Miscellaneous Thoughts

Some observations while I have my morning coffee and peruse the web...

The Red Sox lost yesterday but so did the Yankees - so Boston retains their .5 game lead... Big showdown in Chicago this weekend as the Twins come in for three games. Whoever takes 2 out of 3 will be in first place in the AL Central on Monday... Bill Belichick got a big spontaneous ovation at Fenway Park last night as he took his seats with his family... The hottest starting pitcher in baseball may just be Wilson Alverez of the Dodgers who is 2-0 with a 1.15 ERA in 10 games (2 starts) and 31 innings pitched this year. Alverez would be leading the NL in ERA except you need 1.0 IP per game played and Alverez only has 31 IP while the Dodgers have played 32 games.. I'm curious to see how Casey Kotchman does for the Angels. The rookie was brought up due to the injury to Darrin Erstad and so far Casey is hitting just .250 but has 4 RBI in 3 games. Kotchman was ranked 14th by the folks at The Hardball Times among the top 50 prospects (right between pitchers Zack Greinke of the Royals and Joe Blanton of the A's). The Angels owe Erstad $16.5 million over the next two years but he isn't the answer at first base and the outfield is now too crowded with Guerrerro, Anderson and Guillen. Also - with Troy Glaus a free agent at the end of the year and him projecting to have 50 HR this season - the Angels will probably not be able to go after a big hitting first baseman like Carlos Delgado without giving up on crowd favorite Glaus (which is one of the reasons why I think Delgado is going to end up taking a hometown discount to stay with the Blue Jays but I'm just rambling at this point)... Peggy Noonan has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal and I thought this nugget from her column (not original from Noonan) was worth pondering - happiness is a cat: Chase it and it will run from you, sit quietly and do your work and it will come and curl itself at your feet... Last night with the Indians leading 6-2 in the bottom of the 9th - the crowd at Fenway got to its collective feet and cheered the Red Sox on because they more than half expected a comeback win. I'm willing to bet that many of the fans in Cleveland also half expected their bullpen to blow it...