Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Some people were worried about David Ortiz playing first base but in my opinion he's a better fielder than the Phillies' Ryan Howard... NASCAR can have their Dick Trickle. Baseball had Johnny Dickshot... Carl Pavano hasn't pitched for the Yankees since last June. Now he needs surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow. Basically Pavano has been $10 million a year down the drain for the Pinstripes. Say what you want about Matt Clement - he's been a much better deal than Pavano... So much for the Braves' John Thomson leading the NL in ERA. His 6 ER in 5 2/3 last night dropped him from first to sixth (2.76) in NL ERA. Bronson Arroyo is the new ERA leader in the NL with his 2.40 mark (I'm still stunned at how good Arroyo has been so far this season but I still expect him to fall back to earth)... Speaking of falling back to earth - in April Greg Maddux was 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA. In May Maddux has been 0-3 with a 7.48. His ERA is now at 3.76... Congratulations to Framingham's Lou Merloni who played in his first MLB game last night since last May. Merloni replaced Aaron Boone at 3rd in the 8th inning but did not get an at bat. Lou couldn't have had much time in the field to savor his return though as the Pirates / Indians game went a very quick 2 hours, 7 minutes.... Jonathan Papelbon leads all of baseball with his 15 saves (in 15 chances). You cannot imagine how good this kid has been... The flip side to Jonathan Papelbon has to be Francisco Codero who is just 3 for 8 in save chances... And while we are talking about closers - am I the only one surprised to see that opponents are hitting a robust .297 against Mariano Rivera?...