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.

Saving fame game is silly

Today the Cubs and Padres play in the last Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown, NY. A tradition that's spanned decades, the Hall of Fame Game is going away after this year, which makes sense. It is only an exhibition, which means it takes teams out of their regular season schedule to travel to remote Cooperstown for a competition that is ultimately meaningless. For this year's game the Cubs called up 16 minor leaguers to play in place of their parent league players.

Although this sort of indifference to the game proves it is more of an annoyance than honor to MLB teams, there's a group called savethefamegame.com trying to raise support for continuing the tradition. Their list of reasons to keep things going is absurd. Among the minutiae: the hall of game game survived steroids, MLB is greedy, Yankee Stadium is closing, and kids. They don't have much of an argument.

Chipper 'Caged'

You can't make up the laundry list of injuries Chipper Jones has experienced over his injury-plagued career. But this one takes the cake. Off the top of the batting cage! Seriously.

Fantasy Impact: Jones can't stay healthy - it's even bad luck. If he ends up taking his .414 batting average to the disabled list your team is going to take a hit. The injury, however, helps his chances to become the first player to hit .400 or better since 1941. Fewer at bats means fewer chances to make outs, which occur more frequently over time.

Strong Colon

Bartolo Colon went six strong innings tonight against Baltimore. His line:

6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

Colon lowered his ERA to 3.41 this season over five starts. It's his 2nd quality start after beginning the year on the minor league DL and then suffering an injury setback when he finally got going. Colon looks like he's back.

Gomez no longer going

Carlos Gomez hasn't stolen a base since May 25th. He has one stolen base since May 11th. The man who once led the American League in steals is now 10th in baseball with 17. He's 11 behind MLB leader Jacoby Ellsbury.

Gomez missed some time with a wrist injury. That shouldn't impact his stealing baseball very much. Unless he's masking some kind of leg injury (it doesn't look like he is with the way he's running balls down in center field), it's time for him to get going again. He's been caught on the bases five times since May 25th, meaning he's not running all that much.

Olivo leaves the yard

Royals catcher Miguel Olivo is on some kind of tear. The backup to John Buck is getting more and more playing time and making waves. Olivo hit his seventh home run Wednesday against the White Sox, his original Major League team. He's batting .299 with a chance to see a more at bats tonight with a 4-4 game in the 9th.

Fantasy Impact: Buck is not a bad catcher, but he might not be any better than Olivo. When Olivo was signed this offseason, he assumed he was going to be the starter. Instead, he was penciled in as the backup with a chance to earn time. Tonight he filled the DH slot, batting fifth in the lineup. Buck batted two spots behind him. Olivo looks like he's primed to take over the starting catcher job for Kansas City, but his track record suggests he will come down in batting average while hitting about 15 home runs.

Bradley lights up Lee

Milton Bradley hit his 12th home run of the season tonight, leaving him five shy of red-hot teammate Josh Hamilton. No. 12 came off Indians starter Cliff Lee, who is suddenly falling back to earth after an incredible run to start the year.

Fantasy Impact: Bradley's career high in home runs is 19. He's on pace for more than 30 this year. The strong start to his season, however, comes with a caveat: Bradley's only made it to 500 at bats once before in his career. Take away that season and Bradley's never reached 400 at bats in a single season. He always ends up on the DL.

As for Lee, his ERA is on a steady rise from under one to 2.45. His recent struggles include tonight's debacle of six earned runs in five innings. He still looks to be in line for the win.

Chi Sox sign Loaiza

The White Sox signed Esteban Loaiza on Wednesday. The right-hander had a magical season with the Sox back in 2004 when he won 21 games. He'll pitch long relief and spot start for the rest of 2008. The Dodgers released him earlier this year, in part to make room for rookie phenom Clayton Kershaw.

Fantasy Impact: None. You don't want him. This is probably a good move for the Sox who didn't have much of a long-man in their 'pen with much starting experience. Loaiza has a ton of experience in that regard.

Eddie 'V' vanquishes Phils for 8th victory

Edinson Volquez is no longer for real. He's surreal. Entering tonight's game in Philadelphia, Volquez owned 83 Ks in 68 innings of work, an amazing mark for a starter. At 7-2 with a National League-leading 1.46 ERA, tonight's challenge of facing one of the toughest lineups in baseball in one of the top hitters' parks in the majors ended up another as just another Volquez gem.

Not that any Volquez start is just another start. Check out these numbers against the Phillies:

7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K

Volquez lowered his ERA to 1.32. He earned his 8th win. Perhaps most impressive -- he held the Phillies' top five hitters of Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell to one hit in 16 at bats.

Fantasy Impact: Volquez was a sell-high candidate based on his out-of-this world start to the season. This kind of performance, however, makes him one of the best pitchers in baseball. He appears to be legit.

This just in... Alexei Ramirez walked

Chicago White Sox' fill-in second baseman Alexei Ramirez walked in tonight's game against the Royals. It's just his third walk in 103 at bats. To call Ramirez a free swinger would be like calling Juan Uribe a candidate to lose his job. Uribe is just that, because Ramirez is starting to light it up in his first MLB season. The Cuban has three hits in each of his last two games, going 9-15 in his last four.

Update: Ramirez walked in his next plate appearance, giving him four walks in 104 at bats.

Fantasy Impact: He's not the Sox' starter at second yet, but it will be hard to take the job away now that Ramirez is finding all sorts of ways to reach base. He's a streaky player, and on a hot streak for now.

Ready Made

Given we're on the eve of the MLB draft, and considering the performances top prospect David Price is turning out, it's time to take a quick look at this year's crop for potential instant call-ups. That's what Sports Illustrated is thinking. The name a lot of people are talking about is Florida State catcher Buster Posey.

Pedro pitches well in return

Pedro Martinez' second start of the season went much better than his first one. The Mets' ace beat the Giants in his return from a hamstring injury. Martinez threw 63 of his 109 pitches for strikes, throwing freely and easily in his return. He also looked good at the plate with a couple of hits and an RBI.

Fantasy Impact: Martinez is still one of the better pitchers in baseball when he's healthy. The 36-year-old has landed on the disabled list four times in the past two years.

Bradley bashes two

Don't look now, but Milton Bradley is finally fulfilling his one-time status as a top prospect. The Rangers' DH is chasing teammate Josh Hamilton fairly closely as best hitter on the team. Bradley belted two solo homers on Tuesday, giving him 11 on the season.

Fantasy Impact: Bradley always seems to suffer some sort of freak injury, but he was always expected to be a dynamic performer, as well. As long as he stays healthy, he's a solid to strong contributor.

Glossing over the Birds deal

The Cardinals - Blue Jays straight swap of injury-plagued 3rd basemen in the offseason sent Troy Glaus to St. Louis and Scott Rolen to Toronto. To this point, Glaus has delivered more only because Rolen missed time at the beginning the year. Here's their numbers through the first third of the season:

Troy Glaus: .269, 20 R, 4 HR, 34 RBI, 0 SB (193 AB)
Scott Rolen: .310, 16 R 2 HR 20 RBI 4 SB (129 AB)

Project them out over the rest of the year, and Rolen dominates every single category. It's not necessarily a loss for the Cardinals, however, as Rolen and manager Tony La Russa had their differences. At the same time, production is production, and Rolen is winning the war at this point. He might be the Blue Jays' offensive MVP this year.

Fantasy Impact: Rolen is older than Glaus (33 and 31 respectively), but he's also better than Glaus. He always has been better. Glaus owns more career homers, but Rolen's career batting average is about 27 points higher, and he still can run, stealing over 100 bases for his career.