Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Miguel Tejada may be out with his broken wrist until August. That's bad news for the Orioles in more than one way. It will be very difficult to deal Tejeda while he's on the DL and his return date will be past the end of the trade deadline. Looks like Baltimore will be stuck with Tejada for the rest of the season. I'd look for him to be dealt after the World Series... Manny Ramirez (1,386,522) has dropped to 4th in the AL All-Star voting behind Vlade Guerrero (2,043,824), Magglio Ordonez (1,445,899) and Ichiro (1,409,762). All three are very deserving of the honor but I'd still like to see Manny get the votes... I love Baseball-reference.com for many reasons and one of them is the sponsors they get for many of their pages. Here's what it says on Mark Buerhle's page: "Goliak sponsor(s) this page. We could've kept our season tickets, gone to the world series and seen Buehrle's no hitter. I hate you, joe." I'm guessing Joe decided not to renew some tickets or something and Goliak is no longer a fan of Joe the cheapskate... Nomar Garciaparra will be moving to third base for the Dodgers to make room for hard hitting James Loney at first base. David Pinto doesn't like the move. He thinks the Dodgers should just sit Nomar. I like the move and would have 3 responses to David Pinto (who I greatly respect): 1 - yes Nomar is having a down year but he has been hitting in the "clutch" - witness his .423 BA with RISP this year which is best in the NL; 2 - Nomar has a track record that says he'll break out of his power slump whereas Betemit has no such track record and is more of a risk; finally 3 - for better or worse Nomar is currently the face of the franchise and you just don't bench the one player the fans recognize for a marginal statistical upgrade...

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Did you hear the recent rumor about a Jermaine Dye for Bobby Abreu swap? That had to be one of the most riduculous rumors I've heard in a long time (since maybe last year when someone was trying to pawn off a Mike Lowell for Jake Peavy rumor). Both Dye and Abreu are free agents at the end of the year (actually Abreu has a 2008 option for $16 million that won't be picked up). Why would the White Sox take on the extra salary (Dye only makes $6 million this year whereas Abreu's contract is for $15 million)? If the White Sox are to trade Dye - it will be for young players or prospects... If the White Sox do wave the white flag - Mark Buehrle will be their most attractive chip. Buehrle is a veteran pitcher who will be a free agent at the end of the year. He makes $9.5 million this year - so it will probably take at least a 3-year $40 million deal to re-sign him. The White Sox' biggest need isn't starting pitching - so they may opt to spend that money elsewhere (especially if they will also be losing Jermaine Dye). A playoff contender will probably pay a steep price for Buerhle near the trade deadline... The Phillies are in the unusual position of averaging the most runs scored per game in the NL at 5.05 R/G while at the same time also having the highest team ERA in the NL at 4.76. The Phillies are the perfect example of a team who could really use a Mark Buehrle as they try to make the playoffs (Phillies are just 5.5 back in the NL Wildcard right now)... If Barry Bonds played in the AL - he'd have the distinction of being the oldest player in the league by almost 4 months... Today is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe. Its worth noting that Major League Baseball cancelled all games on this day back in 1944 because they didn't think it was appropriate to be playing while men were fighting and dying on the beaches of Normandy.