Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The West Coast Offense - both the Oakland A's and San Diego Padres are in first place but they are also the only two teams in baseball with no hitter with a better than .300 batting average (minimum 100 AB)... The Devil Rays have a $40 million payroll but 25% of that comes off the books at the end of the season with Aubrey Huff ($7.5 million) and Travis Lee ($2.5 million) probably in their final season in Tampa. Julio Lugo and his $4.95 million 2006 salary may also be on the block. The Devil Rays should start the hot-stove season down to about $20-25 million in payroll and be in very good shape for 2007. In fact I look for them to finish higher than Baltimore next season... David Riske didn't exactly work out in Boston and it dosn't look like Guillermo Mota is exactly making a good impression in Cleveland (7.24 ERA). Would anyone be surprised if the Indians just gave Mota to the Dodgers (where he had his greatest success) just to get out of paying the rest of his $3 million 2006 salary?... One of the more ineresting things to keep an eye on will be who gets fired first - GM Jim Bowden in Washington or Manager Dusty Baker in Chicago. Both should have been fired long ago...