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States's bid to buy Wrigley Field goes down on strikes
2008-06-10 15:43:00
Former Gov. Jim Thompson struck out Monday in his efforts to have the state buy and renovate Wrigley Field without raising taxes. Thompson finally acknowledged what the Sun-Times has reported for weeks: that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority's creative financing plan relied on the untested concept of "equity seat rights" and that the Tribune Co. would not go along with it. "The Tribune believes that ISFA's participation in such an acquisition requires either the transfer of future sales and amusement tax revenue from transactions at Wrigley Field for the next 30 years or the imposition of new taxes or the transfer of existing ISFA funds now pledged to projects at U.S. Cellular," Thompson said in a written statement. "ISFA cannot agree to this. In our judgment, there are no votes in the City Council or in the Illinois General Assembly for transferred or new taxes for Wrigley Field. And we cannot break the promises we have previously made to the White Sox under our lease term...

Long overdue, Church is finally headed to DL for Mets
2008-06-10 15:21:00
In a long overdue move, right fielder Ryan Church Ryan Church is headed to the DL today because of lingering effects from his most recent concussion. The DL stint is retroactive to last Friday and comes after Church was re-examined by a neurologist in New York Monday. Church had been given the weekend off after complaining of pressure in his head. The New York Mets said Church did not show any of the major symptoms of post-concussion syndrome in yesterday's exam, but the club decided to put him on the DL anyway. The Mets also said Church would not be allowed to play again until he is entirely symptom-free. Monday's move caps a convoluted and confusing situation that began after Church suffered the concussion - his second in three months - in a May 20 collision with the knee of Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar. Church should have gone on the DL then, but he talked the Mets into letting him pinch-hit just days after the concussion and convinced them to let him return to the lineup...
More About: Finally , Long

Yankees may no longer have a rotation spot for Kennedy
2008-06-10 15:11:00
Nearly two weeks after Ian Kennedy was put on the disabled list, the New York Yankees ' rotation may no longer have a spot for him. Darrell Rasner has been the team's most consistent young pitcher, and Joba Chamberlain, while far from stellar in his tentative first steps as a starter, has not pitched badly. In his nine games this season, Kennedy posted a 7.41 earned run average and an 0-3 record, a far cry from the performances last season that earned him a spot in this year's rotation."I try not to think about it," said Kennedy, who was 1-0 with a 1.89 E.R.A. in three starts last season. "All I can do is get healthy, and whatever happens happens. Otherwise it'll drive you crazy."Kennedy has a strained right latissimus muscle and bursitis under the shoulder blade. He threw 30 pitches — mostly fastballs and changeups — in a bullpen session Monday and reported that he did not experience any pain.
More About: Spot , Rotation

Berkman, Chipper Jones making historic runs
2008-06-10 15:06:00
Many have tried, few have come close, but nobody has done it since 1941. The Braves' Chipper Jones is the latest slugger to flirt with a .400 batting average. The last players to make a serious run at Ted Williams were Rockies first baseman Todd Helton and then Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra in 2000. Both finished the season at .372.In 58 games with 219 at-bats this season, Jones, who batted a career-high .337 last season, is sitting at .420. But he's not too optimistic about his chances. "I don't think I'll do it," Jones told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "It possibly could be done, because I've seen Ichiro (Suzuki) get 260 hits in a season. He is a guy who is going to leg out 50, 60, 70 hits a year. Those are hits I won't get."Jones hit .417 in May, but Houston's Lance Berkman actually topped that with an astounding .471 average last month.Berkman will have to keep besting Jones in that category if he wants to make his own run at history.  His .372 average, second to...
More About: Historic , Runs

Fantasy Focus Baseball: 6/10
2008-06-10 15:05:00
Nate Ravitz and Pete Becker highlight the latest DL additions including Rickie Weeks and Ryan Church. Plus, more listeners attempt to win the co-host with Nate contest.
More About: News , Baseball , Fantasy , Focus , Fantasy Focus

Mets' record unacceptable to Minaya, Randolph
2008-06-10 15:03:00
Omar Minaya, the general manager of the New York Mets , described his underachieving team in an exasperating way. He called it a .500 club, meaning the Mets win as many games as they lose. Actually, at 30-32, the Mets are not even a .500 team. Two months into the season, Minaya did not expect the $138 million Mets to be so skittish. They were 5-2 on their last homestand to silence some of the speculation about Manager Willie Randolph's job status, but they followed those encouraging signs with a 2-5 trip. Two steps forward, two steps back. "Well, .500 is not acceptable," Minaya said. "For me, it's not acceptable because we're better than that. It's not so much about the investment. It's about what this team is about and what this team, talent-wise, is. As far as time frame, as far as when we should be better, I'd like to say we should be better right now," Minaya said. "But we're not."But, as talented as the Mets might be, they are still seven and a half games behind the ...
More About: Record

Lakers have been unbeatable at home
2008-06-10 14:05:00
If the Celtics plan to come back to Boston with an NBA championship in hand, they'll have to do something no one else has done in the postseason: Beat the Lakers at home. The Celtics own a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, with Game 3 tonight at the Staples Center. The next three games are scheduled for Los Angeles, where the Lakers are 8-0 this postseason. They were 30-11 at the Staples Center in the regular season and haven't lost there since March 28 against Memphis."They took care of business at home, and we've got to go home and try to do the same thing," said Kobe Bryant. "It's not the end of the world. We've come too far to really sweat being down, 2-0. We're going to go home and handle our business."Los Angeles is two wins shy of tying the NBA record for most consecutive home victories in one postseason. Six teams, including the 1986 Celtics, have won 10 straight. Since moving to Staples Center in 1999, the Lakers have won 82 percent of their playoff games ther...
More About: Home

Dodgers expected to recall LaRoche from Triple-A
2008-06-10 13:35:00
Andy LaRoche is expected to be called up from triple-A Las Vegas for the Dodgers ' game in San Diego today, replacing rookie shortstop Chin-lung Hu, who was optioned to triple-A Las Vegas on Monday. LaRoche was competing with Nomar Garciaparra to be the Dodgers' starting third baseman in spring training but suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb requiring surgery. He was reinstated from the disabled list May 3, but the emergence of rookie third baseman Blake DeWitt blocked his path to the majors.LaRoche, who was hitting .267 with five home runs and 26 runs batted in in 37 games at triple-A, played at first and second base in recent weeks to increase the ways he could be useful to the big-league club. Manager Joe Torre said last week that when LaRoche was called up, he would be used as a backup at first and third.
More About: Recall , Triple

Rays winning with youth, pitching, defense
2008-06-10 13:28:00
First, they got the "Devil" out of 'em. Now they're beating the devil out of just about everybody else. The Tampa Bay (used to be Devil) Rays brought the third-best record in the American League to Anaheim Monday, and isn't that a switch. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, for us to be doing what we're doing, it's kind of surprised us a little bit too," reliever Dan Wheeler said during a recent series at Boston's Fenway Park. "But we believed there was something in there that we could go out and compete on any given day and put ourselves in a position to win."Tampa Bay has long provided a respite for other teams in the rugged American League East. Only once in its 10 years did it finish out of the cellar. But this season, the Rays have already spent more days in first place than in all their past combined. "You don't want to look up there and see your name at the bottom," Manager Joe Maddon said, gesturing to the standings listed at the base of the Green Monster. "We...
More About: Youth , Defense , Winning

Junior Joins The Club
2008-06-10 13:00:00
Ater being stuck on 599 for several weeks, Ken Griffey Jr launched the 600th home run of his career last night, allowing Mark Hendrickson to go down in history for something other than being tall. Junior joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Sammy Sosa as the only players in history ...
More About: Club , The Club

Odds and Ends: Wolf, Indians, Ensberg
2008-06-10 12:42:00
Random items for today... MLBTR live chat, today at 2pm CST.  Right after I finish my corned beef sandwich. RotoAuthority takes a look at the fantasy value of Randy Wolf . On Sunday I joined the guys from Drunk Jays Fans for part of their podcast.  A button to listen to the show can be found here. Paul Hoynes says the Indians ' Mark Shapiro will need "at least a month to narrow the field of suitors for players such as C.C. Sabathia and Paul Byrd to see if he really wants to trade them." RotoWorld says the Yankees have released Morgan Ensberg.
More About: Odds , Ends

One Trick Ponies
2008-06-10 12:26:00
Sometimes, a fantasy team merely needs a boost in a single category to make a difference. The following players have provided above-average production for their position in only one category; they've provided below-average production in the 4 others. For a position like catcher, beating the positional average of less than 1 SB isn't that hard to do; so take some of these guys with a grain of salt. Some of these guys you can find on the waiver wire; others are owned. One category contributors are normally easy to pry away from other owners, though. Their overall value is listed in brackets. Catchers HR: Chris Iannetta [$7.67], Jason Varitek [$6.06] R: Gerald Laird [$9.98] RBI: None. SB: Jason Kendall [$0.18], Gregg Zaun [-$0.83], Jeff Mathis [-$1.27], Matt Treanor [-$1.77], Kenji Johjima [-$3.78] AVG: Dioner Navarro [$8.07], Jesus Flores [$2.39], Jorge Posada [$1.00], Henry Blanco [-$5.13], Mike Redmond [-$6.36], Toby Hall [-$6.61] 1st Basemen HR: Jason Giambi [$9.55], Kevin Milla...
More About: Trick , Ponies

Strasburg To Be Advised By Boras?
2008-06-10 11:56:00
From Buster Olney's blog today: Heard this: Stephen Strasburg, the hard-throwing right-hander at San Diego State who is expected to be among the very top picks in the 2009 draft, has selected Scott Boras to be his advisor. Dave Cameron wrote about Strasburg at FanGraphs on Friday.  If the season ended today, the first four picks in '09 would go to the Mariners, Rockies, Nationals, and Royals.  None of these clubs seem particularly Boras-phobic, and the Mariners and Royals are on good terms with him.  I wouldn't expect Strasburg to drop much for financial reasons, but it's way too early to call anything.

Will Erik Bedard Be Traded?
2008-06-10 11:51:00
Buster Olney says it as well as anyone else could. Mariners' GM Bill Bavasi would be fired before he could deal Bedard. Why allow him to make the decision to deal for him and then let him try to erase the mistake? What makes anyone think he wouldn't compound that mistake with another?"Seattle fired its hitting coach. The Mariners got some temporary relief, in extra innings, as Ryan Divish writes. John McGrath thinks that the Mariners should consider swapping Erik Bedard. Interesting thought, but in order to make this happen, Bill Bavasi would have to effectively wave the white flag and acknowledge that giving up the package for Bedard was a mistake -- and that would be a very difficult thing to do less than four months into the season."
More About: Erik Bedard

Californiacation: Overall Standings thru week diez
2008-06-10 11:36:00
I can't begin to tell you how elated I am to have 16 leagues from the edge of the world, reporting in voluntarily. In seasons past, I would sit around on Mondays and get league reports from the usual four or five leagues, unless of course I sent out an email request to all of western civilization. read more
More About: Week

What's With Those Florida Teams? [Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria]
2008-06-10 11:18:00
So, even though Tampa has fallen back to second place behind Boston in the AL East, I'd still like to take a look at their offense and their staff to try to see why they've had such success and whether it will be sustainable over this year and the next few. The first guy I want to talk about is Carl Crawford. I have to say, I think he's been one of the most overrated fantasy players over the past few years. There is no denying that he will have a high average, score runs, and steal bases. Of course, historically, he has been unable to be an elite run producer because there's been nobody to drive him in. But I have always felt that his lack of power means he doesn't belong in the first or second round, where he has consistently been drafted. That being said, I believe his numbers so far are too low, and he is a great guy to target in your mid-season trades. His BABIP is under .300 (after a .375 mark last season!), which is way too low for a guy with his speed. He's walking mor...
More About: Teams , Florida , Evan , Evan Longoria

Jays Cool On Bedard?
2008-06-10 10:58:00
There's a long-running rumor that Canada native Erik Bedard will sign with the Blue Jays when he reaches free agency after the '09 season. However, Geoff Baker writes today: But sources in Toronto indicated on Monday that the team has cooled on Bedard and may no longer be interested in acquiring him ? now or later. The Jays have had some public-relations issues the past few seasons with A.J. Burnett, a pitcher expected to use an escape clause to opt out of his five-year deal with Toronto after this season. Baker is suggesting the Jays may be reluctant to do another long-term deal with a media-unfriendly pitcher.  Burnett and Bedard both tantalize, underachieving despite ace repertoires.  Bedard's next contract will be a risky one, perhaps five years at top dollar like Burnett's.  Back in February, John Hickey wrote that he expected the Mariners to sign Bedard to an extension.  Bedard's mediocre results through 11 starts may give them pause. 
More About: Cool

Meche Staying In Kansas City
2008-06-10 10:15:00
Yesterday, ESPN's Peter Gammons said the Cubs are "sifting through names that could be available," mentioning starters A.J. Burnett, Gil Meche, Randy Wolf, Paul Byrd, Joe Blanton, Erik Bedard, and Aaron Cook.  Gammons notes that the Cubs tried to sign Meche in the winter of '06 (as did the Jays). The Kansas City Star's Bob Dutton spoke to Meche as well as a club official.  It doesn't seem that the Royals will shop Meche, and he wouldn't necessarily waive his no-trade clause for Chicago anyway.  Dutton's club source indicated that Meche is expected to be a big part of the next winning Royals team.  Meche earns $11MM this year, $11MM in '09, $12MM in '10, and $12MM in '11.

No Dunn Talks Yet
2008-06-10 10:05:00
C. Trent Rosecrans has the latest on Adam Dunn .  He reminds us that Dunn's no-trade clause switches from all teams to 10 teams on Sunday.  GM Walt Jocketty is aware of Dunn's veto teams, even if the public is not.  Ken Rosenthal has suggested that Dunn strategically chose the high-revenue teams (Dunn makes $13-16MM this year). Despite the upcoming change in Dunn's no-trade clause, Rosecrans quotes Walt Jocketty as saying "there have been no discussions."  Negative on extension talks too, even when Wayne Krivsky was GM. Dunn, 28, is hitting .240/.406/.531 in 251 plate appearances (in line with his career numbers).  It's been suggested by both Rosecrans and Rosenthal that Dunn would make sense in Boston if David Ortiz has complications.  For Jocketty to trade his slugger, he'd need a bounty superior to two '09 draft picks.

Weeks Consecutive Game Streak Ends at 4
2008-06-10 08:54:00
In the last few days, a dark cloud moved over Razzball. Rudy just traded for Weeks , Wainwright hit the DL and I had to sit through Sex and the City, the Movie. Hopefully, my masculinity returns before Weeks. Does anyone remember Weeks coming back quickly from injury? Ever? Okay, Rickie Weeks, Rocco Baldelli and Chipper ...
More About: Game , Ends

Rays blast three consecutive HRs in rout of Halos
2008-06-10 08:07:00
Evan Longoria had a pair of solo homers and an RBI double, Dioner Navarro drove in four runs with four hits and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Los Angeles Angels 13-4 on Monday night.
More About: Blast

Fantasy Errata
2008-06-10 07:19:00
This is our 664th post. Hmm, we'll have to do something special for #666.-- Nick Swisher: I told you to pick him up, didn't I! Well, he ain't a free agent anywhere no more. -- Mike Jacobs goes deep. Frustrating player to own, but can't argue with the production.-- In my cash league teams I drafted Prince Fielder, Mike Jacobs, Adam LaRoche, Garrett Atkins, and Ryan Garko to man my CI and UTIL slots. My highest rated CI on Yahoo? Jorge Cantu, by a wide margin.-- The more I think about Jeremy Guthrie, the more I think he's likely the best pitcher available in more than 50 percent of mixed leagues. Ignore wins for a moment: he's been lights out the last month or so. Plus, his interleague record is awesome (sub 2.00 ERA, etc. etc.), and he has interleague games coming up.-- I don't care what Oliver Perez did last game, I am having 19.29 percent more fun now that I cut him in three leagues. You know what it feels like to own a player like Oliver Perez? It's kind of like being the ...
More About: Fantasy

Pitcher fatigue, batted balls, and DIPS
2008-06-10 07:18:00
Are you tired, Mr. Starter? I’ve been asking this question of my magic spreadsheet for a while now, and last week, during my look at fatigue factors like pitch count, days of rest, mileage on the arm for the season, and number of times through the lineup, I promised a follow up study on how ...
More About: Balls , Pitcher

Mets screw up
2008-06-10 06:08:00
BY ADAM RONIS It's bad enough the Mets are playing poorly on the field. They can't even do things off the field correctly either. The Mets finally placed Ryan Church on the 15-day DL -- about three weeks too late -- because of post-concussion symptoms. The move was made retroactive to June 5. He is eligible to return June 20. Chruch suffered a concussion in the spring and then took a knee by Yunel Escobar to the head trying to break up a double play three weeks ago. The Mets should have been cautious and immediately placed him on the DL. Instead, they sent him on long flights, used him as a pinch hitter and brough him back for some games. He was off to a great start and this could hamper his season. Another awful job by the Mets. Moises Alou will be activated for Tuesday's game. Fernando Tatis and Endy Chavez will fill in for Church.
More About: Screw

Cairo helps Mariners walk past Jays in 10th inning
2008-06-10 05:48:00
Miguel Cairo 's safety squeeze after Jason Frasor walked the bases loaded in the 10th inning lifted the Seattle Mariners over the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 on Monday night.
More About: Past , Walk

MLB on the iPhone
2008-06-10 05:34:00
Very cool. Definitely pretty impressive, if it works as well as the demo appears.
More About: Iphone

Reds' Junior becomes sixth member of 600 homer club
2008-06-10 05:31:00
Ken Griffey Jr. joined the 600 homer club with a blast off Florida lefty Mark Hendrickson in the first inning of the Reds ' 9-4 victory against the Marlins Monday.
More About: Club , Homer , Junior

Monday fantasy wrap
2008-06-10 05:28:00
BY ADAM RONIS Have to start with one of my favorite players. Ken Griffey Jr. hit career home run No. 600. No doubt in my mind he likely would have had the all-time record had he not endured so many injuries. Brandon Phillips is quietly producing. He hit his 12th homer and has 35 RBIs. He's very consistent and hasn't had a major hot streak, so he goes unnoticed sometimes. Edinson Volquez continues to pitch around walks. He walked five, but was able to get a win. He is 9-2 with a 1.56 ERA. He allowed three earned runs in a start for the first time this season. He went six inning and allowed three hits and struck out five. His value might not get higher than this. Mark Reynolds is picking a good time to get hot again. With Conor Jackson back at first base, Chad Tracy will vie with Reynolds for playing time at third. Reynolds hit his third homer in two games and went 3-for-4 with two doubles. He has 14 homers and 40 RBIs with a .259 average. He has power and even has five steals. He s...
More About: Fantasy , Monday , Wrap

Giants notch first four-game series sweep since '94
2008-06-10 05:26:00
For the second straight day, San Francisco came alive in the fifth inning against a starter making a one-game visit from Triple-A, and the Giants beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 on Monday night.
More About: Series , Game , Notch , Sweep

Eric Hurley (P-TEX)
2008-06-10 04:44:00
Hurley will be recalled from AAA to start Thursday's game against Kansas City. He is 2-5 in 13 starts at AAA with a 5.30 ERA and 72 strikeouts. He has pitched better recently, posting a 3.46 ERA in his last six starts.
More About: Hurley