MLB: Giants acquire Sanchez from Pirates

The Giants have scheduled a 4 p.m. PT news conference Wednesday at AT&T Park to announce the acquisition of second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For Sanchez, joining the Giants was a matter of walking from one clubhouse to the other. San Francisco completed a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh with a 1-0 victory Wednesday.

Sanchez, a three-time All-Star and the National League’s 2006 batting champion, didn’t play in the series due to a sore left knee. That reportedly threatened to scuttle the deal, but Giants management obviously decided to go ahead with the move.

The Giants were believed to have parted with right-hander Tim Alderson, one of their top pitching prospects.

Michel: The Drugged Fallacies of Bill James

Damn, I miss the early Casey Michel picture already.

Still, in a final display of twisted logic, James puts forth a belief that those who cheated, well, actually didn’t. “Is it cheating,” James writes, “if one violates a rule that nobody is enforcing, and which one may legitimately see as being widely ignored by those within the competition?”

I’ve read this sentence dozens of times, and I’m still confounded. Perhaps it is because I’m still in the thralls of academia, but I can’t help but picture a fellow student using this excuse with his professor: “But, sir, you left the classroom, and since there was no way you could see if I had snuck notes for the test or not, well, it’s not really cheating, is it?”

James is wrong, abjectly and unequivocally. True, the rule-breaking may have been ashamedly unenforced. But that does not allow players the right to cross the line every time a head is turned. Even if 80 percent of the players were doing it, even if every member of your team was juicing, even if you knew you would never get caught: In no way does this fail to lower the ethical standard to which every player should be held.

...Maybe there will be an asterisk, maybe not. And someday, I’m sure, sympathy will begin to curdle for these frauds. But they brought the lifeblood of America to its knees. They nearly ruined this country’s greatest institution, and jaded an entire generation of Americans.

In illuminating his thoughts on steroids, James was patient, measured, and lucid, a formula that has worked wonders for his reputation. Because he’s slow, he’s often right.

This time, though, I pray he’s wrong.

MLB: Two Tigers Minor League players suspended

Awaits Hank Aaron’s take....

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that two Minor League players from the Detroit Tigers organization, pitchers Carlos Alvarado and Frank Penalver, have been suspended after each tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Alvarado tested positive for a metabolite of Nandrolone, while Penalver tested positive for a metabolite of Boldenone.

The suspensions of both players, who are members of the organization’s Venezuelan Summer League team, are effective immediately.

Reds acquire Balentien from Mariners - Cincinnati ships reliever Manuel to Seattle in deal

The Reds today announced the acquisition of outfielder Wladimir Balentien from the Mariners in exchange for right-handed pitcher Robert Manuel.

Rockies trade Hirsh to Yankees

New York Times Yankees beat writer Tyler Kepner is reporting on his Twitter feed that the Yankees have traded for Rockies pitcher Jason Hirsh, who has spent the past two seasons battling injuries and pitching at Triple-A Colorado Springs.

The Rockies will possibly receive a player to be named later, but the move was designed to help out the Yankees, who needed a player at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre, and Hirsh, who the Rockies felt had run his course with the organization. Hirsh will pitch at Triple-A for the Yankees.

Minnesota Twins’ Ron Gardenhire wants his players to play, not worry about trades

and don’t go near the 2009 BTF’s 2009 Trade Deadline Extravaganza (7/31, 12-6 PM EDT) looking for your names!

Baseball’s trade deadline is Friday. The last thing Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire wants is for his players, who have won three straight games, to begin acting like they’re the team’s general manager, suggesting trades.

It can affect a clubhouse.

“That’s the problem,” Gardenhire said. “When you start thinking about that stuff, it takes away from what you do on the field. Your mind’s not in the right place. We have to keep our mind in the right place, and that’s what we can control.

“They (players) can’t make a deal.”

Gardenhire has told his players it’s not their job to make or not make trades, so don’t even be concerned about it.

“All we can do is play,” he said.

Trade rumors frustrate Gardenhire.

“Everybody makes all these rumors, and we all talk about it, everybody,” he said. “And it’s ridiculous. It’s not helping us win a game. So play baseball.”

Pirates trade Wilson, Snell to Mariners

Just wanted to point out that Pirates have made a trade of Wilson and Snell to Mariners.

Shortstop Jack Wilson is the latest Pirates veteran to be dealt, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And righthander Ian Snell will join him.

Wilson and Snell were traded to the Mariners today for catcher/first baseman Jeff Clement, shortstop Ronny Cedeno and righthanded pitchers Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock.

Robothal - Sources: Phils reach agreement for Indians’ Lee

The Phillies are not getting Roy Halladay. But the pitcher they are getting just happens to be the reigning American League Cy Young award winner.

The Phillies have reached agreement on a trade that would bring them left-hander Cliff Lee and outfielder Ben Francisco from the Indians for Class A right-hander Jason Knapp, Class AAA right-hander Carlos Carrasco, shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson, according to major-league sources.

The deal, which does not include any cash, is pending a review of medical records.

ESPN: Neyer: Zorilla’s MVP chances

That’s it! Time to reform The Shandelwebbs and remuck-up Go Go Zorilla!

Just off the top: Zobrist leads the American League in FanGraphs’ Runs Above Replacement (51.5) but he’s just 20th in Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement (4.1).

Why the big difference? Simple: According to FanGraphs, Zorilla has been phenomenally good at second base, and excellent too in the outfield; according to BP, he’s been just an average fielder this season. And just when you thought the pinheads had figured out defense ...

...I don’t think the tiebreaker comes into play here, though. I’m not convinced that Zobrist is the most valuable player in the American League, in part because we can’t take those outstanding defensive numbers at face value. Not yet. Nor am I convinced that he’s the 20th most valuable player in the league. I suspect he’s somewhere in the middle. Closer to No. 1 than 20, perhaps. But, still.

As a practical matter, Zobrist isn’t in the top 10 in the AL in runs scored or RBI. That’s why he’s not going to draw a great deal of support from the voters.

Post-Gazette:  Pirates, Giants could be close on Sanchez

The Pirates’ management worked deep into last night on trade proposals involving shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez, according to multiple sources. And a deal in which Sanchez would be sent to the San Francisco Giants seemed the greatest possibility.

...

The Minnesota Twins also are interested in Sanchez, as well as reliever John Grabow. The Boston Red Sox are interested in Wilson.

Seems like double-speak:

There were no new talks toward contract extensions for Wilson or Sanchez yesterday, although each side maintained its stance that such talks would be welcome. As Pirates president Frank Coonelly said earlier in the week, no resumption of talks is expected until after the passing of Major League Baseball’s trading deadline 4 p.m. Friday.

Wilson and his agent, Page Odle, attempted to contact the team yesterday to discuss a counter-offer to the initial two-year, $8 million rejected July 17, but the team did not return the call.

Maybe Wilson and his agent realized they were leaving money on the table for no good reason?

On another trade front, the Pirates continued to have contact with the New York Yankees about estranged pitcher Ian Snell.

If he didn’t like the pressure in Pittsburgh, what psycho would put him in the blender that is New York sports media pressure?  This would be like the Jeff Weaver experience on steroids.

Kiszla: No doubt: Marquis MVP of Rockies

To have complete mastery over others!...Marquis de Sadist!

Jason Marquis is doing something thought impossible for a baseball player in Colorado, where a pitcher goes to have his earned run average inflated and his ego deflated.

When have the words Cy Young Award candidate and Rockies pitcher ever been uttered in the same breath?

...Marquis is the most unappreciated pitcher in the major leagues.

And here’s what should irk any Rockies fan.

When any hitter, from Larry Walker to Matt Holliday, puts up gaudy statistics while wearing a Colorado uniform, every base hit is automatically discredited by seamheads because of the thin air in Denver and the wide open spaces of Coors Field.

Hey, we get it.

But, by the same token, shouldn’t Marquis receive extra credit for going 12-7 with a 3.47 ERA for doing the job under the same adverse pitching conditions inColorado? No National League hurler, including Lincecum, has been more essential to his team’s success than Marquis.

Thanks to Tyler Hissey.

JeffFrancoeur.com: July 22, 2009

And rest assured, I’m in safe hands with the Mets… like the Braves, they are also a Delta team! Clearly I’ll be pulling for David Wright now in the Delta Jeter/Wright Batting Challenge.

Personally, I haven’t yet experienced switching from one big league team to another, so it’ll take some getting used to. Adjusting to new teammates, a new home field, a new city, the look of a new uniform (although, I did grow up wearing orange and blue at Parkview High School so I think that should be a comfortable adjustment), etc. But it’s a really exciting time for me, and I’m looking forward to it.

Everyone comes back fresh from the All Star break and looking forward to the second half of the season. You’ll see most guys spending time with their families over the break; going to the beach or lake, or just hanging out at home with some rare downtime.

So for the next several months until the end of the season I’ll be making the great city of New York my home away from home. A country boy goes to the big city! Thanks for all the support and I hope you continue to keep up with me and Delta throughout the rest of the season…
I’ll be here, just in a different uniform.

Calcaterra:  Dice-K’s beatdown begins

A day after Dice-K declared the Red Sox’ training methods as the reason for his injuries (no word on whether he blamed them for his second chin and inability to throw a pitch down the middle), the team is striking back. And, as is the custom in Boston, they’re doing it through the media. First, Tony Massarotti hits him, relaying that the team is “downright angry” at him, and that “the truth is that the Red Sox were tired of Matsuzaka’s high-maintenance act a long time ago, but they kept their mouths shut and put up with it because Matsuzaka won games.”

Then Dan Shaughnessy, who has long been a trusted messenger for the Sox, says “the Sox are steamed. Matsuzaka talked out of turn, infuriated his bosses and his teammates, and unwittingly took the focus away from Hall of Famer Jim Rice on the night the slugger’s number was retired . . . It is reasonable to wonder if Matsuzaka will pitch again for the Sox this season. Or ever.”

MLB.com: Mets unveil new Players Choice gear

Prior to Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, the Mets unveiled the Players Choice Signature Series—a set of merchandise designed by six Mets players for their fans—that will be sold exclusively at the Players Clubhouse Store at Citi Field and on MLB.com.

Daniel Murphy, Bobby Parnell, J.J. Putz, Omir Santos and Gary Sheffield were on hand to model their own gear. John Maine, the sixth Met to take part in the project, was not available due to his shoulder injury.

Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon.
Call Parnell just to see how sales of his custom-designed brown Mets shirt are doin’.

Murphy built off his Irish heritage by infusing the Mets’ classic road look with both the color green and a logo of a clover over his signature.

Parnell went with “earth tones”—brown with camouflage lettering—to give his merchandise an outdoors look that is big in his native North Carolina.

Putz strove for a patriotic feel, going with a camouflage jersey with red, white and blue lettering. Putz also produced an elaborate T-shirt design with his name in gothic letters above two eagles and a home plate bearing the Mets’ interlocking “NY” logo.

Santos paid homage to his native country with a Mets logo that integrated the Puerto Rican flag in the background. His T-shirt consisted of a big picture of Santos in catching gear.

“I just wanted to see myself on a T-shirt,” Santos joked.

Sheffield’s jersey utilized a black pinstriped look with an elastic collar and the racing stripes down the shoulders and sides from the Mets’ uniforms of the 1980s. The “10” on the back of the jersey includes a picture of Sheffield in action—an idea the designers thought was particularly cool. Sheffield also made sure to include a logo celebrating his 500th home run, which he hit on April 17 at Citi Field.

I wish some player had chose a more subversive design.

“Jeff Francoeur’s design pays tribute to his Atlanta heritage with a big picture of Mr. Met weeping, and the legend ‘Mets Suck, Braves Rock’.  ‘Hey, why lie?’ Francoeur remarked.”

Do the Recent Failures of the Oakland A’s Discredit Moneyball Strategies in Baseball and Academia?

Nonetheless, the recent decline of the A’s does raise the question of whether GMU will suffer a similar decline as better-funded competitors mimic some of our hiring strategies. It certainly could happen, but I am guardedly optimistic that it won’t. Competitive pressure in academia is much weaker than in professional sports, where losing GMs tend to get fired and owners of losing teams suffer big financial losses. In the academic world, faculty who perform poorly relative to their competitors are unlikely to lose either funding or tenure. Even law school deans are unlikely to lose their jobs merely because the school’s ranking stagnates or declines.

Thus, GMU’s innovations are less likely to be copied widely than those of the A’s. Even so, some have spread. The three undervalued faculty assets that GMU has historically pursued include 1) law and economics scholars, 2) conservative and libertarian academics who might have gone to higher-ranked schools but for ideological discrimination, and 3) academics with strong publication records who were overlooked by higher-ranked schools because they didn’t have a prestigious clerkship or didn’t get their JDs at a top-5 school. I think it’s clear that law and econ scholars are no longer undervalued by most of our competitors. Ideological discrimination and school/clerkship snobbery persist, but both are less intense than ten years ago. In particular, our rivals are beginning to realize that past publication record is a better predictor of the quality of future scholarship than who you clerked for or where you got your JD (this is similar to Beane’s famous insistence on evaluating prospects based on minor league and college stats rather than whether they looked good to tradition-minded scouts).

Overall, one of our comparative advantages has been completely eliminated by the market, and the other two have at least been eroded. On the other hand, we have several edges that the A’s don’t. Unlike the A’s, we can close the financial gap that separates us from our rivals by building up our endowment over time (the A’s resources, by contrast, are constrained by their status as a small-market team). The school’s rise in the rankings and increased public profile make fundraising easier. Converting a temporary innovative edge into longterm financial success is much easier in academia than baseball.

Melvin seeks deal for staff help

Milwaukee has lost 16 of 23 games.  They have lost games of late by the score of 9-4, 10-2 and 14-6.  Due to injury and poor performance the starting staff is in shambles.  There are three teams above Milwaukee in the standings and each is superior overall to the Brewers right NOW. 

Doug Melvin needs to resist making a deal motivated by desperation since he will only overpay which will almost certainly have long-term negative ramifications.

2009 is done.  The Brewers need to get focussed on 2010 and can work on that goal by accomplishing the following:

--Get Manny fixed.  Somebody in the front office needs to tell Ken Macha to keep Jason Kendall 20 feet away from Parra at all times and have Rivera catch Manny in games.  Period.  End of discussion.  Kendall catching Parra IS NOT WORKING PEOPLE. 

--Play Gamel at third base.  Nothing like two months of steady play to figure out whether the defense will hold up.

--Insert Tim Dillard into the rotation and find out what happens.  I know his game isn’t very s^xy, but the young man has almost 800 innings in the minors with a 3.35 ERA.  And it’s not like anyone is impressing at the major league level.

--Cool it with the Gallardo is a horse stuff.  Team is no longer in chase mode.  Let’s reduce that workload a tad shall we?

--Think about who is going to catch in 2010.  And begin discussing it in public to let everyone know, including the player in question.

Jenkins: Tracy Ringolsby can’t stand “Moneyball”

Tracy Ringolsby can’t stand “Moneyball”—the concept, the book, or the man who wrote it, Michael Lewis. As such, he’s ready to rip Beane every chance he gets. Ringolsby is also a Hall of Fame baseball writer and one of the game’s most respected voices over the past 30 years. It was interesting, then, to read his take on the Matt Holliday trade with St. Louis.

A bit of background: Shortly after the release of “Moneyball,” Ringolsby (then with the Rocky Mountain News) launched a searing attack on Lewis’ credibility. Aside from pointing out some (of many) factual errors in the book, Ringolsby cited some player-development evidence that Lewis chose to ignore. Getting wind of this, Jim Rome invited Lewis to appear on his ESPN television show. Looking like a complete lightweight (which he surely isn’t), Lewis greeted Ringolsby’s published attack with silly, forced laughter and called Ringolsby a “midget” in the business. That was a big mistake, and with his dreadfully elitist’s response, Lewis looked as if a stiff breeze would blow him right off camera—a difficult thing to witness, certainly, for any fan of his top-shelf writing.

Switch now to Monday, when Ringolsby addressed the Holliday trade in his FoxSports.com column. The issue we’re all trying to evaluate is the matter of (a) acquiring Holliday for Huston Street, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith; and (b) unloading Holliday for Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson and Clayton Mortensen. Some, including FoxSports’ own Ken Rosenthal, have called this exchange the latest measure of Beane’s genius.

...Ringolsby went on to note Street’s value to the Rockies ("he has regained his late-inning magic) and adds that Wallace “is not in the same area code as Gonzalez in any category beyond power.” The truth is that nobody really has a clue how this will all turn out in the end. We certainly know, however, how Mr. Ringolsby feels about it.

Thanks to Barnald the Chair Catcher.

Sandberg: I’d want Rose on my coaching staff

“I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel. I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do, play it right and with respect.” Ok...forget that ####### HOF ######## I was handing you.  C’mon down, Petey!

“Players today would only benefit from being around him, and the game would only be better if players were around Pete Rose,” Sandberg said Monday afternoon as he boarded a bus in Mobile, Ala. “I’d want to be on same team as Pete Rose, so, yes, if I was ever fortunate enough to get the chance to manage in the big leagues, I’d want a guy like him on my staff, and want him around my team.

“I would definitely want what Pete Rose brings to the park. No doubt about that.

“He brings a lot of energy and effort and expects everyone else to do the same thing. He changes the entire dynamic.”

TFT: Mitchell: Honus Wagner and Evolving Definitions

Or...Would he still be The Flying Dutchman during these faster times?

I have been thinking about this because of some of the feedback I received in a recent column where I asserted that Honus Wagner, the greatest shortstop in history, and one of the very best players ever to pick up a bat, was not really a power hitter.

...Isolated power (ISO) allows us to see disaggregate slugging percentage from batting average. Wagner’s numbers here are considerably less impressive than his slugging numbers. His career .137 ISO is 407th among players with more than 5,000 plate appearances, putting him in a tie with Jim Spencer, Bill Madlock, Riggs Stephenson and Earle Combs, none of whom, except perhaps Spencer, were power hitters in any meaningful sense. Wagner’s best single season ISO was .188 in 1907 good for 99th among shortstops but not among the top 1,600 ISO seasons overall. The ISO data confirm that much of Honus Wagner’s slugging percentage is, in fact, a residue of his high batting average.

Overall the numbers are sufficiently ambiguous that the question of whether or not Honus Wagner was a power hitter is tied to the question of how we define “power hitter.” It also begs the more abstract question of whether there were power hitters when there was very little power in the game. While the answer to this question is probably subjective, it is also apparent that the argument is not really about numbers but about defining terms and balancing change and continuity within the game over the decades.

Rovell: Yankees President Randy Levine Comments On Ticket Sales

WOW! I just peeled back a bombastical Cement LP cover and found a Beatles Butcher Cover underneath! I swear!...I swear!

On what kind of metrics the Yankees have to determine price...

Levine: “Well, obviously we look at our attendance. You know, we look where the tickets have been sold, where the demand is, where there are waiting lists, where there are some soft areas. We look at everything. We look all through the entire economy. We know our fan base pretty well. We do a lot of surveys, a lot of outreach and we try to put it all together and come to the best conclusion we have.”

On the state of mind of the New York consumer...

Levine: “Well, I think New York consumers, like everywhere, are very cautious. They want to get the biggest bang for their dollar. But you know, people love baseball. They love the Yankees. They love baseball. It gives them hope. It gives them something to get up every morning and pull for. So that’s George Steinbrenner’s philosophy and the family’s philosophy is put the money back into the team. Give New Yorkers and Yankee fans all over the world a great product, give them something to feel good about and they’ll come out and watch the ballclub…Our ratings on the YES Network are the highest we’ve ever had.”

The Real McCoy: Selig NOT considering Rose’s reinstatement

All those who were dancing down the driveway when they heard that Bud Selig is agreeable to considering the reinstatement of Pete Rose, well, unlace those dancing shoes and put ‘em back in the closet.

It ain’t true.

The New York Daily News broke the “story” Monday, but on Tuesday the author, columnist Bill Madden, backed down and printed what almost resembled a retraction. The headline said it all: “Selig won’t ease up on Rose.”

I can sniff exactly what happened. It has happened to me. I wrote a story once and the next day Commissioner Selig was on the phone personally, straightening me out.

Madden is a close friend of mine and I respect him immensely. He is on the writers ballot for the Spink Award and Hall of Fame induction next year. He attends the Hall of Fame ceremonies every year and talks to all the Hall of Famers.

Somebody steered him wrong. I noticed there were no quotes from Selig on the story that he is considering Rose’s reinstatement. Madden talked about Hank Aaron backing Rose, along with Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson. Somebody spoon-fed him false information - maybe even some of Rose’s people, who have been known to do that.

Anyway, I suspect Selig called Madden on Monday and set the record straight.

Wheweee! Madden’s Inspector Henderson-style phone must have been burning up!

Bob Wickman All-Star Poster Dugout

What counts for history at the bb-ref bullpen is sometimes trivial.

Murray Chass on Baseball: ANOTHER CONFLICT FOR THE METS – SOMEONE ELSE’S

Yes, this is the Lion’s Head tavern, Scotty speaking. Murray Chass? Never heard of him.

The newspaper industry is dying quickly; we all know and acknowledge that. But can’t it at least die with dignity? Of course, to die with dignity you have to have lived with dignity, and not all newspapers and reporters have done that. Many certainly have acted with an absence of professionalism.

Believe it or not, these thoughts in my head stem from baseball. As bad as things have gone for the Mets this season, with more injuries than a rehab center and fewer hits than Tiny Tim, they got worse on Monday.

...Explaining his desire to find out about working in baseball, Rubin said, “The way newspapers are going we all need to look out for ourselves. I’m 35 years old. I’m thinking about the next 30 years of my life. I’ve asked in the past how do you get into that.”

Rubin said he had asked people from all 30 teams how one gets into the baseball business, but someone who has covered baseball for more than five years, as Rubin has, should not have to ask how. It has all been there in front of him.

Much of what Rubin said sounded like good old spin. The saddest thing he said was “There is no conflict of interest.”

But of course there’s a conflict of interest. I’m not suggesting that Rubin wrote the stories to undermine Bernazard, but whatever his intention was in speaking to Mets’ officials about working in baseball Rubin created a situation that raised questions about his motives. That’s certainly how Minaya saw it, and he was justified in thinking that way. Rubin was wrong for not understanding it.

Halos Heaven: Luis Polonia Interview Part 2

Polonia spent three seasons with the Angels, but they won’t visit his Dominican Academy. And his accusations that the team’s representatives in the DR “just sit around” resonate after the recent firing of Angels International Director Clay Daniels.

HH: And that’s kind of obvious when you look at the Angels roster through all their organization in the Minor Leagues, right? You go into the minor leagues and there’s, like, nobody there. Right?

LP: That’s because they don’t take care of business.

HH: Something’s changed here. They had a good program for getting players in the past and they don’t now, and you’re saying that it’s because they don’t have a good organization in the Dominican and not being active in reaching out to you guys to see players.

LP: They’re not doing the job. They are just waiting, they are just getting paid.

HH: Ok…

LP: And it’s sad. They are just getting paid.

HH: Like I said, just a few weeks ago they just fired our Director there, of Latin American scouting so I’ll hope that changes will be coming soon.

LP: Tell them I’m available!

Matthews: Mets haven’t fired Minaya? Blame it on Madoff

Trick confidence?

But those questions, truly, are inconsequential compared with the big hanging curveball they left floating over Flushing: Why, exactly, is Omar Minaya still their general manager?

“He’s this close to being out of baseball,” Jeff Wilpon told me, holding his thumb and forefinger a half-inch apart.

So why is he still in the Mets’ front office?

...More and more, it looks like Jeff Wilpon should have been allowed to deliver a victim impact statement in the sentencing of the Ponzi scammer who cost him and the Mets an estimated $700 million.

To that, add the salaries paid to Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo and Billy Wagner and Carlos Delgado. Plus, he’s committed to Minaya through 2012. In the current state of the Mets’ finances, you think he’s about to pay a guy nearly $4 million not to run his ballclub?

He’ll hold on to this guy if it kills him, because having to pay another guy to do his job might kill him worse.

Along with all the other damage the Madoff fiasco did to the Mets, add one more example: Omar Minaya. The Mets can’t win with him, can’t afford to let him go.

WSJ: Biderman: Who Hits Baseball’s Shortest Home Runs

Bah~! More Patech nonsense…

Joe DiMaggio once thanked the good lord for making him a Yankee. Dustin Pedroia needs to thank someone for putting him in a Boston Red Sox uniform, otherwise many of his home runs may not have cleared the fence.

Since 2006, the average Pedroia homer traveled just 369.7 feet. This is the shortest average distance of any player with at least 30 homers in that span, according to Greg Rybarczyk, an engineer who tracks the distance of all homers hit with software that accounts for trajectory and atmospheric conditions. Boston’s Fenway Park is perfect for pull-hitting righties like Mr. Pedroia—the left-field pole of the Green Monster is only 310 feet away from home plate, nearly 23 feet less than the major-league average. (Granted, the wall out there is 37 feet high.) But the unique dimensions of Fenway can only take partial responsibility for Mr. Pedroia’s short homers. The second-baseman still only averages 373.7 feet per homer away from Boston. In fact, by Mr. Rybarczyk’s count, Mr. Pedroia has never hit a home run to center field or right field in any park in his entire career.

Bill Plaschke: Dodgers’ tribute to Vin Scully needs to be a home run

Vin Scully, thought to be retiring this winter after 60 seasons, said this week he is planning on coming back for one more summer.

Scully, 81, said if he continues to feel well he will work past his landmark year and retire after the 2010 season.

“God willing, I will probably come back for one more year,” Scully said in a phone interview. “At this moment, my health is excellent, and I’m leaning toward one more year.”

And then retire?

“Yes, that makes sense,” he said.

That makes sense? That makes magic.

We now have 15 months to hang on to every syllable, cherish every story, embrace his hellos as we prepare to say goodbye.

“Hi everybody, and a very pleasant evening to you, wherever you may be.”

OK, Dodgers, the microphone is now yours.

You’ve got 15 months to plan a way to properly honor the most beloved employee in franchise history.

MLB: Wang to have season-ending surgery

Ouch, babe.

Chien-Ming Wang will have arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder capsule on Wednesday under the care of Dr. James Andrews and will miss the remainder of the 2009 season.

The Yankees hurler had another MRI examination performed on Monday in Birmingham, Ala., meeting with Andrews to discuss the results and the upcoming procedure on Tuesday.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that the team has no timeframe on how long Wang will need to recover, but it will learn more after the surgery is complete.

“It’s a tough loss for us,” Girardi said after the Yankees’ 6-2 loss to the Rays. “I feel for him, because he’s been through a lot in the last 14 or 15 months, with the [right] foot injury and now this. Hopefully, this will be the end of the surgeries for him, and he will have the rest of his career to be healthy.”

L.A. Times:  The Dodgers aren’t the only ones on a hot streak

There is no sociology class as enlightening as a Dodgers day game, no window on human behavior quite as wide. For people watching, a ballpark beats a city street or an airport. Me, I’d rather go to a Dodgers game any time than to a burlesque show or a strip club, though both feature inordinate amounts of thigh.

I swear, this particular day game is like an episode of “Hee Haw,” and I mean that in the most positive way. No one moves much. Everyone slouches. Folks in various stages of undress fan themselves with cardboard food trays and contemplate felonies on their fellow fans. But it’s too hot to actually execute the felonies. In that sense, a Dodgers day game is the safest place you could possibly be (unless the Giants happen to be in town).

How hot is it? The little thermometer I’ve brought says 85 degrees when I pull it out of my backpack. When I set it on the sunny concrete at field level, it quickly hits 105, then keeps rising. It hits 108, and—like Manny on a hot streak, it’s not done yet: 110 . . . 112. It tops out at 120, which is as high at the little thermometer goes.

I open my pack, and pull out the egg. I snap it against my bony knee and pour it into a tiny tin. My little experiment has begun.

If you love baseball, you love day games, for the light is better and everything seems summery good. Let basketball and hockey play out in dank, spidery tombs, officiated by pale people who look like government bureaucrats.

Baseball was built for natural light. Rivulets of sweat trickle down the tanned neck of a fan in front of me. Like champagne.

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY!” U2 wails over the PA at the top of the fourth inning.

ESPN: Buehrle sets MLB mark

Congratulations.

Chicago White Sox ace Mark Buehrle has set a major league record by retiring 45 straight batters.

Coming off a perfect game in his last start against Tampa Bay, Buehrle retired the first 17 Minnesota Twins batters to surpass the record of 41 straight set by and San Francisco’s Jim Barr in 1972 and tied by teammate Bobby Jenks, a reliever, in 2007.

Buehrle retired 27 in a row against the Rays in his last start, then breezed through the first five innings against the Twins to break the record.

His bid for a second consecutive perfect game ended with a walk to Alexi Casilla on a close call with two outs in the sixth. The Metrodome crowd stood and cheered Buehrle. Then Denard Span followed with a single to break up the no-hitter.