Mariners fire McLaren, Riggleman in charge

After just 156 games as manager, John McLaren is leaving the Emerald City. McLaren will be replaced by Jim Riggleman, who I remember as a solid manager for the Chicago Cubs.

Riggleman helped Chicago win the 1998 N.L. wild card with a 90-72 record. He was fired the very next season. Riggleman has also managed the Padres. I remember him as a good-natured manager who was very straight forward. I interviewed him a few times in 1998 when I was working for local media in Chicago. Riggleman used to take the "El" train to games.

McLaren's firing is hardly a surprise. He inherited the job midseason in 2007 when Mike Hargrove suddenly walked away. Now that the Mariners have made changes with their general manager and field manager it would appear the baseball will change a great deal, too.

Richie Sexson is already rumored to be released. Ichiro switched from center field to right field, but that might stick with McLaren out the door.

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Burnett burning bridges

Call me late to the party on this one, but apparently A.J. Burnett has done/is doing everything in his power to leave Toronto. Richard Griffin's June 17th piece called "Burnett Sideshow" in The Toronto Star offers this:

What are the clues to Burnett's thinking? Let's see. He put his condo, previously owned by Vince Carter (another T.O. escapee), on the market before the season. He tipped his cap to the fans while being booed off the field a couple of starts ago against the O's. Now, while his team struggles, he says he would welcome a deal to the Cubs and that it's not a sign he disrespects the fans, his teammates or the Jays uniform. Hmm.

Peter Gammons recently rumored Burnett to the Cubs, and now with Carlos Zambrano in limbo and the Cubs needing another pitcher anyway, the conversation will likely come up again and again.

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A's ace struggling

Vlae Kerschner, in his latest A's Drumbeat blog for The San Francisco Chronicle writes that Opening Day starter Joe Blanton might need to give way to middle reliever Chad Gaudin for a while.

Not often do you see an Opening Day guy make room for someone who already lost his job. The A's have gotten great starting pitching from an interesting bunch of pitchers. Justin Duchsherer is a converted reliever, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith are rookies, and Rich Harden is good but always injured. All four of these players are doing well this season, leaving Blanton, the Opening Day starter as the one guy who's struggling. Gaudin was in the rotation until Eveland and Smith both edged him out.

Fantasy Impact: Blanton might be the Opening Day starter, but he was mediocre at best in the fantasy world. It wouldn't be a huge hit to lose him, and picking up Gaudin is a risky bet. He might end up back in the 'pen in no time.

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The ever-changing Mets

Jerry Manuel is making his mark as Mets interim manager, deciding to rest his stars more. Stories of David Wright playing every single inning this season may soon end.

Fantasy Impact: Can't see this doing much damage. Wright and Jose Reyes might miss a game here or there, but will still be two of the best players at their position. If Manuel's plan works, they'll be more effective in the games they do play.

USA Today on Chipper watch

USA Today's Devin Clancy talks about Chipper Jones' .400 bid, comparing Jones' season to two players who recently made runs at that mark.

It's too early to start putting Chipper updates in the paper every day, but Jones is already further along than Tony Gwynn was in 1994, according to day-by-day data available at Baseball-reference.com. Gwynn was hitting .394 when the strike happened in August of that season, but his last day over .400 was May 15, when he was hitting .408.

But Jones still has another month to match Nomar Garciaparra's 2000 season. Garciaparra was up to .403 after the first game of a July 20 doubleheader, but dropped down with an 0-for-5 in the second game. He finished with a .372 batting average.

While Clancy's article is well-written, and I understand what he's talking about, it actually doesn't matter much that Jones has a better batting average than Gwynn did further along in the season. Nor does it matter that Garciaparra was at .403 as late as July 20. What matters is that Jones ends up with a .400 batting average when the season is over. Statistically, there's nothing that says Jones can't drop below .400 for some time, then go on tear and bring his average back up to .400.

That said, based on the logic Clancy is using, it still doesn't matter that Jones is further along in his .400 quest than Gwynn was at this point in the season. Career batting average tells us that Jones' .310 career batting average, 28 points lower than Gwynn's career average, would suggest Jones always has less of a chance than Gwynn to hit .400. The only time this changes is if we get much later into this season and Jones still is hovering around .400. At that point he will have a better probability than he does right now of hiting .400 -- much better than Gwynn anyway, whose season and career are both over.

Zero good news on 'Big Z'

Carlos Zambrano is back in Chicago for an MRI after experiencing shoulder discomfort in the seventh inning of Wednesday's 5-4 loss at Tampa Bay. Nothing about this development is good for Cubs fans. Oddly enough, all three of Chicago's young arms (Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and now Zambrano) from the 2003 near-National League Championship team have experienced shoulder problems. Wood eventually returned after a series of injuries to become a very good closer. Prior is still out following a setback in his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery.

Fantasy Impact: Zambrano is the Cubs' ace and probably your fantasy ace. Zambrano wanted to stay in the game, but Lou Piniella though otherwise. Better hope Zambrano's willingness to continue is a harbinger for a speedy return. This could impact the Cubs much more than Alfoso Soriano's injury.

Chipper's chances

Chipper Jones went 2-5 tonight, keeping his average right at .400. David Pinto over at baseballmusings.com continues to develop a probability graph for Jones' .400 campaign. Unless you understand logarithms the graphs are a little bit too statistical for the layman, but if you compare Chipper's chances to the graphs that follow you'll see he doesn't stand much chance of pulling it off. Ted Williams would appear to be very safe at this point.

Wind gusting in Guthrie's sails

Tough no-decision against the Astros tonight for Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie. He worked eight strong innings of one-run baseball (Lance Berkman's 20th HR), but didn't get a win. Baltimore did emerge victorious in extra innings, and Guthrie dropped his ERA down to 3.51. Guthrie threw 74 of his 105 pitches for strikes.

Fantasy Impact: The 29-year-old is getting better with age. Guthrie, a former first-round pick (22nd overall in 2002 out of Stanford), allowed just three hits in this latest gem. Save for a hiccup at Boston last week, this makes for seven quality starts the last eight times out. Guthrie is becoming a high-end fantasy pitcher.