Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Kevin Millar is hitting a measly .233 for the Orioles. It still pisses me off that Millar played the majority of games at first last year for the Red Sox while Kevin Youkilis sat on the bench... Detroit still leads the AL Central but I have to wonder how long that will last if they stick with Todd Jones as their closer. Sure Jones is 16 for 17 in save opportunities but I get a feeling that Jones will have a stretch where he can't get anyone out and blows like 5 saves in a row. Just sayin' is all... The AL Central is completely beating up on the AL West. So far this season the Central is 37-22 against the West. It's true that the West hasn't really gotten to feast on he Royals yet (just 4 games so far) but its equally true that the Royals won't lie down for anyone in the West (just ask the A's who lost to KC last night)... Freddy Sanchez is finally getting a chance to start and he's making the most of it. The former pride of the Pawtucket Red Sox is hitting .327 for the Pirates with a .851 OPS. Sanchez was the key prospect that brought Jeff Suppan back to the Red Sox 3 years ago. Suppan was not a fit in Boston (and never was). He went 3-4 with a 4.71 ERA that half-season in 2003 and was out of town by the end of the year. The Pirates definitely got the best of that trade... Something tells me that Lastings Milledge is going to be the next Gabe Kapler. A player with lots of hype coming into the league and who shows flashes of greatness but can never quite put it together... Craig Counsell is probably the best player from Notre Dame playing baseball today (you can argue Brad Lidge but not Aaron Heilman) but football star Jeff Samardzija may be the next great player from South Bend in MLB. My guess is that he sticks to football though... The greatest MLB player to have gone to Notre Dame? That's easy - Carl Yastrzemski.