Field of Dreams: China

MLB will pull out all the stops to get baseball back in the olympics after 2008. Now they're looking forward to a foothold for the sport in China thanks to the Beijing games.

Dropped from the Summer Games program after Beijing, baseball may have struck out as an Olympic sport but MLB still believes it can hit a home run in China where it has already invested millions trying to tap into 1.3 billion potential baseball fans.

"The Yankees the Dodgers are among the teams who have already made investments here," said Bob Watson, Major League Baseball's vice-president of on field operations and Team USA general manager.

"Major League Baseball thinks this is an untapped market just like basketball has.

"When you have over a billion people there has to be some people here, who with the proper instruction and development, can play at the professional level.

"The television market is huge. There are more TVs here than there are people in the United States."

The article goes on to talk about baseball's rises and falls in China in the past. It's great that MLB wants to grow the game, but it's funny how much import is suddenly being paid to the olympics. While it's a great place to market the game to foreign countries, and especially China, few americans will even notice what the U.S. team does in Beijing. The olympics seem outdated to me. The amateur nature of the olympic games is no longer of interest to me, and I question most of the results due to the inability to screen for new performance-enhancing drugs.

Baseball in the olympics means we can check out a few minor league stars to see how they're coming along for the future, but how do we know how good the competition is? Is it a fair trial of their abilities given that they're playing halfway around the world against competition they've likely never seen before? Olympic baseball is a loose structure, and it's not worth the time of fully digesting. It goes away in a month, and it won't return perhaps forever. I'm a rabid baseball fan, but I won't be paying much attention to the sport in Beijing. Will you?

Bud selective

Bud Selig is choosing to investigate the Manny Ramirez trade.

Bud Selig has ordered an investigation into Manny Ramirez's split with the Boston Red Sox, according to a report in the Boston Globe.

The paper reports a source directly linked to the investigation says Bud Selig has directed Major League Baseball executive vice president Rob Manfred to contact everyone involved in the trade to the Dodgers for individual accounts of how the transaction unfolded.

What's to investigate? Doesn't the commissioner's office have to sign off on these deals in the first place? Selig looks more and more bungling each passing day.

Here comes... everyone!

Aaron Harang takes the proper steps to get back with the Reds.

Travis Hafner and Josh Barfield working to return.

V Mart is doing all he can to play again.

All three of these stories posted at MLB.com at the same moment. Odd.

Upton benched for not hustling

Run out your grounders, kids. Not only might you eventually beat one out, you also might avoid getting benched, as B.J. Upton did Wednesday. Joe Maddon is the perfect manager for this young Tampa Bay Rays. He's tough, he's smart and he's committed.

In other Rays news, Dioner Navarro hit a home run for the second straight day. Those are his first two home runs since June 20th.

27 for 27

Brad Lidge closed out his 27th save in 27 chances in a 2-1 Phillies win in St. Louis. Lidge allowed a runner into scoring position, but got out of the jam with a strikeout of Rick Ankiel, Lidge's second of the inning.

Fantasy Impact: Brad Lidge is the second best closer in baseball after K-Rod. Who could've expected this after last year's debacle?

Brewers Bushed

The Brewers name Dave Bush their fifth starter for the rest of the season, demoting Seth McClung to the bullpen. This ends a home/road platoon between the two pitchers.

"I told them both I wanted to try this and if it wasn't good for either one of them that I would have to make a decision, so that's what we did," manager Ned Yost said. "It was kind of getting to both of them a little bit. I just think that it's better to do it this way."

Fantasy Impact: If you have space, keep McClung around, as Bush runs hot and cold. Bush's home ERA of 3.30 is 3.65 points better than his road mark. This move upgrades him from fringe starter to a number five or six in fantasy play.

Lilly out duels Maholm

Paul Maholm loses for just the second time sine May 20th as the Cubs play "small ball" to beat the Pirates, 5-1. Ted Lilly picks up win number 11, striking out five in 6 1/3 innings while allowing one earned run. Maholm gave up five runs in six innings, allowing 10 base runners.

Fantasy Impact: Lilly and Maholm are nice number four starters on good baseball teams. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Maholm is the best they've got. Lilly settles in behind Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster in Chicago. As for fantasy play, these two are no better than number five guys on a good team.

Postseason predictions

Now that the big deals are done, it is time to make a few guesses at how the rest of 2008 plays out. Here's Spitting Seeds' selections for the postseason.

American League

AL East: Boston Red Sox - Manny is gone, the staff is stronger than New York, and Tampa failed to get a right-handed bat in the outfield.

AL Central: Chicago White Sox - They have to keep hitting homers to get it done. Minnesota will pester them to the end.

AL West: Los Angeles Angels - Nobody in that division can catch them.

Wild Card: Tampa Bay Rays - Just enough pitching to hold off the Yankees, even if the BoSox catch them for the division.

National League

NL East: Philadelphia Phillies - The starting lineup, as powerful as they come, needs to stay healthy.

NL Central: Chicago Cubs - The Brewers lost four games to Chicago at home in a four-game sweep. They've got an outside chance, but aren't consistent enough.

NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks - The best pitching staff in the National League will be hard to catch, even if the Dodgers got Manny.

NL Wild Card: Milwaukee Brewers - Sheets and Sabathia are hard to beat. The Marlins, Mets and Cardinals might be able to scrap, but Milwaukee's too tough.

Gardenhire clipped a game

Ron Gardenhire earned a one-game suspesion after getting thrown out the other night arguing balls and strikes.

Royals scramble at second

Mark Grudzielanek hit the 15-day DL with a severly sprained ankle. The Royals called up infielder Jason Smith form Triple-A Omaha. He's hit 20 homers, but strikes out a lot (128 times in 423 at bats). His average is just .253.

Fantasy Impact: German offers stolen bases and not much more. Smith is a minor league journeyman. He's 31, and he's played eight straight seasons at Triple-A. Don't expect much from him, although he might earn playing time while Grudzielanek is out.

Pirates waste no time

Pittsburgh has three newcomers in the lineup today: pitcher Jeff Karstens (from Yankees), third baseman Andy LaRoche (Dodgers) and right fielder Brandon Moss (Red Sox).

Karstens got through the first inning without giving up a hit against the talented Cubs lineup. LaRoche singled up the middle off the glove of Ronny Cedeno and later scored. Moss struck out.

The Pirates got these guys right into the lineup, hoping to learn whether they can help reverse 15 straight seasons of losing baseball. With a record of 50-58, Pittsburgh's in danger of equaling an old Phillies team with the losingest stretch in major sports history, 16 consecutive seasons of losing.

Howling for strikeouts

Never knew this before, but Cubs TV announcer Len Kasper says MLB umpire Jim Wolf is pitcher Randy Wolf's brother. The must've made sure that Jim was rotated away from Padres games while Randy was with San Diego. I wonder how that impacted Jim's schedule when Randy was moved to Houston before the trade deadline.

Jim's howling balls and strikes today in Chicago for the Cubs-Pirates tilt at Wrigley. Actually, he has a silent strike call. Too bad.

Zito - good enough to throw BP

Barry Zito threw batting practice Thursday for the Giants, a day before his latest start.

In his unfortunately ceaseless quest to get things right, Barry Zito pitched what amounted to a simulated game against the Giants' hitters rather than throw a normal side session in the bullpen. This is old school. When teams had four-man rotations, pitchers usually threw full-speed batting practice.

"It's always a great benefit throwing against hitters in game situations," said Zito, coming off a loss against Arizona in which he allowed six runs and five walks in five innings. "It's something I've done in the past in Oakland here or there. I've got 30 pitches on the side. Why not take advantage of the guys and get their feedback?"

Give the guy credit for trying everything and anything to get things right, but at this point nothing is working. Zito's lost 13 games this season, putting him in jeopardy of losing 20 before all is said and done.

Dump Dunc

The Cardinals release new information on once-slugging outfielder Chris Duncan. Duncan's been on the DL sine July 22nd with a bulging disc in his back. Now that's been downgraded to herniated disc.

Though Duncan's initial treatment has consisted of a series of injections, surgery is often required to address a herniated, or ruptured, disk, which is considered more serious than a bulging disk. A club source on Thursday suggested Duncan likely would require corrective surgery.

He's not coming back any time soon.

Fantasy Impact: At this point, little. Duncan did look like a nice fourth outfielder at the year's outset after he hit 22 and 21 homers the past two seasons. This year, however, he never got on track, hitting just six homers in 222 at bats. Leave him alone until next spring.

Brand new Nats

The Washington Nationals might have a brand new middle infield tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. The Nats dealt for Yankees reserve shortstop Alberto Gonzalez and then released Jose Lopez. Lopez had been starting for injured Cristian Guzman.

At second, look for Emilio Bonifacio (acquired in Jon Rauch trade with Arizona), who was recalled on Friday. Bonifacio is a speed demon and could unseat Ronnie Belliard for a starting job. The Nats have little to play for, so it could be audition time.

Pirates love Morris

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says scouts glow about pitcher Bryan Morris (acquired in the Jason Bay deal) and his upside.

"The sky could be the limit for this kid," said Danny Darwin, the former Pirates pitcher who is Great Lakes' pitching coach.
...
"This kid is definitely a big league prospect," Darwin said. "He just needs to refine what he has."

Morris, 6-3, 190, throws his fastball 96-97 mph "on a good day," Darwin said, adding that his curve and slider are "swing-and-miss" pitches.

The Pirates are also high on Brandon Moss, and it sounds like he'll get a shot to start in left field.

Nomar defends Manny

Manny Ramirez wasn't the first player to leave Boston in a huff, and former/current teammate Nomar Garciaparra in Los Angeles is the first to come to his defense.

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me," Ramirez told ESPN the other day. "During my years here, I've seen how they have mistreated other great players when they didn't want them, to try to turn the fans against them.

"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy."

This could be Manny being Manny. Or this could be the Red Sox being the Red Sox.

"There's a lot of truth to what he said," Garciaparra said at his Dodger Stadium locker Thursday, two hours after the Dodgers acquired Ramirez. "I can definitely understand and relate. Maybe he'll be next to me [in an adjacent locker], and we can chat and laugh about it."

I actually had a friend covering the Red Sox when Garciaparra was traded away. There was a lot written, good and bad, about Nomar at that time, but I'll never forget what my buddy told me: "Nomar is a cancer."

Dinner and Dessert

There are two games of the day.

The early one has the Angels sending Ervin Santana (11-5) to the hill attempting to make it five straight wins over AL East stalwarts Boston and New York. They should. The Yankees counter with shaky Sidney Ponson (6-2). This is more of a test to see if LA can win a game they're supposed to win after doing the unthinkable in sweeping Boston at Fenway and out-hitting the Yankees in the Bronx.

The late one features The D'backs at the Dodgers. Arizona opened a two-game lead over Los Angeles with a win at Dodger Stadium, but now the reinforcements arrive. Manny Ramirez and Clayton Kershaw go up against Randy Johnson. That's 20-year-old power-lefty Kershaw (1-3) going up against 44-year-old power-lefty Johnson (8-7). What a matchup!

Honorable mention: The Phillies and Cole Hamels 9-6) visit the Cardinals and Kyle Lohse (12-3) in a battle of two teams who could end up fighting for the NL Wild Card.

Friday Debuts

Two pitchers make debuts tonight for their respective ball clubs.

Jeff Karstens, acquired in the Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte deal with the Yankees, starts for the Pirates against the Cubs at Wrigley. He owns a 3-5 record and 5.65 ERA in 15 MLB outings. He's made nine starts at the Major League level. Karsten's opponent is the Cubs' Jason Marquis

Raymond Thomas Hunter makes his MLB debut for the Rangers tonight against the Blue Jays Shaun Marcum. He goes by Tommy, so don't be confused. He's had some success in the minors, albeit modest success by prospect standards. In his most recent stop at Triple-A Oklahoma, Hunter went 2-2 in five starts with a 3.24 ERA. He's not a strikeout artist and says one tiny adjustment is the reason for his recent success in the minors.

"The only big difference is learning to keep the ball down, keep it in the bottom half of the strike zone instead of thigh high where it gets crushed. It really came from the first four starts when I was in Bakersfield. I had to learn quick (after posting a 5.14 ERA). That's one big part of being able to win in professional baseball, keep the ball down."

This might be a one-start opportunity for Hunter.

Crash Lannan

Ignoring Nationals' starter John Lannan might be the best trade-deadline non-move by contending teams. Considered a potential target for those looking for left-handed pitching, Lannan was cruising along with nine quality starts in his last ten games. Then came Thursday against Philadelphia.

Lannan's line:

5.2 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HR

Lannan's ERA jumps to 3.61 after he had worked for three solid outings to pull it all the way down to 3.33. Jason Werth smoked Lannan for home run number 15. Jimmy Rollins hit his 8th in a convincing 8-4 Phillies victory. Kyle Kendrick threw pretty well for the Phils, giving up two earned in 6 2/3 innings for his ninth win.

The Phillies stand alone in first in the NL East thanks to a Mets loss at Florida.