Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

It could be that the best value among last year's free agent crop was none other than Kenny Rogers who is currently 6-2 with a 3.23 ERA for the Tigers. I don't think it is a stretch to say that Rogers' performance is a major reason Detroit is only a 1/2 game back in the AL Central and 2 games up in the Wild Card race. People knew that the Tigers had a great 1-2 combo with Jeremy Bonderman and Mike Maroth but Rogers gives them the type of depth that propelled the White Sox to the World Series last year... Wow - was it only three years ago that Bonderman and Maroth combined for 40 losses?.... Cleveland is more games out of first place than Tampa Bay - just sayin'... When did Randy Johnson become John Burkett?.... Yes that was THE Scott Erickson pitching for the Yankees yesterday. Erickson may be old but he was 6-years younger than the guy he relieved (just to help put Johnson's age in perspective)... Three out of the top 5 batting averages in the American League belong to members of the Toronto Blue Jays. Alex Rios is second with a .367 mark, Vernon Wells is 4th at .358 and Johnny Pesky favorite Shea Hillenbrand is 5th with his .348... I predict that by the end of the month that Ichiro will be back over the .300 mark where he belongs... Alex Gonzalez is known for his great glove but mediocre at best bat. Yet Gonzalez leads Richie Sexson by 31 points in batting average and 43 points in OBP while just trailing Sexson by 16 points in SLG. Unfortunately for Mariners' fans - they have the equivalent of Alex Gonzalez hitting clean-up... The White Sox are back in first and a huge reason for that is the resurgence of Scott Podsednik in May. In the first month of the season Podsednik hit just .233 with a measly .281 OBP in the leadoff slot. In May Podsednik has been white-hot with a .417 average and a .523 OBP...