Pretty solid 1-2 at the top of the rotation on today's Birthday Team, but the position players are shaky. It's Grady Sizemore, a backup catcher, and a bunch of pinch hitters.

C: Humberto Quintero
1B: Luke Hughes
2B: Joe Dillon
3B: Danny Sheaffer
SS: Angel Aragon
LF: Lloyd Merriman
CF: Grady Sizemore
RF: Bombo Rivera

SP: Red Ames
SP: Tim Wakefield
SP: Colby Lewis
SP: Bill Hill
SP: Bill Posedel
RP: Huston Street
RP: Tom Burgmeier

Umpire/Aspiring Rapper/Stone Crab Tycoon/Not welcome in Toledo: Ollie Chill
Fun names: Tink Riviere, War Sanders
Fun name, minor league division: Fuzzy Hufft

Also worth noting: 33 years ago today, the most significant baseball event to happen in my hometown since the local ballclub signed an amateur pitcher named Denton Young.

Rest in peace, Thurman.

Tim Wakefield: The only MLB player to share my first name and birthday. And he's from the town where my best man resides. Too bad he's primarily known for playing with the Bosox.

For those interested, here are July's most exciting games (and teams).

Dag,

Out of curiosity, where does the Mets/Phillies game on July 5 rank?

The Pirates are in an interesting position. They are 3 games behind the Reds but have 24 games left against the NL Central bottom feeders. Not only are the Astros, Brewers, and Cubs bad, but they don't figure to get any better in the short term with the trades on W Rodriguez, Greinke, Dempster, and Maholm. They also have nine games remaining against the Reds. The Reds have 21 games left against said bottom feeders. Playoffs, if you can earn it.

I think it's fun to say "NL Central bottom feeders" and not include the Pirates.

Nate Schierholtz made his Phillies debut last night by hitting a home run and making a diving catch. He's pratically the same age as Hunter Pence and is going to be a free agent two years from now but seems like an ideal stopgap. And if he goes all Jayson Werth on everybody I'm sure they can work out a $156 million contract extension.

The presence of Kevin Frandsen ought to make him feel at home. Those two must have had some good times together on the bench, watching history's oldest baseball team play.

Hey, I was at Joe Dillon's career game

Mike Olt was apparently called up last night. He obviously won't play 3B, and Mitch Moreland just came back to play 1B. It seems weird to use a top prospect as the short half of a platoon for a month when he could be developing.

JJ - 14th best game of the month, with 29.7 points.

Thanks.

In case someone has thoughts: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/forums/viewthread/3352/

Speaking of exciting games...

Game of the day (yesterday): Rangers 11, Angels 10 (10). Texas's Yu Darvish and LA's Garrett Richards traded zeroes for two innings. That ended rather abruptly in the third. With one out, Darvish walked Chris Iannetta and Andrew Romine, and Mike Trout then reached on a fielder's choice that loaded the bases. Torii Hunter hit into a force at second, bringing Iannetta home, and Ian Kinsler then threw the ball away, allowing Romine to score as well. Albert Pujols followed that with a 2-run homer to make it 4-0, and walks to Mark Trumbo and Kendrys Morales and an Alberto Callaspo double extended the lead to 6.

Texas picked up a run in the bottom of the inning when David Murphy doubled and Mike Napoli singled him in; Mitch Moreland singled as well, but Kinsler flied out and Elvis Andrus hit into an inning-ending double play, and the Angels got the run back in the fourth when Trout walked and Hunter doubled him home.

The score remained 7-1 until the bottom of the fifth. Texas started the inning with back-to-back singles by Michael Young and Murphy, then produced four consecutive run-scoring plays: a double by Napoli, a sac fly by Moreland, a double by Kinsler, and a single by Andrus, closing the gap to two runs. Andrus would make it as far as third, but no further.

Given the wild success of the starters, it's not terribly surprising that the bullpens took over at this point. Alexi Ogando worked around Hunter's double for a scoreless sixth, and LaTroy Hawkins replaced Richards with two out in the bottom of the inning and stranded two runners (one inherited, one self-produced). Robbie Ross and Hawkins were both scoreless in the seventh. Ross started the eighth, but came out after issuing two walks (one intentional), leaving Tanner Scheppers to catch Hunter looking at strike three to end the inning.

The bottom of the eighth brought Kevin Jepsen into the game for the Angels. He walked Adrian Beltre and wild pitched him to second, but then recorded the first two outs of the inning. Murphy, however, dumped a 1-2 pitch into shallow left to bring Beltre home and cut Texas's deficit to a run. Scheppers worked an eventful ninth, getting the first two outs but then allowing three consecutive hits to Morales, Callaspo, and Maicer Izturis. Morales tried to score on the third one and was thrown out at home, keeping the margin to one, and with one out in the bottom of the inning, Kinsler took Ernesto Frieri deep to tie the game.

Joe Nathan came on for the tenth and faced Iannetta leading off the inning. The at bat lasted nine pitches, and the ninth was hit over the left field fence to put LA back in front. Nathan rallied to record two quick outs, but then hit Hunter with a pitch and served up Pujols's second homer of the game, putting the Angels ahead by 3.

With his team in the lead once more, Frieri remained in. His first pitch of the tenth was hit over the left-center field wall by Nelson Cruz, and that was followed by Young reaching on an error and Murphy walking, resulting in the entry of Jason Isringhausen. Napoli greeted him with a base-loading single, and since he represented the winning run, Napoli was pulled for the considerably-speedier Craig Gentry. Moreland was up next, and hit a single that brought Texas back within one. Kinsler popped up for the first out (marking the third consecutive Ranger who only saw one pitch, by the way); Andrus, though, laced a grounder up the third base line that goes down as a single, but would have easily been a double had there been incentive for him to keep running after the two lead runners came around to score.

I believe this is the biggest extra-inning comeback of the year. It's also one of the bigger regulation comebacks of the year. The game doesn't have too much else going for it, but that's plenty - it's in the 97th percentile. It also moves Texas out of last in the year-long excitement standings for the first time in a long while; they now have a moderate lead on Arizona.

So... Rangers-Angels seems like it might live up to the preseason hype. Let's hope they keep that up.

I love the excerpt. Reads like Anthony Burgess. What is a haymaker?

Game of the day (last year): Astros 4, Reds 3. Just as a reminder to the fans of these two teams that they are actually capable of winning and losing, respectively.

Facing Bud Norris, Cincinnati got leadoff man Drew Stubbs to third in the first inning before leaving him there. They followed that in the second with a Jay Bruce leadoff double, resulting in Bruce standing on third with one out. Ryan Hanigan struck out, and Paul Janish was intentionally walked to bring pitcher Bronson Arroyo to the plate. Arroyo bunted, which would have been interesting if he hadn't been thrown out.

Carlos Lee started the bottom of the second by drawing a walk from Arroyo. JD Martinez then singled; Lee went for third, and (shockingly) was thrown out. Still, Clint Barmes singled to put two on with one out, bringing up Jimmy Paredes, who was making his major league debut. Paredes hit the fifth pitch of his MLB career to the warning track in center, driving in both runners and placing him on third. (Anyone have a list of players who tripled in their first AB? Has to be fewer than the number that homered, right?) Humberto Quintero added a double to bring Paredes home.

Now facing an early deficit, the Reds quickly cut into it. Stubbs led off the third with a single, then stole second on Norris's second pitch to Miguel Cairo. Cairo grounded out, but Joey Votto doubled in one run, and Brandon Phillips singled Votto in. Bruce came up next and became the first half of a K/CS DP, with Phillips getting cut down at second to end the inning. Norris got into trouble again in the fourth, walking Hanigan and allowing a double to Janish with one out to put the tying run at third, but Arroyo grounded back to the mound and Stubbs popped out to leave it there.

The Reds tied the game in the fifth, and probably still left the inning with a sour taste in their collective mouth. Cairo, Votto, and Phillips started the inning with three consecutive hits to load the bases. Bruce then hit into a double play, which brought the tying run in but still can't exactly be considered helpful. Yonder Alonso drew a walk, but Hanigan popped up to leave the go-ahead run at third.

After the three-run second, Arroyo settled down quickly. He was perfect in the third, allowed a lone single in the fourth. Now involved in a freshly-tied game, he worked spotless innings in the fifth and sixth. Meanwhile, Norris allowed a leadoff double to Janish in the sixth; that chased him from the mound in favor of Fernando Rodriguez, who stranded Janish at third. Sergio Escalona and David Carpenter combined to retire six consecutive Reds in the seventh and eighth innings; Arroyo allowed only a Brian Bogusevic single in the eighth.

Mark Melancon came on for the ninth, and Chris Heisey, pinch hitting for Arroyo, greeted him with a bunt single. Heisey moved up on a sac bunt from Stubbs, and after Cairo was set down, saw Votto intentionally walked behind him. Melancon struck out Phillips to end the inning. Nick Masset allowed a two-out hit to Barmes, but still sent the game into extras. Melancon worked the tenth as well, setting Cincinnati down 1-2-3; Logan Ondrusek was somewhat less effective in the bottom of the inning, allowing back-to-back hits by Quintero and Angel Sanchez to put runners on the corners. Bogusevic was intentionally walked, and Jose Altuve followed with a grounder up the middle. Despite the infield being in, Brandon Phillips made a diving stop and threw home; the throw beat Quintero to the plate, but Hanigan was unable to hold on. Quintero scored, and the Astros won.

I'll ask again: does anyone have a way to make a list of players who tripled in their first at bats? I'd be curious.

In the spirit of shaq green Thompson (though the initial failure is way less extreme), I give you staten island 1b Matt snyder's splits by month:
Jun .029 (1-35)
Jul .414 (36-87)
Aug 1.000 (4-4)
Next month, he's gonna be reeeeeeally good.