Road peeves Peavy, again

Jake Peavy continues to struggle in road games. The Yankees tagged him for four runs in four innings of work Wednesday night in the Bronx, with Alex Rodriguez launching his 14th home run. Peavy drops to just 2-2 on the road this season, but it is his 5.96 road ERA which is shockingly bad. At home he's 3-2 with a 1.26 ERA.

Chase Headley hit his first major league home run in just his second MLB game. Headley, a switch hitter, went deep from the left side of the plate off Kyle Farnsworth.

Fantasy Impact: Peavy's struggles on the road seem to mirror what a number of players are going through this year. ESPN's Jayson Stark tackled the topic recently, giving a number of reasons why teams are struggling so much on the road. Headley is 3-8 in his first two MLB games, and should get every opportunity to play for a weak offensive team.

Zito going Jack Bauer

Barry Zito is on pace for 24 losses this season. Today against Detroit Zito dropped his 11th decision in 15 starts. The Giants have 89 games to go, and if Zito starts every fifth game he's likely to end up with about 17 to 18 more starts. If he keeps losing at the rate of 11 losses per 15 starts, Zito will eclipse his previous high for losses in a season (13) by 11.

Not quite Mastery

Justin Masterson did just enough to earn a win in Philadelphia. With great run support, Masterson worked five innings, allowing four hits and striking out one. Masterson got out of a jam in the 5th, allowing three different runners into scoring position with less than two outs, but only allowed one run. He gave up two earned runs on the day. Masterson benefitted from back-to-back homers in the first inning by J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell for a 4-0 lead before he even climbed the hill.

Fantasy Impact: Masterson continues to do enough to keep Boston in games. He looks to keep Bartolo Colon's rotation spot while Colon is on the DL.

Freddy isn't dead

In his latest blog for the Detroit Free Press, Jamie Samuelson outlines the reasons the Detroit Tigers should go after free agent pitcher Freddy Garcia. Samuelson's reasoning is basically that if the Tigers don't try to get Garcia, everyone else will.

No, this isn’t grasping at straws at all. Garcia is a career quality starter who at times has been very good. He won 17 games two seasons ago for the White Sox. He was a stud for them in the 2005 postseason. He’s a two-time All-Star. And he’s 33 years old. So this is not some complete shot in the dark. Garcia is a good pitcher coming off shoulder surgery who is trying to work his way back into shape. Every contender in baseball will have interest in him, so why not the Tigers?

Fantasy Impact: Garcia's still at least a month away after shoulder surgery at this time, but the Tigers need pitching. If Gracia ends up in Detroit you'll have a solid pitcher supported by a strong lineup. Those things typically go well together.

Mets purge to help Zito?

According to the Mercury News in San Jose, Barry Zito might benefit from the Mets' firing of Willie Randolph. Also axed by the New York National League ballclub - pitching coach Rick Peterson.

Peterson, who was fired as part of the Mets' purge on Tuesday, and Zito had their biggest successes together with the A's earlier this decade. Peterson was Zito's first big-league pitching coach and his psychological and biomechanical theories and techniques appeared to resonate with Zito.
The left-hander was 47-17 with a 3.04 ERA in three seasons with Peterson and won the Cy Young Award in 2003. Zito is 64-69 with a 4.08 ERA since he worked with Peterson.

Fantasy Impact: Zito could certainly use some help. The Giants tried moving him to the bullpen, and then back to the rotation earlier this season, but it's not helping. Zito struggled through the first two innings againts the Tigers today, giving up five earned runs.

Brandon Webb - flattening out

Diamondbacks starter Brandon Webb got shelled Tuesday against the Oakland A's, giving up seven runs on nine hits in less than four innings. Webb's been struggling recently, but given the numbers that The Arizona Republic dug up prior to the outing, they must've suspected more problems were on the way. It appears Webb can't get the ball to dance like he did earlier in the year.

Fantasy Impact: It will be interesting to see how this chart changes once the movement of Webb's pitches are charted for this last outing. If the movement isn't there, he likely loses his ace status.

Crisp leaves early

The Red Sox can't seem to shake injuries. Coco Crisp left today's game with a hand problem. He'd hit homers in each of his last three games.

Fantasy Impact: While the Sox need Crisp to fill-in for their often-ailing outfielders Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew, he's not a big fantasy player until he holds a full-time gig.

In Houston, we have a Boston admirer

The blog Houstonist is asking Houston teams to be more like Boston teams that can't seem to stop winning titles. One of the Houston-area teams singled out is the Astros, who are rightly criticized for their bumbling ways in recent seasons.

Ed Wade's first moves as general manager have been good ones to this point. He acquired steals fiend Michale Bourn in exchange for Brad Lidge, who was struggling as Astros closer. Lidge has since turned it around. Wade also aquired Miguel Tejada from Baltimore. While that move was criticized because of Tejada's steroid allegations, the shortstop never served any time for his misdeeds.

Ichiro to right, Sexson possibly released

In the wake of firing their general manager the Mariners are wasting little time in restructuring their team. Ichiro is switching positions from center field to right field, and now there's talk about Richie Sexson getting his outright release.

Oh my, Omar

I've waited a bit to post on the firing of Willie Randolph. I don't know if the firing was deserved or not, but it seems the Mets have underachieved for some time now. They're still a fairly young team, and their pitching is somewhat untested for the bredth of a MLB season, so I think there are a lot of questions and concerns facing them in the first place. I'm not sure they were a World Series contender this year or not.

What has caught my interest is the backlash that Omar Minaya and the Mets front office is receiving for the way they handled the Randolph firing. He was canned well after midnight EST, as the Mets let him go after a game in Anaheim. The media has called the Mets lots of things regarding this approach to firing a manager. While it doesn't seem to be good business to fire someone in the middle of the night, what do the Mets lose by doing it? Relatively little. There will be little if no backlash from fans, and I'm guessing the next Mets managerial candidates will evaluate whether to take the job on factors other than what time Randolph was fired.

If anything, the media is upset because the firing occurred in the middle of the night, and they didn't have a chance to be first on the story. First is not always best in my mind. How a story is covered and delivered is more important. How a team fires its manager is not a big deal. The Mets can do as they please.

Three more Masterson pieces

It looks like Justin Masterson is going to get Bartolo Colon's starts while Colon is on the DL. Masterson's turned in four quality starts in five outings so far this year, but when he gives up hits they usually go for extra bases. Today's game against the powerful Phillies should give a lot of insight as to how adjusted Masterson is to the day-in, day-out of Major League Baseball.

Price is right for Double-A

Rays A-ball pitcher David Price wowed them again in his latest start. Rumor has it he's getting ready to make the move to Double-A, and even with other prospects standing between him and the Big League club, you have to imagine the Rays like the progress.