Around the League

The NYT has an article outlining the number of hits Yankee pitchers surrender and how the inflated win totals for the team are a reflection of their opponents more than their own competence.

The Yankees had allowed 13.31 runners per nine innings (that number rose to 13.41 last night). Only the Devil Rays (14.52) and the Kansas City Royals (13.80) had put more runners on base per nine innings. On the basis of earned run average, the way teams are listed in the statistics Tampa Bay (5.40) and Kansas City (5.61) were the worst, with the Yankees at 4.52.

Manager Joe Torre put the matter into what he believed was the proper perspective.

"Runs concern me," he said before the game. "Hits don't concern me. There have been some pretty good pitchers who gave up hits and won ball games."

Respect from a Red Sox lifer in the form of an article on Why Joe Torre keeps winning, at least when he's not facing the Red Sox.

Must not be the pitching.

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For what it's worth now that Carl Everett is suffering a prolonged cold spell, Frank's back

and there are 33 reasons why he shouldn't be.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, with their Dynamic Duo of Perpetually Injured Aces back on the DL and just having reached .500 by beating up on the likes of the lower-still Colorado Rockies, the Cubbies have temporarily subplanted the Brewers. Heady days indeed -- the Brewers? The NL Central is a real pissoir when you nudge ahead of the Brewers by reaching .500 on the year.

The Trade of LaTroy might well mean the Cubs fans have to find a new punching bag but there are plenty of candidates waiting in the wings.

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Around the Beltway the O's get ready to hit the road for a 14 day, 13 game trip whilst the Nats are just back from a 2-7 road trip in Toronto, Cincinnati and St. Louis and home at last to face the Braves and Marlins.

The O's suffered a bad week even though they're still in first place in the AL East where no one expected to find them on Memorial Day. During they week they lost their best pitcher (Erik Bedard), one of its best hitters (Javy Lopez) and a starting outfielder (Larry Bigbie) to injury. Not to mention Luis Matos, already out with a fractured finger. The O's just come off losing three straight to the Detroit Tigers and now have to go to Fenway.

Nasty Nats points out what a career-enhancement it is for mediocre pitchers to face the Nats this season.

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Another team on the brink of a hellacious roadtrip are the Cleveland Indians who will play 12 games over 13 days in four cities. Cleveland's longest journey since 2002 begins Tuesday in Minnesota, with stops in Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco. That's after they've just placed Kevin Millwood on the DL.

Conversely, the Phillies, who just missed sweeping the Braves much like the Mets just missed sweeping the Marlins to really turn the NL East upside down, open a 13-game homestand tomorrow night at Citizens Bank Park against San Francisco, and play 35 of their next 48 games at home. They are home seven of their next eight weekends.

I guess everyone's got to be somewhere, even if it's Philadelphia.

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Although they've saddled themselves with the idiotic Anaheim of Los Angeles or Anaheim Near Los Angeles or Anaheim slash dot com Los Angeles, the Angels scored 29 runs on 38 hits during a three-game sweep of KC.

Not only that but 21 year old Cuban defector Kendry Morales hitting .343 with two homers, seven RBI and a .571 slugging percentage in eight games at Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. He struck out only four times in 35 at-bats.

He might fit in well one day with Chris Bootcheck, Joel Peralta, Ervin Santana and Jake Woods. That quartet of pitchers have been called up from the minors this season and have combined to pitch in twenty-two games, earn two wins, one loss and a save over 41 2/3 innings allowing 33 hits, 10 walks, 31 strikeouts and a 2.16 ERA.





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The A's are on an 8 game tailspin and counting and if you think that's bad, imagine that they were swept by Tampa Bay AND Cleveland which is like getting diagnosed with cancer and then getting hit by a car as you walk out of the clinic.

Although hope for this season is probably dead in Oakland, on the other side of the Bay, The Giants are looking to make more bullpen moves than just LaTroy Hawkins. But even with a closer that they don't currently have, what they sorely lack is the bat of Mr Bonds.

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Under normal circumstances, I don't give a damn about racing cars at high speeds over and over around the same oval waiting for one of them to ram a wall and burst into flames but frankly, this Danica Patrick is a pretty fit bird even if she IS a race car driver.

Of course, if Maria Sharapova drove race cars instead of tennis balls the sport might actually become interesting.