Schilling done for year

So apparently Curt Schiling is out for the year. Not very surprising, but very intriguing considering the state of the Boston pitching staff. A group comprised of a very solid Josh Beckett, a soon-returning Daisuke Matsuzaka, an emerging Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield is still trying to fill out the number five spot. Justin Masterson has been solid in that role, and he looks to stay in the rotation as long as Bartolo Colon is out.

Fantasy Impact: It will be interesting to see what the Red Sox do when Colon is eligible to pitch again in just over a week. Even if Masterson struggles, Clay Buchholz has been dominating in the minors, and was in Boston's rotation to begin the year. The Red Sox have three capable pitchers for Schilling's spot and shouldn't miss much other than Schilling's leadership.

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Rays amusing to musings

David Pinto at baseballmusings.com has analyzed the Tampa Bay Rays and believes they're for real.

While the Rays have been rumored to trade for aging Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., who apparently has a home in Orlando, Pinto suggests another Reds outfielder is in Tampa's sights.

If you look at the aggregate offensive numbers of the fielding positions, the Rays have a good chance to improve run scoring. Leftfield, rightfield and designated hitter are three positions that could be upgraded in a trade, and DH should be the easiest of those to fill. Doesn't Adam Dunn fill that spot nicely?

Fantasy Impact: Dunn makes more sense than Griffey. He's younger, and he makes a bigger impact at this point in his career. If he goes to Tampa, he'll continue to produce -- unless he has a tough time adjusting to American League pitching -- which he's never seen on a consistent basis.

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Rangers return to D.C.

I'm not one for nostalgia, but the Dallas Morning News is all over the return of the Texas Rangers' (former Washington Senators) to our nation's capital. It's a pretty detailed account and worth a read.

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Justin Upton looking up

Justin Upton, who entered Thursday hitting .083 in June, went 2-3 with a game-winning homer to propel Arizona past Oakland 2-1. The solo shot was Upton's ninth of the year, but just his first of the month. His two hits almost equaled his previous three in June.

Fantasy Impact: It's hard to believe Upton is not yet 21. He played beyond his years over the first two months of the season, but is now looking like many 20-year-olds would at the MLB level. To his credit, Upton's OBP haD slipped just 10 points during the prolonged slump, and his slugging percentage dipped just 60 points -- and that was before Thursday's breakout. Upton has been patient and still hits the ball with authority when he makes contact. He's more likely than not to come around.

Before the slump: .275 AVG, .369 OBP, .487 SLG
After Thursday: .250 AVG, .365 OBP, .447 SLG

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Russell muscles up with greatness

Brewers third baseman Russell Branyan is defying his own career statistics, which say he's not very good. Branyan hit his 10th home run of the season on Thursday -- his 10th in just 62 at bats. That's a home run every 6.2 at bats, which means he is now hitting homers more frequently than Barry Bonds did in his record-breaking season of 2001. Bonds homered once every 6.5 at bats on his way to 73 home runs.

Branyan, who started the year in the minors, missed almost the entire the first couple months of the Major League season. The Brewers have 90 games remaining. Branyan is averaging 3.1 AB per game since his call-up. If he somehow continues at this incredible home run rate, Branyan will hit 45 more long balls, leaving him with 55 by season's end and well short of Bonds' record.

For his career, Branyan has hit 131 home runs in 1,930 at bats -- just one homer every 14.7 at bats. If Branyan reverts to his average pace for hitting home runs, he'll end up with 29 home runs, which would still beat his career single-season best by nine.

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Dye, Sox rip Pittsburgh

Jermaine Dye had a monster night against the Pirates Thursday. He went 3-4, hitting two home runs against two different pitchers while driving in six runs. Dye has four home runs in his last four games, and the Sox sweep the Pirates out of Chicago by a combined score of 37-15 in three games.

Chicago is now 10 games over .500, five games ahead of Minnesota in the loss column.

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Crosstown Classic, then Fall Classic?

Northsiders and Southsiders will be a little bit more excited for Chicago's Crosstown Classic. Both teams enter in first place. The Second City is daring to dream of an all-Chicago world series.

For a long while the White Sox looked to have the pitching to get it done, but not the hitting. A team that was among the bottom-feeders in the American League is suddenly 11th in average (.263) in all of MLB, third in home runs (97) and sixth in runs (356). The Cubs lead the majors in average (.281) and with 396 runs scored, they are second only to the Rangers (408). White Sox pitching, however, is tops in the league (3.32 ERA) while the Cubs' 3.67 mark is good for fourth behind the A's and Blue Jays.

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On Big Z's shoulder and Cubs hysteria

Carlos Zambrano is going to miss his next scheduled start according to the Chicago Tribune. Sean Marshall is likely to take his spot.

Interesting that the Trib says Big Z's injury has tempered 'North Side Hoopla' the same day that ESPN runs this story. Sorry, but you're a bit late to jump on that bandwagon, ESPN. It's really a full orchestra, which has been blaring since the 2003 team bungled a run at a World Series berth. Anyone who lives in the Chicago area knows this. Cubs hysteria has been on the rise ever since. In a typical year 70 percent of the baseball fans in Chicago will claim to be Cubs fans. Of this 70 percent about 35 to 50 percent actually care and watch the team on a regular basis. The rest is a massive orchestra-wagon of crazies who are either disliked or open-arm welcomed by the constant fans. It's a strange phenomena. I don't know if you'd get it unless you lived there.

One more note on ESPN. Not sure if anyone else ever caught this, but Stuart Scott used to always refer to the White Sox as the Chi-Sox, which is a friendly and accepted nickname for the Chicago American League ballclub. Scott, however, pronounced the nickname as "Chai-Sox" (like the tea) rather than "Shy-Sox" (which is the correct way). Sorry, just a Chicago native venting.

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Small red-faced machine

More on the Reds' struggles against Eric Stults tonight. Cincinnati had scored zero, one and one runs in their last three ballgames entering tonight's affair against a career minor-leaguer. Give Stults credit for allowing just one run himself, but it more or less falls into the pattern the Reds have been putting up since Sunday.

Last-place Cincinnati did end up with four on the board, but only two of the runs were earned. The Reds aren't just last in the N.L. Central, they're also last in the Central in scoring runs with 320 this year.

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Some stunt by Stults

Dodgers' career minor leaguer Eric Stults stunted the Reds offense Thursday night, allowing one earned run in six innings for his first win. Stults came in with just two wins in 18 starts, but handled the struggling Reds offense with the deftness of a veteran. The Dodgers pull a three-game sweep, 7-4.

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Jibber Joba

All the talk is about lengthening Joba Chamberlain out, getting him to throw more and more pitches each time out to complete his conversion from reliever to starter. Thursday was Chamberlain's longest outing. He threw 100 pitches in 5.2 innings, striking out nine Padres in the process. Chamberlain didn't get the win, but the Yankees did, 2-1.

Fantasy Impact: Joe Girardi said he wanted to leave Chamberlain in the game for a shot at his first victory as a starter. Joba still gives up a few too many runners, meaning he's sometimes one unlucky pitch away from a big inning. That big inning, however, rarely comes. Chamberlain has dominant stuff and looks to be settling in nicely as a starter.

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