Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

There are five players on the Red Sox 40-man roster whose last name is the same (at least phonetically) as a city or town in Massachusetts. Can you name them?... The Red Sox have the question of Manny's $20 million option hanging over their heads. Going into the season I felt that unless Manny completely dropped off the map offensively wise then the option would definitely be picked up. I still feel that it will be but I'm not 100% sure anymore. "Manny Being Manny" has worn on the nerves of many people and an OPS of .908 is not exactly Manny being the Manny we had grown used to. Likewise the Yankees have Jason Giambi's $22 million option hanging over their head. Going into the season I was sure this was an option that would not be picked up. Now I'd guess that it will be picked up. Giambi is very popular both with the other players on the team and with the fans. Plus his production has been back up this season (currently 8th in OPS and 6th in HR). In the end - I see both options being picked up by the teams... If the AL Cy Young Award was presented today - there is a very good chance that Justin Duchscherer would win it (or at least finish second to Roy Halladay). For Red Sox fans Duchscherer is the fish that got away. He was a Red Sox draft pick who was traded away for Doug Mirabelli back in 2001. This is in no way Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell but it is worth noting... Today is Bobby Thigpen's 45th birthday. There is a good chance that this will be Thigpen's last birthday that he can have as the holder of the single season record for saves (the Angels Francisco Rodriguez looks poised to shatter the record). It's interesting to note that Thigpen set the record but still finished 4th in Cy Young Voting back in 1990. I guess that tells you how much the voters value saves... Answer to the question: Tim Wakefield, Mike Lowell, Jon Lester (Leister), Craig Hansen (Hanson) and Eric Hull. You'd have to be a real fanatic to get Eric Hull...