Miguel Cabrera could fill the void left by Mike Lowell if the seemingly inevitable fire sale occurs in Florida. Jose Contreras gets a starting job he did little to earn in New York. Kevin Young has long since worn out his stay in Pittsburgh. Plus other news and notes from the Marlins, Yankees, and Pirates, BP-style.
Reports from Boston indicate that Pedro Martinez is coming along according to plan. The Red Sox–like always–are being both cautious yet aggressive with their ace. Juggling the need to keep Pedro healthy while squeezing every inning they can out of him is a tough job. Expect Pedro back late this week on a strict pitch count.
Bonus UTK points to Chris Bosio and the Devil Rays. Bosio has been working with Joe Kennedy to alter his pitching mechanics and the early results looked good. Kennedy brought his velocity up to his normal low-90s rather than the mid-80s where he’d been living (and getting shelled.) There’s the chance that Kennedy was just over-exerting, but the mechanics looked great in the few pitches I got to see on MLB.TV. Still, Kennedy’s shoulder began to stiffen up and the Devil Rays smartly took Kennedy out. Adjusting mechanics is always difficult and frought with danger to young arms, so this was a smart, cautious move with a guy that could be their ace.
This was probably not part of the plan for the Diamondbacks when they traded Byung-Hyun Kim away…or was it? Did the health of Matt Mantei or Mike Koplove really affect the decision to add a 3B like Shea Hillenbrand? I don’t think so, really. With two closer candidates down with shoulder problems, the Snakes will turn to another sidewinder, Mike Myers, to show up in the ninth. Looking at the Michael Wolverton’s Reliever Evaluation Tools, Myers looks to be quite a dropoff, but an efficient use of Oscar Villareal might help.
Derek Zumsteg sits down to watch yesterday’s Yankees-Tigers contest expecting to write a column on Roger Clemens’ 300th win. Here’s his diary of yesterday’s game.
Curt Schilling makes a shameless attempt to curry umpires’ favor…er…protest against QuesTec. The Diamondbacks spot an endangered “run producer” in the wild, plug it into lineup. Rod Beck makes delightful alcohol jokes. The Blue Jays endorse 4-play.