AL West

Buster Olney of ESPN spoke with the agent for Seattle Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee last night about the southpaw’s future plans, and apparently signing a contract extension with the M’s is not in it.

“We’re five months away from free agency,” said Braunecker, “so I think that’s the most likely scenario at this point.”

“We’ve not really had any significant discussions with Seattle. I wouldn’t anticipate a deal [with the Mariners].”

We’re putting our 162-game journey on hold Tuesday night, and instead Fantasy Baseball Insiders Tonight  is covering parts of several games. Here’s everything you need to know from last night’s action around the league:

The Rangers are in an absolute free fall, the Texas sky is falling and somewhere in the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex, Chicken Little is running around screaming about it.

Well, ok, it's not really that bad just yet but Chicken Little may as well be Ranger fans because they certainly believe the sky is falling down on top of The Ballpark at Arlington.

They want Ron Washington fired as quickly as possible, the bullpen needs a drastic makeover and no I'm not talking about hair and nails, and the team needs to stop this slide their on after losing six of their last seven.

There are already some c

Dear Mr. Braden,

Congratulations on beating the Yankees Thursday afternoon and ending their winning streak at six games.

Now shut up.

You sound like a fool.

We all love Kurt Suzuki and Andrew Bailey, but Dallas Braden is the next player the A's need to lock up long-term.

All the starting pitching hype coming into the season was centered on former All-Stars Justin Duchscherer and Ben Sheets coming back from a 2009 season lost to injuries, and the expected growth of young Brett Anderson looking to follow up his brilliant rookie campaign.

Oh, and there was that big spring training battle for the fifth rotation spot between Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill.

Game No. 16 of 162 in Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ summer-long journey featured a pitcher’s duel between Randy Wells and Jonathan Niese, as well as Ike Davis ’ major league debut.

Game No. 16 – Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets

Week Two of the season proved to be less than a happy week as a Rangers fan. It started out pretty well but quickly spiraled downhill and ended with a big thud.

Game Recaps

Apr. 12 @ Cleveland Indians W, 4-2

Rich Harden proved to be far more effective than in his first start as a Ranger, going six innings and allowing only two runs on five hits. 

The new baseball season has not been kind to Scott Kazmir.

After beginning the season on the DL, his first start of the season came against the defending champion, New York Yankees.

Previously, I wrote that there was a possibility that Kazmir, once so hyped, full of potential, had reached his athletic peak.

It’s bad enough when a player heads to the disabled list, but it’s got to be 10 times worse for that player when his team and his manager rip him a new one for it.

Texas Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday because of upper back stiffness.

Being hurt is nothing new for Saltalamacchia. Saltalamacchia was hurt twice during spring training, once for pain related to scar tissue near his September operation and later with spasms in the rhomboid muscle on the left side of his back.