Lincecum OK, ready to go

After taking a line drive off his knee in his latest start, Tim Lincecum insists he'll make his next one.

Though his manager and teammates seemed thrilled the injury wasn't more serious, Lincecum said he never thought he sustained a fracture. He left the field upset because he couldn't pitch anymore. The 41/3-inning stint was his shortest start of the season.

"It's like hitting the funny bone," Lincecum said. "All your nerves go stupid. When I tried to step on it, it was a step on a non-existent leg."

The young pitching phenom has proved remarkably durable in his short career despite wild pitching mechanics. Now he's bouncing back from what was a scary injury. Start him in all leagues.

Dickerson coming along slowly

If you hoped Reds rookie Chris Dickerson would get a starting spot and run with it over te final two months of the season, not so fast. It looks like Cincinnati is going to slowly bring him along.

Dickerson has had some problems with lefties in the Minors," Baker said. "You have to try and protect him and his confidence and try to put him in a better possible situation to succeed."

On Tuesday, Dickerson went 1-for-4 with a double, a walk, a stolen base and a run scored.

"Dickerson will be back in there tomorrow against [Ian] Snell," Baker said.

The Reds dived right in with Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey when those players came up. After mixed success rates, they'll go slower with Dickerson, who is not nearly as heralded as Cincinnati's top prospects. He still might earn a starting spot down the stretch, so keep an eye on him.

Diamond Brothers

Adam and Andy LaRoche, the prize brother corner infielding duo for the Pirates, are set to play together for this first time. Both have faced injuries. Both seem finally healthy enough to play the rest of the way.

Fantasy Impact: Adam, the first baseman, was finally heating up after a slow start (just like last year), when he was hurt. Andy, who suffered from two thumb injuries this season, is hitting under .200, but has major-league pop. Give him a whirl. You never know down the stretch.

MLB close to implement Instant Replay?

Instant Replay is close to becoming used for disputed home run calls.

It's not an action item on the agenda and a vote by the 30 clubs is not necessary for Selig to move forward and implement it, DuPuy said. Substantial time has been spent by baseball operations on developing the plan since the collective general managers endorsed it with a 25-5 vote at their annual meetings late last year.

"There's no vote, there won't be a vote," DuPuy said. "It's not a rule change. What is there to be voted on? In his role as chief executive, the Commissioner has the power of negotiating with the unions for the players and umpires to get it done. There's no opposition to it [from the owners]. At least I haven't heard of any.

"It is on the [Thursday] agenda and we continue to work on it and continue to discuss it."

If there's no need for a vote, they might as well push it through as soon as possible. Umpires already take a long time making up their minds on balls that wrap around the foul pole, etc. The instant replay process wouldn' take much, if any, longer.

A third of the scoring

After producing 36 runs on Tuesday night the Red Sox and Rangers came back to earth a bit. The two teams still produced 12 runs in an 8-4 BoSox victory at Fenway. After all of thoe three-run homers on took Boston to a 19-17 win on Tuesday, not a single Red Sox player hit one on Wednesday. Milton Bradley and Ian Kinsler both went deep for Texas. Bradley, suffering from nagging injuries of late, hit his 20th.

Kevin Youkilis stays hot for Boston with three hits, three runs and two RBI.

No mercy from Purcey

Blue Jays David Purcey had it purring against the Tigers. The Blue Jays rookie shutout what was supposed to be the best lineup in baseball for six innings, striking out four and giving up two hits in a 4-3 win. It's Purcey's second win in six starts.

David Eckstein produced three hits and scored a run. Vernon Wells knocked him in as part of a third inning grand clam.

Fantasy Impact: Purcey is intriguing. He produced pretty good minor league numbers but hasn't really put it together in MLB until now. He's going to have to show some consistency before he's worth picking up.

Eckstein is one of the worst fantasy middle infielders and likely available in most leagues. Wells has played well his year. It's too bad he's been injured so often that he's only produced 10 home runs.

10 in three

That's what the Mets did to Washington tonight. Through three innings, New York produced ten runs, including eight in the third.

In that inning, the Mets scored two run on walks and four more on hits. The Nationals had four hits all night in a 12-0 thumping in D.C. Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis combined for five hits in 11 at bats. They scored four runs and knocked in five.

Sox-cess

Javier Vazquez snapped back from his latest start to post 10 strikeouts in a 9-0 White Sox pasting of Kansas City. Now teammate Mark Buehrle KO's KC. Buehrle works seven innings, striking out five and scattering five hits as the Sox blank KC again, 4-0.

Fantas Impact: Buehrle has had a good season. He earns victory number 10 and drops his ERA to 3.77. Buehrle gets shelled once every few weeks, but if you pick your spots correctly, he's a solid middle- to back-end fantasy option.

Central of attention

The top five teams in the National League Central are all in the midst of winning streaks. That includes the Houston Astros, winners of seven straight with a 6-2 comeback victory in San Francisco.

The Cubs won two games today in Atlanta, temporarily pushing Milwaukee four games back in the standings. The Brewers, who have also won four straight, play San Diego tonight.

The only team in the Central on a losing streak is Cincinnati, which lost to division rival Pittsburgh, and was was coming off a win of its own.

Crawford out for year?

Carl Crawford will undergo surgery on his finger, which he hurt merely swinging a bat. This puts the rest of his season in serious jeopardy.

Fantasy Impact: He's likely your top source for speed, so it's time to go shopping for the remainder of the season. Crawford had a subpar season by his standards, and his value may be low enough to steal him outside of the top five rounds of a draft next year. Keep an eye on the waiver wire in case somebody makes the mistake of letting him go. He's good enough to keep, but not a high-round selection anymore.

Bigger than Big Papi

As great as David Ortiz's first inning was Wednesday night (two three-run homers in the first inning alone), it's still not the best single inning of baseball by a hitter.

Don't forget Fernando Tatis, who hit two grand slams in a single inning back on April 23, 1999.

And you thought you were die-hard

Stumbled on this little ditty in the Detroit Free Press. They credit Forbes.com with this list of "most loyal" and "least loyal" fan bases in baseball.

The five most loyal group of fans:

1. Texas Rangers
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Chicago Cubs
5. Pittsburgh Pirates

The five least loyal group of fans:

1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Oakland A’s
4. Minnesota Twins
5. Philadelphia Phillies

There are certainly different ways of measuring loyalty, and you'll have to read the article to review Forbes' criteria. I'm just surprised that the Braves and Pirates showed up in the top five "most loyal" fan bases. Atlanta has a hard time selling out post season games.

Guillen likes Garcia to Tigers, but not to Sox

Freddy Garcia got picked up by the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, even though his fastball was said to be topping out in the mid-80's.

I personally asked his former manager/uncle (by marriage) Ozzie Guillen, about Garcia's signing. Guillen said he's happy for his family member, and then said he thinks Garcia would've been a good pickup for the White Sox next year. "My daugther-in-law's got more money," Guillen said.

Fantasy Impact: I'd steer clear of Garcia. He's been hurting for a long time, and it took the Tigers a while to make a move on him. Like Guillen said, it looks like he's better suited to pitch at a high level next year.

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.