Not easy, but Eveland notches win

A hard-fought win by Dana Eveland and the Oakland A's against Seattle tonight. Eveland gave up three in the first on a three-run homer by the Mariners' Richie Sexson. Then he scattered hits the rest of the way, giving up no runs over the next 4.1 innings. The A's climbed back into the game thanks to Wes Bankston's two-run homer and took a 4-3 lead before Eveland's departure in the sixth. The bullpen held Seattle scoreless the rest of the way, handing Eveland his seventh win.

Fantasy Impact: Eveland threw just 53 of his 100 pitches for strikes, but found a way to keep his team in the game after a rough start. That's the reason he's 7-5 on the year. He's a solid, if not spectacular, fantasy starter.

Hiroki the hero

Mark Teixeira broke up Hiroki Kuroda's perfect game bid, leading off the eighth with a double to right on a 2-2 pitch. Kuroda still threw a complete game shutout, getting the last six batters in a row.

Kuroda struck out six over the first four innings but did not record a strikeout over the last five. Kuroda's ERA drops to 3.39, a full 34 points, and he only 91 pitches (61 for strikes).

Fantasy Impact: Kuroda's time on the DL must've served him well. This was a dominant performance. This was a pitcher completely taking control of a game and finishing it in style. Although Teixeira broke up the perfect game and no-hitter, Kuroda got him down 0-2 before the fatal pitch.

Soria blows 2nd save

For just the second time in 25 chances, Royals closer Joakim Soria blew a save opportunity. The latest comes with a 3-2 K.C. lead on Tampa at Tropicana Field in a Monday matinee. With one out in the ninth, Carlos Pena hit his second home run of the series to right.

Update: The Royals belt two home runs in the top of the 10th. John Buck sends a three-run homer out to left which is followed by a solo shot from Mike Aviles, and Soria ends up with a win. He gave up another homer to Eric Hinske in the 10th, but the Royals prevail 7-4.

Fantasy Impact: Soria is an elite closer who's worked 23 of his 25 chances to near perfection this year. He struck out two of the five batters he faced in the inning and is averaging more than a strike out per inning this season. Pena's got two home runs since returning from the D.L. in late June.

Cubs after Harden

After losing out in the C.C. Sabathia sweepstakes, the Cubs appear to be focusing their efforts on Rich Harden, according the the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Cubs have spent a lot of time on the phone recently with Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane trying to pry away right-hander Rich Harden. Expect the phone lines to start burning a little hotter beginning today.

Interesting that Sabathia won the A.L. Cy Young last year, and Harden's expected to be a leading candidate for the award this year. If the Cubs end up landing Harden they may be getting the better pitcher -- at least for this year.

NBA: the problem-solving pace-setter for MLB, others?

This column from the Chicago Tribune explains the ideas behind NBA commisioner David Stern's hiring of a former military general to take misguided referees to task. The writer asks for the same sort of authority figure to sort out problems in the NCAA, which he hopes eventually helps to clean up Major League Baseball:

That in turn would apply pressure to Commissioner Bud Selig, whose baseball industry sanctions minor-league umpires to arbitrate major-league games so the elite can enjoy an in-season vacation, not to be confused with a five-month off-season vacation. When the regulars return from fishing, perhaps the more confrontational types could be urged to avert disorder instead of baiting players and managers.

If players don't get a vacation during the season why should umps?

Sabathia deal: prospects leaked

While we await official announcement of the Sabathia deal early this week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has leaked at least a few of the players expected to be named in the trade to Cleveland. The Indians will receive:

Matt LaPorta - The jewel of the trade. He's hit 20 home runs in Double-A and was a suspected second-half call-up for the Brewers.

Robert Bryson - Drafted in the 31st round of the 2006 draft out of H.S. He's dominated in A-ball over roughly the last month.

Zach Jackson - A supplemental first-round pick back in 2004, he's been roughed up at Triple-A to the tune of a 7.85 ERA. The 6'5 lefty owns a 10.06 ERA when he's behind in the count this year.

Cleveland may get a fourth player to be named. The JS thinks it could be Taylor Green, another A-ball prospect who's hit 10 home runs as a third baseman.

Fantasy Impact: That's a pretty good haul for Cleveland, which would be getting one of the top two Brewers prospects plus some players with good promise for a guy they can't afford to keep. The Brewers are betting heavyily on winning it all this year, as Ben Sheets suggests he won't return to the team in 2009, and there's speculation that Milwaukee can't retain Sabathia past this year, either. LaPorta may come up and play for Cleveland right away, and if he does he has the talent to contribute to a fantasy team. The Indians would appear losers in this deal only if Milwaukee wins a title in 2008 or is able to sign Sabathia after the season. Otherwise, the Brewers spent a good deal for a guy they can't keep. Expect Sabathia to thrive in the National League. He'll be facing hitters who've seen very little of him, and he'll face the opposing pitcher a couple of times each game.

Source himself: Sabathia to Milwaukee

With all of these reports citing sources saying that C.C. Sabathia is headed to Milwaukee, ESPN trumped them all early Sunday or late Saturday (depending where you live) getting this text message from the ultimate source, C.C. himself:

"I'm good, excited," Sabathia wrote. "It's weird leaving these guys."

ESPN attributed the text to one of its online reporters, Amy K. Nelson. Way to go, Amy, but how is it you are the one getting C.C.'s texts and not someone like Steve Phillips?

Giant potential

Looking up C.C. Sabathia trade talk this weekend, I found an interesting tidbit from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Check out the section under 'STAT-O-MATIC' which reads:

Strikeouts galore: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez are the first Giants to have 100 or more strikeouts before the All-Star break since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958.

I'm a big fan of these three young pitchers, and that's quite a remarkable statistic. The cupboard is never too bare when you have aces to get you by. San Francisco may be out of the race this year, but they're only a couple of special hitters away from competing in a big way.

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.