Penny pushed back

It sounds like Brad Penny's setback on Saturday has given the Dodgers an interesting decision with regard to their pitching staff. Clayton Kershaw, who was recently sent down to the minors with the return of Nomar Garciaparra, Andruw Jones and Hiroki Kuroda from the DL, could get a recall to Los Angeles, but Jason Schmidt is also getting close to ready.

"I think then, we would certainly look at (Kershaw), and of course, (Jason) Schmidt, who is going to start again on Tuesday (for Triple-A Las Vegas) rehab-wise," Torre said. "We'll be having to make a decision in the next two and a half to three weeks on him."

Fantasy Impact: This all hinges on Brad Penny's delayed return, but those who were disappointed in Kershaw probably don't want to drop the young flamethrower just yet. He's got some seasoning under his belt now, and could develop into something special for the stretch run. Schmidt is a risky option because of his health, but could be a sleeper as well

Beantown's back end

Boston's Justin Masterson did everything he could on Saturday to help his team against the hometown Yankees, and still came up short. The Red Sox rookie tossed six innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He falls victim to a dominant Mike Mussina, who gave up no runs in six innings to earn his 11th win. Masterson falls to 4-3 this season.

There's no clear indication from the Red Sox whether Masterson is earning his spot in the back end of the rotation.

“I didn’t really know what to expect from him, because I hadn’t seen him pitch much,” Francona said before the game. “You hear the reports, but I guess he got here a little quicker than I probably thought.

“We had a lot of meetings in the spring about guys who could help us, and his name certainly came up,” Francona added. “But to put a guy in there every five days and have him hold his own, that’s a lot.”

Bartolo Colon is on the mend, and Clay Buchholz continues to dominate in the minors. Masterson threw just 58 of his 100 pitches for strikes. He's certainly a work in progress and Saturday helps the cause more than it hurts, but whether Masterson's the best Boston option as the team's fifth starter has not yet been answered.

Fantasy Impact: Masterson is the only one of three pitchers name who is pitching in the majors right now. That's the good news. The bad news is he might be the third best option once Colon is healthy. Buchholz is the more heralded prospect, which means Boston may feel obligated to try him again if Masterson can't dominate at the big league level and Colon can't get his health in order.

Neato, Zito

Once again it looked like bad news for Giants starter Barry Zito on Saturday. Zito gave up two first-inning runs to the sometimes offensively challenged Los Angeles Dodgers, including an RBI to feckless five-hole hitter Andruw Jones. Then something inexplicable occurred; Zito shut the Dodgers down the rest of the way. Not the entire way, but for six solid innings, Zito dominated. He struck out ten batters, walked one and gave up six hits on his way to hits first home win.

The Giants cruise, 5-2 as Zito improves to 4-12 on the year.

Fantasy Impact: It's a step in the right direction, but it's not the first. Zito has shown glimpses of effectiveness before, but not for more than a couple or three starts before suffering another meltdown. His ERA is just 5.73 even after a brilliant outing. Jones ended up going 0-4, but at least he didn't strike out four times like the night before.

Tulo's woes continue

The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki is back on the D.L. after a freak injury suffered from a broken maple bat. It was certainly one of the more bizarre injuries from a bat. Tulowitzki sliced his hand open after he pounded the bat into the ground in frustration. Like so many maple bats before it, this one splintered and cut him badly enough to require surgery.

"Yeah, it's tougher to take," Tulowitzki said Saturday of his return to the DL. "The other injury was baseball-related. You're out there on the field, going all out. And this one's kind of a stupid injury that I could have prevented."

Stupid or not, the incidents with maple bats are piling up, and a player finally going down might kick MLB into gear in terms of solving the problem.

Fantasy Impact: Tulowitzki is having one of those snake-bitten seasons. Nothing is going right. He already missed a month and a half with a quad injury, and now he's sidelined again. Hope you have other options, although his late-season return could still help you down the stretch.

Roger 3,000

Exactly 10 years ago today, Roger Clemens recorded his 3,000th career strike out pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Below-average Jones

This Andruw Jones story is borderline unbelievable. The Dodgers centerfielder always struck out a alot, but never like this. In his return from the disabled list (he hadn't played since May 23rd) Jones struck out four times in five at bats, lowering his average to .159. Jones has 49 strike outs in 139 at bats, meaning he's striking out almost 36 percent of the time.

Fantasy Impact: Jones looks like he has a long way to go in his return to form. Last year he struggled the entire season, and this year is looking far worse. The L.A. Times called his return "rocky," but Jones has been on the rocks for a while now.

Trib: Brewers in front for C.C.

The Brewers might be behind both the Cubs and Cardinals in the standings, but apparently they have the best opportunity to make the biggest splash in the trade market. The Chicago Tribune reports that Milwaukee's minor league talent allows them to make the best offer for C.C. Sabathia, even if the Brewers won't admit to it right now.

Saturday games

Cubs @ Cardinals - Lilly vs. Lohse doesn't overwhelm, but Lohse owns 10 victories, and Lilly is attempting to equal him as the top two teams in the N.L. Central attempt to close out the first half with a series win.

Red Sox @ Yankees - Masterson vs. Mussina looked like a better matchup two weeks ago when both guys were flying high. Now Masterson is fighting for his roster spot with Clay Buchholz making a case to return to the majors.

Athletics @ White Sox - Smith vs. Floyd may be the pitching matchup of the day. Smith dominated the Sox earlier this year.

Blue Jays @ Angels - Halladay vs. Lackey is the pitching matchup of the day. Halladay (9-6, 2.90) deserves to be on the A.L. All-Star team, while Lackey (6-1, 1.44 would be there if he had pitched enough.

Quality Arroyo

Give credit to Reds starter Bronson Arroyo. After giving up 10 earned runs in one inning at Toronto on June 24th he's posted back-to-back quality starts. The latest is a borderline gem: six innings, five hits, no runs. He's the winner in Cincinnati's 3-0 shutout of the Nationals.

Fantasy Impact: Washington's offense is not the toughest Arroyo will face, but he's clearly not washed up. Arroyo did walk three batters and only threw 54 strikes out of 95 pitches, but this is very acceptable after what could have rattled him for a while. He's a ho-hum starter for your fantasy team that will turn into trouble from time to time.

Bombs away

The Marlins and Rockies put up some fireworks of their own Friday, combing for 35 runs on 43 hits. The Marlins outhit the Rockies by one, but the Rockies outscored the Marlins by one. Six different players hit home runs. There were eight home runs total with Ryan Spilborghs and Matt Holliday both lauching a pair. We should have expected a big night when Hanley Ramirez led things off with a home run to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

Fantasy Impact: Don't look now, but demoted Rockies closer Manny Corpas was the only pitcher to go at least two innings and not allow a run, dropping his ERA to 5.23. He's now spotless in his last seven outings. Last year he stole the closer job from Brian Fuentes. After losing the job back to Fuentes this year he might put pressure on him again down the stretch.

Long and short on Marmol

The Cubs' Carlos Marmol threw three pitches in San Francisco, and his ERA jumped another 19 points to 3.75. After tossing back-to-back balls to Rich Aurilia in the seventh, the Giants veteran deposited Marmol's only strike over the left field fence. Marmol was pulled without recording an out.

Fantasy Impact: Marmol's ERA reached a season-low 1.04 in mid May. It was at 2.09 on June 15th. Then came a four-run, no-out performance at Tampa. Marmol's never seemed to be the same. For a guy who looked like a challenger to Kerry Wood for the closer's role back in spring training, this is a long fall. The Cubs need Marmol to return to form, otherwise their bullpen could make this a short autumn.

More Lester

It took Red Sox starter John Lester 105 pitches to shutout the Yankees in a five-hitter. Lester struck out eight Yanks, lowering his ERA to 3.21 in a 7-0 victory. He's now 7-3 on the year.

Fantasy Impact: Lester looks like he's growing into an ace, but he's got a ways to go to earn that title in fantasy ball. Lester gave up six runs the last time he pitched. He's a work in progress, but still a really good one.

The unlikeliest star

Tigers outfielder Marcus Thames didn't own a starting spot in the Detroit Tigers lineup when the year got started. Now the Detroit Free Press is considering him a potential candidate for the All-Star game. Don't laugh, their theory is plausible. The Tigers don't have anyone with a clear-cut better first half of the season except for Magglio Ordonez, and he's injured.

Somehow, I don't see this happening, but it's an interesting consideration.

The case for Paul Konerko

For all of the offensive problems Dewayne Wise and Brian Anderson have experienced over their Major League careers, they're forcing the White Sox into a difficult decision once Paul Konerko returns next week.

Konerko, who's been out with an oblique problem, is hitting just .215. Anderson's modest .232 is about his low point for the season, but much better than his .118 mark in 2007. Wise is a career .210 hitter in just over a half season of Major League work, but he's entered Thursday over .300. Konerko's numbers are the worst of the bunch right now, and Anderson is the best defensive player in the group. While he and Wise play center, not first (Konerko's spot), starting centerfielder Nick Swisher moved over to first while Konerko rested. The Sox could leave Swisher there and platoon the centerfielders, meaning Konerko would be out of a starting spot.

Fantasy Impact: Swisher is the only player guaranteed to contribute regular at bats, but it would be surprising to see Konerko dropped out of the lineup right away. His track record is nothing short of very good, and the Sox are more likely to throw him in the fray to see if he can sink or swim before they make a move. Konerko will be expeted to pull out of the funk, and if he can't, Anderson and Wise will become no better than part-timers, not exactly attractive to fantasy owners.

MLB gloss coming off?

This article from Forbes would seem to stand opposite to everything ever uttered by Bud Selig regarding the popularity of baseball today.

Selig always talks about this being the golden era of baseball. Just one month ago he was at it again:

"Today is the golden era of baseball," Selig said. "The game today is more popular than it has ever been in its long and distinguished history."

That may, in fact, be true depending on what set of statistics you look at. But if fewer fans are going games, even for economic reasons, that means baseball is slightly out of touch with what fans are looking for. That's makes any boom period slightly less shiny, even if it is still fairly golden.

DNA matches Clemens

The piling on continues for Roger Clemens. Apparently the DNA matches the paraphernalia Brian McNamee submitted to federal agents. Here's the latest from MLB.com.

Here's wondering whether or not Clemens will deflect the latest information by saying McNamee planted the evidence. This story just won't go away.

A rant on All-Star voting

All-Star voting is over, and for two reasons I did not participate this year.

First, I don't think fans should have the opportunity to pick the All-Star teams, and this first reason comes via two reasons that support that reason: A) The All-Star game decides home-field advantage in the postseason, so the best teams should be on the field - not the teams fans want to see. B) The All-Star game is not "The Most Popular" game, meaning players who have proven themselves with their play over the first-half of the season should get the chance to play. They shouldn't play because they are liked. They should play because they've starred on the field.

Second, the opportunity to vote for months prior to the close date and up to 25 times on the MLB site is just insanity. Anyone can rig that system, and if you're the fan of lets say the Cubs or the Red Sox, what's stopping you from piling up the other league's ballot box with scrubs? A weaker N.L. lineup might get the Red Sox home-field in the World Series this year. Cubs fans should be doing whatever it takes to get that opportunity. What's stopping them?

Fans need to realize that this isn't an election - there's no free speech in the selection of an All-Star team. They should ask baseball to do the right thing and change the way All-Star teams are selected. The best players need to be on the field. That's especially true when the game means something. Then again, the game was never intended to decide home-field in the first place, so maybe the argument should start with eradicating the problem, not the symptoms of that problem.

Buck on sports broadcasting

Awful Announcing is upset with Joe Buck (what's new), but to listen to Buck's lament about the time it takes to follow sports is somewhat disappointing. He says sports are no longer as "special or unique" as they once were because of the overwhelming access these days. He'd rather watch the primetime reality stuff on network TV.

The access these days is what makes is easier to follow sports, Joe, not more difficult. As someone who has broadcast games and sports shows, I can understand how overwhelming all of the preparation can be - but that preparation gives you the opportunity to do what no one else does. You're there, you have the access, you have the opportunity to reach people.

I don't think Buck is a bad guy necessarily, nor is he out of his mind to complain about his job (who doesn't). I don't, however, think he's a very good sportscaster on many, many levels. Maybe this explains it.

Cleveland needs to sell

It's time for the Cleveland Indians to sell. Another extra-inning heartbreaking loss to the White Sox leaves them 12.5 games out of first with four teams to catch in the A.L Central. With ten teams ahead of them for a Wild Card berth and just 28 days from now until the trade deadline, expect offers to fly in for high-priced stars like C.C. Sabathia. The big lefty actually started Wednesday's loss, a 6-5 no-decision that A.J. Pierzynski put to bed with his 10th-inning solo home run. It was Pierzynski's second home run of the night.

Rays of hope

The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Red Sox with three hard-fought wins, giving themselves a very possible shot at not only first place in the A.L. East at the All-Star break, but also a chance for the best record in baseball in the first half of the season. The Rays own one fourth-place finish and nine fifth-place finish in their 10-year history. Since the Rays inception only one team, the 2006 Blue Jays, has cracked the Yankees/Red Sox 1st-2nd lock at the top of the division. Toronto missed the post season that year, but if Tampa plays .500 ball the rest of the way, they're almost guaranteed to make the playoffs.