don’t know where [people] got all of that stuff from. There’s a time to [start trading players], I suppose, but we’re in this thing.”

Rodney, Inge shed locks

Careful there. Didn’t Houdini try this at the Garrick Theatre and ended up croaked at Detroit’s Grace Hospital?

Rodney had to downsize his cap size from 7 3/4 to 7 3/8 because of his new look, which Leyland likes, by the way.

“He looks 10 years younger,” said Leyland. “Now if he shaves that goatee, he’ll look even younger.”

Rodney said he’d not gotten a haircut since September 2005. But he paid teammate Freddy Dolsi, an accomplished barber, $200, not only to cut off his hair but to make it look professionally done—which it does.

And the reason for keeping his hair: “To show my Mom how much I cut off.”

As for Inge’s new look, Leyland laughed and said, “He’s rowing with one oar. There’s something wrong with Inge. But he has life and spirit and plays his butt off. I like that.”

Emotion, not cockiness, behind C.J. Wilson’s reactions (RR)

C.J. fires back to Ozzie’s rip of Rangers’ closer Wilson.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m cocky, but I’m definitely emotional,” said Wilson, who joked that a simple look at him reveals that he isn’t very professional.

“I have a Mohawk, so how can I say that I am professional? Just look at me — baggy uniform, I shave once a week. I’m here to compete and play baseball.”

The Rangers play at Chicago on Monday, but Wilson doesn’t expect any lingering issues during the three-game series.

“I don’t care who’s on the opposing team. I’m going to try to get them out,” Wilson said. “I don’t care how good he is or how much I looked up to him growing up, which is the case with Thome. I’m trying to get him out.”

Raissman: WFAN’s erases Benigno gaffe

Rising From the Echoing Corridors of Hell (or in this case, WFAN)...Count Benigno Returns as “Blacula, the Niekro Dracula!”

On Tuesday, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts were in desperate need of a clue.

Happened during a WFAN interview with Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. Joey B asked Niekro how his “brother Joe” was doing.

“He had an aneurysm about a year and a half ago and died,” Niekro said. Joe Niekro, a two-time 20 game winner who recorded 221 career wins, died in 2006 of a brain aneurysm at the age of 61.

Benigno told Niekro, “I did not know that.” The talkie was embarrassed, but did not try to hide or cover his mistake.

Someone else did.

If you go to WFAN’s Web site, and click on Benigno/Roberts’ interview with Niekro, you won’t hear the exchange concerning Joe Niekro’s death. It was edited out of the interview. The FANdroids would not do such a thing, would they? If they were inclined to be so embarrassed over a mistake - or bad radio - they would shut down WFAN’s transmitter from 6 a.m.- 10 a.m., Monday through Friday.

Donate blood and receive NY Mets tickets

Haven’t they given enough! (everybody’s a hematocritic)

Community Blood Services invites donors to make a lifesaving blood or platelet donation at one of its New York donor centers, from Monday through Wednesday, July 21 to 23. Anyone who successfully donates on these days will receive a complementary pair of tickets to see a New York Mets baseball game.

NY Daily News: Moves like Richie Sexson signing prove top teams are flawed, need help

“The most valuable commodity you can have is young players,” Beane said by phone from Oakland. “I’m fortunate that, in this market, I can do this and not be afraid of what people are going to say. My owner (Lew Wolff) is totally supportive of what we’re doing here. It would be incorrect to call us sellers. We set out to rebuild our entire system.

We’re not there yet but we’re definitely ahead of schedule. No disrespect to Rich Harden, who’s the best in the game when he’s on the mound, but we just never knew how much he’d be available to us- he had just four starts for us last year and nine the year before- whereas Gallagher is a guy who’s got great stuff, is only 22 and we have under control for 5½ years.”
...
When told the other day that Greg Genske, the agent for Francisco Liriano, is considering filing a grievance through the Players Association over the Twins’ failure to bring the lefthander up from Triple-A, Gardenhire exclaimed: “Nobody is telling us who’s on this team!” Ironically, the most vulnerable starting pitcher on the Twins is Livan Hernandez (9-6, 5.44), who is also represented by Genske.

SI: Heyman - Two teams eyeing Oakland’s Street

The Brewers and White Sox are two of the teams to have inquired about A’s closer Huston Street, SI.com has learned… The interest of Chicago’s South Side team is more curious since its bullpen has been among the best in baseball this year. The White Sox usually seem to favor flamethrowers, too. But they have traded for a variety of relievers in recent years, and their GM, Ken Williams, has been A’s GM Billy Beane’s most frequent trading partner.
...
Other closers who could be dealt include Colorado’s Brian Fuentes, Baltimore’s George Sherrill and Pittsburgh’s Damaso Marte.
...
A deal that would send Taschner (2-1, 3.03) and veteran second baseman Ray Durham from San Francisco to Milwaukee is “in the wind,’’ according to a National League executive… The Giants would also like to find new homes for vets Randy Winn, Dave Roberts and Rich Aurilia… if anyone will take them.
...
Despite his bosses’ support for him in the scout skimming investigation, there’s increasing buzz that Nationals GM Jim Bowden will be replaced before next year.

LA Times: Angels won’t change their summer plans (RR)

We do have seasons in Southern California, at least on the sports calendar… July, of course, heralds the season when fans wonder whether their Angels will trade for a big bat.

They won’t.

“I don’t see anyone that can come in here for two months and hand me a World Series trophy,” owner Arte Moreno said.
...
The Rockies have made clear any package [for Matt Holliday] would start with Nick Adenhart, the Angels’ top pitching prospect. The Angels might swallow hard and say yes, but beyond Adenhart they face the same dilemma the Dodgers do: Their best young players—their most valuable trade chips—already are filling key roles on the major league club.

“I don’t want to disrupt this roster,” Moreno said.
...
The Rockies are believed to be interested in completing a package with second baseman Howie Kendrick… and one of the Angels’ All-Star starters, Ervin Santana or Joe Saunders… “They’re going to want three or four guys,” Moreno said, without providing any names. “And Holliday is a Scott Boras guy.”

MN Star-Tribune: Beltre trade doesn’t appear likely

After exploring a trade for Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre, the Twins came away feeling they won’t have a match. Seattle’s asking price is steep because Beltre is under contract for next season and is one of the Mariners’ better all-around players.

On Saturday, there were indications that it might take a package of prospects, like what Oakland got from Philadelphia in this week’s Joe Blanton deal. To get Blanton, the Phillies gave up two of their top four prospects, along with a third minor leaguer.

For the Twins, that could mean one of their young starters—Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins or Nick Blackburn—along with additional prospects.

A’s Barton hurt while diving, heads to DL

Daric Barton smacked his head on the bottom of a pool during the All-Star break, requiring six staples to close the gash and leaving the Oakland first baseman with a neck strain that landed him on the disabled list Saturday.

Barton was placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to July 14. The Athletics recalled infielder Wes Bankston from Triple-A Sacramento and started him at first base against the New York Yankees.

Barton said he was at a friend’s apartment back home in California when he dove into a pool Sunday night. He didn’t realize how shallow it was, and he hit his head on the bottom. He never lost consciousness, but blood began gushing down his face and Barton went to the emergency room.

“As soon as I did it I was kind of in shock,” he said.

Thanks to Danbee

MIL Journal-Sentinel: Deal in works for veteran Durham

Since the end of the MIL/SF game, word of a trade to be announced tomorrow between the two teams has leaked out, but no one is sure exactly *WHO*.

The Milwaukee Brewers were working on another trade Saturday evening that possibly could net San Francisco veteran second baseman Ray Durham for minor-league outfielder Darren Ford. Whether other players were involved in the talks was unclear.
...
The Brewers have been looking for a left-handed bat off the bench as well as relief help, and they have shown interest in Durham (a switch-hitter) as well as Giants left-hander Jack Taschner. The Brewers have scouted Oakland’s Huston Street but apparently received bad reports on the struggling closer.
...
A San Francisco source indicated that club was involved in the deal… One rumor circulating had Weeks involved in an expanded deal, but that seemed highly unlikely.

White Sox to unveil Baines statue on Sunday

Will they have to move the Konerko statue over?

When the White Sox unveil a bronze statue of Harold Baines along the right-field concourse Sunday, no one will be prouder than his long-time teammate Ozzie Guillen.

“If somebody deserves to be out there, it’s him,” Guillen said. “With all due respect to [others with statues], if you talk about the White Sox of any era, the first name that’s going to come out is his.

“When you talk about Harold Baines, you can call him Mr. White Sox.”

As Hall awaits, Goose defends his endgame

Rich “Goose” Gossage went out on his own terms - screaming and fighting until he could no longer scream or fight.

His days as baseball’s most intimidating reliever were long gone, and he was holding on as long as he could, critics be damned. It was said at the time that Gossage was harming his Hall of Fame chances by drifting from team to team in his twilight, not emblematic behavior for such an accomplished and respected ballplayer.

To which Goose now responds.

“I don’t agree with people who say I made an ass out of myself and should have retired,” he said in an interview at the All-Star Game. “I’d rather make an ass out of myself and know I exhausted all my efforts of playing. I want to know on that day when I’m done, I’m done.

“I think as an athlete, you should exhaust every effort to play your last game. You see all these guys retiring and then coming back. I’m tired of it. Chuck Tanner (his first manager) told me to play until they tore the uniform off my back, and I did. I didn’t want to look back and say I shoulda, coulda, woulda.”

Finish the damn speech already…

Baltimore Sun: Loewen to try new position

No longer willing to go through another surgery and extended rehabilitation process on his left elbow, Orioles pitcher Adam Loewen will attempt to reinvent himself as a position player.

Loewen, an accomplished hitter in British Columbia before the Orioles drafted him in 2002, sustained another fracture during his last relief appearance. Renowned orthopedic specialist Dr. James Andrews inserted a screw in Loewen’s elbow last year, which allowed him to eventually return to the mound. But Loewen went back on the disabled list earlier this season with soreness in the elbow and forearm area, successfully completed his injury rehab assignment and made three relief appearances before sustaining another fracture.

Loewen has been told that another surgery would sideline him for 1 ½ years, “and he has zero interest in going down that path again,” team president Andy MacPhail said. The Orioles plan on waiting until after the season and perhaps assigning Loewen to the fall instructional league.
...
While some teams coveted Loewen as a hitter going into the draft, the Orioles chose him with the fourth overall pick and envisioned him being a frontline starter for many years.

If Baseball Teams Were Actresses …

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: SCARLETT JOHANNSON
Only recently has everyone realized how hot she really is.

SEATTLE MARINERS: BRITNEY SPEARS
Once had the world at her fingertips. Now can’t even remember to wear her underwear in public.

The Baseball Talmud: Megdal: Kevin Youkilis: The Greek God of Production

I wore my YOUK T-Shirt (Neyer now reports that this item is SOLD-OUT) to the Cleveland SABR convention and I did the stroll past that R n R dump...THAT is as close as Youkilis will get to the Hall of Fame.

The problem Youkilis has with Hall of Fame possibilities are two-fold- one, he doesn’t seem like he’ll put up the kind of 40-home run seasons that draw the attention of Hall voters for first basemen. Two, his late-career start-he didn’t debut until age 25, and didn’t start until age 27-makes it very difficult to pile up the kind of career stats looked for in lieu of a sustained period of absolute dominance.

If Youkilis has made the leap from 110 OPS+ player to 140 OPS+ player, he’ll need to sustain that performance until roughly age-36 to merit Hall consideration. That would put him in the neighborhood of 2100 hits- figure a normal decline from there gets him to about 2500. Averaging 25-30 home runs from age 30-36, assuming 30 this year, gets him to between 220-250 home runs. But he’d end up with an OPS+ in the 125-130 range. Tony Perez is at 122. Eddie Murray was at 129. Add a run of gold gloves into the mix, and Youkilis is certainly in the discussion.

Clearly, this is a long shot. But for a player who looked to be a poor man’s Dave Magadan, it’s astounding how far he’s come.

NY Times (RR)-Buzz Bissinger gets the sh*t kicked out of him at the College WS

He doesn’t get to the good part until the very end (talk about burying the lead)

Pluto: Indians pitcher Paul Byrd opens up about faith, life in new book

Using the old argument of the perihellion squad tactics...Pluto checks out Paul Byrd’s new book.

The one chapter that falls short is the finale about his human-growth hormone use. Byrd wrote it while waiting for Major League Baseball to decide if he and some of the other players mentioned in the Mitchell Report should be suspended. The lawyers’ fingerprints are on this chapter, and readers can tell.

Byrd was not suspended. He insists the HGH was because of physical problems, which include a cranky arm and shoulder. Because of his honesty about other areas of his life, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on the HGH issue.

It took guts for Byrd to admit his porn problem in print. Some women will be put off by it. Some guys will think, “It’s no big deal, and why is this guy telling me how to live?” The self-righteous may say, “And he says he loves the Lord, so how can he do that?”

But it’s real not just to him but to so many men.

ESPN the Magazine: 100 MPH OR BUST: Joel Zumaya is throwing gas again

Not only that, but. Ryan Sheckler redefines action sports stardom...by magic flipping my issue into the garbage in record time!

Do you believe Joel Zumaya? A lot of people don’t. They don’t buy the story about his wrecking his throwing shoulder by moving boxes at his parents’ house. The Tigers reliever knows all about the doubts, because he spent an afternoon last inter trolling the Internet with his father, Joel Sr., reading the various conspiracy theories. Maybe it was the rumor that Joel Jr., known to family as J.J., fell off a motorcycle. Maybe it was the suggestion that he was injured while having sex on a couch. Maybe it was the theory that an obese woman sat on him. Maybe it was all three crazy notions that made Joel Sr. snap, pulling the laptop cord out of the wall, grabbing the only computer he owned, stomping out to the patio of his Chula Vista, Calif., home and smashing the offending machine onto the concrete. He kicked it over and over, making sure it was dead. “A hundred pieces,” he says.

Joel Jr. refuses to discuss the injury, but his dad, who saw it happen, has plenty to say. “There’s nothing to hide,” says the elder Zumaya. “All this bulls--- needs to stop.”