Baseball

Notable nattering nabob of the Detroit Free Press Drew Sharp recently took a break from his negativity to proclaim Tigers manager Jim Leyland as the easy pick for American League Manager of the Year.

When Sharp writes, I instinctively believe exactly the opposite.

But maybe he's on to something.

Leyland won the award in 2006. In just his first year in Detroit, he guided the Tigers from perennial bottom-feeder to their first playoff appearance since 1987.

Brad Lidge continues to struggle on the mound for the Phillies, and that doesn’t make for a good situation as the Phillies make their inevitable entrance into the postseason this year.

But to be honest this is par for the course for Lidge.

Historically, the past four years to be exact, Lidge has been a big up-and-down guy, which is probably one of several reasons why Houston traded him away.

You know the Toronto Blue Jays are having a bad season when they start shattering records for attendance, but not in the good way. This week had two of the lowest attended games in Blue Jay history as Toronto squared off against the Minnesota Twins.

The onset of the NFL season has pretty much insured that only the hardiest of Jays fans are still paying attention. Personally, I've done my best impression of a corpse just trying to find something to write about. It's like trying to get a straight answer from Elton John (he's gay).

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the emergence of Miguel Montero. 

We’ve talked about how he’s helped to save many fantasy owners, especially those in two catcher formats, as top level catchers have either missed time or fallen flat in 2009.  What we haven’t done is dig into his success and determine if he has a chance to repeat it for the final few weeks of this season and into 2010.

First, let’s take a look at his line so far:

The Cubs have a dilemma.

As the offseason approaches, General Manager Jim Hendry faces a number of difficult decisions about the future of his team. The 2009 team has a number of weaknesses, and the ability to throw money at the problem, even if he indeed has that ability, will not count for much.

Some of the additions he will need to make to make the Cubs competitive in 2010 will be by subtraction.

Angel Pagan’s production has far exceeded expectations this season.  He’s batting .313 in 67 starts with 6 home runs and 28 RBI mostly hitting out of the lead off spot.  He’s played mostly solid defense in center field while filling in for one of the best center fielders in the game in Carlos Beltran.  He’s been one of the few bright spots on the team this season.

Sparky Anderson was miserable.

Sleepless nights. Constant worry. Fear of being strung up on the center field flagpole at Tiger Stadium (no joke). Ghoulish thoughts of bitter disappointment.

Yep, the Tigers’ 1984 World Championship season almost wrecked the team’s manager.

The ‘89 season of 103 losses almost wrecked him too. When Sparky took a few weeks off during the season due to mental exhaustion he said: “I ain’t never lost no 100 games before.”

But 1984? It was nearly poison to him.

From May until July, Luke Scott was one of the biggest surprises in baseball. Scott was tearing the cover off the ball and many wondered if the slugger was finally developing into the player that so many thought he would become.

After browsing on the blogosphere, I found this article on the Daily Dish, a SB Nation MLB trade rumors blog.

Basically, in summary, it is suggesting that if the San Francisco Giants are looking for an upgrade in power, they should look in their own backyard and sign Barry Bonds.

It is a very intriguing suggestion.

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost starting pitcher Eric Milton for an extended period of time after he underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove a herniated disc from his back. The 33-year-old is most likely out for the rest of the season.

The initial injury occurred sometime during an outing against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 5.

During the game, Milton failed to cover first base on a ground ball. When Milton returned to the dugout, he denied that he had been hurt. However, manager Joe Torre saw Milton grasping his back and knew something was most likely wrong.