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Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Piazza Throws

Didja know that three of Marcus Giles’ six stolen bases this year have come against the Victor Zambrano-Mike Piazza battery?

Spector’s Past Gun Play to Figure in Trial – Yahoo! News

I think Da Doo Ron Ron is the greatest song in all of rock and roll, though this is one of those things that you only say to make an argument. Like Rolling Stone magazine deciding that Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone was the greatest rock and roll song of all time.

Or that a song by the Rolling Stones was the second best.

In any case, the picture you’ll find of Phil Spector, the architect of the Crystals, in this link suggests that a non-traditional defense is going to be in play in Phil’s murder trial. I really wish Phil were innocent, and that the woman weren’t dead, but I’ve seen enough Columbos to think I know how this one is going to turn out.

I wonder what Peter Falk’s hair looks like these days?

For baseball fans: Nice game for Ervin Santana tonight against the hot White Sox. ES’s name hearkens back to Magic and Johan. That’s quality.

Yahoo! Sports – Oakland is terrible

They aren’t hitting at all, which puts Noah Lowry’s third quality start of the season even more suspect than the other two (Colorado and Arizona at SBC).

The A’s are so soft right now I’m keeping Doug Waechter active this week against them. There aren’t good waiver alternatives, but I can’t think of another team I wouldn’t ditch him against.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Kevin Brown Wins

Two Ask Rotoman columns ago at mlb.com I suggested that Kevin Brown’s problems were looking dangerous, if not fatal, in the short run.

But before I could special him he pitched a good game against the hapless A’s, earned a win, and I noticed his next game was against the A’s, so I kept him up. He got another win. Then I noticed his next game was against the Mets at Shea, which seemed like a fair matchup. Now he’s won three straight.

The interesting thing about tonights game is he pitched more. He had been approaching each hitter like it was batting practice, throw it in the zone and hope they hit it at someone. With the Yankees sadly maladapted defense it had better be right at them, too. But tonight he walked guys and he struck them out. And while the Yankees’ dee let him down, the Mets was its equal.

It’s too soon to say Brown is okay. He’s won three games against teams that can be pitched to. But I’m going to keep him active, since he’s pitching against the very average Tigers in Yankee Stadium. I not, however, confident.

Girl Pitches Perfect Little League Game – Yahoo! News

An all-in FAAB bid?

Major League Baseball : Fantasy : Ask Rotoman

I try to choose questions for the column that have underlying concepts that will apply to other questions the reader may have. This week’s Beltran for Abreu query struck me as so odd, yet the heart of the matter could prove to be crucial for many fantasy teams.

I felt obliged to return to Edgar Renteria because, well, I’ve long thought his career would look more like a string of 2003s than 2001s.

Joe Crede, Oscar Robles, Dan Johnson are three corners in a square that makes a sign that says, Not worth a lot. But perhaps useful.

And then there are potential breakout rookie starting pitchers and speedsters. Long shots worth thinking about, to say the least.

Rotoman said the following smart thing in his column this week at mlb.com.

“The real problem is that as a ballplayer there isn’t a lot to recommend him over Scott Hatteberg, who the A’s are paying a lot of money ($2.45M) to be their first baseman this year. Another way to put it is that the As are paying Scott Hatteberg a lot of money this year to do a job that Dan Johnson could probably do nearly as well for a lot less. ”

We, as roto owners and the A’s as real life owners can’t cancel contracts or trade something ‘smart’ like playing Dan Johnson for pennies against playing Hatteberg for two and a half mill. But what Rotoman says here is VERY smart. There is not a reason to play Johnson over Hatteberg to be sure, but that this is a discussion at all means that there isn’t any reason to pay Hatteberg 8 times what you would pay Johnson. Nothing you can do about it now of course, but next off season when you are looking at your Mike Matheny’s and Omar Vizquels….why not heed the Rotoman and tell yourself that your 2.5 mil guy might not be appreciably better than your triple-A ‘non’ prospect.

Rob Neyer and Rany Jazayerli write an amusing blog about their beloved Royals at this link. Historically they have been…ummm…critical of the organization, the KC press and probably if pressed the parking and concessions as well. In this installment they opine about the parting of Tony Pena. If you want to know exactly how the Royals have come to be what they are….here’s the spot. It’s also a good object lesson in how an organization can drive itself off the pier.

The return of Eric Gagne was somewhat less than spectacular…and then spectacular. After giving up a pair of home runs to Atlanta’s Jones brothers, and a single to Julio Franco, Gagne struck out the next three rather convincingly in a LA loss. Since he is facing this 2 game suspension, it might be better to leave him on the bench this week. For what it is worth Yhency Brazoban didn’t fare too well today coming in down 3-2…not that we needed to be told Gagne’s job was safe.

Manny Ramirez hit his 400th career homerun, seems impossible and that it was just the other day that he came up as a shortstop for the Indians. He’s 33 in a couple of weeks, 500 home runs and the Hall of Fame seem within reach. His three run shot was pretty impressive, he reached out over the plate on an outside pitch that fooled him and got just the end of the bat on it and carried it 10 rows deep into right. STRONG man. That homerun coincidentally helped Gil Meche continue his pattern of pitching very well for every inning but one – this time he got the win.

Aaron Boone got his first RBI since April 27 and went 2 for 4 to lift his average to .142. Not that I am suggesting that anyone play him, but Cleveland seems ready to leave him in regardless of the results and that may mean that somewhere down the line he will be worth owning. Just remember he doesn’t hit for average, it’s unlikely he will run, he doesn’t get on base so his runs won’t be great and he probably no longer qualifies at second base – but that does not mean that if the wheels fall back on, he couldn’t be a pretty good fill-in for a month or two somewhere.

Although it looks like a good matchup and is in a good park, Make sure to try to find the most current news on John Thomson’s back before starting him tomorrow against Stauffer and the Padres. It was reported his back was so bad he couldn’t sit down between innings in his last, non-stellar, performance.

Also tomorrow will be another test for Brad Penny at home against the Marlins. He was battered around pretty well in St. Louis last time out – but now faces an inconsistent offense and the surprisingly effective Brian Moehler at home in Chavez Ravine. Hee Seop Choi’s one for two today lifts his batting average to .312, but Olmedo Saenz’ stellar .333 hitting is keeping the platoon in order. If Choi keeps it up, eventually Los Angeles will need to find out if he can or can’t hit lefties. Although he hasn’t fared well against them so far, he has only faced lefties 8 at bats this season and all of 36 last season.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Yankees Crushing Oakland

The Yanks are up by 10 runs as I write this, and Kevin Brown is out of the game, so it looks like I was right. It wasn’t a bad idea to let him go this week against the weak Athletics.

Brown continues to throw strikes and continues to keep the ball in the yard. If he had half a defense behind him he’d win games against weak-hitting teams. Oh, that’s what he’s doing.

This coming week he gets the Mets at Shea. The Mets are a mid-level offensive team, but they have some rather powerful hitters in the lineup. I still wouldn’t give up on Brown for the season as a whole, but he’s a major risk this week.