Houston Chronicle: Oswalt returns to Houston, will miss another start

Astros righthander Roy Oswalt flew to Houston this morning to have his ailing left hip examined and will miss his next scheduled start Tuesday. Brandon Backe will start in his place.

Oswalt, who left Monday’s game with a strained left hip abductor, saw back specialist Dr. Mike McCann in Houston and will rejoin the team Sunday in Atlanta. He will throw off flat ground Monday and throw a bullpen session Tuesday before being re-evaluated.
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Oswalt would only be able to make one start before the All-Star break, but the Astros would put him on the disabled list if they have any doubts about his health. “We’re not going to do anything to put him in jeopardy,” Wade said.
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Oswalt is 7-8 with a 4.60 ERA in 18 starts this year.

MLB.com: Van Benschoten to fill Gorzelanny’s spot

Tom Gorzelanny’s loss serves to potentially be John Van Benschoten’s gain. With the Pirates’ decision to option Gorzelanny to Triple-A on Saturday, Van Benschoten stands in line to be the immediate replacement in the rotation.
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Though Gorzelanny had not proven the ability to pitch effectively in the Majors this season, the question was asked of Huntington as to whether putting Van Benschoten into the rotation would give the team a better chance of winning every fifth day.

“We got to a point where we’re not talking about Tom Gorzelanny with 14 wins and 200-plus innings last year,” Huntington answered. “We’re talking about a pitcher that is running out there with, unfortunately, nearly a 6.50 ERA, so that’s what we’re replacing.”

NY Post: Jeter, A-Rod To Start In All-Star Game

The Post has learned the identity of every All-Star Game vote winner from the AL and NL for the July 15 game at Yankee Stadium and the starting pitchers.

Major League Baseball will announce tomorrow that Derek Jeter Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez Alex Rodriguez will start for the AL club at short and third, respectively, and that there are no Mets New York Mets among the NL starters. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera will be named with the other pitchers and reserves. The plan is for Rivera to pitch the final All-Star inning in Yankee Stadium history.
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Arizona right-hander Brandon Webb will start for the NL and Cleveland lefty Cliff Lee goes for the AL.

N.Y. Times: Glanville: Doubleday and Darwin (RR)

Inherit the Windup...the latest dandy from Doug Glanville.

There are quantifiable skills that can make someone naturally compatible with the rules of the game, but it’s almost more important to be adaptable. Baseball can update pretty dramatically for a National Pastime. It has the ability to stay both classic and current, without contradiction. On the table of baseball rule changes for late this season is the instant replay, intended to help umpires on difficult home run calls. In the end, if it’s added to the rule book, the game will go on; players — and umpires — who don’t adapt won’t.

As the game changes, what is deemed “talent” changes right along with it. A player is discovered only in the shadow of these rules — rules that were invented and that have matured over time.

If I were to make my baseball experience the basis of answering the question about discovery vs. invention posed by my high school math teacher, I’d say that math was discovered . . . through the lens of our invention.

N.Y. Times: Robinson: The Adventures of an Autograph Hunter (RR)

Alex Belth told me recently of his visit with the incomparable Ray Robinson and his amazing autograph collection. My Bill Voss siggy seems kinda weak now.

Every so often, there was an unanticipated contretemps. In another hotel lobby some weeks later, I asked Robert Moses Grove for his autograph. Then pitching for the Red Sox, Lefty Grove was one of the game’s incomparable southpaw pitchers — the Sandy Koufax of his time. He also possessed a volcanic temper.

At the moment I approached him, Grove was decked out in an egg-white Panama suit. Thrusting my autograph book into Grove’s hand, I turned to a page devoted to pictures of him. I asked politely if he would sign for me as I handed him my pen. He took the pen and signed Lefty Grove.

But as he returned the pen and book to me, he gazed down at his pants. A rivulet of dark, blue ink had dribbled down from his fly to his right knee.

Ashen-faced, Grove grabbed me, not so gently, by the back of the neck. In my panic, I thought he was about to fling me across the lobby at 100 miles per hour, a smidgen faster than his fearsome fastball. Instead, thank heaven, he thought better of it.

“I don’t ever want to see you again!” Grove said with a growl.

I made certain he never did.

Man Allegedly Beats Accused Yankees Fan With Bat

America the Beautiful, indeed.

A group of youths allegedly attacked a dad and his family on the Fourth of July after accusing them of being Yankees fans.

Falmouth police said Robert Correia, 20, and several other young men approached a family in their car, which had New York plates, and began to harass them about being Yankees fans.

According to police, the family was unable to move their car away from the group because they were stuck in post-fireworks traffic. The dad asked the group to go away because his kids were in the car, police said, but the alleged attackers would not leave him alone.

Correia and the group allegedly assaulted the dad with a baseball bat. He sustained a head injury and other injuries as a result of the attack. The car was also vandalized, police said.

Correia is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious destruction to a motor vehicle. He will be arraigned in Falmouth District Court on Monday.

Tulowitzki to DL due to shard from bat

Tulowitzki required surgery after slamming a bat that shattered and splintered into a thumb. The emotional reaction came after he was taken out of Friday’s 18-17 win against Florida. He will be out an unspecified time

No word if maple or ash were involved.

Neville Hobson: Baseball for dummies (Video)

Meet the next Commissioner of Baseball...Wolfgang Luenenbuerger!

As you may imagine, an Englishman watching a baseball game in America without understanding it much - and which, to underscore my ignorance, I referred to as a ‘match’ - is a potential setup for some amusement, perhaps akin to the stuff we tend to dish out to visiting Americans about cricket.

Add a German to the mix and the potential for amusement gets quite large.

Luckily, my fellow European Wolfgang Luenenbuerger and I had the benefit of the wisdom of our host, Marshall Manson, who ably explained how the game works.

And I captured it all on video.

Along with Wolfgang’s and Marshall’s fellow Edelman colleagues Rick Murray, Monty Lutz and Erin Caldwell - also stars of the video - I was in Chicago to participate in Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit 2008.

Pirates Sign Colombian prospect Barrios

The Pirates yesterday signed Colombian shortstop Jonathan Barrios, one of the top 25 prospects in Latin America according to two publications.

No financial terms were available for the bonus, but it might rank as the highest in franchise history for an international amateur. That would not take much: In an era where seven-figure bonuses for prospects in this category are becoming common in Major League Baseball, the Pirates are known to have signed only one player—possibly two—to six figures.

Management this year installed a sizable increase in the international budget after years of culling next to nothing from the fertile talent pool in Latin America. It also is building a $5 million academy in the Dominican Republic, set to open next summer.

Joining this century in Latin American scouting?  Drafting Pedro Alvarez and subsequently dealing with Scott Boras?  Be still, my beating heart!  I’m opening accounts in both PNC and Huntington Bank on Monday.

MLBlogs: Newman: Statues on Parade Marathon

I saw a couple of these grotesquetimonials to baseball freedom in NYC yesterday...for a second there I thought Trash and Vaudeville had given their local javachef an artsy gig!

What happens when you combine a training run for the New York City Marathon with the Statues on Parade and its 42 replicas of the Statue of Liberty spread all around NYC for the All-Star Game? Join MLB.com’s Mark Newman as he RAN a route to see them all and blogs about it. Get one yourself!

Here is a slideshow of the Statues on Parade Marathon that I ran by myself on July 4, 2008. I ran roughly 26.2 miles starting at 8 a.m. on the Upper West Side, up to Yankee Stadium, down to Battery Park (boat ride to Liberty and Ellis Islands), and back uptown to finish just after 10 p.m. I stopped along the way to see 42 Statues of Liberty on Parade for our MLB All-Star Game and a 43rd—the real Lady Liberty. I will blog more about the details but here are the pics and timestamps.

Another Johan Santana start is wasted as Mets lose to Phillies

I had no idea Santana had been so unlucky this year.

J.A. Happ—Kyle Kendrick 2.0?

Perhaps Santana should do something really crazy and recalibrate what he needs to do from now on. Knowing that his teammates will score only two runs for him, he must allow no more than one. If only it were that simple. The Mets have, in effect, wasted his last six starts, losing them all since June 6, while he has gone 0-4 and posted a 2.48 earned run average.

Over that 40-inning span, the Mets have scored 11 runs while Santana has been on the mound, and the offense that scored 25 runs the last three nights in St. Louis hardly backed him again. They mustered four hits in nine innings, reaching base once after the fifth, as their Nos. 3-5 hitters — David Wright, Carlos Beltrán and Carlos Delgado — combined to hit 0 for 11 with five strikeouts.

“I mean, for obvious reasons, we need to go out and win these games,” Wright said. “It seems like that’s been a fault of ours all year, these close games, these close one-run games, we just haven’t been able to find a way to come out on top.”

The Mets face a daunting task over their next three games. Unless they win all three, they are assured of leaving here in no better shape than when they arrived. The pitching matchup favored them Friday night, as it usually does when Santana pitches, when the Phillies started a left-hander, J. A. Happ, who had the same number of major league starts as Santana had Cy Young awards (two).

Happ and Chad Durbin sort of split up the start, with Durbin going for 2.1 innings, then leaving after the seventh.  You don’t see “long relief” much anymore, unless the game is a blowout.  Why not?

BTW, the Phillies’ blue hats look terrible with the white jerseys.

NYT: Macur: Teaching baseball as a second language in China (RR)

BEIJING — On a dusty, shoddy baseball field here this spring, Jim Lefebvre, manager of the Chinese national baseball team, gathered his players and demonstrated the Red Sox slugger Manny Ramírez’s philosophy on hitting.

“If you hit it here,” Lefebvre said, acting as if he were hitting a ball after it passed his body, “you drive a Chevy.”

“If you hit it here,” he said, pretending to hit the ball as it crossed the middle of the plate, “you drive a Cadillac.”

“But if you hit it here,” he said, pretending to connect a smidgen earlier, “you’re in a Rolls-Royce with a chauffeur! Get it? That’s how much money they have. They don’t count it, they weigh it!”

The players, who speak little English, stood by, looking puzzled. Yi Sheng, the third-base coach and unofficial team interpreter, struggled to relay the story.

His job is to prepare the Chinese national baseball team for the Beijing Olympics, with the pride of the host country and its team at stake. But this is the Chinese squad with the least expectations. The host country receives an automatic baseball berth, which is the only way Lefebvre’s team could have qualified.

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“It’s really hard for us to get money for our sport from the government,” said Shen Wei, the team’s liaison to the Chinese sports bureau. “Our government would rather pay attention to sports in the Olympics that give many gold medals, or sports where we have a chance to win. We are a low priority. It’s a kind of mental anguish to see that not many people pay attention to baseball in China.”

Very interesting story about the sport that is getting probably the lowest priority of all from the Olympic-crazed Chinese government.  MLB is paying the coaches, for goodness sake.

Tom Lawless, one of China’s coaches, said his team had only six players who could play in the minor leagues. Major league scouts rated the players mostly 2’s on a scale of 1-8. The former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, another coach, said the players’ talent rated at about a high school or a college level. “They are knowledgeable about the game, but have no attention to detail,” he said.

Lefebvre, who once played a cannibal on an episode of “Gilligan’s Island,” has used his ample charisma to try to convince his players that they could win a game in the Olympics. But it has been a challenge. When he first addressed his players five years ago, they would not even make eye contact. Most of them came to baseball in their teens after failing to advance in two or three other sports, he said.

FBG: AL Rookie of the Year–Ellsbury Versus Longoria

Not many left in the Eric Van de Kamp...not many at all.

Longoria has generated 5.0 WARP, or five wins above a replacement player. This is largely driven by stellar defense, as in his half season he has already saved 19 fielding runs above replacement. Ellsbury has generated 3.0 WARP, a full 2 wins worse than Longoria. This is not a small difference.

When looked at from a purely offensive level, we can use VORP or their Value Over Replacement Player metric. This metric measures the number of runs over a replacement player based on offense alone without defense. Longoria is ranked 51st in baseball with 21.1. Ellsbury is ranked 105 with a 13.5 VORP.

One last metric is EQA or Equivalent Average. This metric is a measure of the total offensive input per out, taking into account various normalizing factors. Longoria is 8th in the AL with a .306 EQA. Ellsbury is at .268.

This is pretty much a rout. It is Longoria by a large margin, and given the trends of both players, it may end up being an actual rout in the voting.

Pujols becomes fifth-fastest to 300 home runs

32-years old is the fifth-fastest?...(ducks balled-up red sweaters drenched with disgusto crispy snoot drippings)

“It doesn’t matter,” Pujols said. “Three hundred home runs, obviously it’s a great honor to be named with some of the great players in the game. I would have taken 1-for-4 with a win, that’s more important.”

Instead, as Pujols bluntly put it, “It’s just another homer that goes out of the park.”

While Ken Griffey Jr. celebrated his 600th home run last month, Pujols said the satisfaction of reaching a milestone won’t happen until he gets to where the leaders are.

“What milestone?” Pujols said. “It’s 300 home runs. The milestone is 500, 600, like those guys have. Obviously, I think that’s a long way from 300.”

Tiger Tales: Panas: Mid-season Fielding Bible stats

A Kibby Yewcic-ly small sample of Tiger Fielding Bible data…

The Fielding Bible data is now available on Bill James Online but it’s a subscription site. It’s a relatively new site and still a work in progress. It already provides quite a few stats which you won’t find anywhere else during the season such as the Fielding Bible data and base running data (e.g How many times did Curtis Granderson go from first to third on a single? second to home on a single? , etc.) It is still lacking in articles but they are working on that. You can figure out for yourself whether it is worth $3.00 per month by taking their free tour.

I can’t go into a great deal of detail because it’s premium content but Table 1 below presents a brief summary of the fielding data for the Tigers through yesterday. Using Placido Polanco as an example, we can see that he has a +/- of +1 meaning that he has made one play in his zone abovewhat the average second baseman has made. He ranks 11th in the majors so far. All of the Tigers regular rank roughly somewhere close to average on this stat. The biggest surprise is Granderson who usually ranks well above average of range stats. In fact, he ranked 5th in 2006 and 4th in 2007 on this particular system. The sample sizes are still small for outfielders though (especially one who missed most of April). We’ll see where he ranks after a full season of data.

TSN: Crossman and Parajon: An incredible journey: The story of six Cuban baseball defectors

Perez, Galbizo, Cordero, Guevara, Limonta and Escobar (Look for David Cone to tie that in with Miller’s Crossing).

Children’s screams pierced the air. The six players stood together throughout the trip. Destination: the Florida Keys. Yunel Escobar remembers a 1-year-old. Perez recalls three boys and a girl, ages 5 to 11. Cordero can see, in his mind’s eye, two boys, 5 and 7. Everyone around the players vomited. If the waves didn’t make the passengers throw up, if the people around them throwing up didn’t make them throw up, the overpowering smell of gasoline did. Escobar—a proud man—admits he vomited.

For two days and two and a half nights this went on. There was no food and no water. And sharks circled the boat.

“To see those sharks so close nearby, it would scare anybody,” Perez says. “The boat had to get out of there in a hurry because it really started to get ugly.”

Everyone was exhausted, physically and emotionally. The boat, slowed by the weather, finally hit land at about 1 a.m. on October 9. “Nobody wanted to get out,” Perez says. “We didn’t know where we were.” He worried the boat had done a giant circle and arrived back in Cuba. “The guys driving the boat said, ‘We’re here,’ but nobody wanted to get out because we were all scared—still from the sharks. And then we had to jump in the water.”

What if it was Cuba? What if the players waded ashore and Fidel Castro’s border guards met them?

It was not Cuba. It was the United States.

Campbell: What if the Astros had kept Jeff Kent?

Uhh...He would have been performing death-defying no-look wheelies at the Texas Outlaw Fireworks Sprint Car Nationals?

Could Biggio have gotten to 3,000 hits — and almost certainly punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame — if Kent had stayed?

As uncomfortable as Biggio was in left field, it’s highly doubtful. I floated the scenario past some Astros insiders, who flat-out insist Biggio wouldn’t have possibly gotten to 3,000 if he couldn’t have taken refuge at second base.

In a strict baseball sense, the Astros clearly would have been better off if they’d have kept Kent. Maybe Kent, who has more home runs than any second baseman in major-league history, would have made the Astros more of a match for the White Sox in the World Series. Maybe Kent could made the difference in the 1 ½ games that separated the Astros from the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in 2006.

And maybe not.

What we do know is that the Astros reached their first World Series and Biggio got to 3,060 hits after Kent’s departure. Is that — and Biggio’s almost certain induction into the Hall of Fame — a happy enough ending for Astros fans? How many wish they could go back in a time machine and see what would have happened if the Astros had taken their chances on Kent?

MLB.com: Angels’ offense flies off Burnett

On Friday night, [A.J.] Burnett had no problem finding the exit inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Angel Stadium, swinging the door open violently and sending it crashing into the adjacent wall. It was an understandable outburst in the wake of an 8-2 loss at the hands of the Angels.

The blame for this latest defeat could easily be cast upon a number of players. Burnett was partly responsible in light of the eight runs he surrendered in an outing that certainly did nothing to increase his value on the trade market. Toronto’s defense also lagged and the offense came up empty once again.

STL Post-Dispatch: Fawning over Edmonds was a Busch idea

OK, I’ll admit it. Cardinals fans were right; I was wrong. Of course it was the proper thing to do to stand and applaud Edmonds. Thanks for adjusting my attitude.

— Given the Cubs’ 33-10 record at home this season, it was no surprise to see them take the series opener on Friday. The loving reception for Edmonds gave the Cubs an immediate home-field advantage at Busch, and the visitors tapped into the pro-Cubs vibe.

— The Cubs increased their division lead over the Cardinals to 3 1/2 games.

But why get caught up in the standings? Jimmy Baseball was welcomed back into the tender embrace of baseball’s best fans.
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Sorry to be negative on such a magnificent evening for Edmonds and the Cubs — but I’m down on Braden Looper. He had some nerve, striking Edmonds out twice instead of grooving batting-practice fastballs. Why not cap off the homecoming and give Edmonds a chance to homer?

Looper should have been booed off the mound for the failure to show Edmonds the proper respect.

LA Times: Nomar Garciaparra has a happy return (RR)

The Dodgers (42-44) are now breathing down the 43-44 D’backs’ necks…

[Nomar] Garciaparra made a triumphant return Friday, to the position he last played regularly four seasons ago, in a 10-7 victory for the Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park that extended their winning streak to four games and put them half a game behind first-place Arizona in the NL West.

Activated from the disabled list on the same day as Andruw Jones, Garciaparra was two for four with two doubles, two runs batted in and a run scored.
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General Manager Ned Colletti made it no secret that landing a shortstop would be his “primary” mission in the three-plus weeks leading up to the trade deadline—and that to do so he could break up the Dodgers’ previously untouchable core of young players.

“We’re more open-minded to who we may have to move than we’ve been in the past,” he said.
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Already, the Dodgers have asked the Pittsburgh Pirates about Jack Wilson. But landing Wilson or any other shortstop at this stage probably would cost the Dodgers multiple players.

“It’s not an easy position to fill, especially mid-season, but we’re going to see,” Colletti said.

MLB.com: Rox outslug Marlins in walk-off win

Humidor on vacation for the holiday?

The Rockies scored in all but one inning and came back from a nine-run deficit to defeat the Marlins, 18-17, in front of 48,691 at Coors Field on Independence Day… The last time a team came back to win from nine down was Aug. 23, 2006, when Cleveland rallied for a 15-13 victory at Kansas City, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
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At 13-4, the game had all the makings of a blowout, but the Rockies’ offense wouldn’t have it, scoring eight straight runs to cut the lead to one. Ryan Spilborghs hit a solo home run in the fourth, and Holliday added one in the fifth. Three batters later, Iannetta hit a three-run home run onto the concourse beyond the left-field seats. Spilborghs hit his second solo homer of the night in the sixth for his third career multi-home run game, and Atkins hit a two-run shot later in the inning to bring the game to 13-12.

The Rockies’ relievers couldn’t keep it that way. Jason Grilli and Manuel Corpas combined to give up four runs in the seventh to extend the Marlins’ lead to five.

But on this night, the Rockies refused to die.

MIL Journal-Sentinel: Pursuit of trade for Sabathia continues

Latest C.C. news…

The Milwaukee Brewers remained in hot pursuit Friday evening of Cleveland left-hander C.C. Sabathia, trying to close a deal that could send top prospect Matt LaPorta, minor-league third baseman Taylor Green and perhaps a third prospect to the Indians.

Reached late in the evening, Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said he did not have a deal in place for Sabathia. Melvin said it was his understanding that other teams were still trying to strike deals for Cleveland’s ace.

“Cleveland is in control of this, not us,” said Melvin… “But I don’t anticipate anything happening in the next couple of days.”
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The Brewers were eager to complete a deal to fend off other clubs in the hunt for Sabathia, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, and get him in a Milwaukee uniform as soon as possible.

Several other highly rated prospects have been discussed during negotiations, but the Brewers were thought to be willing to do the deal for LaPorta, Green and another prospect. Class A Brevard County outfielder Lorenzo Cain might be that third player.

C.J. Wilson says former teammates created bad chemistry for Texas Rangers (RR)

Clean living youth, and social change are the way to go!

Wilson lauded the arrivals of players such as Milton Bradley and Eddie Guardado for their influence in the clubhouse. But he also said there were key players on last year’s team who were more interested in money than in winning baseball games. He also said an unnamed key veteran was “mean” to younger players.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how much better it is now than it was two years ago,” Wilson told KTCK’s Bob Sturm. “And the most obvious thing I can say is, you look at the roster, the guys that we have now versus the guys that we had then.”

...While Wilson didn’t name any departures directly, he told Sturm a “dark cloud” was lifted from the club last July. He also said a “big” and “medium-sized” cloud disappeared after the 2006 season.

The Rangers traded Eric Gagne, Kenny Lofton and Mark Teixeira in the final week of July 2007. Wilson cited Gagne as an excellent teammate but made no mention of the other two players.

“They weren’t interested in being part of a team,” Wilson said of the unnamed players. “They were just interested in bank accounts.”

MLB.com: Bullpen declares independence at home

Whenever Erik Bedard starts a game these days, Mariners relievers know there is about a 99-plus-percent chance that some of them will see some action. Sure enough, the left-hander departed after five innings and 99 pitches on Friday afternoon.
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“(Bedard’s) pitch count was up near 100, so I was already getting ready,” [Sean] Green said. “I also knew they had a lot of right-handers in the lineup today, so I was prepared.”

Bedard, who has now thrown fewer than 100 pitches in each of his past six starts, and has reached triple digits six times in 15 outings this season.
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Bedard dressed quickly and departed Safeco Field without talking to the media—the second consecutive game a Seattle starter has shunned the press. Carlos Silva had no comments after his start on Thursday night.

ESPN: Zambrano quiets Cards’ offense in Edmonds’ homecoming

The return of Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano trumped the soap opera setting of Jim Edmonds’ homecoming and Albert Pujols’ 300th home run. Zambrano came off the 15-day disabled list from a shoulder strain with six spotless innings Friday night, leading Chicago to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a three-game series matching the National League’s top two teams.
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Pujols became the fifth-youngest player to 300 with an eighth-inning shot off the left-field foul pole against Bob Howry. He’s 5-for-9 with two homers against Howry, and made it to the milestone at 28 years, 170 days, beating Hall of Famer Mel Ott by one day. Alex Rodriguez is the youngest to 300 homers at 27 years, 249 days.
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Edmonds, who got a prolonged ovation before his first at-bat, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

Larry King says Barry Bonds still wants to play

and Sandy Koufax still wants to play ringalevio and wear my fave PJ’s during sleepovers!

Barry Bonds would like to play again but realizes it probably will not happen. That was the impression he left with one of his Hollywood friends, CNN talk-show host Larry King, when they chatted two weeks ago.

“I don’t think he’s going to play again,” King said during a visit to China Basin on Friday. “He hasn’t said he’s not going to play again, but I don’t think he’s going to play again. He works out. He goes to UCLA, I think, every day. He’s on the track. If an offer came, would he take it? My impression is yes. Does he expect it? No.”

King said he dined with a baseball person Thursday night and they discussed a rumor that Bonds quietly went to Fenway Park to take batting practice for the Boston Red Sox after David Ortiz got hurt. Although that has not been substantiated, King said, “That would be wild, because he fits there.”

King said Bonds was “a little down, a little sullen” over his parting with San Francisco, adding, “I think he expected more out of the Giants.”

MLB.com: Damon hurt as ball sits on top of wall

With two outs, Kevin Youkilis stepped to the plate for Boston and smacked a fly ball deep to left field. Johnny Damon took chase and crashed against the wall to make the grab. The ball could temporarily be seen in his glove before it popped out.

But then it seemed to disappear, and all eyes—including those of Damon—searched the outfield before a white object was spotted sitting on top of the left-field wall.

“I think it was bizarre in that it stayed on the wall,” said Mike Lowell, who delivered the game-winning three-run homer for Boston in the fifth inning. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.”

In a strange series of events, the ball rocked back and forth while Damon fell backward onto the warning track. As he sat up, the left fielder whipped his head around to locate the ball as it dropped back onto the field with Youkilis legging out a two-run triple to tie the game.
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Instead of making a catch that would have ended the frame for the Red Sox, Damon was forced to leave the game with what was later diagnosed as a contusion and sprain of the AC joint of his left shoulder.

Chicago Tribune blog: Edmonds at odds with La Russa

The first volley of the Cubs-Cardinals showdown was sent Friday afternoon at Busch Stadium when Jim Edmonds ripped former manager Tony La Russa for suggesting Edmonds wanted to bury his Cardinals past.

La Russa had told a newspaper he was disturbed by Edmonds’ comments to Chicago reporters that he wanted to be accepted as a Cub, asking them to stop associating him with the Cardinals.

“I think we ought to follow his lead,” La Russa said… “So I would treat him like he never played here. I would wait until the end of his career and I would remember he was a Cardinal. I would ignore the fact that he was ever here because that’s what he wants. I would honor his request. Forget the Cardinal days until his career his over.”

Edmonds responded Friday afternoon by calling the comments “asinine” and “ridiculous.”

“For someone to say I don’t want to be affiliated with the Cardinals couldn’t be further from the truth, and could be the most asinine thing I ever heard,” Edmonds said. “I was just trying to be respectful to the situation and respectful to the organization I’m in now.”
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La Russa told the media he would shake Edmonds hand if he sees him. When told of that, Edmonds replied: “He’s a (sissy) if he doesn’t.”

FOX: Rosenthal - Dodgers join Brewers in pursuit of Sabathia

The Brewers aren’t the only team pushing hard for Indians left-hander C.C. Sabathia. The Dodgers also are heavily in the mix, according to major-league sources.

However, the Dodgers’ bid for Sabathia is complicated by their pursuit of Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson as a replacement for the injured Rafael Furcal, sources say. To get Wilson, the Dodgers would need to trade the Pirates some of the same players that the Indians want for Sabathia, leaving Los Angeles with a choice of one deal or the other.
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While the Dodgers might not offer a prospect better than Brewers Class AA left fielder Matt LaPorta, their proposal for Sabathia would include three players, sources say. Class AA right-hander James McDonald, Class AAA shortstop Chin-Lung Hu and third baseman Andy LaRoche are among the Dodgers’ prospects likely drawing consideration form the Indians.
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By acquiring Wilson, the Dodgers would signal that they might not intend to keep Furcal, whom they probably consider too big of a physical risk to re-sign as a free agent.

Indians designate closer Borowski for assignment

Bayonne Joe...next stop the Hackensack Troasts.

Indians closer Joe Borowski, last year’s American League saves leader, was designated for assignment on Friday.

The right-hander blew his fourth save in 10 chances on Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox, and was 1-3 with a 7.56 ERA in 18 games this season.

Borowski had 45 saves last season but has struggled since returning from an arm injury. He returned to the Indians in late May after being sidelined for about a month with a strained right triceps that caused him to lose velocity on his pitches.

General manager Mark Shapiro said the club tried to give Borowski every chance but the reliever wasn’t able to return to form.