Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball related thoughts and observations:

- I get tremendous joy from going to the Red Sox website and seeing the schedule section say Curt Schilling vs. winner of the Twins /Yankees series.

- I felt kinda bad for Troy Percival last night. The guy was the closer for the Angels for years and his final memory of playing for Anaheim will be sitting in the bullpen - ready to go - while starter Jarrod Washburn is called in to relieve in the 10th and then seeing Washburn give up a HR to David Ortiz.

- The Red Sox have to be the hottest team right now but the second scariest team has to be the Astros. Clemens and Oswalt isn't quite Schilling / Martinez but it's close. It will be interesting to see what the Astros do in regards to second base and the outfield next year. Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt have to be the priority signings. I would look for both to stay put and that probably means Jeff Kent and his $9 million option have to move on (with Craig Biggio moving back to second base).

- Doug Mientkiewicz is said to be a great lockeroom presence. Here's exhibit A:

"David [Ortiz] is one of those guys that I couldn't have been happier for anybody in the big leagues," Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "For what that man has gone through in the last three or four years, my gosh. The one thing I told him when I hugged him when he crossed that plate was, 'Momma would be proud.' He lost his momma a couple of years ago, and she was a big part of his life and the first thing I thought of when he hit it was, 'Come on momma, blow it out of here.'"

- Watch out for the Blue Jays next year. They will have Carlos Delgado and his $18.5 million off the books. They have Halliday, Bush, Lilly and Batista as a rotation - they should be very good.

- The next Presidential debate may very well be up against a Red Sox / Yankee showdown on October 13th. The debate will get killed in the ratings.

- The Braves will have some interesting offseason choices. What do they do about Rafael Furcal? Personally I don't think he's worth the money that Furcal will be asking for. Maybe they let Furcal walk but make a reasonable (3-year $33 million) offer to Georgia Tech alum Nomar Garciaparra. Signing Nomar will certainly take away any sting of losing Furcal and maybe JD Drew (who had 34 win shares this year and will be sure to be looking for big bucks. 34 win shares! That was seventh in the NL but would have led the AL.) The Braves also have big decisions on Paul Byrd and Russ Ortiz.

- Jose Lima pitches for the Dodgers today. No word on whether he'll sing the National Anthem again.