Red Sox just released him.

Hanley Ramirez has to be feeling a bit shit right now.

The Brewers scored 3 against the Rockies today on...a wild pitch? One of the oddest things I've ever seen happen in a game.

If you haven't taken a look at some of the numbers behind Kershaw's no-hitter, Deadspin put up a neat article about it earlier in the week.

I had that game on and I kind of felt like they should have given Segura a stolen base. The play was over with, although Friedrich was still hanging around home plate. Probably biased because I have Segura on my fantasy team (been kind of a dud this year) and could have used the SB. I guess the pitcher probably has to get back to the mound to call it an official SB.

Man, the Colorado infield is just a complete grease-fire defensively. They desperately need Arenado to get back.

Rockies back to being the Rockies.

Arenado can't come back soon enough. They had the maybe the best infield d going when he was healthy, the drop off that has resulted from his injury has been huge.

Wonder what it would cost the Mets to nab Andrus. They could use a SS and could handle that crazy contract so it comes down to asking price.

Gonna be curious to see how the Rockies treat the deadline. They are not going anywhere, the ridiculous string of injuries these guys have faced is second only to Texas's run, so will they be sellers? I think I prefer Corey Dickerson between the two, so I'd be interested in seeing what kind of trade value Blackmon might have after his hot first half. I read De La Rosa's name somewhere as a trade candidate but I am not sure I like the idea of trading away the one SP who has been able to succeed at Coors. Even on this down year, its his away performances that have primarily hurt him.

Gonna be interesting to watch the Samardzija and Price sweepstakes play out. I am worried Price goes to LA, curious where Smardzija lands.

Trout hit one real hard tonight. 489 feet hard.

Happy (slightly belated on the east coast) Bobby Bonilla day, Mets fans!

So I guess Seattle has the best record in MLB since the end of April or some shit? Pretty crazy, I guess I should get off my ass and get up and see them!

And I just got back from Vegas and they were still a 30-1 shot to win the World Series. I saw that thought "can't get ahead of ourselves" after getting kicked in the balls so many years by this team, but if I'd heard that stat above, I would have put a hundred on it. I didn't put money down on the Seahawks last Fall when they were still like 12-1 to win it all. It would be very odd if the M's could pull it off the same damn year after all the years of futility for that city.

Yeah, MLB Network just showed the stat again; Seattle is 40-25 since April 23rd. That's pretty good! What's gotten into Logan Morrison? It would be cool to see Seager on the All-Star Team, but probably not going to happen with Donaldson and Beltre there too. Felix and Cano will probably be it.

Happy 4th everyone. Today's also the 75th anniversary of Gehrig's speech, which you ought to take a look at if you haven't seen it in full (such as it is) before.

Apparently Oakland has acquired Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel for Dan Strailey and prospects.

WOW! Just when it seemed like Seattle was gaining ground. Pretty odd to see Oakland acquire a big ticket item in the Shark. Figure they'll hold onto him, slap the $14 million offer on him and then collect a first round pick when he signs somewhere else after the season.

I'm surprised that they both went in the same trade.
But, the Cubs got the A's top prospect, a second pretty solid prospect, and a guy.

Im wondering if the Cubs hold on to Jake Arrieta, as he's been very good so far (had an amazing June.)

Good luck to the shark, perhaps he can get a shot at a ring, now.

They must have control over Arrieta through 2016, because I found out yesterday that the A's will actually have control over Samardzija through 2015. Damn, that makes the deal that much sweeter for Oakland, as I thought he was a free agent this winter. This Russell kid must be a "can't miss".

Rays are on a mini-run, making the decision whether to cut bait on Price that much more interesting. With the All-Star break, they basically have two-and-a-half weeks to decide what to do with him. Like Samardzija, any team getting Price would be able to hold onto him through 2015.

I saw Pat Neshek made the NL All Star roster. I honestly didn't even know he was back in the league...

Caught the Cardinals-Pirates game last monday at Busch Stadium. Definitely a very nice stadium and a very enjoyable time.

That Samardzija trade was a shocker to me on all fronts. First, that it was the A's that made the deal. Second, that Hammels (who is having a monster season himself) was also included in it. I always underestimate Oakland, but they are scary now.

If you missed the home run derby, and I don't blame you if you did, here's all you need to see.



Projected distance of 510 feet. Missed clearing the park entirely by about 5 rows.

That was a shot. I basically shut it off after I saw that Chris Berman was going to be announcing it. He is fucking awful.

Berman sucks, yeah, but last night's derby was just awful. It was Berman and John Kruk. For 3 hours. 4 if you want to count the hour long delay. And no one aside from Stanton and Cespedes put on anything resembling entertainment. And the 7 out rule sucks.

ftfy

I'm with yee on this. I would appreciate it if they yanked the whole home field in the World Series out of the exhibition. Does the game count or does it not? What a clusterfuck? Give the home field to the team that has the best winning percentage in their league (to prove overall dominance).

Angels are going for broke with upgrades to the bully with Grilli, Thatcher and now Street. A lot of chatter about the M's landing David Price, so it'll be very interesting to see if it happens with the Angels and A's (Shark/Hammel) trades that have gone down. I kind of think that the M's are good enough to hold off the Royals, Indians, Yankees, Jays, etc.. for the second wild card, but the idea of having Felix and Price in the playoffs as your #1 and #2 pumps my nads a little bit.

They definitely need to do away with having the all star game determine home field advantage. I hate that rule with such a passion.

So....middle of the season. What have been your surprises so far?

Player surprise for me has been the dominance of Scott Kazmir and Nelson Cruz. I gave up on Kazmir years ago and assumed Cruz was a product of Biogenesis. Happy to be wrong about both of them, though watching Kazmir dominates still brings me back to the Mets trading him away for the wrong Zambrono.

Team surprise for me has been Seattle. Another nice surprise. Interesting to hear them in on pitchers like Price, but I'd still have thought they'd be on the lookout for some offense.

Anthony Rizzo.
On pace for 40+hr and 90+ rbi. He's hitting pretty well, too. I still think he ends up hitting closer to his "career" avg, but maybe he's starting to figure it out.

Well, I keep waiting for the shoe to drop on them. In fact, they just dropped two of three to the Mets at home. Yankees are on a mini-surge right now and Toronto, Tampa and Cleveland are still within striking distance, so I'm not counting my chickens yet (at least as far as the playoffs go).

My surprise would be how bad the Diamondbacks and Rangers have been. Rangers being the worst team is mostly due to injuries, but Choo has mostly crapped the bed since signing a monster contract for them. And I would have gladly bet the over 78.5 wins for the Diamondbacks back in March, but they'd already played games in Australia by the time I got to Vegas, so they were taken off the board. That bet is still winnable, but they're going to have to finish these last couple months five games over .500. I really loved the offense for that division (Goldschmidt, Trumbo, Hill, Montero, Prado, etc...) and thought the rotation at the beginning of the season (Miley, Cahill, McCarthy, Arroyo) would at least keep them in most games, but instead the rotation has let them down and the selling off process has begun. I saw an article posted today detailing how much worse pitchers get when they join that franchise and how much better they go when they leave (McCarthy in New York for instance). Kind of interesting. I don't think that Kirk Gibson and Kevin Towers are long for the franchise now that they've hired LaRussa as a big cheese down there. He'll definitely want to make his mark, sooner than later.

Jed Gyorko seemed like a can't miss last season, so the Padres signed him for $37 MM guaranteed and he's only played in 56 games this year and just batted .162 with 25 RBIs during that span. It seems like the Padres make deals that seemingly fuck themselves every year.

Just watched the last hour of the longest game in Wrigley Field's history. John Baker, the backup catcher, got the win against the Rockies. Can't believe how whiny the Rockies announcers were about going that late. It was really unprofessional and they even live in a time zone an hour behind Chicago, and with being on the road, it's not like they're having to drive back home. It was weird to watch. I remember watching Vin Scully (who calls the Dodger games completely by himself) and feeling sorry for him when a game got to around five hours, but he's like 90 years old now (and doing it by himself).

Speaking of which, Vin re-upped to call Dodgers games next season! Always the best news every Summer!

Jon Lester had his start scratched tomorrow and is definitely on the move. FOX Sports says Dodgers, Cards or Pirates, but apparently the M's are in the mix too? That would be really weird if it happened (to the M's). From the MLB trade rumors website, it sounds like Jack Z (Seattle) and Amaro (Phils) are the worst GMs to work with as far setting trades up. We need to wheel and deal man! I kind of hope Jack Z gets canned and we can get a younger risk taker on board. I mean if Kendrys Morales is the big acquisition,,, WTF?

No longer having access to Rockies telecasts I am a bit out of the loop but it sounds like their disaster of a season has infected Drew and company. That's too bad, especially since Jeff Huson and George Frazier aren't good even at their best.

Trade deadline tomorrow. Not sure why Mariners aren't interested in Kemp.