Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

It looks like the A's are making their move in the AL West. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games and just 1.5 games out of first. Also don't overlook the Mariners who are also 8-2 in their last 10 and now just 3.5 games out... What's up with the Braves? From afar they seem to be a mess. They are almost exactly average as far as hitting (team batting average of .264 vs league average of .263) but pitching - normally their strong suit - has been awful. The league average ERA is 4.39 but Atlanta's team ERA is almost a half-run higher at 4.78. The league average bullpen ERA is 4.10 but the Braves bullpen sports a 5.12 ERA. They seem to need help almost everywhere. I guess the silver lining for the Braves is the fact they are only 6-games out of the Wild Card and they have the prospects to make a deal... Wow - I was really surprised to learn that Minnesota hasn't had a player hit 30-HR in a season since 1987. The Red Sox always seem to have a 30-HR guy... I wonder if the Mets would consider trading Cliff Floyd to the Dodgers for Jae Seo. The Dodgers could use a big bopper in the line-up and the Mets could use some insurance for the starting rotation. How about Cliff Floyd to the Tigers?... Bernie Williams needs one more game to reach 2,000 for his career. That's a lot but consider that Craig Biggio has played 2,625 and needs just 3 more to pass Andre Dawson for 31st place on the all-time list... The Cincinnati Reds have more than double the number of HR than the Royals (95 to 46). That's not too surprising but the Reds also have almost double the number of HR as the Cubs (95 to 49)...