Crawford out, Rocco returns

Rocco Baldelli is finally back from his chronic fatigue issues, but the precursor to his return is a DL stint for Carl Crawford. Crawford, who's battled leg issues, hits the disabled list with a hand problem.

Fantasy Impact: Baldelli can be a conributor immediately, and the Rays could use his right handed bat. Crawford's been a disappointment all year, and a hand injury is nothing to sneeze at. Sometimes those problems can linger long enough to foul up a couple months of a season or more. If that becomes the case here, that's his season.

Contreras done for year

Jose Contreras is a pretty tough guy. Rupturing his achilles tendon while trying to cover first base on an infield hit by Jacoby Ellsbury, Contreras looked to be in pain, but actually got up and walked himself off the field. He's done for the year, but the way he handled himself you almost had hope that he could pitch again this season. That's not happening.

Zambrano Glaused

The Cardinals are killing the Cubs at Wrigley after hitting four home runs off of Carlos Zambrano. Big Z looked erratic. He struggled to locate his pitches and served up two rocket shots to Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus.

Fantasy Impact: Earlier this year, I wrote that Scott Rolen will be the more valuable player in the Cardinals-Blue Jays trade this off season. How badly I was mistaken. Troy Glaus is proving to be almost the player he was before his injury problems. Glaus now has 21 home runs, and has been a stalwart in the middle of the Cardinals' lineup.

Wainwright to help waning bullpen

The Cardinals are grooming Adam Wainwright for a return to the bullpen once he returns from a rehab assignment.

"They've pretty much told me that they are grooming me down here to pitch in the back end (of the game) up there," Wainwright said after 27 pitches and an uneven two-thirds of an inning at Autozone Park. "They've made it clear to me that I'm down here for a reason, and that's to get ready to get guys out in the last inning or two. That's what I'm doing.

"Until they call and tell me otherwise," the righthander continued, "mentally I'm preparing myself to be in the bullpen."

By the time he gets back with the team the Cardinals might be out of the race.

Fantasy Impact: Whenever he returns, Wainwright will be a candidate for an immdediate impact in saves. The Cardinals need someone to step in and own that position. It will be interesting to see if they keep him there heading into next season.

Todd Jones - on the radar

With the Detroit bullpen still looking messy at best, it sounds like Kyle Farnsworth is not even in the conversation for closing games at this point. The job is still Fernando Rodney's, and with Joel Zumaya potentially heading for instruction on his curveball, could Todd Jones be back in the picture soon? Jones says he wants the role back when he returns from the DL, and Jim Leyland's latest quote is very Jones-friendly.

"Todd Jones has taken a lot of heat -- and I'm not looking to pick an argument with fans or anybody else -- but it's always easy to see somebody have a good night and say, 'Close with that guy,' " Leyland said. "It doesn't work that way. We're finding that out. ... People realize how tough Todd Jones' job has been, and what a hell of a job that guy has done."

Spitting Seeds wouldn't be surprised if Jones re-inherits the role from Rodney by the end of August.

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.