The Dud Line

Here we stand at 4:50 pm on July 31st, 2013, the MLB non waiver deadline, celebrating 2 deals of significance.  Bud Norris to the Baltimore Orioles and Ian Kennedy to the Padres.  And Jake Peavy switches his Sox to red ones.

Gee, is that it ?  It's like having a party, having vanilla ice cream, white cake, and cheese pizza. I mean, don't get me wrong, those are nice things, but as Peggy Lee sang " Is that all there is".

I just came back from watching the Seth Rogan movie "This is the End", and the trailers before that movie were more entertaining than the deadline.

Pirates did nothing, Cards did nothing, Rangers did nothing and the Blue Jays, okay they also did nothing, but I am less bummed out about not dealing Darren Oliver or Delabar.

Some one needs to send MLB a tape of NHL trade deadline day. Seriously, 3 players of any stature, and no one even flipped leagues. 






                                                                            I was hoping Texas Ranger prospect Jurrickson Profar would be dealt for a power arm or bat, but the Rangers have flopped just like the summer blockbuster The Lone Ranger....all talk...no action.  Well they had dealt for Garza, but most thought Nelson Cruz, who could be suspended tomorrow, would necessitate making a move.

Now I wonder if Oakland, with Bart Colon, Texas with Cruz have an un official word from MLB that their players will not be suspended, if they didn't and Cruz is suspended, they sure will have a lot of explaining to do.

oh, this just in the KC Royals made a deal for Justin "Cornbread"Maxwell to platoon with David Lough. Ooh I am all tingly over this move.  Roll out the red carpet for him.

Cliff Lee stays put, so does Utley, and Mike Young, so the Phillies can celebrate in their old timers club house every last win as the biggest bust since the Atlanta Braves of the 90's.  Doc, Lee, Hamel, Rollins, Howard, Utley, and what are they now. A shadow of that team.

The Yankees , God Bless'em went out an got Soriano, won't do them any good, as geezer teams go, but good on them for trying.



Next time, instead of the MLB trade Dud Line, let's have a mascot race, more fun.

Tomorrow starts the dog days......so get your doggy bags ready.

Oh Lord won't you but me a Mercedes Benz

Once I latch onto a song title, it stays in my head for a long time, so forgive the Janis Joplin refernce.

On my last legs before vacation, and some serious beer and baseball time.

The deadline for non waiver trades is a -coming and I am looking for all the action on that front.

If you think I picked this picture for a reason, I am sorry to inform you, I just liked these guys.


Sometimes it seems in life we are pushing a 3 wheeled wagon up a steep hill. Seems that way for the Blue Jays, we shall see if they are dealers next week.

Garza, Soriano all moved off the Cubsies, more to follow I expect, and the Brewers are shopping Gallardo, although a pitcher of his talent I don't know why.

I excpect the Red Sox and Angels and the Tigers to be buyers come July 31st, and in the National league, sadly without Tim Hudson, the Braves need a starter. I think the D-Backs to dabble, I think the Dodgers are done and are likely to continue this run.
The Cards and Pirates will add on a reliever or two, but nothing significant, as both feel confident.

The intersting thing will be if Rangers have Nelson Cruz suspended and A'ds lose Colon in the same manner. The A's traditionally are not big buyers due to budget, but don't have asmuch to promote this year.
The Rangers can always be counted on to react and add what they need, as they did with Garza.

I am shutting down the laptop soon, and headinghome, but I will keep the blogs coming.

Enjoy !

Give me some questions , this no action shit is for the birds

1. Did Tim Lincecum and the Giants put his season in peril stretching out to 148 pitches in a no-hitter?


I'm not going to get too worked out about one outing, even if it did push Lincecum to the max. I'd be a lot more worried about him making a habit of going 120-plus pitches in start after start, but the no-hitter was the only time this year he's surpassed that mark. Thanks to the All-Star break, he'll get more than a week off between starts. I'd expect a veteran like Lincecum to be able to tax himself to the tune of 148 pitches once and be able to bounce back from it without ill effects.

Johan Santana completely collapsed after his heavy work in his no-hitter a year ago; it might have marked the end of his career. But Lincecum is 29 and hasn't had the same shoulder woes as Santana. The All-Star break was conveniently timed. The offseason free agent could have a solid second half as he's motivated to prove he doesn't belong in the bullpen long term, and is worth top dollars on the market.



2. Who are some of your second-half rebound candidates?

Let's start with Home Run Derby champ Yoenis Cespedes. He has earned every bit of his .251 BABIP, thanks to a 16.1-percent line-drive rate and a ground ball/fly ball ratio that sits at 0.75. However, there are signs he's turning it around. His line-drive rate in June was up to 21.2 percent, his highest for any month. In 49 plate appearances in July, he has six walks and just six strikeouts, a huge improvement in both categories over the season's first three months. He's primed to break out in the second half.

Starlin Castro finally appears to be emerging from the nightmare that was the 2013 season for him for most of the first half. In 57 plate appearances in July, he's hitting .308/.368/.500 with two homers, two doubles and a triple. As mightily as he struggled all season, we're still talking about a supremely talented 23-year-old who barely missed posting his second 200-hit season last year. Expect the July version of Castro to stick around for a while.

It's a bit of a misnomer to call Matt Cain a rebound candidate, since most of his 2013 numbers are in line with his career. But the bottom line is that unsightly 5.06 ERA has taken a toll on his fantasy ranking. That is bound to normalize. In the meantime, he's posting the best K-rate of his career. If you can convince his owner to deal, now is your time to act.

I am all-in on Castro and more moderately onboard with Cespedes and Cain. The latter two might not be appreciatively better in the second half, no matter what data Beller regurgitates to support it. Castro, 23, is supposed to emerge as one of the great young stars of the game. Instead, his first half has represented two steps back. His improving numbers of late should only be the start of things to come.

I will add Jedd Gyorko, Josh Hamilton, Cole Hamels and Victor Martinez to the list of players expected to improve in the second half. Gyorko was red hot before he was injured, and he could still reach the 20-homer plateau among second basemen. Hamilton has gone through his frustrating adjustment period in Anaheim, while Hamels just can't pitch into bad luck much longer and V-Mart has kicked the rust of having missed all of last season. Consider all of these guys solid buy-low candidates right now.



3. Who are some of the hot first-half stars you expect to tail off? Who should you sell high on?

One guy who has already started to stumble is Hisashi Iwakuma. It was hard to believe he'd sustain such a high level of performance with so few strikeouts, and that is finally starting to manifest itself in his results. In his last six starts before the break, he had a 6.25 ERA, allowing 25 runs on 40 hits in 36 innings. In his defense, he faced the A's twice, Rangers, Red Sox and Angels during that stretch, but the fact remains he was pitching over his head for most of the first half.

I don't mean to pick on the Mariners, but it's hard for me to believe that 27 percent of the fly balls hit by Raul Ibanez will continue to leave the yard. According to ESPN's Home Run Tracker, the average true distance of Ibanez' homers is 386.1 feet, which ranks 91st for hitters with at least 10 homers. In addition to that, the tool classifies eight of his homers as "just enoughs." Part of that is simply by virtue of hitting so many homers. After all, Carlos Gonzalez has 11 just enoughs, Miguel Cabrera has 10 and Chris Davis has nine. But they all lap Ibanez, and then some, in terms of averagetrue distance.

I will add a few more: Jean Segura, Josh Donaldson, Patrick Corbin, Bartolo Colon and Jason Grilli. You have come a long, long way with all of these guys on your roster and you have done it with a modest draft day investment -- if you didn't pick them up off the waiver wire.

Segura and Donaldson are solid players but not great ones if you look at all their numbers before their smashing first halves. They just aren't that good, so if you can get a steadier veteran in their prime for them, it would be advisable.

Corbin cannot be expected to sustain this kind of success in his first full season in the majors -- and neither can All-Star Game starter Matt Harvey for that matter.

Colon is more likely to succumb to some kind of injury and a DL stint, even if he doesn't lose his effectiveness, while the pressure of closing in a pennant race for the first time should fry Grilli (weak pun intended). In general trading a hot first-half pitcher for a hitter is advisable down the stretch, because hitters can impact your standings more quickly than pitchers in smaller sample sizes.

4. I just traded Ryan Braun straight up for Yasiel Puig. I'm really nervous about Braun's possible suspension. Was it a bad move?



Bud Selig and the powers that be in the MLB home office may want to chase after the Biogenesis allegations with everything in their arsenal, but I don't see how they could possibly justify a suspension for anyone involved, Braun included. There just isn't enough evidence to prove there was any wrongdoing, no matter all the circumstantial bits they might have. Even if they suspend Braun, the players association will certainly appeal, and that will take time. I wouldn't have made this deal.

Are you also one of those people that thought the world was ending last December because of the Mayan calendar snafu? The media has you in full panic mode! Don't believe the hype. The news keeps making it sound like suspensions are imminent, but the appeals process still has to take place, which tends to take months. The players association won't stop to defend the players here when they need it most. You sold low and bought high, a terrible strategy in fantasy. In hindsight, too, I should have listed Puig as one of the players who will tail off in the second half. He will remain a viable fantasy starter, but expecting him to produce on Braun's level is a bit outrageous.


Come on, send in more questions, it's a whole night of watching Big Bang Theory re runs, I need more baseball.

What's Next

July 18: Expressing pure excitement over his prognosis, A-Rod tweets he will be back with the Yankees over the weekend, adding that "I am in mid-October form!" Frustrated Yankees general manager Brian Cashman responds by telling reporters that if A-Rod is truly in mid-October form, "He'll have to continue his #@%&ing rehab assignment another six weeks."


July 19: Walking to the stadium for his first game back from his strained quad muscle, Jeter ducks out of the way of a falling safe only to step through an open manhole and go back on the disabled list.

July 21: The Centers for Disease Control officially raises Puig-mania from epidemic to pandemic level after Yasiel goes 4-for-5 with two home runs to raise his batting average to .429
July 22: A-Rod refuses to join the Yankees in Texas, tweeting that it's too hot in Arlington and there is absolutely nothing to do there, and tells the team that he would prefer to simply wait until New York plays in San Diego the following week. "Or perhaps Tampa Bay in August."

July 28: Despite a considerable write-in campaign from Dodgers fans, Puig is not invited to Cooperstown for induction into the Hall of Fame. Yoenis Cespedes isn't invited either, but he shows up in Cooperstown anyway, thrills the crowd by hitting 32 home runs at Doubleday Field and receives a Hall of Fame plaque.

Ladies and gentlemen, your newest member of the Hall of Fame: Yoenis Cespedes.

July 31: In a youth-building movement completed just minutes before the trading deadline, the Yankees acquire Raul Ibanez, Jason Giambi, Jose Contreras and Betty White.

Aug. 3: The Rangers-Athletics game at Oakland's Coliseum is postponed after Bartolo Colon causes the stadium's plumbing to back up again.

Aug. 8: In a bid for cleaner energy, President Barack Obama proposes that the U.S. set up generators at major league ballparks across the country to harness the wind produced by Adam Dunn, Josh Hamilton, the entire Astros roster and every other major leaguer swinging and whiffing in record numbers.

Aug. 12: Jeter comes off the disabled list but strains a groin muscle before the game while putting on his pants in his customary manner of two legs at a time.

Aug. 24: New York manager Joe Girardi enrages Yankees fans, the players' association and the Twitter-verse when he has Rivera pitch in the eighth inning rather than wait to the top of the ninth with no one on base and a three-run lead, as specified by the First Rule of Closer Etiquette.

Sept. 5: Umpire Tom Hallion ejects Tampa Bay's David Price from the game because the pitcher didn't send him a birthday card.

Perhaps I will have better luck with this contraption

Drug Culture

In the 2000's, we have moved so far away from where we were in evaluating players stats, it is ridculous. How does one vote in to the Hall anyone who played from 1995 to 2010, a 15 year block that I defy anyone to proove who was clean.

  We used to measure the ounces in a bat to determine if a player was making better or worse contact or power and now we measure how much PED contributed to his 40 home run season. 

This year, we have 2 individuals who garner a lot of attention, messers Raul Ibanez at age 42 smacking 22 hrs at the break, and Chris Davis of the Orioles, who has launched 37 long flies. Or have I missed any ?  I would love to believe Ibanez is having a renaissance like year, but I mean at 42, with all that has been proven, and masking agents, are there suspicions, there are of course. 

I saw raw power potential from Chris Davis a few years back, but he was an undisciplined hitter, striking out 180 times a year, and not walking much. He walks a lot now, because pitchers fear his abilities. 

Baseball's evolved, over the past 2 decades, and I hope we can reverse the process.

Back to pure game talk soon, I hate this brief period of dead air, let's play ball.

MLB does not observe marquis of queensbury rules

As anyone knows, the current state of affairs regarding the Biogenisis scandal is at the crossroads, and we should expect suspensions very soon.

No one in their right mind believes that MLB can do anything but slam 50 to 100 game suspensions on the likes of Ryan Braun and Arod, perhaps Bart Colon, Melky Cabrera and Gio Gonzalez. Depending on the level of evidence, the CSI crew would have sewn this caper up by May 1st, but major fact gathering continued, and we all expect the gloves to come off.

I really hope for the sake of the game that the commissioner's office have got all their facts right, because we know what happened to Braun's case last year. The denials, the botched evidence, and inuendos that Braun got off on a technicality, but was guilty of some wrong doing.

He was aquitted, if that is the correct term, but legal teams from the Players Association, as well as players personal lawyers are lined up ready to defend clients, and post pone whatever suspensions are levied.

But make no mistake, MLB, Bud, and his crew are no shrinking violets this time, no timid approach, they are coming all guns a blazing for this group.

This will be fought through the media, the court of public opinion, and will drag on after the season is long over.

When spring training opens next March, we may still be talking about this.

I strongly believe that before the July 31st non waiver deadline, we will hear from the league, no one would trade for any of the accused players without knowing where they stood.

Meanwhile the soap opera continues in Trenton, NJ, as Arod continues to make good strides, stroking 88 mph curve balls into orbit, and not showing up when can see rain from his downtown condo windows. The Yanks are 3 games out of the Wild card and after every poor performance are the scrutiny of the back pages of the dailes for not promoting him.

And of course the poster boy for righteousness re injured himself after 3 at bats. Derek Jeter gone for say 10 days at best, while a seemingly healthy Arod plods along trying not to get hurt.

My personal interest will be what MLB does to Melky Cabrera, who served his 50 games, had his batting title stripped, and forfeited a World Series ring.  Because he had a web site, his crime is trying to obstruct justice, I would let him off with a stiff fine, and time served. This is no second offense, it is the same related issue. 

Going after a web site is getting into grey areas of free speech, slander and libel, and do not serve any further purpose.  I don't think MLB wants to get mired in the muck over what someone says on a web site, especially if hardly anyone even bothered to look at it.

Oh yeah, we start the second half on Friday after a boring All Star Game, nice send off for Mo, but blah.  Jays begin to start the 2nd half seeking consistent rotation efforts, to which I say, " Good Luck ".  I do not see this team winning more than 77-78 games, they cannot beat the East, pure and simple.

See ya soon folks.

Marcus of Quisenberry , eat your heart out......

We hand out Jay grades, mid terms report cards

Some players I will grade, others , just amalgamate.

R.A. Dickey gets a C-, not what we thought we were getting, to date. Loads of excuses, reasons and diatribes. He is the Mao Tse Tung of pitchers, always the philosopher. We needed Cy Young.

Josh Jonson gets a D +, again he has tossed of late a few good games, but body of work has been shite. Expect grade to improve. He's been kept after school for remedial "fastball".

Casey Janssen grades out as an A, no problem kid, plays well with others. Odd stance, send him to the nurse.


Esmail Rogers gets a B +, an over achiever, and has made the jump part way through the year up to senior class level. 

Steve Delabar gets an A-, weird guy, has strange eating habits, rubs carrot juice on his face. Send to guidance counselor.

JP Arerencibia - B, his home runs are impressive, needs to work on catching the ball and helping his pitchers.  He is teaching others Spanish on the side. Watch him close in the second half.

Adam Lind - best pupil in the class, gets an A+, found his mojo after manager realised he was still on the team.

The Kawasaki Kid- an A for effort, a C + for results, kid has moxy, but might have to go back to remedial school if this Reyes kid pans out.

Brett Lawrie - D -. Oh this one is a project, bad attitudes, too much mouth, not enough hitting ( the books ) might need a few more weeks in state pen to sort some shit out.

Balance of infield, gets a C-, weak at times, great in spurts.

Joey Bats 19 - I give him a B-, the numbers will be there in the end, but not as consistent as we'd hope for.

Edwin - A , how could you not give him this grade, even his rare defensive start has been good.

The Rajah, B + , limited use, but acceptable numbers

The Melk Man - C -, sporadic, okay defense, injuries mounting, was a gamble after being to asked to take on lead off position.

Rasmus - B-, some power, some defense, never has made any other improvements. Too many holes in his swing

Gibbons, has to get a B, handles bullpen well, but is that clever managing, or a good collection, a bit of both.

Anthopolous - sorry Alex, cannot give you any more than a C-, this team is today 41-41. We expected better, we got an average team.

Incomplete grades for transfer students Wang, injured Morrow, and 30 % of the pen now here.

All in all, the team should have over 40 wins, and it does not. It cannot beat the AL East, and changes have to be made to be a contender.