Random Brewer notes:

I wager $50 to a pile of dust that now the trade deadline has passed Betancourt reverts to form. He has been killing the ball the past two weeks, but I am obviously suspicious as to the origins of this outburst.

Yovani Gallardo has cracked three doubles over his last two starts and none of them cheapies. RR should consider him as a pinch-hitter. Seriously. Lad can hit.

The Astros kept pitching Braun low and away intermingled with a pitch at his chin and Ryan finally got it sorted out Sunday.

Greinke seems to have gotten over his early season kerfuffles. Fellow has been lights out the last few weeks though some of that may be the quality of the competition.

My dad said he once played a game at SS and got absolutely crushed by the LF when they both went for a pop up. He came to some time later sitting on the bench and found out he had hit a HR in the interrim.

More importantly for the world he survived and later I was born.

Greinke's strikeout rate has been crazy this year, especially for a guy who sits around 92-93 with his heater. Has he learned a new pitch or something?

<a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1943&positi>Fangraphs</a> says his swinging strike percentage has gone from 7.5% to 11.0% and he's throwing his slider a bunch more. Maybe Kranitz taught him a new grip. I'm grasping at straws here, I guess.

New article up at THT: Cooperstown in/out lines, going position by position trying to identify the player that most represents the borderline for what a Hall of Famer at the slot should be. (In each case, the player should be a Hall of Famer in my opinion. It's just a technique to try to begin to assess if a new candidate should be in Cooperstown or not.)

Jim Leyritz, moving violations, and me.

I was screwing around on Baseball-Reference.com, and discovered that the Mariners and Angels haven't actually traded players since August 29, 1979 (the infamous John Montague for Jim Anderson trade).

Question: Have any other franchises had a longer delay between being trade partners?

The Rockies haven't been around since 1979, but they have never made a deal of any sort with the Phillies.

Adventures in the closer role: The Pirates have lost 3 extra-innings road games in the past week. They have red-hot closer currently sporting an ERA south of 1.20, and he appeared in exactly ... zero of those 3 games.

Question: Have any other franchises had a longer delay between being trade partners?

I have no idea how to check this, but I can't imagine the Red Sox and Yankees have done much business.

EDIT: I figured out how to do it, and while the teams haven't made a trade since '97, there's more activity in there than you might suspect.

Mike Stanley:

August 13, 1997: Traded by the Boston Red Sox with Randy Brown (minors) to the New York Yankees for a player to be named later and Tony Armas. The New York Yankees sent Jim Mecir (September 29, 1997) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.

I believe the Sox flipped Armas for Pedro.

I have no idea how to check this, but I can't imagine the Red Sox and Yankees have done much business.

Under each team's franchise encyclopedia, there's a (new?) button called Team Trade Histories.

The last Red Sox/Yankees trade was Mike Stanley for Tony Armas in 1997. Before that, it was Don Baylor for Mike Easler in 1986, and before that, it was Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater, in 1972. So there hasn't been a lot of activity.

Here's the full list of MIN-KC


Trades between Minnesota Twins & Kansas City Royals

April 4, 1978: The Kansas City Royals purchased Randy Bass from the Minnesota Twins.

October 24, 1973: The Minnesota Twins traded Ken Gill (minors) to the Kansas City Royals for Tom Burgmeier.

Under each team's franchise encyclopedia, there's a (new?) button called Team Trade Histories.

I like it.

The White Sox don't trade within their own division much - they haven't traded with the Twins since 1986 or the Tigers since 1989, and the only transaction they've had with the Indians since 1994 is a player purchase.

They'll deal with the Royals, though.

I believe the Sox flipped Armas for Pedro.

Well, Armas and then top notch prospect Carl Pavano.

Speaking of NL Central pitchers, what's up with Cueto?
His K/9 goes down every year, but so does his ERA.

What's his 2012 line going to be? 1.05 in 190 innings with 35 Ks?