Benito been bad

Bob Brenly says on CSN Chicago that Benito Santiago used to lean into batters at home plate when base runners got a good jump from first. The interference call would get would-be base stealers even if they had the bag stolen. That's brilliant, but is there anything Santiago didn't cheat at? First steroids, then obscure rules; Santiago played the angles.

Bay on banks of Mississippi?

Here's one that hasn't been ballyhooed enough in recent weeks: The Cardinals going after Pittsburgh's Jason Bay. While it looks like this might take a while, it could prove the Cardinals' feel the same as most critics of their own OF corps, which includes Rick Ankiel, Joe Mather, Brian Barton, Skip Schumaker and and All-Star Ryan Ludwick.

One executive with a National League team said he thought "it would go down to the wire'' whether Bay would be dealt.

"We're looking for what we deem appropriate value. We're not going to limit ourselves to guys who are close (to the big leagues),'' Huntington said. "Our goal is to maximize our return and find a good match.''

Bay in St. Louis could add some extra pop to the Cardinals lineup. He's having a good year: .291/62/17/46/6

Fantasy Impact: Can't see how this would do anything but improve Bay's fantasy value. You never know how a player is going to react to being traded, but entering a more potent Cardinals lineup should would only increase his offensive output. The only way his numbers would flatten out is if the Cardinals continue to platoon their corner OFs, including Bay, but he's a superior talent to anyone they're trotting out there.

Best record to wild card

Tampa's ugly 13-2 loss to last-place Cleveland leaves them just 1.5 games ahead of Boston in the AL East. The Red Sox won their last game, 18-5 against Minnesota.

We're just a couple of weekend sweeps away from having the team with the best record in baseball when the week began (Tampa) falling into second place in their own division by week's end.

Clark could move

The San Diego Padres will listen to offers for Tony Clark, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. It makes sense to deal the 36-year-old switch-hitter, as the Padres need to upgrade several positions (I don't think they'll get anything more than a mid-level prospect), but if they're actually clearing space for 31-year-old career minor leaguer Brian Myrow, that's odd. Myrow has a .188 average in 33 at bats in MLB. There's a reason he hasn't gotten much of a chance at this point in his career.

Analyzing Hart & Longoria selections

Fans voted Evan Longoria and Corey Hart to their respective All-Star teams with this year's final vote. I'm a bit surprised. Longoria is in his first season with the Tampa Bay Rays while Hart is in just his second season with Milwaukee. Neither is putting up Albert Pujols-type numbers, and they're not playing in the biggest of the big in terms of media markets. I guess word on good young players gets out faster these days with fantasy baseball and the internet. Here's a look at their ranking in the five most common fantasy stat categories (AVG/R/HR/RBI/SB) vs. the players they were up against:

NL:
Corey Hart (.292/47/15/57/13) - (3/3/4/3/1) Total: 14
David Wright (.288/59/17/70/10) - (4/1/3/2/2) Total: 12
Pat Burrell (.279/48/22/54/0) - (5/2/1/4/5) Total: 17
Aaron Rowand (.296/40/8/47/1) - (1/5/5/5/4) Total: 20
Carlos Lee (.293/46/21/72/4) - (2/4/2/1/3) Total: 12

AL:
Evan Longoria (.281/44/16/53/6) - (3/4/3/T3/2) Total: 15
Jermaine Dye (.301/52/20/53/3) - (1/2/1/T3/3) Total: 10
Jason Giambi (.256/45/18/54/2) - (5/3/2/2/4) Total: 16
Brian Roberts (.291/59/7/32/25) - (2/1/5/5/1) Total: 14
Jose Guillen (.274/41/13/65/1) - (5/5/4/1/5) Total: 20

(Players are listed in order they finished in the voting)

Low score wins in the "Total" column, so Hart finishes 3rd among NL final vote candidates. Longoria finishes 3rd among AL final vote candidates.

A quick note on the NL "Total" rankings - batting average was very tight between the NL players, so Hart could actually be the top-ranked player with a single day of good hitting vs. a bad day for the other guys. He's a solid choice, but I like David Wright better. Wright is fourth in average, and still ties Carlos Lee with 12 points. Wright doesn't hit as many homers as Lee, but his numbers across the board are very good in every category. I think Wright should've been the All-Star here, while Lee and Hart finish a close second. Fans gave Lee absolutely no credit for an outstanding first half.

As far as Longoria's selection, I think the fans did the right thing in voting him on to the AL roster. He only finishes 3rd in these rankings, but he also missed a large chunk of the season in the minors. Given that, he's still competitive in the R/HR/RBI categories, which is very impressive. Unless he wears out, Longoria is poised to have monster numbers at season's end. Maybe he is Pujols-like, afterall. I like Dye and Roberts second and third, respectively, but Giambi and Guillen had no chance.

Huston, not Houston

Huston Street, in an interview with Yahoo! Sports tells us why his first name is spelled with out the 'O' like the city of Houston.

My parents, like all people from Texas, are very proud of their state and wanted me to have a name that resembled it; they wanted me to have a "Texas" name but didn't want people to think I was named after the city, so they took the "O" out.

They could have named him Cody or something and that would've sufficed. I actually like Huston better.

How much of their time did they waste talking about third grade? Ridiculous.

Sid the Mechanic

Sidney Ponson has an explanation for his one bad start sandwiched in between two solid outings for the Yankees. His mechanics were off. In between his second and third starts, Ponson worked on not allowing his left shoulder to fly open, and it led to success.

"My mechanics were way better than it was last start," he said. "My sinker was sinking downward instead of side to side and I got myself in a couple of jams. But I was lucky enough to get out of them."

Fantasy Impact: Ponson falls into the Jose Contreras category for fantasy play: good enough to consider, but make sure he's hot when you pick him up. If Ponson can keep his shoulder in for another outing, however, there's no harm in giving him a try over other options.

Moustache to stay

Jason Giambi says he has no choice. He's keeping the moustache. Apparently he thinks growing it during his long early-season slump helped him get back to hitting the ball.

I think Giambi needs a new gimmick. He's hit no home runs in his last six games, and his average dropped 12 points to .256. Full beard time, perhaps.

No Bonds offer

Even after the Diamondbacks expressed general interest in Barry Bonds, no contract is coming from Phoenix or any other Major League city. I don't expect Bonds to play baseball again.

Was it Peter Gammons who said, "Bonds has more baggage than O'Hare airport" recently? For anyone that's visited Chicago, Midway airport has a lot of baggage. O'Hare is insane.

Mariners replace Sexson quickly

After jettisoning Richie Sexson earlier in the day, the Mariners move quickly, acquiring Crag Wilson from the Pirates. Wilson was at Triple-A this year, but you'd have to imagine he'll be up with the M's.

Wilson was hitting .230 with 10 HR for Triple-A Indianapolis.

Update: Wilson was acquired for a player to be named, but the Pirates continued to make moves. None of them are major, especially if you're from the fantasy baseball crowd. Wilson is the most intriguing as he could provide the Mariners some pop.

Update: More info on the deals thanks to Bucs Dugout.

I'll have to agree that I'm not sure that Wilson does much for Seattle. They moved Ichiro back to RF, so it's not like Wilson has anywhere to play but first or DH, and he's not that great of a hitter. I expect Wilson to be up, though, and to contribute a some home runs.

Lilly leaves early, but OK

Ted Lilly is not injured. He left today's Cubs-Reds game in the third after throwing just 39 pitches. Lou Piniella just said in his postgame press conference that Lilly didn't have good stuff today. Piniella says Lilly will now get a nice, long layoff over the All-Star break and come back "fresher and stronger."

The Reds tagged Lilly for four runs on six hits in 2.2 innings. He walked two and picks up his ninth loss.

Fantasy Impact: Lilly finishes the first half with pretty mediocre numbers, although he is 9-6. His 4.68 ERA is not impressive, but if he improves at all after this layoff, he has an outside shot at 20 wins. I'll peg him for something closer to 15 or 16, however, as 15 is his career high. He's gone over 200 innings just once in his career, and he's now thrown 115.1 this season.

Romero picks up first save

Phillies reliever J.C. Romero picked up his first save of the season and just the fourth of his career in Philadelphia's 4-1 win over St. Louis. With two on in the ninth, Romero came in and retired both batters he faced, including a Brendan Ryan popout to end it.

Fantasy Impact: Don't get excited. You didn't scoop everyone in your league and pick up the latest new closer. Romero only worked in place of Brad Lidge due to Lidge's unavailability after working two nights in a row. Romero's numbers are good, but Lidge's numbers are scary (2-0, 20 S, 0.95 ERA).

Howard's beginning to rip

Ryan Howard mashed two home runs off Cardinals pitching today, giving him 27 on the season. He's two ahead of teammate Chase Utley for the MLB lead. The Phillies will have to do some serious damage in the eighth if he's going to get another at bat today, so we'll say Howard should finish the day with 27 homers and a .234 average.

Fantasy Impact: After a slow start that saw him hit mostly below .200 until May 21, Howard is having another incredible power season. He's on pace for 162 RBI and 53 HR. With his 125th strikeout today, Howard is on pace now for 244, which is 45 more than his single-season record of 199.

Phillips figures out Lilly

The Reds Brandon Phillips, 0-14 lifetime against Ted Lilly including a deep flyout to right in his first at bat today, homers in his second at bat. Phillips' two-run shot gives Cincinnati the lead, 4-3 in the third. With a gentle breeze out to center, this game will see more scoring.

Update: Maybe it wasn't Phillips. Lilly is done after 2.2 innings. He threw just 39 pitches, giving up four runs.

Fantasy Impact: Phillips has scuffled at times this season, but now he's got 15 home runs, and he's on pace to approach 100 runs and RBI. This was Lilly's shortest outing all season per WGN.

Mulder to DL

Mark Mulder is back on the disabled list after just 16 pitches as a starter this season. He has a shoulder strain.

Update: It sounds like the Cardinals and GM John Mozeliak have given up on Mulder.

He's just not getting over the hump," Mozeliak said. "Typically, I have a very optimistic tone. But in this case, it's hard to envision this getting to a point where it's going to work for us or for him."

I wonder if anyone will give him a chance.

Cards deal: for the birds?

Some interesting points made by St. Louis Post Dispatch writer Bernie Miklasz on the state of the Cardinals after NL Central rivals Milwaukee and Chicago respectively acquired CC Sabathia and Rich Harden. It sounds like St. Louis is not likely to make a major deal, especially with John Mozeliak as the general manager. He has Cardinals chairman Bill Dewitt strongly backing him.

After last season, DeWitt, vice president of player development Jeff Luhnow and Mozeliak made it clear they were in accord on the new organizational initiative to improve on the team's drafts and player development. The refusal to go along cost former GM Walt Jocketty his job. And no matter what the spin is publicly, DeWitt and Luhnow aren't about to sign off on the plundering of prospects to remedy short-term concerns.

...

"I don't think there's one Band-Aid or one player (available in trade), who changes the dynamic of our club," Mozeliak said. "And I surely don't think it's to the extent of where you're willing to sacrifice a lot of your future to just do that. Given that you don't have any certainty of success that (acquired players) may bring you."

Interesting that the Cardinals may have attempted to make more of a splash if current Reds GM Walt Jocketty was still around.

No Super Bowl

The All-Star game ad sales are out, and thanks to the midsummer classic being in New York, the money is pretty big. Some spots are going for more than $500,000.

This article says NBC, which is carrying the 2009 Super Bowl, expects to earn about $3 million per add for next year's big game. That means an All-Star game spot is worth about one-sixth of a Super Bowl ad. That's not half bad. Not even close.

Not Sori

In the biggest non-story of the day, Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano will not play in the all-star game. No kidding.

Pitching the pits in Pittsburgh

The Pirates miss on an opportunity to sweep the Astros Wednesday, meaning they haven't won three straight games since winning six straight from May 6-12. That's not exactly surprising considering how horrendously their pitching staff has performed.

Pittsburgh's got the worst team ERA in MLB at 5.13. They've given up 926 hits in 816.1 innings -- also worst in the majors. Even with all those hits against them, Pirates pitchers simultaneously give up the most walks in baseball. No pitching equals no consistency.

John Van Benschoten becomes the latest Pittsburgh pitching victim, giving up four runs to Houston in 4.2 innings. Houston knocked out seven hits and drew six walks. He was optioned to Triple-A after the game.

Berkman steals two

Lance Berkman's two stolen bases not only helped the Astros sprint past the Pirates, 6-4, but they also ran his career high in steals to 14 for the year. Not only is that a career best, it's five more than Berkman's stolen in any full season in the majors. Four more and he doubles his career best of nine set back in 2004. He never stole more than seven bases over parts of five seasons in the minors.

Fantasy Impact: Berkman's not likely getting faster with age. He's just running more. Take this while it lasts, because it's unlikely that you drafted the Astros' slugger for his wheels. Who knows if Berkman can sustain the production for a complete season? He's looking like an MVP candidate, and if he can get to 20 steals that might put him over the top.