Bad Wood

Just caught on Baseball Musings that plate umpire Brian O'Nora was drilled in the head by a broken bat tonight. Musings asks, "Does anyone know if it was a maple bat?"

It certainly was one of those constantly cracking maple sticks. Maybe this will be the straw to get baseball and the players union together to collectively get rid of these toothpicks.

Miguel Olivo, the player whose bat injured O'Nora, switched to and Ash bat the rest of the night. He was 0-1 with maple, 1-3 with Ash. Kansas City shortstop Mike Aviles also switched to ash for the remainder of the game.

"I go back and forth," Aviles said. "Honestly, I don't want them to get rid of it because I like using maple. I like the option of having both if I want to use it."

Aviles went 2-2 with the ash bat with two runs, an RBI and a walk. He was 0-1 with his maple model, striking out in the first inning.

This article and then this article would've been enough for me to switch from maple bats to ash for good.

Runs in bunches for STL

Curtis Granderson extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and three different Tigers homered, but it wasn't enough to beat the Cardinals in Detroit. Ivan Rodriguez hit just his third home run, Miguel Cabrera hit his 11th and Gary Sheffield, freshly back from the DL, hit his fourth. Unfortunately for the Tigers they were all solo shots off of Braden Looper.

The Cardinals got three in the sixth off of red-hot Tigers starter Kenny Rogers, and then followed it up with three more in the seventh, all the runs but one coming on singles. Birds get another road win after taking two of three in Boston, 8-4.

St. Louis is just 3.5 games behind the Cubs thanks to Chicago's loss to Baltimore at Wrigley.

Likable Lefties

As I posted earlier, the Jonathan Sanchez vs. Aaron Laffey match up in Cleveland turned out to be one of the best duels of the night. Their linescores:

JS: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
AL: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

Sanchez pitched a bit longer and a bit better. He dominated in strikeouts and was more effective with his pitches, throwing 70 strikes in 114 pitches to Laffey's 60 strikes in 108 pitches.

Fantasy Impact: Both of these guys deserve to get fantasy starts at this time. Sanchez' ability to pitch into the 8th earned him his seventh win as the Giants escape 3-2. Laffey earned a no decision.

Roberts vs. DeRosa (Orioles vs. Cubs)

In Chicago it's the "what if" series, otherwise known as known on Chicago's north side as Cubs vs. Orioles. The "what if" is Brian Roberts, as in what if the Cubs had been able to trade for the Orioles second baseman? We'll probably never know, but tonight began the heavy scrutiny of current Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa as he goes head-to-head with the guy who Cubs fans hoped would be playing his position. The line score for Roberts and DeRosa in game one:

BR: 5 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 1 RBI, 1 K
MD: 3 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI, 1 BB

Roberts clearly wins this battle, and his run-scoring sixth inning triple was followed by a two-out infield single hit to DeRosa. Roberts scored on that play. Baltimore goes on to win, 7-5, snapping the Cubs' 14-game home win streak.

Fantasy Impact: Roberts started slow, but is now hitting .296 after his 3-5 effort. DeRosa's average also climbed to .286. He's not the base-stealing threat Roberts is, and the Cubs wanted Roberts' ability at the top of the order. He's the better second baseman, but DeRosa is decent as a mid- to low-end fantasy option.

Razzin' Rasner

The Pittsburgh Pirates dismantled Yankees starter Darrell Rasner Tuesday night. Pittsburgh tallied nine runs on 10 hits, hitting two home runs. Rasner's ERA is up to 4.50 from 3.64

Fantasy Impact: Just five starts back Rasner's ERA was 1.80 after suffering his first loss at Baltimore. Now he's won just once in his last six starts and is looking like a marginal fantasy optinon at best. With the volatility of the Yankees staff he's probably not going anywhere, but then again with the volatility of the Yankees staff he isn't necessarily safe, either.

Toronto's torrid pace

New manager, new hitting coach. It's working in Toronto - at least for tonight. The Jays bust out for nine runs in the first two innings. They scored six in the first. Scott Rolen hit a three-run homer, and Gregg Zaun hit a two-run shot. Rolen followed it up in the three-run second with a run-scoring double. Bronson Arroyo gave up 10 of the 11 runs.

Omar's ovation

Former Indian Omar Vizquel, who hadn't been back to Cleveland in four years, made his triumphant return with the San Francisco Giants tonight. He received about a minute-long standing ovation in his first at bat. Vizquel grounded out to third.

Sheff's ready to cook

Gary Sheffield is back up with the Tigers and hitting seventh in tonight's lineup against the Cardinals. Sheffield was typically batting third in the order until he went down with oblique and shoulder issues at the end of May.

Fantasy Impact: After a string of seven seasons with at least 135 games played, Sheffield will miss that mark for the third straight year. He's hitting just .213 this year, the second lowest mark of his career since a part-time season with Milwaukee in 1991. His OPB and SLG number are way down from his standards, so you can expect a resurgence in every offensive category. Even at 39, he's dangerous in any given at bat.

Reds don't talk Dunn

Given the chance to defend Adam Dunn in the wake of J.P. Ricciardi's uncalled for criticism that Dunn didn't like baseball enough to be traded for, Walt Jocketty kind of side-stepped the query.

Asked Monday what he thought of Dunn as a player, Reds GM Walt Jocketty said: "I'd rather not comment. You look at his run production. But it's not my position to give a scouting report on him. I like him as a player. He's someone we're going to have to decide on. He's still young, so that's not a factor."

Not surprising to see Jocketty tight-lipped, but why didn't anyone with the Reds come to his defense? The Enquirer says it's for one of two reasons: first, the Reds don't want to pump him up too much with free-agency looming, or second - they don't want to talk about his flaws because they'll trade him.

Fantasy Impact: Dunn's numbers have taken a tumble recently. He's hitting just .219, but does have 18 home runs. He's a three-category guy at best, so as long as he's hitting bombs, scoring runs and knocking them in, don't worry much about the average.

Frenchy hoping for better batting eye

Jeff Francoeur's visit to an eye specialist gives him a new contact lens, and perhaps new confidence. He needs both. The guy hit .293 for the Braves last year, but dropped 50 points in the average department and 46 points in slugging so far this year.

Fantasy Impact: Francoeur's faced criticism in his fourth season in the bigs. For the last two years he played all 162 games on the schedule. This year he's played 77 while the Braves have played 78. It appears he's not going anywhere, and it is likely that he'll rebound in some way this year.

Youkilis eyeing return by weekend

Kevin Youkilis looks like he's on the road to recovery after an eye injury forced him out of Monday's game. He saw an eye-specialist today after Terry Francona told him he wouldn't be playing.

Youkilis had a CT scan on his face Monday night and doctors told him and the team that he would recover.

Francona said he hoped to have Youkilis back for Wednesday's finale against Arizona or Boston's first game in Houston on Friday, following an off-day Thursday.

"He's not going to play (Tuesday night) just because of the watering that would make it hard to send him up there to hit, unless that clears up," Francona said. "I'm sure they'll dilate it, which takes a while to get back to normal anyway."

Fantasy Impact: Eye injuries are scary things, but this sounds pretty minimal in terms the damage done. Day-to-day leagues will want to rest Youkilis today and perhaps tomorrow, but it looks like he'll be free to swat home runs by the weekend.

No Iwamura chads in Tampa

Voting in Florida was already infamous. Now a Tampa Tribune reporter calls foul on the MLB All-Star ballots. Just yesterday I posted this piece on voting issues. Here's calling for MLB to rethink the entire All-Star selection process. Anyone agree?

And you are?

The Washington Nationals face a tough question for any team that moves from one city to another and changes its nickname - do they erase the past and start fresh, or do they embrace the Montreal Expos history as their own? Here's an interesting story from the Washington Post.

Padres pondering now and later

MLB Trade Rumors says the Padres' winning percentage should dictate that they're sellers rather than buyers this year. They can't seem to figure that out. But the Padres have a track record for hemming and hawing before pulling the trigger on a big decision.

After dragging their feet for more than a third of this season the Padres did decide that prospect Chase Headley should be up in the Majors. Much of Headley's situation likely dealth with his future free agency status, but with the job the rookie is doing right now things seem to be working out. Hopefully for their sake they realize MLBTR is right in this case and then once again take their time to come to that conclusion. With holes in the outfield and underachievers at catcher and shortstop the Padres need to look to the future, because there's no way it is happening this year.

Tuesday tossers

A rare Monday-Tuesday without any day games means we're waiting for a night slate of games. After Monday's outstanding pitching matchups we're left with intriguing matchups this evening rather than heavyweight bouts.

Mark Buehrle (4-6, 4.28) vs. Derek Lowe (5-6, 3.90) might be the best matchup, but the most intriguing come with the young guns going tonight. A large percentage of these pitchers are either trying to hold rotation spots with veterans out or they're first-year starters try to prove their worth for the long haul.

My favorite match-up pits a pair of lefties in the Giants Jonathan Sanchez (6-4, 4.23) and the Indians Aaron Laffey (4-4, 2.98). Laffey lost for the first time in five outings the last time he pitched. He's looked shaky at times in his last few outings. Sanchez is a strikeout guy with a strong pedigree for success in the minors, even if he wasn't heralded as a big league prospect. He took a no-hitter into the sixth against the Tigers his last time out, but lost the game 5-1.

Dealing E-Pat

Could Eric Patterson be the consistent MLB performer his brother Corey never blossomed into? Corey Patterson has certainly provided sparks of his five-tool talent, but he's now hitting .189 at the age of 29. Eric belted his first Major League home run against the White Sox Sunday, and might be part of a Cubs trade package, according to the Chicago Tribune. He's hitting .318 with an .875 OPS in 22 at bats with the Cubs.

D-backs' Young changing approach

The Arizona Republic reports that Chris Young is not losing confidence with his recent slump. He's trying some things to break out, according to manager Bob Melvin.

Melvin said before the game that Young has been concentrating on fixing weaknesses in his game to the point where he hasn't utilized his strengths, suggesting the natural pull hitter has been trying too hard to go the other way.

Interesting that "going with the pitch" rather than trying to pull it would seem a good way to get out of a slump, and Young is being advised to do the opposite.

Roberts finally in Chicago

We've got the obligatory Brian Roberts trade talk stories coming out today with the Orioles in Chicago to visit the Cubs. Apparently the imminent deals reported in spring training were never very close, according to Orioles president Andy MacPhail.

Despite media reports suggesting otherwise, MacPhail denied he was ever really close to trading Roberts to the Cubs. MacPhail spoke to several teams this offseason about Roberts, including the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians, according to league sources.

However, the talks with the Cubs are the ones that went public. The Cubs made a multi-player offer for Roberts that included shortstop Ronny Cedeno and pitching prospects Sean Gallagher and Donald Veal. The teams talked about several other packages but could never agree on a deal, and both sides have benefited in the short term.

As the article points out, things have worked well for both teams. The Cubs own the best record in the majors. The Orioles have played competitive baseball.

Hernandez better, Mulder not better

Mark Mulder did not make his Triple=A start for Memphis Monday night, which means he won't pitch for the Cardinals this weekend.

Felix Hernandez' ankle is not as bad as some imagined. The Seattle Times quotes Mariners' manager Jim Riggleman as calling the injury "mild." I guess the injury looked worse than it actually was. Hernandez tried to pitch again after he was hurt and then left the field in agony.