Baseball

There have been rumors swirling about who the Boston Red Sox should trade or demote to make room on their roster for the return of John Smoltz from his minor league rehab appearances.

Most of the rumors are swirling around Brad Penny being traded or Daniel Bard being demoted.

But there is one other option that the Red Sox have considered, which would involve trading Takashi Saito for a hitter.

Apparently, the Red Sox had a trade in place with the Texas Rangers in which they would have traded Saito for Hank Blalock.

After a week or so of below-average baseball, the Cardinals still find themselves in second place of the NL Central.

Everyone tries to find that hidden gem on draft day. I know its still early but here is an All-Star team of guys who probably started out the year on your waiver wire or buried deep on someone's bench. I'm not saying that these guys will ever make a major league baseball All Star team but they have performed better than anyone could have ever expected them to do so far this year.
Some have revived careers, some are capitalizing on a chance that was finally given to them. Will they keep it up? Only time will tell.

It was one year ago today that former Mets' skipper Willie Randolph was dismissed by GM Omar Minaya. Since then, the Mets are 87-67 under new manager and former bench coach Jerry Manuel.

Despite all of the criticism and negative publicity surrounding Manuel and the Mets, New York still finds themselves just four games out of first place and three games over .500 on the season.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that nearly half the team has been on the disabled list at one point or another during the season?

Typing "former Texas Ranger" in an article about Pudge Rodriguez continues to be painful for this fan.

I remember well the first time he threw a runner out trying to steal second. It was one of those moments when everyone watching knew a special player had just announced his presence with authority.

In one fluid motion, his quick feet making an instantaneous transition from crouch to throwing motion while he transferred the ball from his mitt to his hand without taking his eye off the target, Pudge threw a laser- beam strike to second well ahead of a shocked runner.

After a week or so of below-average baseball, the Cardinals still find themselves in second place in the NL Central.

The A.L. Central, like its Western-division brethren and the entire National League, is full of bad teams. The division’s first-place Detroit Tigers enter Tuesday’s games with a run differential that would rank fifth in the A.L. East.

The Minnesota Twins, meanwhile, have ridden Joe Mauer’s Ted Williams impression and a pitching staff that has decided against issuing walks this season into second place, a mere three games out, and are the only other team in the division to have outscored its opponents thus far.

There are so many areas of this Atlanta Braves team that needs to be addressed that this story might just be an exercise in futility. But then again, aren't they all if you're not getting paid to write them?

Anyhow, I digress.

I feel like every Braves story I write has the same overwhelming theme—get rid of Francoeur and get some power in that lineup!

One of these days, maybe the Braves brass will listen, provided they care what some random fan actually thinks.

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>